Probably one of the most beautiful songs in the album, here comes the 7th song of Angelo’s album “FAUST“, the name of the song is 「止まない雪」which means “The snow that doesn’t stop”. Kirito explained this song in detail when he talked about the overall “FAUST” album concept in a Youtube video he published in his Official Youtube Channel, you can read about it in a previous post where I translated the full video, but I will summarize in my translation notes further below. Lyrics and composition by Kirito.
Kanji:
果てしなく何もない白いだけの大地
進むべき道さえも覆い隠して
震える足で一つずつ残した足跡
生きていく意味を創るしか無かった遠い日
恐ろしい声が聞こえる 耳を塞いでも囁く
闇に呑み込まれないように 想い叫ぶ
動けずに見つめていた 光の未来は
輝いた強さだけ 影を残した
誘い込むように安息へと向かわせる声
どこへ逃げても無駄な事を想い知らせる朝
役割終えて風に散る ひとひらの花びらが舞う
命の灯はまだゆらめく 想い映す
綺麗に終われるだろうか 君また会えるだろうか
書き綴った物語が 誰かの背を押せるように
胸の奥で降り続ける 止まない雪
記憶を凍らせたまま ただ時計の針だけ進んでいく
かじかんだ小さな手のひら 強く握って あての無い明日の陽を選んでいた
灼熱越えて秋に散る ひとひらの花びらが舞う
命の灯はまだ消えずに 詩を歌う
誰も傷つけたくはない 君を泣かせたりはしない
書き綴った物語が 自分までも救えるように
胸の奥で降り続ける 止まない雪
過去の足跡を消して ただ目の前だけを見続けさせる
Romaji:
Hateshinaku nani mo nai shiroi dake no daichi
Susumu beki michi sae mo ooikakushite
Furueru ashi de hitotsuzutsu nokoshita ashiato
Ikiteiku imi wo tsukuru shika nakatta tooi hi
Osoroshii koe ga kikoeru mimi wo fusaide mo sasayaku
Yami ni nomikomarenai you ni omoi sakebu
Ugokezu ni mitsumeteita hikari no mirai wa
Kagayaita tsuyosa dake kage wo nokoshita
Sasoikomu you ni ansoku e to mukawaseru koe
Doko e nigetemo muda na koto wo omoishiraseru asa
Yakuwari oete kaze ni chiru hitohira no hanabira ga mau
Inochi no hi wa mada yurameku omoi utsusu
Kirei ni owareru darou ka kimi ni mata aeru darou ka
Kakitsudzutta monogatari ga dareka no se wo oseru you ni
Mune no oku de furitsudzukeru yamanai yuki
Kioku wo kooraseta mama tada tokei no hari dake ga susunde iku
Kajikanda chiisana te no hira tsuyoku nigitte ate no nai asu no hi wo erande ita
Shakunetsu koete aki ni chiru hitohira no hanabira ga mau
Inochi no hi wa mada kiezu ni uta wo utau
Daremo kizutsuketaku wa nai kimi wo nakasetari wa shinai
Kakitsudzutta monogatari ga jibun made mo sukueru you ni
Mune no oku de furitsudzukeru yamanai yuki
Kako no ashiato wo keshite tada me no mae dake wo mitsudzukesaseru
Translation:
The vast expanse land where there is nothing, just whiteness
Even the path I should follow is concealed
With trembling legs, footprints are left behind one by one
The distant day where I had no choice but to create a meaning to continue on living
I could hear the dreadful voice whispering even if I cover my ears
In order not to be swallowed by the darkness, I scream out my feelings
Without being able to move, the future of hope that I was gazing at
With only sparkling strength, left behind a shadow
A voice that feels like it tempts you to head towards a relaxation state
And regardless to where you escape to, the morning that reminds about useless feelings comes
When your role is finished it gets dispersed by the wind (like) flower petals that flutter about
The spark of life still flickers and the feelings are projected
I wonder if it will end beautifully? I wonder if I’ll be able meet you again?
