This hauntingly painful and beautiful live version is from the "TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ______ [mode of DUM SPIRO SPERO]" DVD which came out in 2017.
This is a re-upload. I fixed some lines and added a few more notes. Fingers crossed this version won't get taken down again!
Notes:
1) DIABOLOS, the devil, from the Greek word "Diabolos" (Διάβολος), meaning "the slanderer/accuser/confuser".
2) "Blue Velvet" is the title of a rhythm and blues song written by Bernie Wayne and Lee Morris in 1950, which has often been re-recorded since then. It also inspired David Lynch's same-titled movie. It is possible that Kyo channels the melancholy of said song into his own piece of art. The lyrics go as follows:
"She wore blue velvet
Bluer than velvet was the night
Softer than satin was the light
From the stars
She wore blue velvet
Bluer than velvet were her eyes
Warmer than May her tender sighs
Love was ours
Ours a love I held tightly
Feeling the rapture grow
Like a flame burning brightly
But when she left, gone was the glow of
Blue velvet
But in my heart there'll always be
Precious and warm a memory, through the years
And I still can see blue velvet through my tears"
3) 1:07 - "鵜呑み - unomi" literally "to swallow something without chewing", but also figuratively "to accept without questioning". "飲み込む - nomikomu" literally "to gulp down/swallow deeply", but also figuratively "to suppress one's feelings/swallow one's words" (By accepting it all without questioning, I suppressed this wishful thinking of mine.) I translated "幻想 - gensou" as "wishful thinking" here since "illusions/fantasies" sounded off, and "delusions" sounded too negative in this context.
4) 1:51 - "綺麗なまま - kirei na mama" Truth be told, I was struggling with the nuance of this line. Some might look at it and say "Yeah, dude, it's really not that complicated," but in a written translation, I think, it can be. So I was looking into all the options I had.
"So beautiful…" is the poetic version I chose in the end, because it captures the wistful tone of the original, I hope.
5) 3:46 - "我が物顔 - wagamonogao" describes a person who acts or appears like someone who owns something. There's no one-word-translation for it, hence my translation "You, acting like you own this place".
6) 4:17 - "Kept by instincts."
"being kept" ("飼われる - kawareru") as in "keeping an animal/pet".
7) 4:20 - "Late autumn drizzle." This probably has absolutely nothing to do with the song, but I found this during my research and I thought it to be quite interesting: "Shigure (時雨 - Late autumn drizzle)" was also the name of a Japanese warship in WW2. It was said to be unsinkable, a destroyer ship which emerged undamaged from its battles. That is until the USS Blackfin, a submarine, sunk it on January 24th, 1945.
8) 6:16 - In the original, album version Kyo sings: "The one who changed… wasn't you." However, in this live version he sings: "The one who went insane… wasn't you." Which makes it all the more disturbing…
9) The symbol starting to appear behind Kyo at 6:17 (and all the way to the end of the song) is the Star of David; the symbol of modern Jewish identity and Judaism.
10) 9:33 - "昨日の手首が…離せない - The wrist of my hand which is holding onto yesterday… I cannot be separated from it" and why I didn't translate this as "The wrist of yesterday… I cannot let it go": When Kyo sings "kinou no tekubi ga… hanasenai" he motions a wrist-cut with his finger (9:49). What's interesting is that this line could indeed be interpreted as "I can't be separated from my hand which is holding onto the past" as you literally say "I can't be separated from my hands (手が離せない)" in Japanese when you want to express that you "can't let go of something" or that your "hands are tied". The narrator of this song cannot let go of the past, and the past won't let go of him, he cannot be separated from what his hands have done, and the only way to let go seems to be cutting off the hand at the wrist - or in other words: slitting his wrist, killing himself. Unfortunately, I fear, I wasn't quite able to capture this in a translation. Forgive me.
EDIT 03/2020:
I am currently reading Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking" (the gruesome massacre that took place in China, acted out by the Japanese military in 1937, which was hushed-up for a long time as though it never happened). I see parallels in many lines of this song, and even in the visuals on the screen behind the band, now... The book is very hard to stomach, but if you're interested in learning more about this dark chapter of history, I highly recommend it.
~This is my translation/interpretation/localization.
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