Bump of Chicken – Voyager/Flyby
These are the bookend songs of Orbital Period. My best guess is that Moto is using the relationship of a satelite and a planet as a metaphor for how people often get away from who they truly are. The “computer speak” written with Katakana in the original Japanese has been written in bold here to differentiate it from the “human speak”.
O Months, X Days
Today, I again tried to communicate but no response.
No matter how far away I get, I’m always in your orbit
Light is cast into the night sky, those cries were at one time my own
though I stow them away in my memory, I continue to function, far away
please respond
it’s been quite a long time since I was first launched from the surface
and I’ve been flying around counting the stars that I pass by
putting together each note I learn, and sending it out as a melody.
Flyby
No matter how far away I get, I’m always in my orbit
No matter how far away you get, you’re always in your orbit
please respond
Been all the way around your heart and back again
Flyby, Even if we never get closer than we are now,
we were always right there next to one another.
ByeBye. I don’t mind if you forget me, because I never will forget you
please respond, I am always asking for your response.
I input all the voices I learned from you, and send them out as a melody.
O Months, X Days
Today, I again tried to communicate but no response.
No matter how far away you get, you are in orbit around your own heart.
Translated By: Brian Stewart & Takako Sakuma
probably my favourite song – pair of songs – in the world.
hi, Brian. i stumbled on your site purely by chance when i was looking for the lyrics to Flyby in Japanese – well, in romanji, anyway – i desperately want to learn to sing it, even though my Japanese is so poor that it’s going to take a long time
and… what an absolutely FANTASTIC site you’ve put together. i don’t have much time right now, so i’m gonna come back as soon as i get the chance and have a good look around, but…. frankly, anyone who’s translated all of ‘Orbital Period’ is somewhere between a genius and a god, as far as i’m concerned
gotta go mate, but couldn’t do so without saying… wow. and thank you. not least because i thought maybe i was the only idiot Nipponophile crazy enough to devote so much time to something like this. the net NEEDS people like you. well, my bit of it does, anyhow. i can’t wait to come back and have a look at some of your stuff.
BTW – strange parallel – when i was still regularly blogging, i became (and still am) known as the Concrete Fox. and yet – you guessed it… i am neither a fox, nor am i made of concrete. so i feel right at home with the utau inu thing, heh.
one more time: brilliant, well done, thank you, i’ll be back!
=^.^=
Comment by Jon Concrete — October 6, 2009 @ 5:16 pm