Mostly for my own Japanese Language practice, I’ve started breaking down the lyrics to one of my favourite bands — Band Maid. I know there’s an army of international fans out there — if you find this useful, then great. Fair warning, put myself around the N3 level of Japanese fluency, so I wouldn’t necessarily rely 100% on my accuracy, though I’ll do my best to call out places where things my comprehension is sketchy.
I invite native and more fluent speakers to chime in, correct me or otherwise add pearls of wisdom. If other Maidiacs have helpful context, hit me with that too.
Going to kick off with Domination. A full and unabridged copy of the lyrics can be found here. Domination is an amazing track and it gives me an excuse to listen to Saiki’s growl on repeat. If I was only allowed to listen to one sound for the rest of my life, I might choose that growl. Anywho, my fanboy weebness aside, let’s get into it.
覗く window 回せ roulette
始まりの合図に open your eyes
覗く — nozoku — to peer/peek through
Japanese is one of those languages where the same sound can mean multiple things. Generally context and the syllable that gets stressed gives you a clue as to which word is which, but if your ear isn’t attuned to it, it can throw you out of comprehension brainspace into active translation — which is slower and more time consuming and for me, the sort of thing that makes me lose track of a conversation. Why am I crapping on about this? Nozoku (除く)can also mean ‘to remove’ or ‘to eliminate’, though you’re more likely to peer through a window than to eliminate it.
回せ — mawase — Means spin, but it’s the imperative form, so it’s a command. Mawasu would be the plain form (nozoku is plain form, for example).
始まりの合図に open your eyes — A cute play on words here. Hajimari no aizu means ‘on the signal to start’, The homophone of aizu and eyes is clever and fits the song nicely.
手の中踊れ — te no naka odore — te no naka is ‘in the palm of (my) hand’ — ‘my’ isn’t explicitly stated, but like many things in Japanese, is inferred by context; in this case by the following imperative ‘odore’. Saiki (or Miku vicariously) is commanding you to dance in the palm of her hand.
想像さえも超えるほど
想像 — souzou — imagination
さえも — sae mo — something-‘sae’ means ‘even this thing’ e.g. even monkeys fall from trees. The nuance is ‘though you might not expect it, even this is a thing that can happen/exist’.
‘mo’ in this context is ‘in addition’ so souzou sae mo is ‘even more than (I) imagine’. Continuing the sentence
超える — koeru — go beyond/past
ほど — hodo — extent/degree/bounds
so ‘beyond the bounds (of)’. Slotting all that together you get ‘Even beyond the bounds of what I imagine’.
まだ感じたいよ 魅せてみてよ
まだ — mada — is one of those words that does a lot of heavy lifting and can feel a bit contradictory to new learners as it can be used for ‘yet’, but also ‘not yet’ (amongst other things). If you think of it as conveying a sense of something not complete, or not sufficient, then it becomes easier to grasp. In this case ‘mada kanjitai yo’ is ‘I still want to feel’, but perhaps more accurately translated as ‘I haven’t yet felt (as much as) I want to feel’
感じたい — kanjitai — literally ‘I want to feel’ (i.e. experience emotion).
魅せてみて — misete-mite — try to bewitch/enchant me. Bandmaid’s own translation uses ‘delight’, which also fits, I guess. Interestingly, misete on its own means to bewitch/enchant. The ‘mite’ added on the end means ‘try to’. So all things considered, it’s an invitation to try to delight (Saiki), because she hasn’t felt enough yet. I mean, you’re clearly not trying hard enough. What is wrong with you?
広がる世界に 知らない世界に宣告せよ
広がる — hirogaru — spreading/broadening/unfurling. Side note, there is an anime called ‘hirogaru sky precure’ in which hirogaru is a play on words with ‘hero girl’. So that’s fun.
世界 — sekai — world
知らない — shiranai — unknown/I don’t know
宣告せよ — senkoku seyo — pronounce/declare. Uses the imperative form.
‘to the spreading world, to the unknown world, declare yourself!’
There’s enough English in the chorus that we’re not going to have to spend a whole lot of time, but there are a couple of noteworthy things.
You say No No No
なんて It’s no joke.
