the GazettE - 蜷局 [eng sub] LIVE HD

“Toguro“ means “coil“. I had a blast translating this song, especially because this live performance of it is amazing. Please listen with headphones or good speakers if you can, the bass line and just the overall heaviness of this song really comes through that way. This song has lots of onomatopoeia and constructed words, which is how the lyrics are made to sound so good simply on a sound-basis, putting the meaning aside, in my opinion. carolina f suggested this song and this specific performance, thank you! It’s from their 15th anniversary live 大日本異端芸者「暴動区　愚鈍の桜」from 2017 that came with the limited edition of NINTH. Translation by me. Annotations: “Round and round“ - This is onomatopoeia describing how something is turning, however ateji (当て字, kanji used only for their sound, not their meaning) are used, making it look like it’s saying “flowing foolishness“ (愚流). Note that this is only apparent when you look at the written lyrics, not when you listen to the song. “Clattering and rattling“ - The part that goes “karakatakatakarakatakatakatari“. “Karakara“ and “katakata“ are both onomatopoeia for a clattering or rattling sound. That it ends on “katari“ made me think of 語り (katari, “to tell“), which would emphasize the meaning of “it makes the sound katakata...“. However, that might just be me going off track and it’s really just an extension of the two onomatopoeia mixed together, nothing more. “Tonight again the twisting noise resounds“ - “Twisting“ is written with uncommon kanji, meaning “screw“, probably to emphasize the image of the turning motion of something being screwed in. 0:38 - 0:58 - This part is not included in the lyrics and I found no source confirming what this part says. I do have my theories, but nothing I am confident enough about. “How do you want to have fun?“ - This is a rather loose translation. Literally it would be more like “What do you do to play?“, but the verb “to play“ is often used in Japanese to mean “to do something that’s fun [in your free time, as opposed to work]“. It’s not necessarily related to a game or to children playing, like in English, which is why it makes sense to me to not use the literal verb “to play“ for this translation. “’Obscene speckles’“ - “Which one is ’you’?“ - In English we’d say “which one“ to ask this, but in Japanese it’s actually more precise, asking “which time is it ’you’?“ or “which of these [referring to the order they happen in] is ’you’?“. I’d like to put this into context, but keep in mind that we’re now getting into my interpretation of the lyrics: “We let our hands entangle and paint“, and what they paint are the “obscene speckles“. I imagine these to be like drops of paint (and you could go further and argue that this might be a sexual metaphor, but I’ll stick to the imagery provided here). Now she is asking (it’s a female perspective talking about/to a man) in which one of these “obscene speckles“ that they are painting, assuming they paint repeatedly or at least across some amount of time, “he“ can truly be found. “Why do you laugh so mockingly?“ - The “seseraserasera“ part is onomatopoeia again, an extension of せせら笑う (sesera warau, “to laugh mockingly“), if you will. “Only being stirred up“ - As in being emotionally disturbed. “Repeating the ’string figure’“ - Also known as “cat’s cradle“. Interesting to come across this, I remember doing it in elementary school. It’s when you suspend a string between your fingers to form specific shapes with it, as a game. “Notice those long breaths that won’t connect...“ - “Connect“ being what I ended up choosing to convey that their breaths won’t “go together“, “see eye to eye“, “come to an understanding“... “Deadly night of trickery“ - This one wasn’t so easy. “Deadly night“ (逝夜, pronounced by Ruki as “ikuya“) appears to be a made up word, and could just as well be translated as “the night I die“, “the dying night“ or other interpretations. “Trickery“ also describes the “mechanism“ that things can have, especially so-called “karakuri ningyō“, a specific kind of mechanized puppets. --------------- Thank you for watching!