This song first appeared on Royal Straight Magic and was also included on the Western release Neo Japanese Heroine. Given the time of year and the title, I was thinking it would be fitting for Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve. But I digress.

On the occasion of that Western release, miko posted to her blog in English with short blurbs about each track. You can find that post from this past May here. Below the romanization and translation of the song lyrics, I’ve included a translation of an older blog post she wrote about this track in Japanese. That post is what inspired me to go looking for public domain images of crows to use as the featured image for this translation.

Side note 1: I went to see the exhibit Van Gogh in America yesterday at the Detroit Institute of Arts. I had already selected this painting to be the featured image for this blog post, so I was amused to see it in a scene from the overly dramatized Van Gogh biopic Lust for Life (1956), which starred Kirk Douglass as the Dutch painter. The scene shows Van Gogh getting attacked by crows as he tries to paint. I’m sure it wasn’t supposed to be funny but the movements of the “crows” (Thingies On Wires, I assume) were so unnatural I couldn’t help but laugh.

Side note 2: A belated Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, and a Happy New Year! 良いお年を！

Now, back to the song.

Lyrics in Japanese can be found here on Rock Lyric.

☆

Saikederikku Burakku Naito

Hey, ARE YOU CRYING?
Oh, hitoribotchi
So, boku ga sotto dakishimeyou ka?

Hey, ARE YOU CRYING?
hanashi wo kikou ka?
sore to mo konna choisu wa dou dai?

COME WITH ME boku to issho ni
NO NEED TO ACT LIKE THEM
“kimi” wo saa misete

kakusanaide kimi no okusoko wo
kuroi kanjou to shitto mo tsurete
barairo wo soete odorou

mou kono mama de ii kara
sarakedashiatte tokeatte
futari terasu sairen wa
bokura no saikederikku burakku naito

Hey, CAN YOU SEE ME?
aa boku mo sou sa
tokidoki jibun wo miushinau

Hey, CAN YOU SEE ME?
aa koko ni iru sa
tsugi ni wa konna choisu wa dou dai?

COME WITH ME boku to tobitatou
NO NEED TO ACT LIKE THEM
kimi wa mou jiyuu sa

gokusai no oto furisosogu
kono heya de tashikameatte
naniiro mo aiseru no nara¹

mou kono mama de ii kara
kizutsukeatte nameatte
futari terasu gekkou ga
iyashita saikederikku burakku naito

COME WITH ME boku to issho ni
LET IT GO NOW ima kaihou sasete saa

kakusanaide kimi no okusoko wo
kuroi kanjou to shitto mo tsurete
barairo wo soete odorou

sou kataku musunda ito mo
ima hodokete wa karamatte

afureru oto tsumugiau
kono heya de tashikameatte
naniiro mo aiseru no nara

mou kono mama de ii kara
sarakedashiatte tokeatte
futari terasu sairen wa
bokura no saikederikku burakku naito

Psychedelic Black Night

Hey, ARE YOU CRYING?
Oh, you’re all alone
So, how about I give you a big hug?

Hey, ARE YOU CRYING?
Wanna talk about it?²
Or how about this kind of choice?

COME WITH ME  Come along with me
NO NEED TO ACT LIKE THEM
Come on now, show me “you”

Don’t hide anything; Your deepest parts,
Dark emotions and even jealousy
Add a crown of roses and dance with them all³

This     Just like this is fine, so
Laying it all bare Melting into each other
The sirens that shine on us are⁴
Our psychedelic black night

Hey, CAN YOU SEE ME?
Ah, well, sometimes
I lose sight of myself too

Hey, CAN YOU SEE ME?
Ah, I’m right here⁵
Next, how about this type of choice?

COME WITH ME Take off with me
NO NEED TO ACT LIKE THEM
You’re free now, okay?

Rain down a richly-colored sound
Let’s prove it to each other in this room
If you can love any color, even darkness, then

This     Just like this is fine, so
Hurting each other, sharing hard times
The moonlight that shines on us is
The healed psychedelic black night

COME WITH ME Come along with me
LET IT GO NOW Now, let it go, okay?

Don’t hide anything; Your deepest parts,
Dark emotions and even jealousy
Add a crown of roses and dance with them all

That’s right, even the tightly tied thread
Now comes undone only to be retied every time⁶

Let’s weave together these overflowing tones
Let’s prove it to each other in this room
If you can love any color, even darkness, then

This     Just like this is fine, so
Laying it all bare Melting into each other
The sirens that shine on us are
Our psychedelic black night

miko Blog, November 10, 2016

“This song has a weird title!” Right? Starting with that impression, I wanna explain the lyrics first.

