Kujira (Whale)

fukai umi no soko de   kimi wa samishige ni hohoende
hanashikaketemo   itsushika henji wa   naku natta
Down at the bottom of the deep ocean
You were smiling sadly,
I called out to you, but your answer
Became lost in the depths

kono mama zutto   kimi to wakachiaenai no kana
kawaita itami   dare mo uruoshite kurenai keredo
raku ni naru made   watashi ga soba de   nemutte ite ageru yo
If we go on like this,
Will I ever be able to share this with you?
Maybe no one can quench your thirsty pain, but
Until you feel better, I'll be sleeping right by your side.

tsukinuketa   kokoro no sakebigoe ga   kono karada ni atatte
isshun no aojiroi   hikari no man'naka ni   chiisa na sugata ga mieta
ITAI YO   ATSUI YO   TASUKETE tte   kimi no naka kara kikoeta
hajimete koe agete   naite kureta kara   atashi wa ureshikute
kowaku mo nakatta   kizutsuku koto sae
The cry from your heart pierced my body
And just for a moment, in a flash of fluid light
I saw a small figure
'It hurts... It's hot... Help me!' I heard from inside of you
Because, for the first time, you were able to cry out and weep,
I was overjoyed
I wasn't at all afraid.... even of getting hurt.

yowasa wo misenai tame ni   kyori bakari katamete   moroku natte
watashi no hanashi wo kimi wa   tada ugokazu ni kiiteta
So you wouldn't reveal any weakness, you kept rigidly distant
And became so brittle
You just lay there, not moving
As you listened to my words.

kokoro ga furuenaku naru no ga   nani yori kowai yo
motto minikui keshiki mo   kimi to mite okitakattanda
itsushika iki ga tsumari   dokoka ni   kiete shimawanu you ni
More than anything else, I'm afraid
That your heart will no longer be able to tremble
I wanted to see more, of even the ugly landscapes, together with you
So that you don't breathe your last
Just to disappear in some unknown place [1]

hitomi kara wa nagarenai namida ga   kizuguchi ni afureteru
kimi ga watashi ni   tokekonde shimau made   nametsudzukete ite ageru
itakute atsukute   ikiteteru tte kankaku   omoidasu desho?
amaku yasashiku dakishimeru   bakkari ja   Ah kimi to wa tsunagarenai
The tears that you can't shed from your eyes
Are pouring out instead from your wounds
And I'll continue to nurse them
Until you dissolve completely in me
'It hurts.... It's hot.... I'm alive!' You still remember that feeling, don't you?
Hugging you sweetly and gently,
Ah... That alone won't connect with you

tsukinuketa   kokoro no sakebigoe ga   kono karada ni attate
isshun no aojiroi   hikari no man'naka ni   chiisa na sugata ga mieta
ITAI YO   ATSUI YO   TASUKETE tte   kimi no naka kara kikoeta
hajimete koe agete   naite kureta kara   atashi wa ureshikute
kowaku mo nakatta
The cry from your heart pierced my body
And just for a moment, in a flash of fluid light
I saw a small figure
'It hurts... It's hot... Help me!' I heard from inside of you
Because, for the first time, you were able to cry out and weep,
I was overjoyed
I wasn't at all afraid.... even of getting hurt.


Translator's Notes :
[] The lyrics for this song are inspired from a children's story titled "Chiisai Sensuikan ni Koi wo Shita Dekasugiru Kujira no Hanashi" (The Story of an Enormous Whale Who Fell in Love with a Small Submarine) written by prize-winning author Nosaka Akiyuki (who also wrote the novel "Hotaru no Haka" (Grave of the Fireflies), which the classic feature film of the same title by Studio Ghibli was based upon). The story, as described by Nakamura Fukiko, goes something like this:

There was once an enormously large whale who, because of his size, could not find friends or someone to love in the ocean. During a time of war, he met a small black submarine and, falling in love with it, followed it wherever it went and was always by its side. The submarine, of course, being a submarine, never spoke to the whale, however. One day, the submarine, trying to avoid attack by an enemy ship, dove down to the bottom of the ocean and lay in hiding. The whale, seeing that the submarine was no longer moving, thought the submarine was very sick. He couldn't do anything to help, though, except to repeatedly speak words of encouragement to the submarine. However, eventually the submarine was attacked and suffered a direct hit by an enemy torpedo, and it exploded. The whale, who had been right next to the submarine as he always had been, died from the explosion, too. However, at the end the whale was happy, because in mistaking the sound of the oncoming torpedo for the voice of the submarine, at the last moment the whale believed that the submarine was finally reaching out and calling out to him. So the whale died full of joy, without any fear.

In one of CORE OF SOUL'S live concerts, Nakamura Fukiko described this children's story and her reasons for writing the lyrics. She said that the submarine symbolizes the part of yourself when you're feeling down, alone, and unable to move, and the whale symbolizes the part of yourself that is desperately, earnestly trying to cheer you up. In the end, the explosion that kills both the submarine and the whale allows the two to become one to form the solution -- in other words, you can only progress forward by continuing to encourage yourself whenever you're down.

(The explanation for this song is pulled from several online concert reports, the most detailed of which can be found here: http://diarynote.jp/d/12316/20020412.html)
[1] For the first and last lines of this stanza, no pronouns are given in the Japanese lyrics, so I had to guess who each line was referring to. Since most of this song seems to be written from the perspective of the whale speaking to the 'ailing' submarine, I tried to keep the translation in line with that.