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made this blog as a lil depository for my collage lyric & interview translations instead of my personal blog. pinning this as a directory of posts

lyric translations (in order of release/album tracklisting):

MEmento MORI: 萬千花蕊慈母悲哀 TALACOWA Deus Ex Machina: 謀殺石蓮 // murder the echeveria 鏨頭長命 // long may you live, off with your head 千屈菜 // awry the loosestrife 極樂金花 // mandalas rain for thee 機械降神 // deus ex machina Non-album Releases: 蓮花空行身染愛（the lotus dakini's stained love）[annotated original ver.]

interview & commentary translations:

2022 BLOW interview excerpt on TALACOWA natsuko's commentary on murder the echeveria

other misc info:

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謀殺石蓮 // Murder the Echeveria

NATSUKO: i wanted to envision a future from an ethnic minority perspective. this song tells the story of an indigenous scientist who appears in the future and invents very powerful laser gun technology, which stands in for the production of a sufficiently powerful force to be able to escape all oppression and discrimination. this is the “deus ex machina” story at the heart of the entire album. the scientist obtains the descended god’s power, but the sudden appearance of a god also reflects the fact that its author doesn’t believe this can come to pass, indirectly illustrating the reality of how difficult it is to break free of oppression and how hopeless it feels. the arrangement has a very cyberpunk feel, with a mechanically rhythmic beat, composed using an east asian-style pentatonic scale. the first half of the song describes the scientist’s plight, her cry out to the universe, her inability to break through the barriers she faces. then the latin phrase pops up in the middle—this is the “deus ex machina” moment! after that, the breakdown has a very smooth electronic feel as it describes the aftermath of the revolution and the lifeless landscape it leaves behind.

tayniay cangra midateng to semot no mako they came to pick the weeds from my land, ikor to i, ’afas han nangra ko tireng no mako then they took my body. caayay ka piliyas cangra they never left.

nengneng han kora semot hato hana the weed that looks like a flower mapitpit ko ‘adingo nora hana has had its soul plucked from its stem

#珂拉琪 #lyric translation #deus ex machina #amis #謀殺石蓮

Natsuko's Commentary on "Murder the Echeveria":

I just get a little frustrated sometimes, because every time I write lyrics in Amis or include some kind of easily identifiable indigenous element in my songs, 70-80% of responses mention dancing and celebrating, contentment with life, laughing away one’s troubles, and so on, even if the lyrics are dark and serious. It’s to the point where even if I’m candidly describing the pain of loss and grief, I’ll still get cheerful responses. I carry the skeletons of my people through my work and watch the audience consume their cries like a black hole, swallowing up all traces of sound. Like viewers in front of a blockbuster exploitation film, or a movie with a charming white male savior, or a popcorn flick about defying authority, emotions are stirred while people are in their seats, and once they leave the theater, their hearts can be at ease. Issues of gender, race, ethnicity, class, etc. all resolve themselves neatly. Everyone forgives, everyone departs. Everyone returns to their daily lives. But the real world is no less free of suffering, suffering which has seen no end, no resolution, no compensation, no atonement. Suffering that has yet to be directly faced, or even acknowledged. I continue to live in an endlessly broadcasting horror movie. I am blamed by outsiders for not performing enough, or performing too much, and I blame myself even more. The weed that looks like a flower lived well in its natural state. Only once forced to submit to the will of ruling powers and economic circumstance, once “she” has been pulled up by the roots and replanted in a plastic flower pot, does she attempt to fit this new appearance. But her captors just hold the pot in their hands and degrade her without end, because, after all, a weed cannot become a flower.

At the start of the film Nope, the flying, man-eating monster that is Hollywood and mainstream society throws down a nickel from the sky, killing the figure of the Black cowboy erased from Western film history. What do you want from me? What else will it take to satisfy you?

#珂拉琪 #commentary translation #謀殺石蓮

鏨頭長命 // Long May You Live, Off With Your Head

HUNTER: in the latter half of the album, I wanted to experiment with some new musical styles. the “tn̂g-miā” （長命） character in this song is based off of the old testament heroine judith. she went to assassinate an enemy general for her people and ended up seducing him to get close, only to then chop off his head. despite this, we didn’t really want to write a typical female revenge story. true conflict won’t be resolved through the consumption of yet another exploitation narrative. thus, the final metaphor at the heart of the song is that, in the process of recklessly carrying out her plan, tng-mia kills herself, too. i used a more relaxed musical style and made the BPM slowly decrease throughout the song. the song originally seems very steady and determined, but the belief that “this act will resolve everything” introduces a wavering sense of stability, and it leaves people with a sense of conflict and uncertainty. NATSUKO: it's very easy for the subject of female revenge to slip into the kinds of narratives that exploitation films use to sell bloodshed without actually addressing any solutions to the problems women face. these works have a very limited capacity to evoke any real gender awareness in their audiences, and so, in this song, the one the heroine ends up killing is herself, which is us trying to explore the ways in which, ultimately, bloody revenge plots don’t serve anyone. this song’s lyrics are the least subtle on the album, and we liked playing with this kind of conflicting feeling between the lyrics and music.