The lyrics came about thanks to the second night of live shows in October’s VANGUARD NIGHT, “Black Core.” While talking with the band as we prepped for this day, I thought about how “black” was a “core” for exist†trace, and felt a need to expose, in particular, the dark feelings jumbled up in the depths of my heart.

And so, after the show, I thought, “For us, black is a very vibrant, rich thing,” “We shouldn’t be ashamed of the dark emotions that come about from the mixing of so many emotions (colors).” I wanted to turn those thoughts into a song.

Do you know the story of how the crow became black?

When God was giving animals their colors, the crow got greedy and said, “Red, blue, yellow, and green, they’re all good!” So all those colors got mixed together, making black.

I think it was good that the crow was greedy. If that black is the result, then it’s like getting a medal.

The power to turn everything into a positive, even if it’s a stretch, that’s what I hope everyone gets out of this song!

Next, the sound. Right when I was about to record this song, my Marshall JVM410H screamed out…. Would you believe it? I had to send it to the hospital on the double.

Fortunately, I had also prepared my Kettner Trilogy, and when I tried recording this song with it, turns out, it fit right in!

Lately, for the most part either Omi-sama or I will play the theme in the intros, while the other plays the basic things like chords or the riffs. But this time, from the first track of the mini album we attack with a hard riff in unison!

What dashing men!!!

The part that sounds like whammy is actually a synthesizer; inspired by this phrase, the real whammy comes in after the singing starts. It’s sort of a reverse import arrangement.

By the way, for the cabinet I basically used my A cab, and on other tracks I also used a greenback.

Something to listen out for is my chorus work!

This time, I wanted to use an upper harmony as much as possible to add brightness, but this song starts low then goes high, then suddenly it goes low, so it was very hard to play this while singing but…eh, what can I say, I made it look easy. (LOL)

As for the guitar, this song doesn’t have a guitar solo. Instead, we made the drastic move of surprising everyone by throwing in a dubstep style interlude. (LOL) Here, we of course used fuzz, recording with a dirty sound. I love the last bend at the end where the sound goes up.⁷

We have already debuted this song on the SURVIVAL MACH tour, but I want all of you to make this song evolve even further! I want everyone to scream, go crazy, let loose and enjoy it together!

[miko ends by talking about upcoming shows.]

---

^1. In the first line here, the sung lyric is 音 (oto, “sound”) but the written lyric is 音色 (neiro, “tone [of sound]”. The kanji compound literally means “sound color.” This same change is repeated near the end of the song.

In the third line, the sung lyric is なにいろ (nani iro, “what color,” or in this context, “any color”) but the written lyrics say 闇色 (yami iro, “the color of darkness”). My translation includes both. ⤴

^2. Though the words here say “shall [unidentified subject] hear story?” it’s clear from the context that the meaning is “shall I hear your story?” or in natural English as one might say to a crying friend, “Wanna talk about it?” ⤴

^3. 「花を添える」(hana wo soeru), lit. “to add flowers,” idiomatically means to “decorate,” “add something beautiful,” or “add to the [some previously stated quality]”, including to things that aren’t physical and even things that one normally wouldn’t “decorate,” such as sadness. Here miko is playing on that basic idiom by turning it into 「バラ色を添える」(barairo wo soeru) “to add rose color.” As the original phrase doesn’t really have one set natural English translation, I felt like “crown of roses” fit the imagery and went with that. ⤴

^4. Though sirens make sound, and the verb 照らす (terasu) refers to light, this line definitely says “the sirens that shine on us.” I interpret “sirens” as “flashing lights” by association i.e. “[police] lights & sirens,” but overall I think mixing sound & light is in line with how miko is using colors as metaphors for feelings. ⤴

^5. I’m not sure if this is “I’m right here” or “You’re right here.” Since the subject is left unstated and both could make sense in context, I just went with “I’m right here” as that parallels the previous phrase. ⤴

^6. I assume this is a reference to the “red thread of fate.” Also, note that the construction [te-form verb]は[verb] denotes repeated actions, not one sequential set. Often the words used in such a construction have opposite meanings, as is the case here. In other words, in the second line, it’s not just “the undone thread is retied,” it’s “the thread keeps being retied after coming undone/being untied.” ⤴

^7. What I translated as “bend” was チョーキング (lit., the English word “choking”). From what I can tell, choke technique is one thing, and you can “choke out” a note while performing a bend (bending the guitar string) and this is something that can be a problem? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t play guitar, so the parts where miko’s getting more technical with her vocab, I may be translating incorrectly. ⤴