鏡花水月 (Mirror Flower, Water Moon) / Mafumafu－ Song Translation

鏡花水月 (KYOUKA SUIGETSU) (MIRROR FLOWER, WATER MOON)

Composition, Lyrics, Vocal: まふまふ (Mafumafu) [mylist/22993832]

Mixing: そらる (Soraru) [mylist/7359936]

✲ Please support Soraru & Mafumafu by purchasing their 2nd album “Prerhythm Arch” [iTunes] [Animate] [CDJapan], which includes this track! 

Translator: 抹茶カメ (Matchakame) & Kou (eleven-xi)

✲ Please inform & credit us if you use the translation! If you find any mistakes, feel free to message me or Kou! 

ROMAJI / ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

“Hagurenai you ni” to tsubuyaite
Boku no suso wo tsukanda
Shizukesa ga zutto tsuduita you na
Ano natsuzora no shita

“So we don’t get separated”, you whisper
As you cling onto my shirt hem
Under that summer sky
Peace seems to continue forever

Satsuki yami ga akete
Hitomi no eishaki no naka
Hashiriyoru kimi no itoshisa
Mou modorenai

The darkest night in the rainy season has brightened
Inside the film projector in my eye
I run up to you, but your affection
Can no longer return

Toki ga yoru wo tsurete kimi to miteita sora wo
Kuraku someageru
Karatomurai ashita no saki ni
Nee mada kimi wa imasu ka

Time takes the night away
And dyes the sky I saw with you black
With the burial of my unresolved love*, I look towards tomorrow
Hey, are you still there?

Yukikau dareka ni yosomi shite
Kimi wo okoraseta koto
Sonna shiawase to machiawase
Ano jinja no soba

The times when I had made you angry
By being distracted as someone passed by
A rendezvous with that sort of happiness
Next to that shrine

Surechigatte utsusemi
Kitto tadoreba yokorenbo
“Kidukanai furi shita kuse ni”
Ttesa kimi wa iu?

Passing by each other in reality
If we had follow through, it’d surely have been a forbidden love
“Even though you pretended not to notice”
Remember, you would say?

Akiru made miteita kimi to miteita
Sora wa doko made tsuduku no?
Tsudukanai no wa hanabi no ne ya
Sou futari no koi

Watching it until I grew tired, watching it with you
Where will the sky continue to?
What won’t continue is the sound of the fireworks
Yes, just like the two of our love

Ima wa sawarenai mono ya wasureta mono wo
Hitotsu futatsu kazoeteiku
Mizu ni utsuru tsuki no iro toka
Ano hosoi yubisaki toka

Right now, the things I can’t touch & the things I have to forget
One, two, I continue to count
The color of the moon reflected in the water
And those thin fingers of yours

Yume no mani mani

At the mercy of my dreams

Mata nandomo, mata nando demo
Ano hanabi wo mini yukunda
Boku wa mada kimi ga suki dayo

No matter how many times, no matter how many times again
I will go to see those fireworks
I still like you, you know

Nee

Hey

(Hitori ni shinai de

Please don't leave me alone)

Yume hanabi tomore akashiro kiiro
Boku to ano ko no aida de
Me wo fusaide kita sono subete
Ima omoidasasete

Dream fireworks, light up in red, white, and yellow
In the space between me and that girl
Everything that I’ve closed my eyes to
Right now, let me recall it

Yoidoki ga yoru wo tsurete kimi to miteita sora wo
Kuraku someageru
Chiisaku natta oto no saki ni
Nee mada kimi wa imasu ka

The early evening hours take the night away
And dye the sky I saw with you black
Beyond the slowly fading sounds
Hey, are you still there

Nee

Hey

Translator’s note:

*The lyrics include the word “空葬い/karatomurai,” which means an ‘empty burial’, or a burial conducted without having found the person’s corpse. We interpreted it to mean that the two decided to lock their love for each away without resolving their actual feelings.

*The title 鏡花水月 literally translates to “Mirror Flower, Water Moon”, but is actually an old four-character idiom in Japanese that holds a lot of meaning. As described by the Weblio dictionary, it has the definitions of: “flowers reflected on a mirror and the moon reflected on the water’s surface; something that is visible but having no substance”. 

鏡花水月 is the idea that while the actual flowers and moon may no longer exist, their breathtaking reflections on the mirror and water’s surface still remain as a mirage. In relation to Mafumafu’s composition, the title refers to the beautiful illusion of the narrator’s now-gone lover. 

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Thank you for reading! 

This is my first collaboration with Kou, who was kind enough to message me in the middle of translating! Please check out her tumblr eleven-xi – she posts frequent song translations and is open to requests (=^▽^=)

As the aftertrack of “Yume Hanabi”, “Kyoka Suigetsu” draws a heartbreaking conclusion to the romance. Not only are chord progressions & themes reused to connect the two songs, but the lyrics are filled with references to the prequel. “Kyoka Suigetsu” is one of my favorite tracks in the album because of this, and I hope everyone can appreciate both its melodic and lyrical beauty as well!