The black and the white that mixes together, floating gently
I entwined with the illuminated reds and blues at my fingertips
The sky and the light mix together and interweave;
Your concerto, and mine
In the shackles of my stoppered youth,
I begin to ask a question and
“Why was I born?” is the melody that starts to overflow
The chord is a spectacle, snapping without end;
A soap bubble that wavered, that vanished.
Orig.] Someday, like that sky, I want to sway
2019] Someday, like that sky, it’d be nice to be swaying
little by little, with you
Rather than using words, I would fall from grace,
Head for your distant self, ever so far away.
Someday again, somewhere, I must be able to meet you
Orig.] The tears that escape, when they flow away,
2019] The tears that escape, when they pour out,
have been reflected in a gradation of pale blue.
Into the pre-established harmony, ¹
sinks watercolour and splendour both
“Why are you weeping?” is the melody that starts to overflow
The sky and the light mix together and interweave;
Your concerto, and mine
The chord is a spectacle, snapping without end;
A soap bubble that wavered, that vanished.
Orig.] Someday, like that sky, I want to sway
2019] Someday, like that sky, it’d be nice to be swaying
little by little, with you
Rather than using words, I would fall from grace,
Head for your distant self, ever so far away.
Someday again, somewhere, I must be able to meet you
.
NOTES / INTERPRETATION:
Important. Certain lines have been marked as “Orig.”, meaning that they were the originally published lyrics from 2004. Below them are lines marked “2019” to indicate changes in wording found in the lyrics from their 15TH ANNIVERSARY BEST [kachou no shirabe] album. Both are official.
oo1. Pre-established harmony is a philosophical thesis put forth by late polymath Leibniz. In short he posited that all substances (i.e. humans) come into existence already bearing all of their causality. That is, everything that has, does, or will exist comes into existence with pre-determined cause and effect; all substances are in pre-established harmony with one another because each and every choice and interaction has already been pre-programmed (i.e. by God). Interactions are not products of free will, they’re pre-established ones. That’s my very limited understanding, so please take it with a grain of salt, and do some further reading if you’re interested.
I think that this just sets the emotional tone of the line, and the song as a whole, really. The speaker likely believes that they and the person they’re speaking about (remembering) have been pre-determined to be apart. Imagine the gradation in the colour of the sky and their interactions as being part of an impossibly-intricate timepiece. The speaker is powerless to alter its programming, its pre-established harmony.
Thoughts. This song and its imagery are quite beautiful and have remained a classic in the ALICE NINE. song canon for a reason. A composition originally brought forth by Saga, it also became the first song they filmed a music video for… many of the scenes in a filter of pale blue. If you’ve listened to both studio arrangements, the difference in tone is quite stark (not least because they were recorded over a decade apart), and I find that that, along with the small changes in wording really make both versions emotionally distinct. I find that the original recording really does sound soft and layered like watercolour, while the recording of the new arrangement is much darker or thicker in colour, to my ears.
One of the things that strikes me in the lyrics is the way they convey a sense of being quietly out of control of a situation. As the years passed, it became far more common to see lyrics by Show that convey a sense of fighting to hold agency over your personal situation, of having an innate control over your own destiny.
This song, meanwhile, sounds like letting go and flowing through the gradients of colour painting the sky in the hours between the light of day and the dark of night. Wistful, but somehow peaceful.
.
アリス九號. ★ ALICE NINE.
グラデーション | GRADATION
祇園盛者の鐘が鳴る (2004)
gion shouja no kane ga naru (2004)
Lyrics by 将/Shou
Music by 沙我/Saga
Rearrangement by 沙我/Saga
Original text translated from Japanese.
Listen on Spotify (Orig. / 2019).
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.