Lost in sleep on a dark night, a deep crimson beat swayed
And out of an urge to draw it close, the Black flaked away
Time is blazing on, it can’t be stopped
Memories flow along the edge of a sigh
Far off, the city lights burn
A Merry〝Wanderland〟started to spin
Impulse and passion brought with them thirst and the wind
Let’s sing thousands of stories before the break of day
Let’s arrange the world like a bouquet
In shadows of deep my heart
Go deeper and deeper, my lover
Break the wall,
The transparent love that also brings with it sadness
The city lights are dancing
Longing for you night and day
Until the moon darkens
The voices mingled with noise are martial law
A siren rings out
Let’s sing thousands of stories before the break of day
The world is withering like a bunch of flowers
In shadows of deep my heart
Go deeper and deeper, my lover
Forget god
Because with a clumsy brush, I’ll paint ¹
The city lights are dancing
Longing for you night and day
The colour of tenderness ¹
If a cat with jade eyes invites me
I guess a rainbow would bridge the way
to a dance on the surface of the moon; ²
Pierce me with them, please do
Fangs on the nape of my neck, a kiss in repentance
Beneath the blue moon light
In the depths of my heart
Let’s get forgotten with time
At the edge of mercy, hell is waiting
Whispering stars take flight
Through the shadows in my soul
Captured by eternity
La la la la la la la la
Let’s arrange the world like a bouquet
In shadows of deep my heart
Go deeper and deeper, my lover
With frozen flowers
The city lights are dancing
Longing for you night and day
Until the moon darkens
.
NOTES / INTERPRETATION:
Blue font indicates text originally written in English in the official lyrics.
oo1. These two lines are actually sung in the opposite order in Japanese, and they are like one thought spanning over the two lines in English between them. I sat and thought about it quite a lot, but I couldn’t think of any proper way to word it in English that would allow those lines to stay in the same positions they hold in the original Japanese lyrics. This was the verse that truly made me notice that the English lines and the lines in Japanese during the chorus are like two different thoughts weaving in and out of one another, which I think is very cool.
oo2. This is my interpretation of the first lines of this verse; they were also translated to English on the artwork that Shou created for the song, which was displayed in a gallery alongside his first official live performing as Verde/. The translation that appears on the artwork is as follows:
If a cat with jade eyes invites me to a moonlit ball, a rainbow will span
Shou’s translation is correct, obviously! But when it comes to poetry or literature, there is sometimes space to interpret the same lines in a slightly different way, and that was the case here. Also, in Japanese, the word used for “moonlit” was actually “surface of the moon” instead, so I have a feeling that Shou changed the expression in English to be less wordy, which is why I provided the more literal sense. Now you can appreciate the way he chose to word the lines in English along with the way he worded the lines in Japanese.
Thoughts. The word “Wanderland” at the end of the second verse would probably seem like a typo if you had never listened to the first Verde/ release, The Wanderer/. I really like that self-referential nod. I’m kind of fascinated by the fact that the colour palette of Shou’s artwork for Lunaris/ was pink and turquoise on a white background while the MV itself and the cover art for the release are so much darker and richer in tone. I’ll have to revisit these thoughts that I’m writing when I give it more thought and come up with a better interpretation — I’m certain that he made those design choices quite carefully.
One particularly interesting thing about the way he wrote these lyrics, especially compared to most of the lyrics he writes, is that several lines seem to be paired with ones they are not adjacent to (that is, across verse-gaps or spanning over lines of the opposite language). My favourite example of this is the last line of verse seven and the first line of verse eight. I was trying to translate each verse separately and was pretty mystified by the last line of verse seven which seemed completely out of place, until I decided to set it aside and move on to the next verse… at which point I realized that it formed a couplet with that first line. We go from the image of a rainbow leading to a ball on the moon to a kiss from a vampire — and perhaps it is those two adjacent sets of imagery that lead to the colour contrast between Shou’s artwork and the worldbuilding in the MV.
That being said, I love both the dark, rich imagery of the MV, cover art, and concept art, as well as the dreamy, pastel imagery of the gallery art piece. Given that he collaborated with fellow musician and moon-lover [ kei ] on this song, it felt especially appropriate that there were so many references to the moon in Lunaris/. In this song, [ kei ]’s guitar-playing was particularly subdued right up until the end where he played a distinctive, stand-out phrase in his personal style; for the rest of the song he seemed to be focusing on just supporting Shou’s voice. I particularly love the way that the opening verses are sung, building momentum and anticipation as though the song is preparing to take flight, which it does for each chorus.
This song was also released just before Shou’s 2-man tour with SHIN, who also loves ALICE NINE. and has always deeply respected Shou as a fellow vocalist. The tour poster design that Shou directed the creation of features an image of two dragons drawn in inky, dark purple brushstrokes. Could this be a reference to the colour of tenderness painted with a clumsy brush from verse six of Lunaris/? Though the brushstrokes in the poster are far from being unskillful! Whether intended or coincidental, it is quite gorgeous.
.
★ Verde/ Lunaris/
(2024.05.02)
Lyrics & Music & Art by Shou
Programming & Guitar by [ kei ]
Music Video by Kotarou Nogami
Original text translated from Japanese.
Listen on his official Youtube.
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 ♡