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月

Album: I Am Mortal
2015.11.11 cutting edge

Moon
Lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi
Music: Jake Cloudchair

I am　　　　a ghost　　　　　　　　　with no name
Cut it　　　　through the ego　　　　　 and the other
Cut it　　　　through the nightmare　　 and Yomi¹
Cut it　　　　through high 　　　　 　　and deep

Cut slice it right through cut slice it right through cut slice it right through
Crescent crescent crescent crescent moon

Cut it　　　through the blue　　　　blue sky
Cut it　　　　through the black　　　　black night
Cut it　　　　through your red 　　　　red dreams
Cut it　　　　through high　　　　 　　and deep

Cut slice it right through cut slice it right through cut slice it right through
Crescent crescent crescent crescent moon

Crescent crescent crescent crescent crescent
Crescent crescent crescent crescent
Crescent crescent crescent
Crescent crescent
Crescent

Cut slice it right through cut slice it right through cut slice it right through
Crescent crescent crescent
Crescent
slice
 

Note: In this song, Sakurai made masterful use of the fact that the word "tsuki," which by itself means "moon," can also mean "to pierce" or "to stab" when spelled with a different kanji. "Tsukinukero," which he repeats again and again in the chorus, means "cut through" or "break through," while "tsukisasu," which appears at the end of the song, means "to stab" or "to impale." Interestingly, Sakurai also used these two words prominently in his previous solo project - "tsukinukero" appears at a dramatic moment in "Sacrifice," while "tsukisasu" appears at the climax of "Shingetsu" (you can see it on the DVD where he mimes stabbing himself through the heart with the mic stand.)

This time around, Sakurai also used the image of the moon as being like a knife blade in the monologue at the end of "Pain Drop," where he describes the moon as being "the color of a razor blade" and further mentions water dripping off the tip of the crescent moon as if the moon were actually a knife. This image of the moon as a knife isn't unique to Sakurai or the Japanese language, either - "sickle moon" is a common phrase in English, and none other than Siouxsie Sioux used it as an image in the Banshees' song "Turn to Stone." Maybe Sakurai knows that, and maybe he doesn't - but either way, I felt that the image of the moon as a knife was much too important to allow to be lost in favor of a more literal translation.

So rather than translate "tsuki" literally, as "moon," I chose instead to translate it as "crescent." Perhaps purists will not approve of my artistic choice, but here's another reason why I translated it the way I did - the word "moon" has a nice soft, round feeling in the mouth, whereas "tsuki" feels sharp and pointy when you say it. Part of the sonic power of this song rests in the fact that Sakurai is able to spit out that word "tsuki" as if he's the stabber in a slasher film, to go along with the fact that he moves from singing "tsukinukero" to singing "tsuki," which sounds like an abbreviation of the same sound. So I was looking for an English word that could refer to the moon, sound knifelike, and also sound similar enough to a word or phrase for stabbing. After some thought I hit upon "cut slice it right through" and "crescent moon" - not as good, I know, but if you say them as fast as they go in the song, they start to blur together, and "crescent" definitely sounds a whole lot more like a potential murder weapon than "moon."

1) The word here, which I translated as "nightmare," is not the usual word for nightmare ("akumu") but "muma," which actually means personified version of a nightmare (such as the image of sleep paralysis as a beast sitting on one's chest.) And yeah, that's the same "muma" of the stupid song y'all love. The choice is obviously deliberate, since the two sets of lyrics have more than a little in common.

Yomi is the Shinto land of the dead. Sakurai has previous made reference to Yomi in the lyrics to "Detarame Yarou."