螢火 (Hotarubi) – ASAGI
lyrics&music: ASAGI
mini-album: 斑 (Madara) (2018)
English translation
Light of a firefly
The clear ringing blow of the flute
of elegant simplicity echoes in the evening.
The very young looking and sharp Ushiwaka always bears a sword.
You can’t take away 1000 swords from a formidable man.
To close the circle of fate, I’ll raise my name
to tell this story for the world that’s coming, so
I will regret nothing from hard living my generation.
Time is flowing, and the vegetation
grows thicker as I go on.
I’m sorry I couldn’t help but to write
these sheets of paper.
This shining dream gives the nice feeling of
a firefly. (Luciola cruciata)
As soon as the roughest things
came back to my mind,
I decided I wanted to fight for my life
that eventually will come to an end.
To close the circle of fate, I’ll raise my name
to tell this story for the world that’s coming, so
I will regret nothing from hard living my generation.
The light of a firefly goes out.
Romaji
Hotarubi
Fuki sumashitaru yuugen no yokobue wa
yosari ni nari toyomu
itokena kisama susudoshi ushiwaka wa tachi wo kama e tari
Benkei yo sen no tachiba hi toru koto kanawanya
Megurikai hikeru eni nochi no yo made
kataritsuga ruruna wo age oho
setsuru mono naraba kenmei ni kiku
waga yo wo kuizu
Toki wa nagarete kusaki mo nabiku hodo
kokoro futoku ohiyuki
Ikidoori yamanu kono kami wa ware ni
rinkishi yara hikeri
Kagayofu yume ga mashi kimiji kayo hotaru ya
Kono ikusa sate mata kounomono wo
mi hate mutokoso omohedo
toujau wo yokurishi sadame waga mei wo mo
yagate tsuki namu
Megurikai hikeru eni nochi no yo made
kataritsuga ruruna wo age oho
setsuru mono naraba kenmei ni kiku
waga yo wo kuizu
Hotarubi kiyu
Kanji (rocklyric)
螢火
吹き澄ましたる幽玄の横笛は夜さりに鳴り響（とよ）む
稚（いとけな）き様 鋭（すすど）し牛若は太刀を構へたり
弁慶よ 千の太刀奪（ば）ひ取ること叶わんや
巡り会ひける縁（えに） 後の世まで語り継がるる名を上げ
果（おほ）せつるものならば懸命に生く我が代を悔いず
時は流れて草木も靡（なび）くほど心太く生（お）ひ行く
憤（いきどお）り止まぬ兄（このかみ）は我に悋気（りんき）し遣らひけり
燿（かがよ）ふ夢がましき短夜（みじかよ） 源氏螢（ほたる）や
この軍（いくさ）然てまた剛の者を見果てむとこそ思へど
闘諍（とうじゃう）を欲りし定め 我が命（めい）をもやがて尽きなむ
巡り会ひける縁 後の世まで語り継がるる名を上げ
果せつるものならば懸命に生く我が代を悔いず
螢火消（き）ゆ
Translation and romaji by me. Please don’t claim as yours. Credit if you use.
English is not my first language, feel free to let me know if there is any mistake.
Nice job with this difficult text! The old-style Japanese takes time for those used to reading modern language.
I didn’t go through the whole thing but here are my comments on the first paragraph:
1) For 幽玄 I think you used “elegant simplicity”, but that doesn’t seem to match the definition in the dictionary. Maybe “profound” is better?
2) I didn’t see the word 鋭し (sharp) translated anywhere
3) I didn’t see the word “always” anywhere in the original text, but maybe you added that for effect.
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Hello! Yeah it was very hard for me, thank you very much for helping with your comment. The meanings of 幽玄 I found are such as “subtle grace”, “elegant simplicity”, “mysterious profundity” and I picked the one I think suits better a melody/ringing.
As for “sharp”, I remember while I was translating there was this word but I totally forgot it, thank you for pointing it out! And I definitely added “always” for effect, you can say I found it necessary in many parts of the lyrics to add words to complete the English meaning. So, so hard!! haha
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Okay!! thank u very much for the clarification and for the lyric!
You’re very kind! Have a nice day ^^
P.S: I could not answer in “requests” so I commented here LOL
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Yeah I had the same problems in the Request page, sigh
Anyway, thank YOU for the patience. I just made some minor adjustments to the translation. Thank you again and have a nice day! ♥
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Okay!! I’ll keep it in mind, thanks for letting us know! ^^
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Thank you for your hard work!
“Madara” CD includes an additional booklet with modern interpretation of all lyrics, but it seems impossible to find it online. I have my own CD and use modern text for my Russian translations, so I was curious to compare them with a translation from original classic Japanese lyrics. Modern text is more direct and detailed, but it’s much more simple as well, and meaning is generally the same.
Just thought you could be interested 🙂 Hope you don’t mind I’ll give a link to your work 🙂
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Thank you very much for letting me know. Of course, you’re welcome!
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