The path that I have walked is covered with gravel
Orig.] Secretly I feel your presence, even when I close my eyes ¹
2019] While I feel your presence softly, I close my eyes
Were you to go and fade, one of these days, ²
I’d mull it over with tears of laughter,
Orig.] Wandering in search of a destination
2019] And go on wandering in search of a destination
I can’t walk on
While misplaced memories, words drifting in the wind
Are changing their shapes
I want us to be together forever—
Am placing the hourglass upside-down
“If you could turn back time, would you wish to?” ³
If only I could, I’d go back to when we were together
The afternoon rain would become a blessing to hide my embarrassment,
And let me hold you so shockingly close, always…
Be near me… So that you won’t grow cold
I couldn’t hold you close for some reason that day
Your grief, your feelings, your everything
I want us to be together forever, and am placing the hourglass upside-down
“If you could turn back time, would you wish to?”
You wanting to know whether I would if I could,
Sounding out my place in the world by that wish… ⁴
Orig.] What I lost was something irreplaceable… long ago.
2019] What I’m losing was something irreplaceable… always will be. ⁵
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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. The word used originally and in 2019 for ‘secretly’ and ‘softly’ is the same in Japanese. There is no literal reason why they should have been translated differently. I made the decision to translate each version of the line slightly differently to support my own personal interpretation of the song.
oo2. This verse gave me an incredible headache, and I probably didn’t translate it right, but a certain particle combination really had me at a loss. The wording I decided on is in the ballpark, at least. As for how to interpret it, I would say that the gist of it is, the speaker can’t imagine this loved one’s memory ever fading (I thought of the confusion-inducing particle as an indicator of scepticism), but if that were somehow to happen, they’d laugh about it (“how is this even possible?”) but still be wandering, wondering where their place in life is. Also, there is no particle in Japanese to clarify whether the speaker would be mulling over the faded memory with tears of laughter, or whether they’d be mulling over the tears of laughter themselves… but I went with the first interpretation. I just liked the emotional tone of it better.
oo3. The first “if you could turn back time” describes what the speaker wishes they could have done (hold their loved one close). The following verse explains what actually happened (they weren’t able to, and believe it is now too late).
oo4. I’m still not satisfied with the wording for this line and the one before it, but for now this feels like a happy medium between being literal and paraphrasing. Essentially, the construction in Japanese leaves words unsaid and make some implications. The main implication being that the speaker is surprised or dismayed by the question (in quotation marks) being repeated. So I imagine that unvoiced surprise or dismay being something like, “obviously going back is impossible, what is lost is lost… you are seriously asking me something this painful just to satisfy your curiosity?”. It’s interesting that the speaker does seem to allow themselves to imagine, just briefly the first time the question is asked, what they might have done differently were they afforded the ability to go back. But the song ends with them facing the stark reality of their situation.
oo5. There is a tense clash at the beginning of this line… but given that this song is called TIME MACHINE, I think the tense clash isn’t outlandish. The original line has a sense of finality to it; there is no opening, no possibility of recovering what was lost. Pure past tense. The 2019 change with the tense clash opens the ending up just a tiny bit. The thing is not lost—the speaker is in the process of losing it. It’s irreplaceable, but there is still a sliver of hope, somehow.
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アリス九號. ★ ALICE NINE.
タイムマシン | TIME MACHINE
「名前は、未だ無ひ。」 (2004)
“namae wa, mada nai.” (2004)
Lyrics by 将/SHOU
Music by 虎/TORA
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.