I.

Drying my tears, I hoist the sails, am feeling the wind
Rifts in the clouds adorn the sky with curtains of light

I run away with you at such a speed
That even time can’t catch up with us
Through devastating grief
We hold our unwavering hearts close
sailing to the universe
With our backs to the far-reaching horizon

You’ve always been beside me
Smiling for me through each season;
Place the tones of winter on words that show signs of spring
And they’ll be born anew

God, all I pray is that we see scenery ¹
That no one else has ever seen

Forget even in believing that solitude is something
That people choose;
From the midst of thousands of encounters
Let’s link together the I and the U ²

Half asleep and half awake
Our field of vision is white
Our breathing in disarray
Forward goes the ark, if only to cross the ocean;
The world rests untouched

There’s one word that I’d like to give you
That seems as though it would disappear were I to say it…
Let’s tie together the U and the I ²
That warmly colours in this heart of mine

.

NOTES / INTERPRETATION:

Blue font indicates text originally written in English in the official booklet.

oo1. God, all I pray is paraphrasing. Show uses an intensifier in this line that wouldn’t have had the same effect when translated literally in English, so I took a little liberty. The word ark that follows in a later verse does call to mind the biblical imagery of Noah’s Ark, so you can think of it that way as well.

oo2. The I and the U symbolism is particularly important and well-represented throughout the album GEMINI, and the I pun was one that got revisited in later lyrics too (for instance, see note 4 in 2020’s Everlasting). In a SHOXX interview (vol 217, p24), Show explained that the songs “I. and 4U are connected. Myself and Yourself.” For this reason, I chose to write the word you as U in two of the lines for this translation. The word I sounds the same as the main word for love in Japanese (“ai”), and that should be taken into account while considering the meaning of the lyrics. As mentioned above, there is imagery of “myself” and “yourself”, but in a ROCK & READ interview (vol 34), Show had the following exchange with the interviewer:

Interviewer: I get the impression that the album starting at the song “I.” has significance.
Show: It does. Truly. The I of the self and the word for love, ai, being connected [in the album] is something that is deeply meaningful to me. Though at first I just thought to myself, “uh, I guess this is a pun.” (laughs)

Earlier in the same interview, Show elucidates on said pun by explaining that, “as a human being I’m probably kinda trash, but I have to start by loving the person that I am. If I don’t do that, I actually can’t be loved by anyone else.”

Meanwhile in the SHOXX interview (vol 217, p24), to highlight the significance of the music itself, composer Saga explained that, “I. is actually a song I came up with during high school. I didn’t have any written or digital trace of it left over from then, it’s just a song that had always stayed in my mind, that I thought I’d like to make a reality someday.”

On several levels, this song involved embracing and giving grace to the inner “self”.

It’s certainly a song I myself love dearly.

.

アリス九號. ★ I. → GEMINI (将・2011)
ALICE NINE. – I. | From GEMINI (Show – 2011)
Original text translated from Japanese.
Purchase via itunes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *