Title: TIME MACHINE
Single: 「名前は、未だ無ひ。」 (track 001)
Album: 15TH ANNIVERSARY BEST [花鳥ノ調] (track 001) self-cover
Lyrics: 将 (SHOU)
Composer: 虎 (TORA)
[花鳥ノ調] arrangement: 沙我 (Saga)
The very first edition of this song was released as a single on July 5th 2004, while ALICE NINE. still considered themselves a session band. It was re-released twice more over the course of that same year, and then rearranged and re-recorded many years later, to be released in spring of 2019 on their 15TH ANNIVERSARY BEST [kachou no shirabe] compilation album.
歌詞 》
タイムマシン
You can view a copy of the lyrics in their original Japanese online [ here ].
In the rearranged version, SHOU modified the lyrics in three of the lines. The changes are highlighted in blue below:
Verse 1
Orig.] 眼を閉じてもそっと君の事感じながら
2019] 眼を閉じてそっと君の事感じながら
Verse 2
Orig.] 行き先を探して流されて
2019] 行き先を探して流されてく
Last Verse
Orig.] 失ったものはかけがえの亡いものでした…ずっと。
2019] 失くしてるものはかけがえの亡いものでした…ずっと。
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English Translation 》
TIME MACHINE
The path that I have walked is covered with gravel
Orig.] Secretly I feel your presence, even when I close my eyes ¹
2019] While I feel your presence softly, I close my eyes
Were you to go and fade, one of these days, ²
I’d mull it over with tears of laughter,
Orig.] Wandering in search of a destination
2019] And go on wandering in search of a destination
I can’t walk on
While misplaced memories, words drifting in the wind
Are changing their shapes
I want us to be together forever—
Am placing the hourglass upside-down
“If you could turn back time, would you wish to?” ³
If only I could, I’d go back to when we were together
The afternoon rain would become a blessing to hide my embarrassment,
And let me hold you so shockingly close, always…
Be near me… So that you won’t grow cold
I couldn’t hold you close for some reason that day
Your grief, your feelings, your everything
I want us to be together forever, and am placing the hourglass upside-down
“If you could turn back time, would you wish to?”
You wanting to know whether I would if I could,
Sounding out my place in the world by that wish… ⁴
Orig.] What I lost was something irreplaceable… long ago.
2019] What I’m losing was something irreplaceable… always will be. ⁵
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NOTES:
Important. Certain lines have been marked as “Orig.”, meaning that they were the originally published lyrics from 2004. Below them are lines marked “2019” to indicate changes in wording found in the lyrics from their 15TH ANNIVERSARY BEST [kachou no shirabe] album. Both are official.
oo1. The word used originally and in 2019 for ‘secretly’ and ‘softly’ is the same in Japanese. There is no literal reason why they should have been translated differently. I made the decision to translate each version of the line slightly differently to support my own personal interpretation of the song.
oo2. This verse gave me an incredible headache, and I probably didn’t translate it right, but a certain particle combination really had me at a loss. The wording I decided on is in the ballpark, at least. As for how to interpret it, I would say that the gist of it is, the speaker can’t imagine this loved one’s memory ever fading (I thought of the confusion-inducing particle as an indicator of scepticism), but if that were somehow to happen, they’d laugh about it (“how is this even possible?”) but still be wandering, wondering where their place in life is. Also, there is no particle in Japanese to clarify whether the speaker would be mulling over the faded memory with tears of laughter, or whether they’d be mulling over the tears of laughter themselves… but I went with the first interpretation. I just liked the emotional tone of it better.
oo3. The first “if you could turn back time” describes what the speaker wishes they could have done (hold their loved one close). The following verse explains what actually happened (they weren’t able to, and believe it is now too late).
oo4. I’m still not satisfied with the wording for this line and the one before it, but for now this feels like a happy medium between being literal and paraphrasing. Essentially, the construction in Japanese leaves words unsaid and make some implications. The main implication being that the speaker is surprised or dismayed by the question (in quotation marks) being repeated. So I imagine that unvoiced surprise or dismay being something like, “obviously going back is impossible, what is lost is lost… you are seriously asking me something this painful just to satisfy your curiosity?”. It’s interesting that the speaker does seem to allow themselves to imagine, just briefly the first time the question is asked, what they might have done differently were they afforded the ability to go back. But the song ends with them facing the stark reality of their situation.
oo5. There is a tense clash at the beginning of this line… but given that this song is called TIME MACHINE, I think the tense clash isn’t outlandish. The original line has a sense of finality to it; there is no opening, no possibility of recovering what was lost. Pure past tense. The 2019 change with the tense clash opens the ending up just a tiny bit. The thing is not lost—the speaker is in the process of losing it. It’s irreplaceable, but there is still a sliver of hope, somehow.
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The above was translated by me; for the original post and more notes, check [PuncProsody].
If you’d like to share the translation, please link to this page. Do not repost it. Thank you.
Other Fan Translations:
English: akatsuki .
Français: Nautiljon .
If you would like me to link to your translation, or know of another translation that has been made (in any language), please let me know and I’ll put up a link to it. The more the merrier.
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Behind The Scenes
In one of their earliest magazine interviews from while they were still a session band, they discussed a few details pertaining to the song:
SHOU: For TIME MACHINE, the completed arrangement really had a floating, drifting feel to it. Right away the image of a time machine came to mind, so the lyrics turned out that way.
SHOXX 2004.08 vol 138
TORA: I created this song with the image of Japanese pop and the American rock that I like getting combined. I want you to listen to the acoustic guitar solo. I was told, “nice acoustic guitar!” and given 150 yen (laugh).
In another from the same time period, SHOU and TORA expounded on the origin of the song a little more:
TORA: In terms of the first song TIME MACHINE, it’s a song I was able to make when I was playing guitar alone in Yoyogi Park in the middle of the night and a chord progression suddenly came to me. I went into the studio right away the next day.
hévn 2004.08 vol 13
SHOU: I always write the lyrics when I get the song, but I felt a strange atmosphere, you see. I suddenly came up with that word time machine, and the words, “you can’t go back to the past!” and wrote incorporating various meanings into the words.
In 2019, Saga tweeted some thoughts about having arrived at the rearrangement of TIME MACHINE and how, given its history, it was going to be a huge challenge.
Translation: “I’m at about the 37km mark in the BEST OF album marathon. Recently I crashed into the hell slope that is TIME MACHINE; the very first song that alice nine made. To be clear, it’s a song connected to this summer, and a sticking point is how we’ll nurture it during the tour.“