Note: In contrast to the gradeur and formality of some of the other lyrics on this album, the lyrics to this song are all written in a very coarse, masculine tone, similar to the lyrics for "Trigger" and "Katte ni Shiyagare." It was largely impossible to render this coarseness in English without adding extraneous curse words that don't quite fit here (unlike "Katte ni Shiyagare") but I thought I would draw attention to it in the notes, at least.

1) The word "koushin," which I translated here as "lips," is an unusually formal word not used in common conversation. It is found in medical terminology such as "koushinki kochakugata" ("oral fixation") and can also refer to the labia, a sexual connotation that was surely deliberate on Sakurai's part.

2) "Doku wo kurawaba sara made" ("if you eat poison, clean the plate") is a Japanese saying meaning that if you're going to do something bad, you might as well be completely evil. Sakurai invoked the same saying in the lyrics to "Passion," so I translated it in the same way here as I did there to keep consistency. I also prefer to say "drink" rather than "eat" here, because it calls to mind several famous Shakespearean poison-drinking scenes, including (spoiler!) the death of Gertrude in "Hamlet" and (spoiler!) the suicide of Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet." The "Hamlet" references are obvious and deliberate throughout this album but I see some hints of "Romeo and Juliet," too (see "Guignol" for details), so I felt that "drink" was a better choice than "eat" here.

3) The word here, "shaburu," is a favorite of Sakurai's when he's being crude - take a look at the lyrics to Buck-Tick's "Chouchou" and "Trigger" and Schwein's "Schwein" to see what I'm talking about. The dictionary meaning of the word is "to chew" or "to gnaw," and the "-tsukusu" ending refers to do something until it's completely finished, so "shaburitsukusu" could be taken to mean "gnaw down to the bones" - a similar image to eating poison down to the plate, that also goes along with the eating themes in "Dead Can Dance" and "Grotesque." However, "shaburu" is also a vulgar slang term for male masturbation, so "shaburitsukusu" can also mean "whack off till you get off." Bones and boners - not so different after all? In any case, this double entendre is also obviously deliberate.

4) Sakurai wrote the phrases "I screaming" and "I stupid" in English in the original lyrics. It might be a grammar mistake, but then again it might be a deliberate evocation of barbaric ape-speak. I kind of tend to think the latter, because Mr. Sakurai's English is clearly better than Imai's, and yet even Imai managed to master the need for the word "am" with the immortal words, "I'm just simple madness man." Also, you know, the title of the album is I *Am* Mortal.

5) Imai has previously used this same image, in the lyrics to "Lizard Skin Shoujo."

6) Though I usually translate the word "daiuchuu" as "the universe" or "outer space," I translated it as "sky" here to evoke two titanic songs about mortality from ages past: Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky," and Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky."

Bauhaus covered "Spirit in the Sky" as the b-side to their single "Sanity Assassin" (which, interestingly enough, is another song with a theme of drinking poison), so Sakurai has probably heard the song for no other reason but this one, though it was also a hugely influential song in the American rock scene and so would likely be known by anyone with a passable knowledge of rock-n-roll history.

Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky" is the fifth and final song in the famous "mortality sequence" that makes up the A-side of the album The Dark Side of The Moon. For the young'uns: if you have never heard The Dark Side of the Moon, go listen to it immediately. It's widely considered one of the most influential records in rock-n-roll history for good reason. But if you have limited time, just go listen to the song "Time." You cannot be a fan of mortality without being a fan of this song!

7) Sakurai wrote the word "shelter" in English in the original lyrics - no doubt an evocation of yet another titanic rock song - the Rolling Stones' "Gimmie Shelter." This song is a favorite among Japanese goths because it was also covered by The Sisters of Mercy as the b-side to their single The Temple of Love (and if you haven't heard this song, go listen to it immediately or I'm flunking you out of goth school on the spot.)

It must also be said that Sakurai is walking in his favorite sempai's footsteps with this reference - and by "favorite sempai" yes I mean Batman I mean Issay. Not only did Issay cover the Sisters of Mercy version of this song with his uber-goth electro band Hamlet Machine back in the 90's (Hamlet never goes out of style!) but Der Zibet also released a song called "Shelter?" on their 2012 album Romanoid II and there's no question in my mind that the intended meaning of the word "shelter" in the title of this song was the same as the Stones' intended meaning - not physical shelter, but psychological solace from an all-too-fucked-up world.

8) "Shinigami," which I translated here as "Death," actually means "god of death" or "angel of death," but I felt both of those were too long and cumbersome for the feel of this song so I just left it at Death. Though the Japanese word "shinigami" contains no implication of gender, Sakurai has consistently portayed Death as feminine in his previous work (see "Shadow of Love," and this article), so I used the pronoun "she" accordingly.

9) The word here, "tobichiru," is also repeated again and again in the lyrics to "Pain Drop." I translated it there as "helter skelter" but that didn't feel right to me for these lyrics so this time I chose a more literal translation. Sakurai also used the word "tobichiru" in the lyrics to "Spider" to refer to ejaculation, and shades of the sexual double-meaning remain in this song (though not so much in "Pain Drop" - another reason I chose a different translation for the word this time.)

10) This same image appears again and again in Sakurai's work, including not only "Dead Can Dance" but also "Sakuran Baby," "Baby I Want You," and "Steppers -Parade-."