this is your turn for termination so pick up my sword, assassination

恐驚是足失望 ê 結局 khióng-kiann sī tsiok sit-bōng ê kiat-kio̍k i fear this will be a very disappointing end 聽邊仔笑破喙 ê 聲 thiann pinn-á tshiò phuà tshuì ê siann as you hear the sound of laughter beside you in 講這个悲劇是你愛擔毋才著 in kóng tsit-ê pi-kio̍k, sī lí ài tann m̄-tsiah tio̍h they say this tragedy‘s surely yours to bear 做伙死死咧嘛無差 tsò-hué sí-sí leh mā bô-tsha what do i care they die, too?

#珂拉琪 #lyric translation #deus ex machina #taigi #english #鏨頭長命

千屈菜 // Awry the Loosestrife

NATSUKO: this is my conclusion to the narrative that begins in “murder the echeveria.” the scientist in "echeveria" becomes the sole survivor of the revolution she incites, so she's left with no choice but to take a spaceship and seek out life elsewhere in the universe. she tells the story of humanity to the beings there, passing on her language and scientific knowledge. this song is sung from the perspective of the aliens, set several hundred years after the scientist’s arrival, and provides an account of the person who fell from the sky long ago. i deliberately wanted to place “murder the echeveria” and “awry the loosestrife” in a futuristic context, because if something like this really did take place, i would like to believe the people of the future could make better choices. hence the lyrics “she passed down her words, but not so that we would obey, / rather, she wished for us to learn to speak for ourselves.”

matengilay iso ko sowal ningra haw? have you heard her story? o masalisinay a wawa that of the cursed child itiya ho, talahekal sa nai kakarayan cingra who fell down from the sky so very long ago tomangic i namahofoc a wawa the child born weeping

pasifana'en ningra kita to tilid she passed down her words caay ka siharateng to, nga' mitoor ko tamdamdaw saan but not so that we would obey nanay mafana' kita a misomowal sanay rather, she wished for us to learn to speak for ourselves

#珂拉琪 #lyric translation #deus ex machina #amis #english #千屈菜

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極樂金花 // Mandalas Rain for Thee (ki̍k-lo̍k kim-hue)

HUNTER: the title of this song uses my a-ma’s real name [kim-hue/金花，lit. “golden flower”]. i only recently discovered that my a-ma never really had a concept of home growing up—she was born to an impoverished family and then sold to my a-kong like an object. a-ma spent her whole life on others; she was never given the opportunity to study or the freedom to love. during mourning rituals in the year of my a-ma’s death, i encountered a piece of scripture that affected me very deeply, the amitabha sutra. it described in depth the scenery of the afterlife in sukhavati, the land of bliss (極樂世界). heavenly music plays without end, the roads are paved with gold, and mandalas flutter through the air, day and night. the “deus ex machina” of this song is the wish I cast for my a-ma: i hope that when she arrived in sukhavati, she was given the opportunity to start her life anew, like a golden flower sprouting from within the earth. i also quoted from the text of the “the great compassion bodhisattva’s vows” in the lyrics. the original text is “一念顷，生极乐国” (in the space of a moment, you will be reborn in the land of bliss), and a bodhisattva carries away the soul of the deceased with a golden medal in hand. this, too, is my way of honoring my a-ma’s memory.

「彼佛國土，常作天樂。黃金為地，晝夜六時，雨天曼陀羅華。」「 In that land of the Buddha, there is always heavenly music. The ground is golden, and a heavenly rain of mandala flowers falls throughout the six periods of day and night. 」

離開 ê 彼工 lī-khui ê hit kang the day i left 雄雄看著彼个城 hiông-hiông khuànn-tio̍h hit ê siânn i suddenly saw that city 金花搖規暝 kim-hue iô kuì-mê where golden flowers gently sway all night 毋知敢是迷戀 m̄-tsai kám-sī bê-luân have i been enchanted?

#珂拉琪 #lyric translation #deus ex machina #taigi #極樂金花

機械降神 // Deus Ex Machina

NATSUKO: so far, we’ve explored a number of different struggles through a kind of science fiction lens, but we also know that these societal issues are not things that can be solved by singing a few songs. perhaps the “descending god” at the center of the album is really the act of giving a sense of possibility to the suffering, some imagined space wherein it’s possible to break free of reality. so, this final song emphasizes that we can’t place all our hopes on a savior figure, on the sudden appearance of a “descending god” to magically solve all our problems. we must pay a price to solve these things. HUNTER: we cannot rely too much on a leader or savior to guide us to a world free of discrimination. what’s more important is to hope that everyone can care about one another a little more and make a society-wide effort to move us in a better direction. it’s like a huge gear, and it needs all of us to push it forward together.

so that's the path we've never found before in the darkest moment, we seek the door that ghost in sight has stayed too long the weak, the lost, where do they belong?

i burn my bridges just to watch them fall with every crack, i stand a little tall laugh through the pain, i crown it in gold but nothing's left, so why don't i— —bend the rules, rewrite the world?

