Tears from the End of the World: Inspiration from the Music of Sekai no Owari
Cabbage leaf in my garden in Utah, May 22, 2022.
Today, I bring you one of my favorite Japanese bands: Sekai no Owari (or セカオワ for the shortened Japanese title). I first saw their music videos and heard their song スターライトパレード (“Starlight Parade”) on YouTube in 2013 right after I started studying Japanese in college. By that point, I loved listening to Japanese songs and had a few favorites already, but this band instantly became my number one favorite band, and it has kept that spot nearly nine years later. Their songs just keep getting more unique and interesting as the years pass and my understanding of Japanese increases.
Let's focus on one of their newer songs: “Tears.” When I first heard it last July (2021), it instantly became my new favorite. Just look at this music video on their official YouTube channel. Dancing and singing while riding on a train with flashing lights that evoke the feeling of sunset flickering through the windows. It's beautiful. I love it. The beat is powerful, the voice and expressions of Fukase (the lead singer) are quirky, there's a rap-like section, they added some fantastic drum parts, and the lyrics...
…I don't actually understand the lyrics.
Let's rephrase that: I don't understand the lyrics on a logical, that-makes-sense level.
Now this has actually been my experience with Sekai no Owari for these past nine years. There is a song about a “Moonlight Station” and the princess from the moon, Kaguya, coming down for a drink. There is a “Mermaid Rhapsody” of a mermaid thinking about the meaning of freedom and how she liked the world behind the glass because she looked forward to seeing someone there. There is a song about someone going “Missing,” but there is a self-reflective twist at the end. Let's not forget the “Starlight Parade” that is about some kind of sleepless night party. Or is it? That is what I love about music and the lyrics to these Japanese songs in particular: They don't have to “make sense” for me to love them. I fell in love with all these songs before I even looked at a translation of the lyrics. The lyrics are up for interpretation. They create a mood or feeling that cannot fully be explained with words.
So rather than over-analyze this song in writing, which I already do too much in my head, I will give you my own translation of the lyrics (an interpretation), and some brief thoughts I have from the song.
At first, it was hate because you seemed to hate me.
That you felt the same, I didn't hear until much later.
How's your health? How's the food?
Do you have Wi-Fi?
Because you don't respond, I think that you don't.
But when you ignore me, it is not just nothing to me.
I sometimes will also have to go, but you must carefully guide me.
As you know, there is something bothersome,
Unknown food often gives me a stomachache.
Is your bathroom properly clean? This is no laughing matter.
I remember,
Not something like your smile, but when you make a mean expression.
My tears overflow,
At the times I think I'm glad I met you.
Woah, woah, woah – tears
Woah, woah, woah – cheers
I cannot put into words the thoughts that come,
Even without specially saying it, you understand, brother.
The long, long, long path of this train.
I remember,Not something like your smile, but when you make a mean expression.
My tears overflow,
At the times I think I'm glad I met you.
Woah, woah, woah – tears
Woah, woah, woah – cheers
I recall various things on the return train.
The tears overflowed when I laughed.
With a drip, drop, drip, drop,
Happy things are this sad.
I'm so happy that the tears overflow.
Sometime again for sure.
I remember,Not something like your smile, but when you make a mean expression.
My tears overflow,
At the times I think I'm glad I met you.
Woah, woah, woah – tears
Woah, woah, woah – cheers
The first time I paid attention to the lyrics of this song, I thought it sounded like a messy relationship: the singer seems to be saying that this relationship causes them so much pain that they cry, but they are also crying because they are really happy to be with that person. It's one of those relationships where the people in it say, “it's complicated.”
To leave the interpretation as just a messy relationship, though, misses an important detail of this song. It is upbeat. The rhythm is powerful. This song can change my mood. It makes me feel something more than the just the words themselves can convey. If I had to sum up my impression of this song in one sentence:
It's a song that celebrates being alive and experiencing the mix of indescribable emotions that come with having different relationships in our lives.
Am I the only one who cries just as much when I'm happy as when I'm sad? I confuse myself, too.
What are your impressions as you listen to this song, whether or not you try to “make sense” of the lyrics?