Opposite the glittering morning sun,
Is a wounded heart left behind
GIVE ME,TIC,TIC,TAC ²
For you, TIC,TAC
Sing a song for you
Can’t think straight ³
GIVE ME,TIC,TIC,TAC
For you, TIC,TAC
Sing a song for you
Show me your real face
Step to the beat of my heart
I wanna fix you in brand new world
Even fallen tears can turn into puzzle pieces for our future roadmap
I wanna be with you forever
Even after 100 years pass, I’ll play my burning feelings, unchanged ⁴
A clown that seems to cry as it laughs
Is helpless in its transparent lie
GIVE ME,TIC,TIC,TAC
Too late—TIC,TAC
Sing a song for you
Time won’t wait for us
GIVE ME,TIC,TIC,TAC
Too late—TIC,TAC ⁵
Sing a song for you
Let’s tie our hearts together ⁶
I wanna fix you in brand new world
Even fallen tears can turn into puzzle pieces for our future roadmap
I wanna be with you forever
I’ll bestow the name ‘you’ upon a nameless melody ⁷
Where are you now? Give me your smile ⁸
Where are you now?
I don’t wanna miss the way you are
I wanna fix you in brand new world
Even fallen tears can turn into puzzle pieces for our future roadmap
I wanna be with you forever
Even after 100 years pass, let these burning feelings ⁹
Somehow stay forever as they are, unchanged
I wanna be with you
Stay by my side
I wanna be with you
Eternally
.
NOTES / INTERPRETATION:
Blue font indicates text originally written in English in the official booklet.
oo1. Though it isn’t written in the booklet, Show sings ‘Where are you now?’ twice before starting the first verse.
oo2. TIC,TAC is probably referring first to the game ‘tic tac toe’, and then to the shapes used in the game, which are Xs and Os… in other words, kisses and hugs. So for the lines ‘GIVE ME,TIC,TIC,TAC / Too late—TIC,TAC ‘ what I imagine is that the speaker is asking the person they love for affection, but the speaker is impatient (or playful) and gives their lover the kisses and hugs before their lover can make a move. My professional opinion is that this chorus IS SO CUTE. Ahem. Moving on.
TIC,TAC could also possibly represent the ticking of a clock (passage of time), as in asking their lover to give them their time (attention) or to be patient. However, given that in one of the verses there is the line “time won’t wait for us”, patience might not fit after all. I prefer the first interpretation, in any case!
oo3. ‘Kumoru hitomi’ literally means ‘clouded eyes’, but is probably primarily meant to evoke the meaning of the very similar expression ‘hitomi ga kumoru’ which is the inability to perceive/think clearly due to bias. I chose “can’t think straight” instead of “clearly”, because the former is a bit more colloquial and punchy to match the way it was phrased in Japanese. I chose to paraphrase in the translation because a Japanese speaker would probably make the association to the expression themselves; the literal translation doesn’t really give an English speaker the same implied association.
oo4. In this case, ‘play’ refers specifically to the playing of a musical instrument.
oo5. It sounds like he actually sings “kimi ni” (For you) even though “sude ni” (Too late) is written in the booklet.
oo6. I chose ‘tie together’ (instead of the other possibilities ‘connect’ or ‘link’) because the idea of fixing the untied shoelace from ECHO (off the album IDEAL) gives me the fluffiest feelings.
oo7. “The name you” sounds a little awkward in English, but the distinction is important. The speaker is saying they’ll name the melody “you”, not name it the person’s actual name. And lo and behold, “you” is in the title of the song! Given that this was meant to be directed to the fans, it makes sense that the name should be “you”, and not something specific. But on the other hand, we can also think of this in terms of keeping anonymity (instead of creating inclusiveness). That is, the speaker knows who “you” is, and the specific person being spoken to knows who “you” is, but we do not. In other words, the speaker is telling the person they love that the “you” refers specifically to them–like a code. I think reading it either way is perfectly fine.
oo8. It sounds as though he is actually singing ‘[That] I need your heart’ rather than the ‘Give me your smile’ that is written in the booklet.
oo9. These last two lines in the verse are technically wrong, but I’ve been wracking my brain for how to word them, and I just couldn’t come up with anything half-decent in English unless I paraphrased a little. To me, it sounds as if he is commanding/beseeching the feelings themselves to remain unchanged, but it sounds awkward in English, so I went with the technically incorrect, and more indirect “let~”.
アリス九號. ★ F+IX=YOU → PLANET NINE (将・2018)
ALICE NINE. – F+IX=YOU | From PLANET NINE (Show – 2018)
Original text translated from Japanese.
Listen on itunes/Spotify.