The Girl in Byakkoya

In the distant sky, the clamor from a ring of spinning flowers awakens the diverging paths I passed through that day, on that day

Taking a form in the shimmering haze, I followed a girl who showed the way, (2) and high upon a hill nostalgically appeared a nameless field (3)

"That is the town I showed you in a dream," whispered the shadow Day after day, upon passing through the countless branching paths

A wise man in the darkness gathered cast-off days, and along the coast, along the coast, made to dance a strange, unknown flame

※ Ah, the mantle loquaciously fans up the flame, and congratulates those standing in the abandoned field Ah, before the eyes of the silent, silent girl ah, in the unknown capital the lights (4) begin to burn (5)

High in the sky, a pattern of clouds dyed red like a burning flame That day That day They showed me the road I had once lost

Pursuing the wind that blows incessantly in dreams, I descended time, and along the riverside, along the riverside, beheld an unknown flower of joy

※ Repeat x2

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Notes:

(1) There is a place in Vietnam known as the Bạch Hổ oilfield, which translates to “White Tiger oilfield”.

"Byakko" by itself is the name of one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations (as well as the name of another song on the album “Byakkoya").

(2) Kagerou can mean either “heat haze; shimmer of hot air" or “mayfly; ephemera", depending on the kanji, although no kanji are used here. However, the latter word seems to be written more often in katakana, while kagerou here is written in hiragana, so I have decided to go with the former meaning for now.

(3) Another possible way to translate this might be with 高台に現れた (“appeared on a high hill”) modifying 名も知らぬ広野 (“the nameless field”), but I am reading this part as 名も知らぬ広野は懐かしく / 高台に現れた, since it’s not uncommon in Japanese songs (and normal conversation) for the second half of the sentence to come first, especially for reasons of emphasis or rhythm. You can observe this in “Forces”, another one of Mr. Hirasawa’s songs, with the line 忘れはしない キミのことは (wasure wa shinai kimi no koto wa), which as a sentence would read キミのことは忘れはしない (“I will not forget about you”).

(4) This is probably “light" as in “lamp".

The imagery of a capital’s lights (都の灯) being lit also appears in the song "Moon Time”.

(5) This spoken section is in Vietnamese:

Xin chao, cac ban. Day la que cu cua chung toi. Day la tuong lai cua chung toi.

The Japanese translation of it:

ようこそ ここが私たちの都 ここが私たちの未来

The Japanese translation rendered into English:

Welcome Here is our capital Here is our future

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You may notice that I didn’t include the yoi ya naze ni mugen to mihai / yoi ya nonde jinrui geko mihai sections of the song. This is because they’re not actually printed in the lyrics booklet. Thus some of the lines that you often see accompanying “Byakkoya no Musume" transliterations – namely, the yoi ya naze ni mugen to mihai / yoi ya nonde jinrui geko mihai lines – are probably just soramimi (similar to the “lyrics" for "Sign" and "Aria”).

Here is what the words in the soramimi section mean:

酔いや　なぜに　無限と美杯 yoi ya naze ni mugen to mihai

酔い = drunkenness; intoxication ã‚„ = such things as (non-exhaustive list related to a specific time and place); and … and なぜに = why 無限 = eternity と = and

I’ve seen 美杯 often translated as “beauty," but this post suggests that’s a mistranslation. The word itself wasn’t in any of the dictionaries I normally consult, so for the time being I’ve tried to create a meaning based on the kanji and the context.

Looking at the kanji individually, 美 is “beauty" and 杯 is the counter for glasses or cups in addition to meaning "(sake) cup" itself. Examples of other words ending in 杯 include 酒杯 (shuhai, sake cup), 一杯 (ippai, full; a lot; amount nec. to fill a container), and 木杯 （mokuhai, wooden cup). (You can view more examples here.)

Considering this, two possible translations might be "(a) beautiful cup" or "(a) cup(ful) of beauty."

When searching for 美杯 via Google, I came across it being used in the following sentences:

美杯で美酒を呑む ("drinking high-grade sake in a beautiful cup")

美酒が美杯でますます美酒に ("high-grade sake in a beautiful cup (becomes) all the more so")

Considering this, I would translate 美杯 as “a cup of beauty" in the hope of conveying a dual meaning – namely, that a beautiful cup filled with sake (or the alcoholic beverage of your choice) is a cup full of beauty.

酔いや　飲んで　人類　下戸　美杯 yoi ya nonde jinrui geko mihai

飲んで = -te form of the verb nomu ("to drink"); “drinking" 人類 = mankind/ humanity 下戸 = non-drinker

That being said, these words are not printed in the lyrics booklet that I have, so I’ve decided not to include them in my translation.

Source - (hirasawalyrics.tumblr.com/post/14722660396/byakkoya-no-musume-the-girl-in-the-white)

I have no clue what it means^^ but i love the song ;D

to me, it appears to be about after-death experience. really beautiful picture, almost as if offering an escape, an invitation to a safe refuge. perhaps why so many japanese commit suicide inspired by songs like this. my view is that death is inevitable and it will be a beautiful experience if you had been a strong and a kind person in life. but suicide is a wrong route. the "abandoned field" glorified in the song perhaps is a limbo state between death and new birth. it will be a long long time before you will find a "flower of joy" which reffers to a new birth. you will have learned a lesson to accept life with gratitude.