★ (4 times)
gone, gone,
everyone gone
to the other shore,
awakening,
svaha
A flower of nirvana broken off from memory;
A distorted figure disconnected from view
Over the frontier
It crossed a silent sea,
burst open with an urge
In broad daylight, the stars don’t sleep;
Together, would dream of the end
Without knowing its destination
The ship of life crosses the sea of flame
The shape of you veered away from the world
Will we go on loving it until it is a memory?
A voice, the dusk that sinks,
hurried forth its testimony—
A church poem
In broad daylight, the stars don’t sleep;
Together, would dream of the end
In a vision sings a cradle—
Shall we play music for the moment in kind?
★ (2 times)
gone, gone,
everyone gone
to the other shore,
awakening,
svaha
I dig my grave
You’re still got hell
Tragedy turns black.
In a deep blue dream
The stars don’t sleep until together they are born anew;
A parade of destiny for a love without discrimination
Continues to make its way to you
.
NOTES / INTERPRETATION:
Blue font indicates text originally written in English in the official booklet.
★Mantra. I definitely did not translate the mantra myself. I found a translation to the mantra at the end of the heart sutra on this page (thanks, Wikipedia!). It is repeated 6 times total in the song and the lyrics complement it beautifully.
Thoughts. This was a new experience: translating an アリス九號. song before I’d ever listened to it. This new song was added to the setlist of a performance they did at a fest in early 2022, and Show then published the lyrics openly in a subsequent Official note entry. At the point of writing these thoughts as I publish my translation, I still don’t know what the accompanying music sounds like, but I like the dark, mysterious imagery of the lyrics. I’m looking forward to hearing the song when it is eventually released.
Addendum: The intensity of atmosphere that this song achieves by incorporating the ending mantra from the heart sutra is incredible. At first listen, it blew me away and I have loved it ever since. Live, it is a sound-bath with trance-like power that sets the mind and sea of the livehouse ablaze. As dark and mysterious as the lyrics alone were, I could not have predicted just how magnetic and compelling the song as a whole would be!
.
アリス九號. ★ ALICE NINE.
界 | kai
GRACE (2022)
Lyrics by 将/SHOU
Music by 虎/TORA & 沙我/Saga
Original text translated from Japanese.
Listen via your preferred digital platform.
If you’d like to share the translation, please link to this page. Do not repost it. Thank you ♡
Translation also on the Alice9Lives Archive.