A MOTH UNDER THE SKIN

Romaji and English translation of the song A MOTH UNDER THE SKIN from the album DIM by the GazettE.

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.

A MOTH UNDER THE SKIN: Romaji

[A sense of beauty… Supply and demand
A sense of beauty
A sense of beauty… Supply and demand
A sense of beauty]

Yukashita no High society sungeki no kyouki wa utsukushii
Abnormal culture＝Modern normal
Jimetsuteki de utsukushii

A sense of beauty… Supply and demand

Hidoku kouka na Masquerade mahishite yuku kaikan ni oboreru
Abnormal beauty＝Modern beauty
Hikitsutta emi wa kirei

Me no mae de temanei te takumi ni hane fun¹ wo maku

Fake ni etsuraku Alcohol jatokenu ART
Hyoumen dake ja Without a doubt
freedom of expression yoku dekiteru
The product of the sense of beauty
Orange no Head

You resemble a butterfly
It is only a pretense
You forget to have been called a moth sometime

A sense of beauty…

[Fake ni etsuraku Alcohol jatokene ART
Hyomen dake ja Without a doubt
freedom of expression yoku dekiteru
The product of the sense of beauty
Orange no Head]

A sense of beauty… Supply and demand
Tashaga tsukutta hyojou demo
[A sense of beauty… Supply and demand]
Yuiitsu no sonzai

Yukashita no High society.

A MOTH UNDER THE SKIN: Translation

[A sense of beauty… Supply and demand
A sense of beauty
A sense of beauty… Supply and demand
A sense of beauty]

The rapturous performances of basement-level³ High society are beautiful
Abnormal culture＝Modern normal
Self-destructiveness is beautiful

A sense of beauty… Supply and demand

An obscenely expensive Masquerade drowns you in paralyzing pleasure
Abnormal beauty＝Modern beauty
That forced smile is lovely

Nimble, beckoning hands scatter feathery powder⁴ before your eyes

Fake pleasure and Alcohol won’t melt together into ART
It’s just a façade Without a doubt
freedom of expression, skillfully executed
The product of the sense of beauty
Orange Head⁵

You resemble a butterfly
It is only a pretense
You forget to have been called a moth sometime

A sense of beauty…

[Fake pleasure and Alcohol won’t melt together into ART
It’s just a façade Without a doubt
freedom of expression, skillfully executed
The product of the sense of beauty
Orange Head]

A sense of beauty… Supply and demand
Even the expressions on everyone else’s faces
[A sense of beauty… Supply and demand]
Your very existence is unique

Basement-level High society.

粉 here is pronounced fun, but in typical Ruki fashion, it seems he’s using a pronunciation different than you’d usually find when this kanji is on its own for poetic/mental image purposes. When pronounced fun, it’s usually combined with other kanji/hiragana into compounds meaning things like “mineral dust/fine particles/pulverized/fine powder” (among other unrelated word compounds). When on its own, it’s typically pronounced ko or kona, which means “flour/dust/powder.” Fun evokes the image of a much finer dust/powder than ko/kona does.
He says something in the background here that is not included in the lyrics.
The word 床下 yukashita literally means “under the floor” – I believe it’s meant to be a criticism of their morals/actions rather than a physical location. I used “basement-level” rather than “underground” because underground sounds more secretive – and I don’t think the activity is being hidden per se, but it’s definitely base and debauched and beneath the values and ideals of a normal society. “They think they’re ‘High society’ but morally they’re ‘lower-than-the-low.'”
This is the powder from the first footnote. Wild guess, cocaine. The whole song seems to be about the debauched pleasures of so-called “High society.”
This could either be said “Orange Head” or “Head of Orange.” Since he was talking about how they think they’re butterflies but forgot that they used to be plain old moths (aka, butterfly on the outside, but a moth under the skin – look what she did there!), he could possibly be referring to a species of moth that has a metallic-blueish body, dark wings, and an orange head, but it’s a North American moth, not one native to Japan. Or maybe there’s one like that there that I haven’t found. That’s my best guess.