“Haru ni chirikeri, mi wa kareru de gozaimasu.”

Romaji and English translation of the song 「春二散リケリ、身ハ枯レルデゴザイマス。」(“Haru ni chirikeri, mi wa kareru de gozaimasu.”) from the compilation album Dainippon itangeishateki noumiso (gyaku) kaiten zekkyou ongenshuu and the EP COCKAYNE SOUP.

Lyrics originally sung in English are in italics , and words or phrases I felt were implied are in [brackets] in the translation.

I also (usually) put repeats of chorus/verses/stanzas in [brackets] if they’re not written that way in the original lyrics for ease of singing along.

If he writes a word in the lyrics but doesn’t sing it, I put it in light grey to make it easier to skip when singing along.

I usually romajize katakana characters in CAPITALS, and keep punctuation and line spacing as close to the original booklet as possible. If you see me putting spaces before punctuation at the end of a sentence or writing things in mixed-case capitals, that’s because it’s how it was in the booklet.

Any comments I had during the romajization/translation process will be included as footnotes so as not to disturb the flow of the song. They’re not required reading, but Ruki does some pretty nifty things with his lyrics/kanji choices, or sometimes there’s further explanations about words or phrases in there.

“Haru ni chirikeri, mi wa kareru de gozaimasu.”: Romaji

Saiai no anata¹ wa “kata ba” monshirochou
Atashi² ni chikadzuke te wa　    mitsu o susuri, susuru no desu.
Katachi wa koto nari     kotoba mo tsuujinai
Shosen wa musu³ barenu     munashiki kanjou

Dekiai no anata wa “kata ba” monshirochou
Fudou no atashi to yoku niteimasen ka?

“Yume WO miTA higenjitsu kei jiyuu ni mau yume WO miTA”⁴
Yurari fuwari… uwa no sora de shiten wo sadamenu
Anata wa yowaku kawaita manazashi de “shikakui sora” mi agete imashita.
Donna ni atashi ga anata wo aishite mo
Haru ni wa kare yuku sadame⁵ desu mono
Nandomo nandomo anata wo furi mukasou to
Utatta⁶ “junrenka” itsu todokimasuka?

[“Yume WO miTA higenjitsu kei jiyuu ni mau yume WO miTA”
Yurari fuwari… uwa no sora de shiten wo sadamenu
Anata wa yowaku kawaita manazashi de “shikakui sora” mi agete imashita.]

Atashi no mokuzen de harari tochiru⁷ anata
Wakatteru⁸ tsumori deshita dakedo kanashiku.
Nandou mo nandou mo atashi dake mitete to
Tsuzutta “junrenka” mou todokanai…
Muryoku na atashi wa miren bana karashite
Sugu ni demo anata no ato wo yukimasu
Rainen no haru ni wa mata tsubomi⁹ wo sakashi
Anata wo aisuruwa kare kusaru MADE…

“In the waning springtime, one’s existence withers away.”: Translation

You, my beloved, are     a white butterfly with only “one wing”
Come close to me     so [together] we can drink that nectar; drink it up
A different shape,     words you can’t get across
After all, there’s no real bond [between us];     we’re devoid of feelings [for each other]

But you are so compassionate, my “one-winged” white butterfly

That’s not like unyielding old me, is it?
“I dreamed an incredible dream that I was floating so freely”
You softly sway… Daydreams don’t define your point of view
With a look of longing, you raised your eyes towards that “patch of sky”.
I still loved you no matter what
It’s fated for the springtime to fade away and die
Again and again, over and over you turn around
Will the “continuing love song” you sang reach me?

[“I dreamed an incredible dream that I was floating so freely”
You softly sway… Daydreams don’t define your point of view
With a look of longing, you raised your eyes towards that “patch of sky”.]

Then right before my eyes you became confused and befuddled
I tried to understand     but instead it made me sad.
Over and over, again and again I tried to see it
But that “continuing love song” you wrote     still can’t reach me…
Helpless, I regretfully let that flower wither
Soon after, you’ll die as well
Maybe in the springtime next year     that fragile bud may yet bloom
I’ll love you until you die and rot away…

I usually try to include extra words in [brackets] – but he does a lot of scat-like extra repetition of words and syllables in the beginning of this song that is just… all over the place. (In the first line alone he does it twice, with Saiai[ai-ai-ai] and [kata-ka-ka]kata ba.) Anyway, you’re on your own for that. Sorry.

He uses a really unusual second kanji for anata (貴雄) – it’s an uncommon enough usage that he included the pronunciation of the word in furigana above it in the lyric booklet. The second kanji, 雄 (pronounced osu when read on its own and meaning “male [animal]”) is used as the first character in lots of kanji compounds that refer to males and/or typically male attributes such as “tomcat”, “bull”, “buck”, “manly”, “bravery”, etc. Therefore, it can be inferred by his purposeful use of this particular second kanji that the “you” addressed in the song is most likely male.
Throughout the song, he sings atashi when the hiragana for watakushi is printed in the booklet. Atashi is a typically feminine pronoun for “I” or “me”; watakushi is a very polite form of “I” / “me”, and is not gender-specific; it can also mean “private matters” or “selfishness.” Both words, while different in pronunciation and hiragana spelling (and to a subtle degree, meaning) use the same kanji character (私); therefore, he was probably being very deliberate when he spelled watakushi out in hiragana as opposed to using kanji to make the word switch obvious. Like the previous note, it can probably be inferred that the singer (“I” in the song) is female based on the use of atashi.
He sings 結 (musu – ending, conclusion, union), while 結合 (ketsugou – combination, union) is written.
Throughout this whole line, he uses katakana versions of the non-kanji syllables instead of regular hiragana liked you’d expect. I usually try to write anything that was originally in katakana in capital letters, which is why the romaji is mixed-case. He does this fairly frequently. In this case, it’s possibly to indicate someone different is speaking, since the line is in quotes: a guy – back to that anata comment – so maybe he used it here because the katakana makes the line look “rougher.” IDK.
He sings 定め (sadame – fate, karma, rule), while 宿命 (shukumei – fate, destiny, predestination) is written.
He sings 歌った (utatta – sang), while two separate kanji 歌 (uta – song) and the first part of the kanji 叫び (sakebi – shout, scream, cry out) are written; this gives the impression that he’s talking about singing at the top of your lungs so that someone can hear you.
He sings とちる (tochiru – to be flustered or confused), while 散る (chiru – to scatter, to blur) is written.
Ruki again uses his 理解 (rikai – comprehend) / 解 (waka – understand/realize) switch. See my comment in the D.L.N translation for my thoughts on this.
He sings 蕾 (tsubomi – flower bud), while two separate kanji 短命 (tanmei – short-lived) and 種 (tane – seed) are written, giving the sense of a delicate or fragile flower bud that doesn’t have a long life.