冥き途 // Kuraki Michi
It’s been a while since I’ve translated any Buta-Otome. At least I get that feeling – I remember when I was trying to translate every song they ever wrote, but that just seems impossible for me at this point, unless I dropped everything else ^^; This song’s from their 10th vocal album. That’s crazy! They only had two albums out in total when I got to meet them!
Anyway, this song is spectacular. Ranko really knows how to handle strained emotion in her voice. I’m a little frustrated because some of the purities of the meaning (as all the word interconnections and phrases are very simple) are lost in translation. In the original song you can feel more of the power of each thought, because it feels as if a spirit full of regret and pain is just barely piecing the words together. You see a couple of ellipses (…)s to help illustrate it, and there would be more if I could stand it, but still.
Notes:
Uncommon kanji usage in the title, but the symbol for dark, 冥 is the same that is used in 冥土/冥府 for “hell”. I don’t know if there’s any particular reason for using 途, other than it’s got more of a “journey/travel” feel to it, and that it is used in words such as 途切れる (interrupted), 途絶える (severed/ceased), and 一途 (one-track intense) / Update: apparently 冥き途 is another one of those set phrases I didn’t know for “the afterlife/hell/hades/land of the dead”. I’m going to stick with “Dark Road” though because I want the emphasis on travel (as her emotions are turning to karma – in other words it’s a progression.)
—
冥き途
Kuraki Michi
Dark Road
ゴーストリード｜東方神霊廟
歌：ランコ
編曲・歌詞：コンプ
サークル：豚乙女
アルバム：怨言神楽謌
イベント：C81
幾重に重ねた命が幾重に朽ちてゆく
震えるその長い指は空を掴む様に
ikue ni kasaneta inochi ga ikue ni kuchiteyuku
furueru sono nagai yubi wa sora wo tsukamu you ni
So many lives layered upon each other, all rotting just the same
Their long shivering fingers reaching, as if grasping for the sky
ただ触れたい 貴方に触れたい
貴方が見えない どうして？
tada furetai anata ni furetai
anata ga mienai doushite?
I just want… I just want to feel your touch
But I can’t see you… Why?
夢見て 抱きしめたり傷ついたり
求めて道に迷う
壊れた欠片達は戻らないの？
祈りは闇
yume mite dakishimetari kizutsuitari
motomete michi mi mayou
kowareta kakera-tachi wa modoranai no?
inori wa yami
Chasing dreams, we embraced, we were hurt
We lost our way…
The broken pieces won’t be made whole again…?
Prayers, only darkness
途切れた儚い想いはカルマに変わっていく
綺麗な身体に宿った暗闇は消せない
togireta hakanai omoi wa karma ni kawatteku
kirei na karada ni yadotta kurayami wa kesenai
My interrupted, fleeting emotions change to karma;
I can’t erase the darkness that dwelt within my beautiful body
ただ知りたい 貴方を知りたい
貴方が見えない 許して…
tada shiritai anata wo shiritai
anata ga mienai yurushite…
I just want… I just want to know you
But I can’t see you… Please forgive me…
夢見て 愛しんだり傷つけたり
求めて生に迷う
望んだカタチなんて元からない
祈りは闇
yume mite itoshindari kizutuketari
motomete sei ni mayou
nozon’da katachi nante moto kara nai
inori wa yami
Chasing dreams, we loved, we hurt each other
We lost our way in life…
But what we wished for, was never there to begin with.
Prayers, only darkness
夢見て 抱きしめたり傷ついたり
求めて道に迷う
壊れた欠片達は戻らないの？
祈りは闇
yume mite dakishimetari kizutsuitari
motomete michi ni mayou
kowareta kakera tachi wa modoranai no?
inori wa yami
Chasing dreams, we embraced, we were
Hurt, we lost our way…
These broken pieces won’t be made whole again…?
Prayers, only darkness
—
kafka-fuura 
Thanks for the translation!
BTW, JDIC’s got this entry for the title:
冥き途 【くらきみち】 (n) Hades; underworld; realm of the dead; other world; ED
That makes sense as 冥土 is “Dark Land” and 冥府 is “Dark District/Metropolis” – now I’ve got another set phrase to go for Hell XD.
lol for some reason I find it strange you haven’t translated Tsuki ni Murakumo Hana ni Kaze from Yuuhei Satellite yet… :o It’s starting to creep closer and closer to my favorite Last Remote vocals next to Risu Toru… <3
I’ll look into it ^^;
I’m having too much fun with translating Pizuya and RD and playing Katawa Shoujo at the moment. :P
Quick question; for the line “I can’t erase the darkness that dwelt within my beautiful body”; the overall tone of the song makes it feel it should be “dwells” instead; since dwelt is the past tense. I don’t know what the Japanese says; but it seems a little odd somewhat.
The original Japanese is definitely in past tense, though Japanese tense works a bit differently than English tense (sometimes I change or flat out ignore original tense because it’ll mess stuff up – won’t make sense in terms of English and so forth – but in this case…)
Picture the karma cycle. It’s “dwelt” because she no longer has her (once beautiful) body, since she’s dying/dead. Even though the body goes away but the darkness stays (as karma) – that sort of thing.
Makes sense; thank you again :]