Looking into You and me (ry and a brand new translation

I made more than one effort to translate 君と私と穏やかな旅, into sing-able lyrics or not. No harm giving it yet another go.

Translating could be about finding corresponding words and phrases and putting them together, but not necessarily in here. As You (ry is a song I like so much I want to give it my own explanation this time. I see it as kind of an obligation as a singing (sort of) kairo fan.

This version is created with the help of ChatGPT-4o. Guy is better at any language than I am but probably not at thinking. I do the thinking myself.

Original Lyrics

いつか見た夢の話

遠い遠い国のこと

仕舞い忘れた

私たちの旅

忘れ物　置いてきた

網棚の上にあった

まだ時間が

かかるみたい

寝てていいよ

ほら肩にもたれて

深い深い眠りに落ちると

聞こえるの

ほら懐かしい声

君の声

二人ならどこまででも

行けると信じていると

笑う君を

ああ愛しいと思う

流れてく景色

揺れる列車とこの思いが

紡ぐ旅に

今は身を任せよ

二人で歩けないなら

そこに意味はないんだと

泣いた君を

ああ美しいと思う

境界を越えて届け

あの日の記憶の欠片

いつか思い出すよ

この旅路を

Elaboration before the truncation

Rinki [1] has done his part unsurprisingly. Also Shion [2] has done this translation into English though a) he didn't give much explanation as it was only a translation, b) it wasn't really sing-able, c) one important line is not right according to the booklet (列車とこの思いが紡ぐ旅に今は身を任せよ). But there's the tradeoff. My version here will definitely veer more away from the original, so it's not a bad idea to cross-reference.

As we all know, the song probably is about Renko and Merry and is a Renmerry song by design. The good thing about the song however is that it doesn't have to be Renmerry all that much. It could be a very general yuri song but it roots in a specific pair of characters. Also the Renko and Merry here are heavily kairo influenced (refer to Rinki's the world analyses for more on this if you, the dear reader, would love to). I think that's one aspect I like very much.

Therefore, I will take the liberty to read and interpret this song as a narrative of its own, independent from underlying concept story for the world is too small (wide) we are to live comfortably (which Rinki did a very good and respectable job on). Kind of for the sake of it, but honestly speaking I can't be arsed to cite a whole album or two now. I want to focus more on the kairo vibes. The atmosphere. Or how I interpret that thingy.

Going a bit meta...

We should not forget that this song actually outdates a large portion of Kairo, being first released in the VA album 幻想邂逅憧憬夜行 by 天狗の舞 in 2010-11-28. The song itself is most probably written before that unless kegani possessed time travelling technologies. Which he probably didn't have.

One could think that the the world album is an extension centered around this specific song. At least that is my selfish view on this subject. Nevertheless, 君と私と穏やかな旅 is an important pivot or pillar or pin or whatever about the world. The least I would think it as is simply a product, or a mere part of the world is small (wide) we are to live comfortably. It's definitely beyond that.

This leads me to consider the song itself more from a untangled aspect - untangled from the album, from Renmerry, even from Touhou. But I don't untangle it from kairo, or it'll be pointless. On the contrary it's also such a kairo song. Let me quote something:

はじめに、物語があった。次に、音が生まれた。

そこに色が咲いて、やがて、全てが景色になった。

さあ、一緒に旅をしましょう。

世界はいつだって優しくて残酷で、それでいて美しいのです。

- https://www.audioleaf.com/kairo/

You have the story, the sound (voice), the sceneries, the journey, the cruel yet tender and thus beautiful world. What's more kairo than that?

Steering back one bit, surely the the world interpretation can fit the song. It's certainly a very good answer in a myriad of such answers. What I am trying to do here, this time, is to give a different yet equally good answer or two.

Who's there?

We have here a very simple you-me structure. I don't see a third entity existing or necessary, and that will be one of the premises of my analysis. Otherwise it'll get troublesome.

I consider the psychedelia in this song rooting in the intentional vagueness of the narrative perspective, and the temporal order of each part (or even each event). There's only you or I, sure, but you here might be I (me) over there, and vice versa.

For reference, Rinki's opinion which is mostly based on the integrity of the world, is that this song is about an amnesiac Renko partly remembering Merry and the journeys. I think that is a rather solid interpretation based on the album storyline. But the song has more potential than that.

The new translation

You know there was a dream I had long ago

Of a somewhere that's been far away

And a journey for the two of us

An end I have yet to let you see

A bit of an explanation

verse 1

I see three entities listed here. The dream (of somewhere far away), the journey, and the end. They are kind of just plainly displayed there without very strong suggestions or implications of correlations.

I am conviced that 仕舞い忘れた has a more active tone i.e. more like 'I forgot to put an end to it' rather than 'I forgot the end of it'. And that's what I went for in my translation. However, Japanese loves dropping subjects so it's not explicitated who is going to but haven't put this end. I personally chose to base the whole song in a single perspective (and it's Renko), and I decided that it's 'I' who will perform this ritual conclusion.

Going a bit meta yet again

The kairo entry in the... one of the toranoana compilation albums, remember, can be considered a message inside the Touhou context as well as independent from that. Simply said, that one has a similar spirit to pulse, 'I am gone but you would remember me'.

I like to repeat the line(s) 'いつか思い出すよ この旅路を' every time I post a rearrangment of this song. I think it as a message not only from Renko to Merry (or the other way round), but also from the band to us kairo fans (or the other way round).

Considering this one being a relatively early work, I really want to salute kegani for his dedication to something like fate or determinism. Or simply well-preparedness. Kairo is a journey and there are people to remember it. Maybe they forget about it and put it away up on the luggage racks but eventually the memories of this journey will return.

As one could usually expect from the Northwich committee of monomodal refractions, there is no hope and the situation is quite desperate. But hope is never lost because it wasn't there in the first place. There's just that something to be done and yet undone. And I will keep trying to get it done.