Category Archives: Lyrics

Imai Miki – Kiss Yori Toiki Yori (English Lyrics)

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キスより　吐息より
Beyond Kisses, Beyond Sighs

The moon is a pearl
The passing breeze is silk
With my sole companion
A cactus by the window

You’re so very kind
Sorry to be so selfish
Tonight I phone you
From inside the closet

More than kisses, more than sighs
I just want you to stay
Stillness of a lonely night

Washed my hair
Just for myself
As it now slowly dries

Fleeting jealousy
A fight over nothing
Our love in naked embrace
Filling every space between us

Your dress shirt as my pajamas
Softly becoming mine
I had forgotten
What I’d begged of you that day

More than kisses, more than sighs
I want to feel you deep
The you who dwells in my heart

Your desire to embrace me
Tonight, let it build up
And spend the evening alone

Having dressed up a little
Tomorrow, I will call you
Saying I want to meet right away

More than kisses, more than sighs
I want to feel you deep
The you who dwells in my heart

Come into my dreams
Gently slip inside
Good night…

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Minuano “Butterfly Dream” Reissue With Translated English Lyrics

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I am pleased to announce that this summer, Minuano are reissuing their 2019 full-length album Butterfly Dream (蝶になる夢を見た) on both CD and vinyl.

The album is scheduled to be re-released in August 2025. Pre-orders for both the LP and the CD+LP Bundle are now available on Shopify and Bandcamp. Do note that these pre-orders are only open until April 29. The Bundle comes with a bonus postcard, and the CD includes a 24bit/96k audio download code. (A CD-only pre-order link will become available in late July.)

Following Love Logic, Fruits Mechanical, and Spring Lovers, this is the fourth collaboration between me and Minuano. Yes, you guessed it: once again, both editions of this re-release will feature English translations of all lyrics on the album.

On a purely personal note, I am very glad we managed to give this treatment to Butterfly Dream as well, simply because for me this album in particular is Minuano’s greatest masterpiece yet. Hopefully my translation of the words can help you discover yet another side to appreciate about this collection of songs. As always, my intention was to take the absolutely beautiful Japanese lyrics and render them into English with the utmost respect, and happily Ogata Takero was there to guide me every step of the way to help us achieve just that. And now it is done.

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Minuano “Spring Lovers” Reissue With Translated English Lyrics

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Following the reissue of Love Logic and Fruits Mechanical, Minuano are soon re-releasing their long out of print second album: the fan-favorite Spring Lovers (ある春の恋人) from 2010.

This re-release will be coming out on vinyl and CD in March/April 2025.

Pre-orders are now live at Shopify and Bandcamp. Please note that pre-orders for both the LP and the LP+CD Bundle are only open from November 15 to 29, 2024. Because this is a limited edition pressing, it is highly recommended that you put in a pre-order if you want to be sure to attain a vinyl copy. (A link for CD-only pre-orders will be made available in March 2025.)

But no matter if you are going for the CD or the LP (or both), something that you will find in both editions of this release are my English translations of the lyrics.

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KAN – 23sai (English Lyrics)

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23歳
23 Years Old

23 years old — I’m a fifth year college student
Going for that Ivy League look just as today, top to bottom VAN
Never having even been outside Japan yet
And my dream? Of course, to be a rock musician!

23 years old — living in a Shin-Nakano apartment
No bathtub, six tatami mats, only a piano and a synthesizer
Trying to somehow repay the loans on my instruments
Temp jobs and bands — uh-oh, guess I’m repeating a year!

Those days — reckless; frantic; all over the place
Filled with an illogical, unwarranted sense of self-confidence
Writing at a pace so incredibly fast, completely unthinkable today
Day and night I wrote, constantly — eight songs a month or so
At 23 years old

23 years old — I’m working part-time
As an Italian restaurant cameriere in Ginza
I always did love peeking into the kitchen
For a moment seriously thinking I’d become a chef

And naturally, I was in love back then
With a cute, somewhat selfish, beautiful girl — I was head over heels
My one-sided feelings where it didn’t matter even if she rejected me
On and on I held out, ceaselessly — for eight years or so

Those memories — some painful; some good; some strange
Chance, luck and fortune all interlinked
Life’s really not too bad at all!

23 years old — are you in love today?
The real-time-currently-23-year-old you
May all your days be filled with happiness
…Or so I now sing, but think nothing of it

If the me from back then was to meet you today
Without a doubt, it’d be love at first sight — I’d be head over heels
My one-sided feelings where it wouldn’t matter even if you rejected me
On and on I’d hold out, ceaselessly — yes, for 20 years or so
No, even longer, forever — at least for 35 years or so
And before I knew it, I’m 58 years old

You are 23
I am 58
Oh no…

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KAN – MAN (English Lyrics)

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MAN

MAN
I believe that a man should always
Always be kind to his woman
Flowers for her birthdays; a song for the sad moments
Sending love her way even on the ordinary days

Whatever your dreams may be
I’ll make them come true the best I can
Say you were to discover some new, beautiful world
It would be my role to open the door for you

But then if on that last day you’d made up your mind
Silently having decided you were going to leave me
Would I still open that door, only to see you off?
No, I would not — although I’m contradicting myself…

MAN
I believe that a man should always
Always be tough on himself

MAN
A man, no matter what kind of man
Always has a thing or two he must protect

Holding one another, facing one another
Always so busy glossing things over
People have this need to rank order things
And I’m sad to say it, but for me?
The most important thing is myself

But then I hit wall, and I find myself at a standstill
Because when I found you there, just watching me from behind
I now wish to protect you even if it means sacrificing myself

One day I will say it and I will truly mean it
When I have the courage — that’s when I’ll be a man

MAN
And like so, the man, to a foolish degree
Always tries to take responsibility for everything
Being the tiny little creature that he is

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