Note: Guignol was a style of puppet theater which originated in Lyon, France, during the late 1700's. The show featured a central character named Guignol, so eventually the entire style of puppet theater came to bear the name Guignol as well. Since Lyon was a center of the silk industry and most of the original patrons of Guignol shows were silk workers, Guignol himself was also usually portrayed as a silk worker, though he also played a variety of other roles, depending on the story. As a character, Guignol was a poor but brave and righteous everyman with a robust sense of humor and equally robust sense of justice, and most Guignol stories involved themes of triumph of good over evil. The Guingol puppets themselves had solid plaster or papier-mâché heads and cotton clothing. While as a puppet show, it naturally appealed to children, Guignol plays were also packed with witty jokes to amuse adults. Interestingly, the term "guignol" later came to be used as a French slang term for a fool or buffoon, but this was not true to the spirit of the original character.

The Grand Guignol Theater, on the other hand, was an entirely different matter. Opened in 1897 in Paris in a retrofitted chapel (which is exactly as goth as you think it is), the Grand Guignol Theater specialized in naturalistic horror shows and was known for its luridly realistic special effects. Typically, five or six plays were staged per evening, and most were graphic horror stories involving all kinds of violence, abuse, rape, murder, insanity, et cetera, with a comedy or two thrown in to help the audience keep sane. Most of the Grand Guignol horror plays offered no moral or hope for salvation - they were simply a showcase of the macabre and shock value was part of the theater's express purpose - it was common for audience members to scream, vomit, or faint from shock, and the theater's directors and actors considered this not only acceptable but desirable. Yet despite its gruesome reputation, the Grand Guignol achieved exalted status and during its heyday was regularly attended by both celebrities and royalty. Even after closing in 1962, the theater's legacy loomed large, and it continues to influence and inspire directors, theater companies, and other artists to this day. The Grand Guignol is well known among the gothically-inclined set in Japan - ur-goth-loli group Ali Project released a song called "Gesshoku Grand Guignol," while noted Buck-Tick fan and manga artist Kaori Yuki wrote a manga called Grand Guignol Orchestra.

It's worth noting that in addition to staging original plays that were written specifically for the theater, the Grand Guignol also staged classics, including Shakespearean tragedies, so the cluster of references in this song isn't as far-flung as you might think.

1) In this line, Sakurai split up the word "odorimashou" ("let's dance") with an ellipsis, to create a beautiful double meaning - "odori mashou" means "devilish dance." Sakurai employed this same technique several times throughout these lyrics.

2) Given the overt "Hamlet" references throughout this album, I'm going to go ahead and say that this line is probably a reference to the famous balcony scene in "Romeo and Juliet," where Romeo comes to profess his love for Juliet as she hangs out over the railing of her balcony. As Romeo approaches the balcony, he speaks the line, "What light through yonder window breaks...it is the East, and Juliet is the Sun" - and though it may be a coincidence that a similar idea appears in the lyrics to "Mother," the symmetry of references is lovely whether intentional or not.

Also, for what it's worth, the word "koi," which Sakurai uses here, means love specifically in the romantic sense. Everywhere else in the song, Sakurai used the word "ai," which means love in all senses, including fraternal love or cosmic unconditional love.

3) In this line, Sakurai wrote the phrase "watashi wa" ("I am...") in katakana, split with an ellipsis into "wata...shiwa," which means "cotton wrinkles" - like the wrinkled cotton of an old puppet.

4) In this line, Sakurai split the word "kowareteiru" ("I'm breaking") with an ellipsis so that it reads "koware...teiru," meaning "broken tale." (Tale, as in story.)

5) One might lift up one's dress to dance, or one might lift it up to play Hide the Salami or Sexual Tacos or other games which are played exactly the same way but have different creative and amusing names. Sakurai has made it very clear in the live performances of this song that he fully intended both meanings. I also find it interesting how this lyric is a bit like the reverse of a similar lyric in "Dress" - "I'll put on a dress and dance for you."

6) Sakurai writes the word "dare" ("who") with an extra hiragana "a," which calls to his lyrics for "Keijijou Ryuusei" and his use of the line from Japanese children's game Kagome Kagome, "ushiro no shoumen daare?" meaning, "who is the face behind your face?" The phrase sounds like just as much nonsense in Japanese as it does in English...but then again, it does kind of make sense if you think about it, and it certainly works well in this song, too. Sakurai reworks images he previously used on Arui wa Anarchy all over this album, so I find it hard to believe that the deliberate mis-spelling of "dare" is a coincidence.

7) In Japanese, Sakurai used the word "oshibai," which literally means "play." However, I translated it to "pantomime" because it fit better with the syllable count, it rhymes, and also, puppet plays are in essence pantomimes. Furthermore, Sakurai has been doing some very fine pantomime in his stage performance of this song, so I don't believe it's much of a stretch in meaning.

8) The Japanese phrase "toki yo tomare" is extremely high-tone and dramatic, so I made an effort to preserve that in my translation.

9) In the Japanese, Sakurai sets up a beautiful word play by following the word "oshibai" ("play") with "oshimai" ("the end"). I tried to preserve it as best I could with "pantomime" and "time," but it's never going to sound as cool in English, which is too bad, but one of the facts of life as a translator #translatorproblems.