Nagao Kei - 怪談 (Kaidan) | Lyrics Translation
Nagao Kei - Ghost Story
Deep in the mountains, away from any villages, lived a vile demon. The demon just had his heart broken. He was awfully irritated. He would descend to the villages, deceive humans, and devour their souls. That’s the kind of evil he was.
Ah, damn it. Is there no way to deceive more humans? Is there no way to feast on even more souls? Then, the demon thought to himself.
“Oh, right. I could make a mask out of human skin.”
Man-eating demons, blood-sucking demons. All sorts of demons roamed this world, but this particular demon was a tad different. For you see, he had a way with words. After listening to his eloquent tales, his prey’s souls would be sucked dry. This here is a ghost story.
The starving demon wandered tonight. Deceiving humans and gobbling up their souls. But he didn’t get quite satisfied, he remained starved. So he devised a wicked scheme.
Hunt, hunt the villagers. Rip, rip their frowns off. Through their screams of pain.
He tore the faces off those humans.
A handcrafted disguise. What an excellent work. With this, I too would blend in.
Well, then. Slithering, wandering, where shall I sneak to now? Carrying the guise of those of the fleeting world. That’s it. The ghost story to deceive you Shall be this freak odd tale. Let’s go with that.
I’ll bewitch you with this story Crush your soul And gulp it down these jaws, gulp, gulp, gulp.
Even so, the demon’s still not satisfied, he’s ravenous. Right then, he noticed an unknown man. Pitifully undisguised in plain sight.
“Seems I will get my fill tonight”
But the sickly man lost his consciousness and collapsed. If he were to devour his soul now, it would not taste any good since he hadn’t been told a ghost story. Argh, fine! The demon carried the man back to his lodging.
The man was not listening. No apprehension whatsoever. He moved to draw closer.
Then the man started talking.
What an unexpected story. A startling tale in the middle of the night. Another one scorned by love.
Aren’t you and I the same, then? Loving someone only to be fooled in return. I see. There’s no ghost story that I could tell to deceive you. It seems like I’ve had my fill.
In the dead of the night The demon quietly left the inn where the man was sleeping soundly. At that moment, came a rustling sound from behind. The demon turned around, and there stood before him—
Ah! Sneaking in, slithering, you’re no different, huh. With the guise of those of the fleeting world. Hey, wipe that smile off your face! I see. So this is a ghost story that deceives me. Sorrow? Hardship? Ha! No way that tale was true.
I’ve been bewitched by that tale Had my soul thoroughly crushed And gulped down those jaws, gulp, gulp.
While keenly telling a ghost story, another demon started to sing “Seems I will get my fill tonight”
…… By the way, You too have been keenly listening to this ghost story. I’ve been starving, so I believe it’s time To enjoy my meal.
I don't want to fix the formatting for the hundredth time, so I'll just add my TL notes here.
First off, what a unique song! Song is probably not the exact word because it sound more like a storytelling, like a musical number. Nagao did say in his zatsu that the song is in kodan-style (Japanese storytelling), complete with the spoken part and the sound of folding fan. He got the initial inspiration for this from a kodan-style ad of One Piece. He said he pitched the general story and idea, and Kanon69-san was the one who fleshed out and wrote the song.
Another thing I found interesting is the usage of old kannazukai (old Japanese spelling) for the lyrics. For example: souiu is written as さういふ instead of そういう, soushite is written as さうして instead of そうして. Nagao said this is by Kanon69-san as well. I learned something new from the lyrics lol.
I also like the story and twists it has. (!!!Please don't proceed to read if you don't want spoiler!!!)
The POV keeps switching between the narrator and the demon. We then see that the hunter becomes the hunted. Turns out at some point, the demon becomes the prey instead, deceived by another demon masquerading as a helpless prey.
And then!!! My favorite part!! Is that at the very end, it's revealed that the narrator is a demon, while we, the listeners, are the prey being told a ghost story to make our souls tastier before getting devoured. What a plot twist.
Also to top it off, “Onakairi” in the last line is written in hiragana (instead of kanji) and with quotation marks. Onakairi （お腹入り） literal meaning is “into the stomach”, but nakairi （中入り） also means the “intermission” of a story.
After the song release, Nagao tweeted that as a work this song is still “incomplete”. Based on previous occurrences, this might hint towards the “complete” being when he performs it on stage. So it can be viewed that currently the song is still at “intermission”.
And, this brings me to my next point. With the upcoming Uncharted Spheres concert, Nagao could very well perform it live then. Which is why I just had to post the romaji lyrics and TL asap.
When translating this, I tried to treat it more like a story than a lyrics (as usual I took some creative liberties, it's not 1:1 direct translation). Since I'm treating this as more of a story, I was really unsure about the tense. There's also some word choices that I'm still not sure of in the end. But overall I'm quite happy with how it turned out.
Anyway enjoy the song! And hopefully we'll watch it in its full glory at Nijifes!!
