Hope/

After a miracle when the light went out
With vague awareness, I sing to myself

Words that I didn’t want to forget
Floated in an ocean planetarium
and I turned a memory into a melody, walked on again

〝Hope starts new great tales〟

At the very end, the light still on,
Without losing the hope I want to hold on to
The nameless small hours of the morning grow light
As if adding colour to a frozen monochrome

Rather than righteousness, loveliness;
Going out of my mind, trying to convey it

The lips that murmur “there’s nothing” are wishing for something
As though sounding out LIGHT, with transparent notes

〝Hope starts new great tales〟
Dreams rise where stories

The farewell in our last moments, with a starting bell,
Burns up even past shows of courage;
If I had once more been able to link those fingers together
I would write the rest of the epilogue

Surely, the tale I want to convey
Would turn into a curse if I changed it into sound
In order to put the words together
I would play it upon a wondrous jewel ¹

At the very end, the light still on,
Without losing the hope I want to hold on to
The nameless small hours of the morning grow light
As if adding colour to a frozen monochrome

.

NOTES / INTERPRETATION:

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

oo1. This was wordplay, written deliberately in katakana (used for loanwords and emphasis) so that it can be read either as jewel, rare stone, or miracle/wonder. In order to convey the wordplay in English, I chose to go with “wondrous jewel” to kind of convey all three meanings at once.

Thoughts I particularly love the imagery of an ocean planetarium, of morning light adding colour to a frozen monochrome, and of playing music upon a wondrous jewel. The guitar and vocal melody in this song are gorgeous and uplifting, the lyrics filled with evocative turns of phrase.

I don’t expect any of the ALICE NINE. members to do exactly what they were doing within the band in their current solo pursuits, and I don’t expect them to make the same music. It did hugely reassure me though, when this song came out, to hear lyrics with the sort of dreamy imagery that I have always so admired from Shou, this upon a lovely vocal melody.

This song gave me hope that Shou’s lyrical mindscape would continue to expand within Verde/ (though I will also always hope to find it expanding the ALICE NINE. world again in the future one day), and I have not been disappointed!

★ Verde/ Hope/
(2024.02.14)
Lyrics & Music & Art by Shou
Guitar & Arrangement & Programming: Yusuke
Music Video by Shou & Tora
Original text translated from Japanese.
Listen on his official Youtube.

If you’d like to share the translation, please link to this page or to where it has been posted on the Alice9Lives Archive; you can also find the translation posted as a comment to the official Youtube video. Do not repost it. Thank you ♡