An analysis of 染～SEN～此ノ花咲ク耶 (Colors ~ Will this Flower Bloom?)

This post does reveal a spoiler or two, so just to be on the safe side, I'm going to black out the text. (Blogger really needs to implement the ability to collapse and expand posts.) If you want to read the full text without having to highlight it, go to the comments for this post, then click the "Show Original Post" link at the top.

Thanks ever so much to Lazy/hYEmmAr for the translation here!

Anyway, this is Mir's image song from AT2. I was really struck by the uniqueness of this song, and thought I'd take it apart as a way of getting to textwaffle more about Mir and analysing her character some, as well as the sheer brilliance of the way the series uses music to develop character. The song is up for grabs here (thanks, Dustiferous!), if you want to listen along.


染～SEN～此ノ花咲ク耶 (Colors ~ Will this Flower Bloom?)
by Mitose Noriko

こころに舞い落つ　真白きひとひら
Kokoro ni maiotsu masshiroki hitohira
The pure white flower petals soaring and falling in my heart
いづれの色にや染まらん　此の花
Idzure no iro ni ya somaran kono hana
This flower, it is still not stained by another color

天地ニ満テ　御神楽ニ舞エ
Amatsuchi ni mite mikagura ni mae
Filling the heaven and earth, dancing the melodies of Gods
謳ノ葉捧ゲ　此ノ花咲ク耶
Uta no ha sasage kono hana sakuya
Sacrificing the petals of songs, will this flower bloom?

先刻見た小鳥の　羽は翡翠の色
Sakki mita kotori no hane wa hisui no iro
The little birds I saw in the past, their wings had the color of jade green
昨日見た泉の　水は水晶の色
Kinou mita izumi no mizu wa suishou no iro
The fountains I saw yesterday, their streams had the color of crystal blue

ciel ar celle, weak ar quive
The sky is just too high, the moon is just too pure
lusye ar clare
The light is just too clear for me
mea re zeeth ween shellan
I am being chained in the world's cage
mea na knawa fandel
I still hold so many questions without an answer

水面に落ちた雫　一粒揺れて
Minamo ni ochita shizuku hitotsubu yurete
A drop of water falls onto the surface of the lake
波間に描き出す光
Namima ni egakidasu hikari
It causes a wave that sketches the light

fwilla selena yasra sarla
A drop of water plays a gentle song
yehar werllra ween syec mea
And releases me from the deep abyss

色彩のない世界に　訪なうしるべに
Iro no nai sekai ni otonau shirube ni
As we gather together in the colorless world
ひとつひとつ触れて　色づきはじめる
Hitotsu hitotsu furete irodzuki hajimeru
We begin to touch our hearts and colors begin to form

celetille burle, bautifal grrena
The vivid color of blue, the beautiful color of green
clyncye rudje, clalliss mea
The pure color of crimson, the colors that I paint on everything

rivire, plina, fayra, clalliss sphilar
The little streams, the grasses and trees, the blazing flame, the dyed hearts
celetille clalliss cest innna mea
The true colors of my deepest feelings

想いの欠片と　虚ろな時間の
Omoi no kakera to utsurona jikan no
The fragments of thoughts fall into time's endless hollow
記憶の淵沈み　水の底の
Kioku no fuchi shizumi mizu no soko no
The abyss of memories sink into water's bottomless hole

zadius, guatrz, ruinie
Hatred, anger, destruction
jenhah, gyas, faf, morto
Calamity, dispute, fear, death

穢れと闇　奈落の底深く
Kegare to yami naraku no soko fukaku
The tainted darkness, the depths of hell
異界の門　魍魎等澱り
Ikai no kado myouryoudomo tamari
The gate of underworld, demons and spirits roam
滅びの謳　劫火燃ゆる黄泉路
Horobi no uta gouka moyuru yomiji
The ruined song, the pathway to hell burns with flame of destruction
嘆きの渦　癒されぬ御魂に
Nageki no uzu iyasarenu mitama ni
The swirl of grief, helpless souls

gott! getrra dsier gyusya mea
Begone! The "me" who is stained with lust
gott! denera heighte mea
Begone! The "me" who is wounded with malice

消えない傷と　この悲しみと
Kienai kizu to kono kanashimi to
Neverending pain, neverending sadness
消えない過去と　過ちと
Kienai kako to ayamichi to
Neverending past, neverending faults
消せない棘も　刃も
Kesenai toge mo yaiba mo
Neverending thorns, neverending blades
消せない　罪も
Kesenai tsumi mo
Neverending sins

全ての宿業を灼き尽くせ
Subete no karuma wo yakitsukuse
Everything, devote your karma for a miracle

この胸の深くに　幾重に包んだ
Kono mune no fukaku ni ikue ni tsutsunda
Entangled deep inside my heart
どんな色にもまだ　染まらぬこころよ
Donna iro ni mo mada somaranu kokoroyo
Oh, it is still a pure heart unstained by any color

小鳥はただ謳う　世界を想って
Kotori wa tada utau sekai wo omotte
The little birds just keep singing their song of the world
小鳥は涙する　愛しき生命に
Kotori wa namidasuru itooshiki inochi ni
The little birds cry for their beloved life

Ma num wa nnoini li fhyu
In my unconsciousness, I begin to touch the wind
firle en vit li frawr
I begin to feel the flowers
art mea noes li fluy
I begin to see the fountains
mea knawa li ciel
I begin to know the world
walasye, near, enesse, mea paul li ciel
People, their lives, their thoughts, I begin to understand everything

生まれたばかりの花よ　真白き無垢の花
Umaretabakari no hanayo masshiroki muku no ka
Oh, the flower that has just been given birth, the flower with a color of pure white
祈りの謳を捧げん　此の花咲く耶
Inori no uta wo sasagen kono hana sakuya
I devote my song of prayers, will this flower bloom?

