March 7th is miko’s birthday, as well as that of BUCK-TICK’s Atsushi Sakurai. Might I suggest the song “Mortal” from his solo project The Mortal as an appropriate pairing for “Owari no Nai Sekai”?

Anyway, this song isn’t terribly appropriate for a birthday (which is why I’m somewhat superstitiously publishing it on the 6th instead), but it’s the only one I have left to do on Twin Gate, and I was in the mood to do some exist†trace translating.

Actually, searching for this title in miko’s blog yields a lot of results. Besides the post I translated in full below, there was an interesting blurb about it in this post from nearly a year prior, in which she mentions that this song describes her views on life and death, and that it was unusual for her in that she wrote the lyrics first, before the music. She also says that it was a song they played at her younger brother’s funeral, but since she says it with no introduction nor explanation, I half wonder if I’m misunderstanding. She also doesn’t mention losing a brother at all in her post titled “Brothers” which she published just a few days after the previous one I mentioned. Then again, someone left a comment on that first post saying “I’m sure [the song] reached your brother,” so maybe it’s something she didn’t want to get into deeply in a public space, or maybe she’d written about it at length in an even earlier post that I haven’t seen. Whatever the case may be, “Owari no Nai Sekai” is clearly a song with great meaning and importance for miko.

Unlike the previous few songs I translated, this one is very straightforward. There are only a few word switches to point out, and since I don’t feel like writing footnotes, I’ll just mention it here.

There are two points where Jyou sings something different from what’s in the lyrics. The first one is in the second line, where she sings 時 (toki) for the written lyric 時間 (jikan). Both mean “time,” though as explained in the notes for “VANGUARD,” toki implies “all time” whereas jikan refers to a specific point in or span of time. The other different word is in the next line on, in which Jyou sings 訳 (wake) for the written lyric 理由 (riyuu). Both mean “reason” (as in, the reason for something).

Lyrics in Japanese can be found here on Rock Lyric.

EDIT (03.08.2021): I had read this but my mind glossed over it, but the title of this song is actually written in quotation marks. I mean that the quotation marks are actually part of the title—as opposed to the writing convention of writing album titles in italics and song titles in quotation marks to show that they’re titles. So basically this song’s title should be written within text as “‘Owari no Nai Sekai’,” where the inner set of quotation marks is the set that’s officially part of the title and the outer set is the set that just tells you “these words form a title.” (^o^;)

☆

“Owari no Nai Sekai”

taisetsuna mono ga fueru tabi ni sore wo ushinau kanashimi mo fueteyuki
sugisaru toki wa amari ni kantan ni wakare wo tsuretekuru kara

umareta imi ya wake toitsuzuke ikiteiru
kotae nado nai no ni

osoikuru fuan ni anata wa mimi mo fusagazu ni ita no wa naze

umareta imi ya wake toitsuzuke ikiteiru
souzou sae dekinai

kanawanai negai de ii anata to owari no nai sekai wo mitai
sonna kibou ga hoshii
tomaranai tokei wa ima anata no asu wo ubai
yasashii saigo no egao wo watashi ni ataeta

umareta imi ya wake toitsuzuke ikiteiru
kotae nado iranai

kanawanai negai de ii anata to owari no nai sekai wo mitai
sonna kibou ga hoshii
yamanai namida no ame anata wo nurashiteiku
sotto arigatou hareta ten ni tsubuyaita

“A World That Won’t End”

Gaining more things that are important to us also means
we’ve got that much more sadness to feel as we lose them
Because the passage of time brings partings with it all too easily

We’re always searching for the meaning of our lives, asking why we were born
Even though there’s nothing resembling an answer

Why didn’t you shut your ears to the attacking anxiety?

We’re always searching for the meaning of our lives, asking why we were born
I can’t even imagine an answer

It’s okay if it’s an impossible wish
I want to see a world that won’t end, with you
I want that kind of hope
Even now the unstoppable clock steals your tomorrows
You gave me your last smile, so kind

We’re always searching for the meaning of our lives, asking why we were born
I don’t need an answer or anything like that

It’s okay if it’s an impossible wish
I want to see a world that won’t end, with you
I want that kind of hope
You’re soaked by the endless rain of tears
I softly murmured “thank you” to the clear sky

miko Blog, January 13, 2019,  [6] When that someday comes

These past few years my family has seen so many people off as the closest relatives of the dearly departed. Each time, there’s something I think about after the ceremony. “When it’s my time to go, I wonder how they’ll send me off?”

When I brought it up to the band, they said:

“You’re definitely the type to hang on stubbornly till the very end, so when your time comes the four of us will be there to greet you. LOL”

“Yeah, we’re gonna be like, ‘miko, you’re late! Do you know how many years we’ve been waiting? LOL”

They said stuff like that to me, and we were laughing about it.

Of course, I totally intend to live to be a hundred, but what I truly wish for is to be sent off while exist†trace’s songs play. I want them to play “Owari no Nai Sekai,” and, like the sun that shines through a rain shower, I want to envelop those I leave behind in a gentle light that makes even their tears sparkle.

In order to be able to rest in peace when my time comes, fully satisfied, I have to try out everything I want to now, no matter how crazy!

It’s not that we live to die, but if it’s a good death, then it’s not as scary as we draw closer to it, right?

It’s okay if it’s an impossible wish
I want to see a world that won’t end, with you
I want that kind of hope

Let’s create even that kind of hope, together.

I want to live life with all of you.

 

P.S.

I finished painting some parts for my effects board.

[Photo]