Well, Faith is out, and I've read the lyrics. Read Faith Lyrics Here Reading the lyrics was almost as important to me as hearing the music. About two years ago now I worked with a Hispanic gentleman and he and I and the third member of our team would go to lunch once a week in his car. He would play us Latin music and tell us what they were saying and we would discuss how much more interesting Gloria Estefan or Christina Aguilera were in Spanish. The other woman said, "I've realized I like music to have words but it doesn't matter to me what the words are or what language they're in." I was flabbergasted. The lyrics are the most important part to me! Maybe because I write but I don't play an instrument. I'll forgive bands a lot if the lyrics are good and I've stopped listening to bands because the words were boring or trite. Part of the joy of the 80's to me was the cleverness of the lyrics (of certain bands--certainly there was a lot of drivil then as now).
So flash forward a year and I find Hyde--who sings in Japanese... and English, and occasionally Engrish. Hyde sings in my key too--so I hum the songs or chime in on the English chorus while riding in my car. Sometimes to my shame I will realize that Hyde is singing in English and I don't even know it. I listened to "Forbidden Lover," a long time before I realized that Fo BiDen Lo Fer was not Japanese. After I had collected downloads of all of L'Arc's songs I printed out copies of various translations as well as Romanji and to my relief found that all of Hyde's passion and emotion really were pouring into very interesting, poetic and thought provoking lyrics such as:
"If you committed the sin I'd take the punishment...Deeper than sorrow, stronger than this whole life, my love for you"--Taste of Love (trans. Sunrise)
"You fly over the earth, can't you see I am tied to the ground."--(in English) In the Air
"On a holiday, invited by the beautiful sky, I opened the window a bit. The wind touched my cheek as it reaches. Who might be the next one it visits?"--Kaze no Yukue
"In these eyes of mine colored by red, there are birds and sky and you."--Hitomi ni Utsuru Mono
"If I can be as strong as this bird, then will you love me forever?"--Farewell
"Flowers bloom in sunlight and I live close to you."--Flower
And many more--those are just a few I've grabbed. Whoever he's singing to on Roentgen is one lucky person.
When I've studied languages it makes me turn and examine English for the origins and puzzles it contains.
Goethe says, "He who is ignorant of foreign languages knows not his own."
I love the song "Blame", though "Please don't blame it TO me," makes me flinch. However, when you think about linguistics, why is it blame it ON me, why not TO me? Is what we mean by blame something we lay on someone while the Japanese bring it to them instead? I do know that use of prepositions are different in Japanese, but what do we mean by the words we say? James Baldwin says that words are translations of translations anyway, even in the same language. What I mean by blue, or blame, or I, can be completely different from what you mean by those words, let alone azul, culpa or watashi.
But back to Hyde's lyrics.
Even my husband who wishes that he had never read the word "Moonchild" at Netflix admitted that the lyrics of Masquerade were interesting. Faith is full of very wide ranging and profound thoughts (Yeah, Hyde) including the cloned sheep Dolly questioning her own soul (as I said to Musing, very Kate Bush).
But still--without a carefully written out Romanji sheet I can't sing along and I can't gage meaning while I'm reading the Romanji. It's frustrating to me--why do I still enjoy this when I've turned away from French bands in the past (and I know more French)? It's doubly frustrating when I realize had I just stuck with Japanese in college I could understand this--ah, the stupid things we do. My mother used to sing opera and she would learn the songs phonetically then work with a translator to try and convey emotion on the appropriate words--is this what I have to do to fully enjoy L'Arc~en~Ciel?
Part of the answer to why I love this despite the language barrier is that L'Arc~en~Ciel writes very good tunes whether it's Ken, Hyde or Tetsu (or Yukihiro and Sakura), catchy and danceable. Ken is to my mind a guitar GOD and having to focus on the melody has made me more aware of the bass line and drums. I probably know the melodies of L'Arc songs better than many English songs because it's all I have to hang onto. Who can not dance a little to "Neo Universe"? I'm finding it harder to enjoy sad songs (posted at my blog), bands like The Editors or Interpol so maybe it's better than I can't hear how sad Hyde's lyrics are at times when the melody is so upbeat. Or maybe it's simply that Hyde IS magic--that the raw emotion comes through the language barrier loud and clear. I do know that if I'm edgy during the day I realize that I NEED to listen to his voice for awhile. As his new song "Mission" describes:
Where music will guide us,guitars instead of guns
We'll play in harmony,it should be so easy
Ongaku, baby. Play on.
3 comments:
When I first fell for Hyde it surprised me that it didn't matter if I couldn't understand the words, because lyrics have always been important to me, too.
But, the sound of his voice was so expressive and poetic and powerful all on it's own, it drew me in.
Now that I do know much of what he's saying, it's even better. Understanding and emotion are combined.
I'm the same way. I fell for the music before I understood what it meant. There is just something about it; I can't describe really what it is even though I want to, it seems like if I did understand what it was then it might slip away. Everything about the music is just so soothing and alive, I could swear its taken up a life of its own inside of me. Loving it just seems as natural as breathing. It doesn't matter that I don't consciously understand the words, because I feel the rhythm and the melody and the beat and the emotion speaks to me far clearly than anything else.
On the song Blame, the lyric is actually "please don't blame it on me.", not "to me".
On Roentgen, I don't believe he was singing to one particular person, though I bet Unexpected is to his wife.
Unrelated...it's very hard, in my opinion, to figure much out with romaji. Mostly because there's so much crappy romanization out there. I vastly prefer kanji/kana.
But I generally don't need either to sing along, unless it's to someone like Kyo who is barely understandable in any language. XD
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