Memories that flow down
At length become a river,
Return to the sea
Of the elements that take form
Many are the words for love
Many are the wounds from sacrifices
I’m falling down to the dark, but I can’t say good-bye to you
searching for own pieces
A mechanism slowly projects
Hopes, intentions that pile up
It’s not a road I chose,
but a vow;
One of a future that I wish for
with the friend who showed me how
I’m falling down to the dark, but I can’t say good-bye to you
searching for own pieces
When my tears fall, the things I can’t dispel
are like the serenity that was reminiscent
of my unfading youth-green days;
There are no wounds that don’t cause pain
That’s why I would live with you just as I am.
Toward that too-distant sky
I’ll be with you, until the end of the eternity that you wish for
I am born, experience the end of the four seasons,
am a flower that blossoms in the midst of the wreckage
In a corner of a revolving blue planet falls a water droplet,
without anyone realizing it;
That’s why I would live with you just as I am.
Until our tears, beautifully enflamed, dry up
On its own, the music box that is the cosmos is weeping—
so I’ll live with you just the way that I am
I’ll be with you, until the end of the eternity that you wish for
.
★
Hey, I wonder, are you listening
To this voice of mine calling you
Small as it is, weak as it is,
I’ll keep singing
Eventually,
The world will change,
And so too will the flowers that people forgot;
With the paintbrush that is pretext
I’ll go on imagining it
Be with you
I will be with you
Even if tomorrow were veiled in darkness
Be with you
I will be with you
To the end of the eternity that you wish for
.
NOTES / INTERPRETATION:
Blue font indicates text originally written in English in the official booklet.
★. This extended ending of the song is an additional 4 verses (copied down by ear) which are only included when they perform the song live.
Thoughts. As far as ballads go, and certainly in ALICE NINE.’s discography, Waterfall is kind of the gold standard. Much like birth in the death does in subsequent album GEMINI, Saga’s beautiful composition Waterfall brings their album VANDALIZE to a close with a gradual building of emotion, hopeful and bittersweet. The lyrics here really underscore the simple desire of being your truest self, while also folding in imagery of the cycle of a life, the idea of reincarnation and eternity, along with earthly and cosmic imagery; Show did a wonderful job illustrating the music with these lyrics. The speaker in the song would live with the addressee just as they are, but earlier in the song also asserts that their life cycle has ended; as if time is slightly out of order. One of the most remarkable things about this ballad is that it doesn’t feel romantic, exactly — but the love woven into it does feel pure, beyond definition. This song truly moved me the first time I heard it off my brand-new copy of the CD; the way that its low, simple tones built into this soaring, love-filled ending. It still moves me deeply every time I hear it, to this day.
{about the cover photo}
.
アリス九號. ★ ALICE NINE.
Waterfall
VANDALIZE (2009)
15TH ANNIVERSARY BEST「風月ノ詩」(2019)
Lyrics by 将/SHOU
Music by 沙我/Saga
Rearrangement by 沙我/Saga
Original text translated from Japanese.
Listen via Spotify (2019 ver.)
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