なんて — nante — is one of those filler words which I don’t tend to use much. I’m more likely to say なんか(nanka), which seems similar and feels interchangeable to me, and means ‘kind of/sort of’ or ‘y’know’ — one of those words you might use to let someone know you’re still speaking as you rack your brain for the word you actually want to use. So ‘you say no no no it’s kinda not a joke’ is I think what they’re going for. The lyrics as written are ‘it’s not a joke’, but Saiki has a habit of compressing English syllables (looking at you, ‘Situation’), so ‘no joke’ fits better to my ear. Wotevs.
I wanna believe that
誰が解んだよ
だから keep running
もっと keep running
誰が解んだよ — dare ga wakan-dayo — dare is ‘who’. ‘wakan dayo’ is a colloquial contraction of わかるなのですよ(wakaru na no desu yo). A phrase ending in ‘n-dayo’ tends to feel like an explanation of a thing intended to have the listener feel a sense of shared understanding with the speaker. The kanji they use (解) is not the one I’d expect to see, but frankly I don’t do enough reading to say authoritatively how unusual it is. Usually when someone says ‘understand’, they tend to write ‘分かる’ and not ‘解る’. If someone out there wants to chime in about that, go nuts. I can look it up, but in this case is there a specific reason we can point to for using this character? Stylistic choice? Dunno.
だから — dakara — so/consequently/therefore
もっと — more
so keep running, run harder
黙れ follow me up
叫べ follow me up
黙れ — damare — literally the command ‘shut up’ (in conversation this would be considered incredibly rude. Don’t say this to folks unless you want them to go away and never come back)
叫べ — sakebe — literally the command ‘shout out’
So in effect ‘shut up and follow me up, shout out and follow me up’
握る 最大値求め
This bit is short, but made me have to stop and think about it. The official translation is not what I’d have gone with if I hadn’t been able to refer to it.
握る — nigiru — grasp/clutch
最大値 — saidaichi — saidai (greatest) chi (value)
求め — motome — request, demand
Nigiru stands on its own. It’s not connected to what follows, so it’s effectively a single word sentence that on the face of it seems to mean grab or grasp or clutch. ‘saidaichi motome’ seems to go together — demand the highest value. The official translation of nigiru goes with ‘hold fast’, which makes sense if it is indeed intended as a single word sentence. So I’ll take the help and go with ‘Hold fast. Insist on the best.’
未知なる場所へ 未知なる物へ
未知 — michi — unknown. Fun fact, the kanji literally mean ‘sheep’ and ‘wisdom’ — so sheep wisdom — i.e. nothing
なる — naru — Another word that has a bunch of possible meanings. Most commonly ‘become’, but not here. Not exactly sure what nuance it adds here beyond the meaning of the word itself. Happy to be enlightened.
場所 — basho — place
へ — a ‘particle’ that indicates a sense of ‘towards’ as opposed to ‘to’ (which would be the particle ‘ni’)
物 — mono — thing
I’ll take the ‘hello’s’ as read.
Cracking on to the next verse
行く手 hinder 変わる situation
行く手 — yukute — path, way
変わる — kawaru — change
‘yukute hinder’ — my/the path is hindered (probably), ‘kawaru situation’ — the situation changes. I have a head-canon conversation between Miku and Saiki the latter says ‘how the fuck am I supposed to fit four syllables into two? I’m not fucking Eminem’ at which point Miku goes and writes Influencer out of spite. (head-canon, yeah? this didn’t actually happen don’t @ me).
危ないくらいが It’s just right
危ない — abunai — dangerous
くらい — kurai — about/approximately
‘approaching the point of being dangerous is just right (for me)’
油断大敵
created you life
created you life
created you
oh No
油断大敵 — yudantaiteki — is a 4-character idiom (yoji-jukugo) that means ‘don’t drop your guard’ or ‘carelessness is the enemy’
Created you, life’ is probably intended to mean that ‘life has shaped you’, but the schoolboy in me that refuses to die, sees the possibility of it also meaning ‘accidentally I, a babbe in your base’ so the subsequent ‘oh no’ makes me chuckle. On one hand it fits with one’s path being hindered and the situation changing, but yeah I think stretching the analogy further is drawing a long bow.