#珂拉琪 #lyric translation #deus ex machina #english #機械降神 #this is not actually a lyric translation. obviously. lmao. but im putting it in the tag to be with its brethren.#and so it can be in the series of deus ex machina tls with the apple music interview excerpts <3 #posting in order from last 2 first.

蓮花空行身染愛 // The Lotus Dakini’s Stained Love

Visit Original Link

welcome to my twisted annotated lian-hue lyric translation. unfortunately there is a reason ppl post internet essays on interpretations of this song. i did my utmost to make a clarifying translation where i could, but ultimately the original lyrics are simply very convoluted and metaphor-packed, and i didnt want to twist them to the point of overly-imposing my own interpretation. should u desire to "know what this song is about," there is a synthesis of things the artists have said about it, things i've read others say about it, references i've looked up, and, of course, my own reading of the lyrics @ the end. annotations interspersed between stanzas. expand at your own risk. do listen to the song either way tho its a banger

「由本自性清淨故，令諸愛染悉無垢」 (1) because of our own pure nature, all love-stains are rendered unblemished

(1) my own understanding of this quote is that since our essential/original nature is pure, even impure things like excessive attachment/desire are also ultimately pure in their own sense as part of the natural world/human experience…? thus complicating a term which seems to often carry negative connotations.

om Gu-lu-gu-lie chu-li so-ha om Gu-lu-gu-lie chu-li so-ha (2)

(2) the essential mantra of Kurukulla (transliterated to chinese as 咕嚕咕列Gulugulie)

又閣是彼个無代無誌想著的形影 there it is again, that uninvited silhouette 親像一陣風吹落來是春風少年(3) it's funny how carefree young men blow past you just like a gust of wind 坐嘛是思念(4) 坐袂牢真無聊的思念 in moments of stillness my thoughts turn to you, this same old restless longing 倒咧眠床頂予月娘笑規个暗暝 i lay in bed and watch the moon laugh through the night

#珂拉琪 #lyric translation #蓮花空行身染愛 #deus ex machina #(< kind of)#taigi #i meant to also add notes about the realms imagery but well.#i will add that one day kasjdhf #also will maybe post a tl of the original IG post hunter made abt it. (on a separate post lol)#also planning to also post this again later sans annotations w the apple music interview bit abt it and the album vers 🫡#so this is the version for real ones.

excerpt from the part of a 2022 interview collage did w/ streetvoice where natsuko discusses "talacowa"

(interview by Lizzy Hsu/徐韻軒)

In 1945, the US military began bombing Taiwan, and Japan was on the verge of facing the reality of their imminent loss. A group of young Amis men were at the Takasago volunteer military camp in Taichung, witnessing the chaos firsthand and fearing deployment under such circumstances. They resolved not to fight any more on another nation’s behalf, and a number of them decided to desert and return to Taitung on foot. Natsuko’s grandfather was among them.

This is the basis of “Talacowa”’s narrative. Through music, Natsuko summons the imagery of her grandfather’s journey.

#珂拉琪 #TALACOWA #commentary translation

TALACOWA

o nani cowaay kita? where have we come from? nani tira i kahadakan no cidal from the place where the sun rises tatalacowa kita? micelemayto ko cidal where are we going? the sun has already set malingad to kita! we are setting off! pasiwali kita heading all the way east

aあぁ　太陽に背を向けて　刀を振って a~a taiyō ni se o mukete katana o futte with the sun behind me, i will carve my path forward

道を照らしてくれた八芒星 michi o terashite kureta hachibōsei as the eight-pointed star¹ guides my way 夜の帳が降りた　黒くぬれ yoru no tobari ga orita kuroku nure night falls and slowly dyes the sky black

「そなたは何処に向かう？」 “sonata wa doko ni mukau?” “where are you going?”

教えて oshiete please tell me

#珂拉琪 #memento mori #TALACOWA #lyric translation #amis #japanese

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萬千花蕊慈母悲哀 // The Countless Flowers of a Loving Mother's Grief

*the "loving mother" in question refers to the female Buddha Tara, but I liked the indirectness of the original wording in the title

「多羅大悲者，一切之慈母」「 Tara of Great Compassion, Loving Mother of All 」

下晡一個人踮厝內 ē-poo, tsi̍t ê lâng tiàm tshù-lāi one afternoon, i was home alone

西北雨沃澹窗外的衫 sai-pak-hōo, ak-tâm thang-guā ê sann a sudden downpour drenched the clothes outside the window

外口的人猶未轉來 guā-kháu ê lâng iah-buē tńg-lâi the one who left has yet to return

戇戇咧等戇戇攑一支雨傘 gōng-gōng--leh tán, gōng-gōng gia̍h tsi̍t ki hōo-suànn i foolishly waited with an umbrella in hand

#珂拉琪 #lyric translation #memento mori #萬千花蕊慈母悲哀

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