birth in the death

It’s cracking, the shadow of my field of vision,
My memories in pieces;

“Were they distorted?”
Even cognition melts away into the land of the dead
Even cognition melts away in resignation

In a boxed garden bed,
Flowers blossomed in full glory like those of Eden
Heal me, android kiss
Of my sins

They flow forth, down they flow—the flicker of human lives
And to the night sky I, to the night sky I just
Hold my finger aloft…

A darkness of pure white above a mechanism, a great clock
Is the story of Genesis
Which the helix of humankind has repeated

They flow forth, down they flow—the flicker of human lives
And to the night sky I, to the night sky I just
Am holding my finger aloft, hoping

It flows forth, down it flows—A spindle-spun eternity of an instant ¹
And in the night sky I, in the night sky I just
Hope and pray
That you may have happiness


Fly away [ bird | now | ahh ]

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NOTES / INTERPRETATION:

oo1. The verb used here is one that is specific to the act of spinning yarn (and of course can be used idiomatically too). Since there is no equivalent in English, I made a compound verb. Spinning fleece (wool) into yarn using a hand-held spindle is an incredibly old technique, and if you’re not quite sure how it works, take a peek at this video (on Youtube). I’ve linked to 2 minutes into the video, where you can see them spinning the pure white cloud of fleece into yarn… I think it adds an extra layer of imagery to some of the lines in this song. You can certainly also imagine the spinning happening with the aid of a spinning wheel (which you might say is also a “mechanism”, a metaphorical “great clock”). This is just the type of imagery that floated into my head as I read the words and symbolism in the song, so take it with a grain of salt and feel free to let your own imagination wander.

★. This extra line in English was repeated over and over again at the end of this song’s performance during their 17th THEATRE live. I’ve copied the phrase down by ear but am not entirely certain whether the third part was a word or just vocalizations. I think it may well have just been vocalizations, but my brain heard “fly away” and immediately thought of a “bird” so consider whichever option you like 🙂

Thoughts. There is something incredibly moving about this song, in the way that it starts from a place of stillness and builds into an ending that feels full of movement and emotion. You feel the weight of an ending at the beginning of the song, and then it gradually lifts. Personally, I imagine that by the end of the song, the speaker’s soul has become so light that they begin to float into the night sky so that they are no longer reaching up for it but a part of it. The cycle of life and death comes full circle, and the song ends with a hope that begins everything.

Like the song I., which begins the album, birth in the death contains some clear biblical imagery in SHOU’s lyrics, and as the bookends of the GEMINI album (both composed by Saga, as well), they couldn’t be any more different in terms of feel. Where I. soars with an orchestral, lighthearted brightness, birth in the death is intentional in its dark, but heartfelt desire for hope through rebirth.

I’ve found a lot of inspiration through this song, and it always leaves me quiet with introspection, and the calm feeling of wonder you get staring up at the sky when the stars are in full view, knowing you are both hopelessly small and yet inexorably connected to this, our universe.

A beautiful note upon which to end the concept album GEMINI.

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If you’re curious and would like to read translations of the members’ thoughts about the creation of this song, as well as how it fits into the album’s larger concept, please see this post.

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アリス九號.ALICE NINE.
birth in the death
GEMINI (2011)
17th THEATRE (2021)
Lyrics by 将/SHOU
Music by 沙我/Saga
Original text translated from Japanese.
Purchase via itunes/store or secondhand.

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.