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In case you hadn't noticed, I have posted translations of all but the final three songs on I Am Mortal over on This is NOT Greatest Site (the final three will be coming soon!) Since NGS doesn't allow comments, please leave your comments here.
As you can perhaps imagine, I spent quite a dear bit more time writing the notes than writing the translations...so if you enjoyed reading, please leave a comment to give me some reason to carry on living before the mortality angst swallows me whole.
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Oh Gods, thank you so much, Cayce, for the wonderful translations and most of all for your ever fantastic notes!
ReplyDeleteI especially love the note for Guignol - great work!
Thank you very much for your great translations. I got goosebumps while reading the translated lyrics to "Mother". Just so dark and haunting in a very simple way... And your extensive notes are truly brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI agree Guignol--excellent. I also noticed the fake horns on the second verse about rolling up the dress. A direct reference to the music in "Dress." This album is brilliant and you did a brilliant job translating. Looking forward to the rest!
ReplyDeleteI guarantee you that the synth brass in "Guignol" has 0% relationship to the synth brass in "Dress." But conspiracy theorize away. I have some tin foil ready and waiting if you'd like to make yourself a hat.
DeleteThank you so much for translating the songs! I commend your effort in writing those extensive and lengthy notes. I love reading them, since it makes me appreciate and understand the songs even more.
ReplyDeleteOn Fantômas, it made me remember the Renfield Syndrome or more known as clinical vampirism, because of the blood-drinking behavior (usually associated with sexual pleasure and violent crimes) of the character. Although Sakurai reinterpreted Fantômas as a supernatural creature, after reading your notes, the lyrics made me think of Fantômas as a serial killer with Renfield syndrome. Hahaha
Also, I love your notes on Guignol. Without them, I will not be able to appreciate the wordplay hidden in the song! Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into your work. I look forward to your next translation~ <3
I'm taking a class which is all about things like Fantômas and Grand Guignol. I'm feeling terribly pleased that Sakurai is covering these topics!
ReplyDelete[Sorry, I know this isn't the place for personal conversations, but this is terribly interesting.] Could you point me towards some books from your course? Especially anything to do with theatre, but really the whole area is fascinating. You can find me on tumblr, reddit or last.fm under this username, let's not spam Cayce. Thanks in advance!
DeleteTitles of textbooks for interesting elective courses offered at Goth School would be more than welcome to share on the public comment thread, so please do spam Cayce. Ilene, thank you for making me nostalgic for my own school days! You may even inspire other students to actually get their shit together and apply for Goth School rather than just talking about doing it.
DeleteHaha! The amount of research that goes into your notes is wonderfully impressive. I can't tell you how appreciated it is - many of them get several reads from me. :) Thank you, Oh Wise And Generous One.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! Really amazing work and great lyrics. Thank you for leting us experience the worlds Sakurai-san creates and appreciate his talent. I just hope you'll include an overall analysis of the lyrics too in your album review.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the hard work on the lyrics. It will make me enjoy even more the amazing Lives. I am so looking forward to your album review!
ReplyDeleteThank you for all your work and the detailed notes, they are just lovely to read, makes the songs send new chills along the spine while listening to them
ReplyDeleteReturned from business trip and found this absolutely great (and oh! time-consuming) work. I guess it is going to be deep into the night, so I take a break from reading to say: Great thanks, Cayce for the translations and the notes. Amazingly, you never leave even a small detail unexplained. I used to disapprove of the Japanise writing with 'pictures', but their kanji turn out to carry a lot of hidden message. Thanks again for keeping this B-Tpedia:)
ReplyDeleteIt seems that in my excitement over Sakurai's chosen topics, I forgot to tell you how much I love your notes. They were incredibly interesting to read and really made me appreciate the lyrics on a deeper level. Especially the explanations of wordplay were immensely enjoyed! Then again, all the background information was very lovely to read too. Thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteIt may be a coincidence, but I've actually found myself (subconsciously) buying a lot of annotated/critical editions of books these last couple of days.
And now we have lyrics for Grotesque! It's gorgeous. Thank you again for fascinating notes (:
ReplyDeleteMay I ask about something? In Tenshi, "the "in" in infinity", that's "in" as a negation? I mean, googling 無 also returns "naught" as a translation and, in the context of Buddhism, "neither yes nor no (in response to a koan or other question that mistakenly assumes an affirmative or negative answer)". Am I getting this right? Because if I am, it is a brilliant word choice.
Yes, you're correct that 無 is negation. It literally means "not" or "nothing." I didn't write a note on my word choice for "the 'in' in infinity" because the English morpheme "in" behaves so similarly to the Japanese morpheme "無" that for this once in a blue moon, an accurate literal translation is possible, so it didn't seem to me that it required explanation. But cases like this are so rare in the Japanese-English language pair that perhaps I should write a note after all...though I didn't really want to write notes on "Tenshi," since it seemed to do better without explanation. Either way, thank you for the compliment.
DeleteThanks you! Here's one more lyric that will be engraved in my mind. Count me on the list of people impatiently waiting for your album review.
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