ASYLUM

You can’t possibly say this world is kind to people—
This is my testament. ¹

(kurai kurai) ²
Did you lose something
Without knowing what you lost
(kurai kurai)
In the empty dissonance?

(kurai kurai)
I guess you were honing that knife
(kurai kurai)
To sound out the role, the value of your own existence

People slip away, they wash away in the rain ³
Lies and cities, too, they wash away in the rain
People slip away, they wash away in the rain
Everything
Slips
Away

(kurai kurai)
I’ve had enough—of speech under anonymity
(kurai kurai)
Show your face—words without obstacles
(kurai kurai)
Notice—even in the day after day of dull, non-thoughts,
(kurai kurai)
how every day is valuable

People slip away, they wash away in the rain
Lies and cities, too, they wash away in the rain
People slip away, they wash away in the rain
Lies and cities, too, they wash away in the rain
The past, unforgivable… slips away
Love and money too, they wash away with the rain
The past, unforgivable… slips away
Everything
Slips
Away

Watery soup—tasteless meat—
That’s the type of dinner
I think you should refuse from now on

Don’t worry about your surroundings
Come on, raise your hand
Just try saying what you want

You gotta want to live
People slip away, they wash away in the rain
Live, damn it ⁴
Lies and cities, too, they wash away in the rain

Deep, dark—this here’s the critical limit
I ride thoughts of what I lost
The foremost line of the image
My distance from Pluto is 2000—
The source of the words that crushed me to death
Piercing through flesh and blood ’til they hit bone
Set me on fire—cleanse me—
The ash that’s left
Is the real me—my heart for all to see
The truth always breaks people
Hendrix resounds in the silence
Tear up this wall, break free of it
I want to touch the flame—I want the beat to sway
Living is continuing to die
Struggle—resist—alone—
I’m a shadow of my former self—riddled with wounds
But I won’t yield
This is my destiny—
To gouge out my scars for entertainment ⁵

Happiness, following the sound of your hands ⁶
Will turn up unexpectedly

Try letting the version of yourself bloom
That the people precious to you could cry over when you die

Broken beat—Dull song—
That’s the type of live
I think you should refuse from now on

Don’t worry about your surroundings
Come on, raise your hand
Realize what you want to break away from
Come on, let’s go

Abide
by the methods, the rules of others?
Don’t be absurd

Find your footing

And let’s sing—
With your words

.

NOTES / INTERPRETATION:

This song is like a dialogue, with Show and Saga having each written and sung half of the lyrics; regular black font denotes the parts that Show wrote and sung, while purple font denotes the parts written and sung by Saga.

oo1. I began this translation back in 2018 when the album PLANET NINE was originally released, and at that time, the final word of this line was ‘note’. However, I finalized this translation after the release of NIGHTLESS CITY EDEN, and so I’ve updated the translated word to ‘testament’, in reference to track 4 of the aforementioned album (check out the music video with official English subtitle track here). If you try considering the two songs together, they have even more depth!

oo3. The obsolete verb that Saga uses here, which I translated both as ‘slip’ and ‘wash away’ (to keep in line with the heavy rain metaphor), is very similar to a modern form very commonly used in ALICE NINE. lyrics, but the range of meaning is a bit different (source). For instance, the ‘passing’ of a cup of alcohol from person to person until everyone is drunk — or the ‘banishment’ of a person or thing. These are meanings we don’t really find in the modern equivalent. It lends a subtle negative undertone to the word.

oo4. Show does not technically swear here, but the intensifier he uses, coupled with the imperative form of the verb makes it impossible to directly translate into English. You may have heard ‘yo’ used in Japanese… it expresses emotion, ‘intensifying’ or ’emphasizing’ something. In English, we tend to do this only in speech with our intonation, or else we use swear words (or mild curse words), or italics in writing to intensify meanings. I wanted this intensity to be conveyed not only in writing… hence, damn it!

Another interesting thing to note is that, in Japanese, a rock concert is generally referred to as a ‘live’, rather than a ‘concert’ (which often refers to more classical forms of live music). This is particularly interesting here, because ‘live’ music coincides with the verb ‘to live’, and being alive. Since the release of this song, ALICE NINE. members have pointed this connection out themselves, that, as musicians, as artists who do live performances, the connection between a ‘live’ performance and being ‘alive’ is a deep one.

oo5. I translated Saga’s lengthy and extremely cool rap as faithfully as possible. I think it’s incredible. And my personal interpretation, I’m keeping to myself!

oo6. I love this verse. There is a lot of symbolism packed into it.

‘following the sound of your hands’ is my clumsy attempt to capture the sense of an archaic expression. It is generally found in Onigokko (tag), because the person who was ‘it’ was often blindfolded. The call to the person who is ‘it’ goes, ‘demon, follow the sound of my hands’, because those trying to avoid capture would clap their hands to confuse or taunt the ‘demon’. So Show is trying to incorporate that imagery here, of someone clapping their hands (maybe symbolizing their unyielding struggle), which will taunt happiness (rather than a ‘demon’) to unexpectedly capture them. Normally the point of playing Onigokko would be to not get captured!

Thoughts. I absolutely adore this song and when it was released in 2018, it became a source of strength for me during a time when I was very depressed and dissatisfied with my life. It would have been really easy to make a song that expressed all those negative emotions; it would also have been easy to make a really uplifting, inspiring song (ALICE NINE. have plenty of those). Instead, they made a really complex piece that is its own story arc. There are two speakers, each literally voiced by a different person. The effect is incredibly powerful (as is the way they perform the song live — I included a picture at the top). Whether they are performing the parts of two separate people or two halves of one person’s consciousness is up to your interpretation! But the result is that we are part of a dialogue between someone who is depressed and ready to give up, and someone who desperately tries to pull the other person out of it. Just taking a look at the colours in the translation above, you can see the shift in mentality as the song progresses. We start off with the negative mantras and gradually all of the pleas and calls to sense begin to take effect. By the end, there is no purple text, because the depression has been conquered at least long enough for the first speaker to listen to sense (without the negative mantras on loop).

This song is incredibly powerful.

And the thing is, despite how dark the atmosphere is, musically, you can feel the gloom lift as the song goes on… it gains neutral power. Not only because more positive words are being spoken, but because the negative mantras are cast away in favour of expressing what’s wrong.

I can’t say enough good things about this song.

It’s just phenomenal.

Also, Saga (who composed the song) went outside on a rainy day to record the rain sounds himself; the rain is definitely the third character in the song.

.

アリス九號.　★　ASYLUM　→　PLANET NINE　(将／沙我・2018)
ALICE NINE. – ASYLUM | From PLANET NINE (Show & Saga – 2018)
Original text translated from Japanese.
Song composed by 沙我 (Saga).
Listen on itunes/Spotify.