Dir En Grey's old but gold "ain't afraid to die" from their TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ______ [mode of MACABRE], as requested by Creature.
I used to have a bit of trouble listening to this song for a long time because it would bring up bad memories, but exposing myself to it and really looking into the lyrics made me love it again, so I am very happy I got to do this song eventually. Please take a look at the annotations if you have the time!

Translation by me.



Annotations:

"In your room I put one of the flowers you used to love so" - The verb "put" is actually only implied here, it is missing in the original. It is so heavily implied however, that I decided to put it to make the sentence work in English.

"Hey, smile - Don't cry anymore - I'm always watching you from here" - You might have guessed it, but this is a clear change of perspective. For these few lines it's her (who died) talking to him (who is grieving). The reason this is not just an interpretation of mine, is that the language changes in the original very obviously. She calls him "anata" (貴方) (He has been calling her "kimi" throughout the song) and the last line even ends on "wa" (〜わ), which is a strong marker for a feminine speaker, and is only used in this line.

"The light silently dyes the center of the city white" - This line had me thinking very hard. Now, the way I translated it works the way it is, but there is another possible option that I don't want to keep from you. Altogether this verse could mean (including the line that follows after it): "The last seasonal colors that you saw in this city that gets dyed white silently by the light"
In Japanese, the grammar can work that way. But because the individual parts of the sentences need to stay more or less in order when putting subtitles (and I am already a bit loose on that sometimes when necessary), this possible translation is quite impossible to get across in a video. When translating literature you can reconstruct the sentences as you see fit, but with lyrics you can't play around too much with timing. Because of that, and because there was another possible option, I ended up putting into the video what I did.

"Reality is a cruel thing, isn't it?" - Just something interesting on the side: There's a reason I didn't simply translate this as "Reality is cruel, isn't it?". The particle combination used in the original is one you use when you define something. So this line has the nuance of saying that reality is not only cruel, but that's what defines it.

5:47 - 5:58 - Once again, I can't figure out by ear what he is singing. It's not part of the lyrics or past performances of this song, as far as I know. Actually, in the second half I think he could be singing something like "...as if looking for love" (愛を探すように) but it could be something else that sounds similar, and the first part I can't really figure out, so I am not sure enough to potentially put words into his mouth.



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I do not own Dir En Grey or any of their music or performances.
I translate for fun and wanted to share this translation.

Thank you for watching! I hope you enjoyed this song.

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