紙一重 貫く覚悟の調子はどう？
紙一重 — kami hitoe — paper thin
貫く — tsuraneku — pierce/skewer/run through but also (and in this case actually) ‘to persist/maintain’. Isn’t Japanese fun?
覚悟の調子 — kakugo no choushi — the condition of your resolve
は — wa (ha)— subject marker particle. You can think of it as ‘as for this thing,’ e.g. watashi ha is often translated as ‘I am’, but the more literal translation is closer to ‘as for me’.
どう？ — dou — ‘how is’?
Yeah this one was tougher for me to parse. I think there is some idiomatic meaning in here that I’m not familiar with. ‘kamihitoe’ becomes ‘on a knife edge’ in the official translation, which I can see. ‘tsuraneku’ is a verb I’m less familiar with and if I hadn’t had the official translation to fall back to, I’d have gone with something like ‘piercing your paper thin resolve, how’s that going for you?’ — which would be wrong — it doesn’t really fit what is written, but that’s where my brain went. In fact, the more literal translation, using the right meaning of ‘tsuraneku’ in context is ‘how is maintaining your resolve going?’ — or less awkwardly, using the official translation ‘Are you ready to go through with it?’ The rest of the verse is some fun English whose meaning I will leave as an exercise for the reader.
Next there’s a brief vocal featurette as we build to the next chorus
No No No No
痛みに噛みつけよ
痛み — itami — pain
噛みつけよ — kamitsuke yo — bite down. ‘kamu’ is the plain form ‘to bite’. In this case ‘kamitsuku’ is more ‘chomp down on’ and again they use the imperative form, so be a good doggy and do as you’re told.
Following the chorus we have that banger of a drum & bass breakdown with accompanying vocals
掲げろ Fly the flag
掲げろ — kakagero — put up/hang/hoist (e.g. a notice). In this case, I’d translate it as ‘run it up (the flagpole)’ so ‘run it up and fly the flag’. Time for a guitar solo after which Saiki seamlessly cuts back in with:
高鳴る胸に呼応してる
高鳴る — takanaru — beat/throb
胸 — mune — chest/heart
呼応してる — ko-oushiteru — in unison
Pretty sure you can piece this one together
影さえ光に 廻れ世界
影さえ — kage sae — even shadows
光に — hikari ni — to(ward) the light
廻れ — maware — rotate/revolve around. Again it’s the imperative form, so I read this as ‘made to revolve around’
世界 — sekai — world
A world where even shadows (are made to) revolve around the light. My translation differs from the official one. ‘Even shadows turn to light, let the world spin’ — I think that’s incorrect. Change my mind.
Another chorus and then the bridge to take us out
届ける明日を音にして
届ける — todokeru — deliver
明日 — ashita — tomorrow
を音にして — wo oto ni shite — make the sound of
‘making the sound of the tomorrow (we) deliver’
make your day まだ終われない
まだ終われない — mada owarenai — not finished yet. Using owarenai, as opposed to owaranai — my read on this is more ‘we can’t finish yet’ as opposed to ‘we’re not finished yet’.
たとえ遠く居ても
たとえ — tatoe — even if
遠く居ても — toku ite mo — (you are) far away
聴こえぬ声に耳澄まし
聴こえぬ声 — kikoenu koe — inaudible voice
耳澄まし — mimi zumashi — strain to hear. This was a fun one I was unfamiliar with. sumashi can also mean ‘clear soup’ and the verb has a bunch of meanings around making stuff clear, so another fun overloaded verb that is also sort of a noun.
make your choice 連れていくよ
連れていくよ — tsurete iku yo — (I’ll) lead (you) there. This is nice and kind of reassuring after getting bossed about to this point. You can’t be all whip and no sweets.
世界に響け
世界に響け — sekai ni hibike — make it echo (throughought) the world. Imperative form again, so back to business as usual is our Saiki. Fun fact, ‘Hibiki’ is the name of a well known Japanese whisky, which I’m quite sure Misa would be familiar with. I have one of the old hand painted bottles in a box somewhere. Misa would be one of the few people on the planet I’d open that bottle for.
Other than a few more hello’s that rounds out the lyrics for Domination. If you found this fun/useful/informative/interesting, let me know.