Hoping that the story I wrote is able to give someone the push they need
The snow that doesn’t stop continues to fall inside my heart
Forcing the memories to stay frozen, just the hands of the clock continue to move forward
Clasping strongly the numb and small palm of the hand, I chose the unreliable sun of tomorrow
After the burning passion is surpassed it gets dispersed by autumn (like) flower petals that flutter about
For the spark of life that still doesn’t disappear, I sing the poem
I don’t want to hurt anybody and I won’t make you cry
Hoping that the story I wrote is able to even save myself
The snow that doesn’t stop continues to fall inside my heart
Erasing the footprints of the past, so you just keep on looking only at what’s in front of your eyes
Translation notes: this song uses very beautiful words to describe the moment we reached in this song, according to Kirito’s explanation of this song, this happens when the protagonist reaches the point where he wonders about the meaning of life and reflects on his mistakes.
The vast white land is the landscape of white snow that Kirito explained, where you don’t see anything beyond, and you really don’t know where you are heading, this is why he says the path is concealed.
The voice that whispers and invites you to stop working hard and fall into temptation of self-complacency, is the voice that Kirito explained that it’s like a voice that is born from your inner self after you’ve gone through a lot of emotional effort (like Faust has experienced throughout this story), but as Kirito mentioned, the humans are able to continue moving forward even when they encounter this kind of powerlessness, and this is why in the song the protagonist screams out his feelings, like a way to return to the right path.
In the next line, Kirito uses the other keyword 「光」which means “light”, but it can also mean “hope”, and in this context, “hope” works better because he refers to the ideal future he had in mind that it didn’t work out, although this future looked very promising or “sparkling” as he describes, it just left a shadow because it did not work as expected, or that he destroyed it himself, as he explained in the video.
Kirito also uses the word 「安息」which means rest, repose, a state of no mind effort at all; to describe the place where the inner voice tries to invite to.
Then in the chorus, is when the protagonist wonders how his life will end, and comes one of the most important parts, where he wonders if the story about his life will help providing the push that others need, literally it says “to be able to push someone’s back” but this means to give the courage to someone to do what they need to do. Kirito explained about this in his video, that after you end up destroying the things that are the most important to you, and you are able to come back and build things again (like Kirito did as well, and Faust will probably do too), this story of being able to start from zero again after you messed up, is the type of story that help others get the courage they need to start over from scratch if they have made many mistakes during their lives.
The way Kirito describes this wavering feeling is beautiful, comparing it to the falling snow that occurs inside the heart that freezes your thoughts, causing only time to continue moving, even the time moving forward is described beautifully by referencing the hands of the clock.
Then he describes what he refers as the spark that makes humans go forward, he clasps someone’s hand and decides to jump into the unknown of what tomorrow brings, he also describes this beautifully as “choosing the sun of tomorrow”.
After he destroyed his precious things, now that he’s trying to build back everything, he sings the “poem”, here Kirito uses the kanji 詩 which can be spelled as “uta” but it’s not the same kanji used for ‘song” which is 歌 or 唄, so this is a poem, and this is like what he realizes that he needs to do now to be able to do things right, the protagonist’s promise, he doesn’t want to hurt anybody and those that he care about, he won’t make them cry anymore, this is the sign of resolution.
And my favorite part is the last line, where Kirito makes the reference to the snow again; when it’s snowing, the footprints that you leave behind, usually disappear because of the snowing, so he compares those footprints to the past; if you erase the footprints of the past, it forces you to only look at what’s ahead of you, meaning, to go forward.
So in summary, after waking up from the fantasy world, falling into the purgatory and regaining the spark of rebellion, Faust needed to put his thoughts in order, to be able to reconstruct everything that he ended up destroying because of his vain and thirst of knowledge and power.
JAPAN MUSIC SEKAI ~ Jrock & Jpop talk ~ 