Vinan wis pitod re beja
Sharing the color of white together
willie en pitod re heighte
The feeling of being wounded so easily
echrra en pitod clalliss, ar vianchiel
The colors that resonance together, they are just too pure
den vinan fusya omnis, dius en fusya maxim
Nonetheless, I still embrace all those precious colors

Fou yea ra chanti ee, tasyue hymmnos mea
I shall gladly sacrifice my song of blessing
Presia chanti ee, tes titilia manaf, hyear!
Oh, for the sake of an innocent little life!


So the main thing that I thought was really interesting about this song is that it vacillates fairly wildly between dark and light imagery; it's full of both soaring poetry and hellish visions. One moment she's singing about little birds and flowers in her heart, the next she's talking about death and demons and burning. I think it befits Mir, because she's a very conflicted person; someone who's always been inclined to struggle towards the light, but is weighed down by so much anger and pain. But it's interesting because I don't see a lot of this in modern music at all.

The music of Western culture today, from my observations, is very single-themed; each song, and from a lot of performers each album, will have a very specific mood to it, whether uplifting or sorrowed, gentle or harsh, playful or serious. This almost schizophrenic-seeming shift, within the same song, between beautiful imagery and despairing cruelty is almost unheard of. (It's quite melodically jarring, as well, feeling like it's composed of parts of several different songs.)

If you track the lyrics carefully, the shifts aren't actually as strange as they first appear; within the happier lyrics at first there is trepidation, a trembling sort of hope (summed up by the title, "Will This Flower Bloom?"), and then we see that trepidation give way to despair. In the midst of her darkest lyrics, Mir admonishes herself, trying to banish the worst part of herself, the part that would torture her with such images; after that, she gathers herself again and picks up for the happiest part of the song ("Everything, devote your karma for a miracle" really sounds like a rallying cry here), where she describes how even if she feels the colours of life are "too pure", she's still going to embrace them. It's a story of hope and love, followed by a plunge into darkness, followed by pulling herself out of that darkness and facing the light once more. If you look at it on that level, it's basically the story of Mir's life, as portrayed in AT1.

And this is why, I think, it differs from most music that I'm used to: it covers a long span of time. A lot of modern music is about the moment, describing the singer's feelings of now or a rather specific situation. This song is, rather, a series of snapshots of Mir's fluctuating emotions, taking what she feels at various times and piecing them together in a way that says, "this is what goes on inside me, generally speaking. This is what my head is like". It's almost like a representation of her Cosmosphere; or, at least, I'd be very surprised if her Cosmosphere isn't like this, full of alternating hopes and hells. (Don't spoil me, please!) As such, it does what AT1 was always very good at doing: it paints a well-rounded picture of a person that shows that conflicting darkness and light, hope and fear, joy and pain, exist within everyone. Putting it all together in a song may make Mir look a bit erratic, and certainly she's not the most stable person in the world, but I don't think it's a song of insanity, just a song giving us a very good impression of a person who has a lot of conflicting emotions.


Now, a bit about the imagery. In Mir's songs, she seems to use bird imagery pretty much exclusively to refer to herself. Pretty much any time she's talking about a little bird, she's using a metaphor for her own actions and feelings. It makes sense; she feels fragile, and hopeful, and she loves to sing; she was the "songbird" of humans in the past, who caged her and exploited her for her hymns.

I'm still working out what the white and red flowers, and the staining of things crimson, mean; she's used the crimson in other songs, and I think it has a deep metaphorical meaning for her. It seems to be that white flowers represent innocent feelings, easily wounded (or stained) feelings; in Mir's metaphor-set, her collection of mental allegories, a white flower is a delicate thing that can easily be dyed red.

What the red means, though, is harder to discern. She seems to use it, in this and other songs, to refer to her feelings, to things being painted red by her self-expression. She also seems to generally use it in what seems like quite a positive context; she's never talking about ugly things when she talks about painting things red, she's talking about love and the pure, beautiful colours in her deepest self, so it's unlikely that red represents blood, or rage, or anything like that. On the other hand, she also speaks of the white flowers that are "pure", have not yet been "stained", have not yet been "wounded", which does suggest that red has some negative aspects.

Perhaps red represents Mir's inner nature in all its beauty and ugliness; the love that she wants to pour out, but also her fears that her true self is a tainted thing, that it isn't good enough, that it will stain and ruin everything if she expresses it because, due to all her fears and resentments, being close to her is likely to cause people pain. White is the innocence of new feelings, new connections, that haven't yet been damaged by her conflicted nature, even if she dreams of pouring out what's really inside and letting the true colours of her soul live.


And some non-spoilery thoughts: I'm darn well blown away by just how successful this series is at portraying subtle elements of characterisation in song. The hymns and the main plotline are almost two halves of a puzzle; to truly understand the characters, you have to look at both, and I think that's really clever, especially for a series that is very much about the idea of people's deepest selves being expressed in song.

I've also become aware of something while looking at songs in AT, something that applies to life as well as fiction: namely, that you can learn a whole lot about someone by understanding the metaphors they use. It's not just in AT that people have collections of mental imagery and associations that come through in their speech; while most people's metaphors aren't as obvious and poetic as the ones in fiction, I think we all have our own symbolic languages, our own sets of associations, that come into play in our communications, and if you can get inside someone's default set of metaphors and see why they're using them, you can come to understand them a lot better.

Anyway, that's enough from me for this time. See you next time I attempt to wordily deconstruct something AT-related, or just the next time I find something amusing. ;)