Falling into the peace of a moment
With relief at the deception, I sleep
Someday, the future I wished for will disappear;
Show me just a little more
The more you avert your eyes
From the thing I believed was concealed,
The stronger it draws you in
Rather than feeling guilt, I’m so captivated, it’s maddening
Today, before I knew it, I was tracing your name again
Even if we are burned by thousands of sins,
Make an enemy of the whole world,
What’s taken root in my chest isn’t artificial
I can’t make up for it,
Ahh, I’m going to fall into ruin
The more you avert your eyes
From the thing I believed was concealed,
The stronger it draws you in
Things concealed in darkness—
The light shines on them in desolation
Rather than feeling guilt, I’m so captivated, it’s maddening
Today, before I knew it, I was tracing your name again
Even if we are burned by thousands of sins,
Make an enemy of the whole world,
The deception won’t hold
Let’s lock up the truth that belongs to the two of us
In a maze without an exit
Falling into the peace of a moment
With relief at the deception, I sleep
Someday, the future I wish for will disappear;
Show me just a little more
Even if we are burned by thousands of sins,
Make an enemy of the whole world,
What’s taken root in my chest isn’t artificial
I can’t make up for it,
Ahh, I’m going to fall into ruin
.
NOTES / INTERPRETATION:
Thoughts. I really loved this song when I first heard it, and I still do. It’s got a jazzy, sensual lilt to it and the lyrics speak of a forbidden love, hidden behind lock and key. I love the imagery and turns of phrase in the lyrics, the vocal melody, the touches on keys, the whispers and licks, the beat, and the highlighted bass phrases. Live performances of this song give the lyrics another dimension, as one (on regular tour stops) or more (usually only during finale performances) of the members make a show of flourishing an artificial flower and then throwing it into the audience for one of their fans to catch, bringing the lyrics to life. As if they are telling the audience, we cannot give you our real selves, but we can give you a symbolic, artificial flower as compensation — pulling the audience, and most especially the fan(s) who catch(es) the flower, into the story that the lyrics weave of a forbidden, hidden love.
When I read these lyrics, I consider how, sometimes it is more important to have allowed a love to exist and to grow even if it cannot truly be acted upon, than to have cut the dream of it off completely, deciding it to be impossible. There are so many real, consensual loves that have historically been (and still are) considered ‘forbidden’ just because of arbitrary social norms: interracial and same-sex relationships and marriages, for instance. In some parts of the world, they are still ‘forbidden’ to this day. Does their being ‘forbidden’ by society make them ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’? Hell no. Of course not. All of the people that went against social norms (even laws that would have incited heavy sentences of incarceration or death) to hold true to their ‘forbidden’ loves in rebellion paved the way for the protests and revolutions that eventually turned social tides and led to formal rights. And for those still in the middle of their struggle for justice, equality, and the right to exist and love openly — there is nothing more powerful than creating the space, however hidden, where that love and those dreams can continue to exist and grow in the hopes that the “future they wished for” will eventually come to pass, rather than disappear. Hope just needs that small foothold to exist and to grow.
The fight for marriage equality is still very much underway in Japan, and alive in movements like Marriage For All Japan. All over the world, people are still fighting for the right to exist, marry, or have children outside the narrowly defined gender roles or relationship types their societies proscribe, or even outright fleeing their home countries to avoid the threat of a death penalty, just for existing as themselves or having a consensual, adult relationship that society has deemed ‘forbidden’.
Here’s to the future where real, consensual love continues to flourish in all its many, beautiful forms.
アリス九號. ★ ALICE NINE.
造花の代償 | zouka no daishou
IDEAL (2017)
Lyrics by 将/Shou
Music by ヒロト/HIROTO
Original text translated from Japanese.
Listen on itunes/Spotify.
If you’d like to share the translation, please link to this page; you can also find the translation posted as a comment to the official Youtube video. Do not repost it. Thank you ♡