Happy Igu Day!

Today we come to “Blaze,” which is one of Omi’s songs. I realized reading over some of Omi’s other songs that I’ve been inconsistent in how I handle cases of the written lyrics not matching the sung lyrics. Lately I write what’s sung and add a footnote explaining what’s written. For this song, I think that’s fine, though the potential implications of the last verse might go over your head if you’re reading the footnotes as you come to them. I recommend reading the whole translation first.

Lyrics in Japanese can be found here on Rock Lyric.

☆

Blaze

mayoikonda gareki no sekai
kuruidasu toki wo michizure ni¹
taeta inori daichi wa kegare
tozasareta kokoro no yami yo

sabitsuita kagi wo kakaete nemuri
maiodore

akaku moeagaru taiyou no you ni takaku
doko made mo samenai yume
kizutsuita hane kako wo tokihanachi
sora e egaki gensou e

tadoritsuita mada minu keshiki
ugokidasu kodou wa karoyaka ni
kogareteita ushinatta hi wo
terashidasu memai no hikari

sabitsuita kagi wo kakaete nemuri
maiodore

akaku moeagaru taiyou no you ni takaku
doko made mo samenai yume
kizutsuita hane kako wo tokihanachi
sora e egaki gensou e

akaku moeagaru taiyou no you ni takaku
doko made mo samenai yume
kizutsuita hane kako wo tokihanachi
kimi no koe wo

dare mo todokanai shikisai no naka e
hitori sadame wo kirihiraite²
sora e egaki “gensou ni yureru sekai e”

Blaze

Lost in a world of rubble
With a clock that’s starting to fail for a traveling companion³
There are no more prayers; the earth is sullied
O, Darkness in my closed heart!

Sleep holding the rusted key
Soar in the dance!⁴

Up high, like the sun that burns red
The never-ending dream
Wounded wings release the past
Tracing paths towards the sky, towards a fantasy

I arrived at a scene I’ve not yet seen
My heart starts beating lightly
A dizzying light illuminates the lost days I’d longed for⁵

Sleep holding the rusted key
Soar in the dance!

Up high, like the sun that burns red
The never-ending dream
Wounded wings release the past
Tracing paths towards the sky, towards a fantasy

Up high, like the sun that burns red
The never-ending dream
Wounded wings release the past
Your voice…⁶

Going into colors no one can reach
I cut my fate open by myself
Tracing paths towards the sky, towards “a world that quivers in a fantasy”

---

^1. Jyou sings “toki” (時, time) for the written lyric 秒針 (byoushin) meaning “second hand [of a clock/watch].” ⤴

^2. Here Jyou sings 定め (sadame) for the written lyric 運命 (unmei). Both mean “fate” and/or “destiny” though sadame can also refer to laws / rules / regulations and is more common in written language. ⤴

^3. I decided to combine the meaning of the written & spoken lyrics (as explained in Footnote 1) in this translation. ⤴

^4. 舞い踊る (maiodoru) is a compound word made up of two words that both mean “to dance.” I feel like translating this just to “Dance!” erases the beauty of this word even though it would be a grammatically correct translation. 舞う (mau) by itself can also mean “whirl” or “circle” (as in a bird circling in the sky) and given the other flying imagery in this song, I think “Soar in the dance” is a fair interpretation here. Lastly, this verb is in command form here, which I represented with the exclamation mark. ⤴

^5. In the first line of this verse: Though the verb 辿り着く (tadoritsuku) is in past tense here, まだ見ぬ (mada minu, “not yet seen”) is in non-past tense. I interpret this line as “I arrived [in the dream] at a scene I’ve not yet seen [in real life],” because otherwise it would be strange to say you “have not yet seen” something you’re presumably looking at right now (instead of saying “had not yet seen”).

I combined the last two lines of this verse and reversed their order to avoid using passive form or awkward phrasing (i.e. “The lost days I’d longed for / are illuminated by a dizzying light” or “The lost days I’d longed for / A dizzying light illuminates them.”) ⤴

^6. The verb is left unstated here, but the presence of the object-marker を (wo) tells us that some verb is implied. Maybe “Your voice rings out,” “Your voice calls out to me,” “I hear your voice,” or something like that. It’s up to your interpretation what verb goes here. ⤴