The eighth of June, it’s been raining since morning
From the corner of the window through which I peeked, flows the sound of rain
A quiet rhythm carved out an ordinary day
Even so, it wasn’t granted to you
I had known it would come someday, continued to watch intently
Today, irreplaceable, won’t come again.
In this wide open sky, a quiet curtain falls.
Let’s go to the ends of the earth, to a place unknown
Thoroughly out of breath
I don’t want to accept
That in time we’ll appear to not be able to hear one another
The seventh of June still isn’t sunny
I guess I’m looking at the cloudy “blue sky” from above ¹
I had known it would come someday, continued to watch intently
Today, irreplaceable, won’t come again.
In this wide open sky, a quiet curtain falls.
Let’s go to the ends of the earth, to a place unknown
Thoroughly out of breath
I’m sad
That in time we’ll appear to not be able to hear one another
Lit elegantly at dusk, the colour of the hydrangeas were a faint blue
I closed my eyes and was bathed in the June rain
.
NOTES / INTERPRETATION:
oo1. A moment of respect for the succinct imagery and emotional tone of this short verse. Evocative and beautiful.
Thoughts. The speaker of this song seems to be grieving the loss of someone close to them, to whom was not granted the rhythm of another “ordinary day”. A loss that they knew was inevitable. I love the way the song sounds like flowing water and rain, the bass line a stream winding through several parts of it. The music is rhythmic and mesmerizing, and the lyrics capture the dissonant sense of grief turning a world upside down — turning a cloudy yet fair day into a downpour.
While Saga was composing this song, his grandmother passed away, and so the song became about death. Upon hearing this, Shou then wrote the lyrics remembering his own experience of being in school and worrying about how his friend who was in a vegetative state was doing, while outside his classroom window, rain poured down.
Despite how sad the song is, there is warmth in it both musically and lyrically, and is one of the more down-to-earth lyrics in the ALICE NINE. repertoire. Over the years, this has become a favourite of mine.
And I complete and post this translation on the heels of having learned that one of my relatives sadly passed away after a long, painful struggle. I can only hope that she is at peace now…
Today the weather was fair.
アリス九號. ★ ALICE NINE.
本日ハ晴天ナリ | honjitsu wa seiten nari
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
Original text translated from Japanese.
Listen on Spotify.
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