haruka na sekai (A Distant World)

  • Lyrics & Music: Kazuya Yoshii
  • Arrangement: The Yellow Monkey

Original Lyrics

遥かな世界へ 夜明けは
君と溶けたままで 眠りたい
遥かな世界へ 幻のような
君の中で眠りたい 眠りたい

嵐が胸の中で欲望に変わる
二人は苦しまぎれに
肉を切る
無我夢中の剃刀で裂けた傷をふさぐ
渇いたカサブタを
またはがして

目頭が乾いた朝に
血は約束した
もう痛くない

二人の恋は草花トゲだらけの草花
首にからまるこの恋はこばめない
石で性器をつぶしても
君を好きでいられるから
静かに時をまつのさ見つめるのさ

今はしおれた夜だけど
血は約束した
もう痛くない

遥かな世界へ
夜明けは君と溶けたままで眠ろう
遥かな世界へ
幻のような君の中で眠ろう

いたくない もう痛くない

星を飲んだら月になれる
月を操れば神に逢える
神に頼んだら時は止まる
時を止めたら君といられる

僕の中に流れてる
血が約束した
もう痛くない

遥かな世界へ
夜明けは君と髪をからませ眠ろう
遥かな世界へ
幻のような 君の中で…
遥かな世界へ
夜明けは君と溶けたままで眠ろう
遥かな世界へ
幻のような 君の中で眠ろう

イタクナイ モウ イタクナイ
モウ イタクナイ モウ イタクナイ…


Romanized Lyrics

haruka na sekai e yoake wa
kimi to toketa mama de nemuritai
haruka na sekai e maboroshi no you na
kimi no naka de nemuritai nemuritai

arashi ga mune no naka de yokubou ni kawaru
futari wa kurushi magire ni
niku wo kiru
mugamuchuu no kamisori de saketa kizu wo fusagu
kawaita kasabuta wo
mata hagashite

megashira ga kawaita asa ni
chi wa yakusoku shita
mou itakunai

futari no koi wa kusabana toge darake no kusabana
kubi ni karamaru kono koi wa kobamenai
ishi de seiki wo tsubushite mo
kimi wo suki de irareru kara
shizuka ni toki wo matsu no sa mitsumeru no sa

ima wa shioreta yoru dakedo
chi wa yakusoku shita
mou itakunai

haruka na sekai e
yoake wa kimi to toketa mama de nemurou
haruka na sekai e
maboroshi no you na kimi no naka de nemurou

itakunai mou itakunai

hoshi wo nondara tsuki ni nareru
tsuki wo ayatsureba kami ni aeru
kami ni tanondra toki wa tomaru
toki wo tometara kimi to irareru

boku no naka ni nagareteru
chi ga yakusoku shita
mou itakunai

haruka na sekai e
yoake wa kimi to kami wo karamase nemurou
haruka na sekai e
maboroshi no you na kimi no naka de…
haruka na sekai e
yoake wa kimi to toketa mama de nemurou
haruka na sekai e
maboroshi no you na kimi no naka de nemurou

itakunai mou itakunai
mou itakunai mou itakunai…


Translated Lyrics

Toward a distant world, that’s where the daybreak heads to
I want to fall asleep as we melt together
Toward a distant world, like an illusion
I want to sleep, I want to sleep within you

The storm in my heart changes to desire
We cut meat
As we’re lost in anguish
The wounds from cutting ourselves while shaving heal
And then we tear off the dried scabs
And it happens all over again

On a morning when the corners of my eyes were dried
My blood promised me
That it won’t hurt anymore

Our love is a flowering pant, one full of thorns
I won’t refuse this love, coiled around my neck
Even if I crushed my genitals with a rock
I’d still be able to love you
So I’ll quietly wait for the right time, gazing

The night’s withered away at this point
But my blood promised me
That it won’t hurt anymore

Toward a distant world, that’s where the daybreak heads to
Let’s fall asleep as we melt together
Toward a distant world, like an illusion
I’m going to sleep within you

It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt anymore

If I swallow a star, I can be the moon
If I control the moon, I can meet God
If I ask God, he can stop time
And if he stops time, I can be with you

Flowing inside of me
My blood promised me
That it won’t hurt anymore

Toward a distant world, that’s where the daybreak heads to
Let’s fall asleep as our hair entangles
Toward a distant world, like an illusion
Within you…
Toward a distant world, that’s where the daybreak heads to
Let’s fall asleep as we melt together
Toward a distant world, like an illusion
I’m going to sleep within you

It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt anymore
It doesn’t hurt anymore, it doesn’t hurt anymore…


Notes

Haruka na Sekai - Yoshii Before Intro (Jaguar Hard Pain Tour, 1994)
Yoshii just before the intro begins (Jaguar Hard Pain Tour, 1994)

Haruka na Sekaiv is the odd duck of this album. Something about the way the guitar sounds in the intro is really grating to me. Maybe it’s the specific effect used, maybe it’s the way it’s recorded, I’m not sure. But I kind of avoided this song for awhile because I just didn’t like how it started. It’s less bothersome when the rest of the instruments chime in, and I can’t think of another Yemon song where I would really say this about the guitar part. It also could have used a minute or so trimmed off of it, since it feels just a bit too long.

Haruka na Sekai - Emma Solo (Jaguar Hard Pain Tour, 1994)
Emma during the solo (Jaguar Hard Pain Tour, 1994)

There are some good things to be found here though: The vocal melody is great, and is definitely what you come to this song for. And while there are some lyrical oddities that seem un-Yoshii like (“Even if I crushed my genitals with a rock”, and the perhaps overly poetic “sleep within you” stuff), there’s a lot of great sentiment here. In particular, the entire bridge part (“If I swallow a star, I can be the moon…”). And ending the chorus in “It doesn’t hurt anymore”, with the way it’s sung, really works.

Haruka na sekai - Stage (Mekara Uroko 29, 2018)
Mekara Uroko 29, 2018

In terms of the theme of the album, this is the end of Jaguar’s story (even though we still have one more track left after this). It’s Jaguar looking back on everything that’s happened to him, and just being glad that it can all be over now. He can move on to “a distant world” and maybe just be with Mary. He finally realizes (or I guess it’s his soul in another body that’s realizing this) that in the end she’s all that he wanted, and that that they had something real together.

Yoshii’s feelings about this song were really mixed as well, which explains it not being played very often (see below for information on that). In a later interview he stated that he didn’t really see the value in it around when it was recorded, and it took him re-listening to the album later on while recording Sicks in England to realize it. He’s also talked about how he feels this is a song about a more pure love than what he’d written up until this point.

I think of “Haruka na Sekai” as being different from the eccentric and ephemeral love songs I’d written up until then: For the first time I wrote lyrics about extremely “pure love”.

Kazuya Yoshii, In Search of Lost Love (Ushinawareta Ai wo Motomete)

Up until recently (as of the time I’m writing this), this song had only been performed live once (that I know of): Toward the end of the set-list of the Jaguar Hard Pain tour in 1994. But it popped up in the set-list of 2018’s Mekara Uroko 29 as well.