"腐海 - Fukai" - "The sea of decay"
I've been wanting to fix this translation for a while now. Just, like, word it better and get rid of that purist non-sense I was holding onto back in 2011. And also get at least a little upgrade to the audio/video quality. (Yes, the original upload looked even worse.)
This version of "Fukai" was originally released on the "Kasumi" single!
Notes:
1) The title is another one of Kyo's own word creations.
He used the kanji "腐" (as in "kusaru", meaning "to rot, to decay, to rust, to decompose") and "海" (which stands for "umi", the "sea"). The first kanji can also be read as "fu", such as in "fukyuu" ("腐朽 - the decay"), while the second kanji can also be read as "kai", such as in "kaiyou" ("海洋 - the sea/ocean"). The outcome of these two kanji being put together is "fukai" - "the sea of decay".
Kyo also repeats the word "fukai" written as "深い" several times in this song. It then refers to something being "deep". In this case: wounds.
One more addition I'd like to make is how "fukai" ("sea of decay/decaying sea") and "fuai" ("decaying love") sound so similar as well...
2) There are lots of unsung words in the middle part of this live. As usual I've placed subtitles for better comprehension of the song.
3) 0:52 - "儚く - hakanaku" - "transiently/briefly" or less literal "if only for a moment". (During my online research of trying to figure out how to actually word this in English, I've read that even Japanese people feel like this word is one of the most difficult ones to translate into another language. I'm relieved that I'm not the only one struggling every now and then.)
4) 1:57 - "血化粧 - chi keshou"
In a very, very literal way, you could translate this as "wear blood as make-up". But if you break apart the kanji of "化粧 - make-up/cosmetics" and look at their individual meanings ("化 - change/to take the form of" & "粧 - adornments") you get a better understanding of the word and of the picture Kyo has painted here: "all adorned in blood".
5) This song is probably written from the point of view of a woman. The narrator refers to themself as "watashi", the neutral version of "I" which is generally used by women nowadays, and refers to their loved one as "anata", the polite (and in this case affectionate) version of "you".
It took me nearly 13 years to realize that at the end of the Blitz5Days "Fukai" live Kyo drops down to the floor, lights going out behind him, because the narrator of the song departs from life...
~This is my translation / interpretation.
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