I’ve become a ghost,
and tomorrow I’ll go to see you, far away where you are
And then what shall I do?
I definitely can’t tell you that
『The Clouds and the Ghost』 Yorushika
Lyrics, Composition, Arrangement: n-buna
Vocal: suis
Music Video Directed by Paprika
I’ve become a ghost,
and I’m going to see the way the summer ends
On this studio-apartment-sized* earth,
at a bus stop in the pale shadows of the trees
You kicked pebbles alongside the light trap** with your hands growing cold in the night air
The faint lights of the town waver
Because even without seeing anything,
Even without saying anything,
Even without anyone noticing,
I still know
I only know that
at the bus stop where I was sitting with you, the sky I looked up at was blue
The clouds are far away, see?
See?
It really is unbelievable that the clouds at night are so high
So you see, it’s all right now
* Literally “six-tatami-mat-sized earth”–
the number of tatami mats it takes or would take to cover the floor
is an alternate measure of room/apartment size in Japan,
used in apartment listings and such in place of the area in meters.
Six tatami mats is not terribly large.
I’ve become a ghost,
and I’m going to see places from my past
The beach in a distant town,
the shopping stalls I saw as a child
With feet tired from walking,
I’ll sit on a bench nearby to wait for the bus
And then what shall I do?
Why was I walking?
Even if someday you forget
Without knowing anything
Without hearing anything
Even so, I’ll be watching you
Just sitting in the summer shadows,
staring at the storm clouds, is somehow painful
The sky is so high
I wish I could go far away just like this
Now at night I only sleep
** A light that attracts nocturnal bugs and,
in commercial uses, generally kills them.
Where I grew up we called these “bug zappers,”
but that’s not terribly poetic, is it?
I only know that
at the bus stop where I was sitting with you, the sky I looked up at was blue
The clouds are far away, see?
See?
It really is unbelievable that the clouds at night are so high
So you see,
so you see
Even for you, it’s all right now
I’ve become a ghost,
and tomorrow I’ll go to see you, far away where you are
And then I wonder what I’ll do
You definitely won’t be able to see me
Translation by EJ/bluepenguin