Utsusemi no Koi
Ephemeral Midsummer Love

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Album / Collection: Utazoushi, Ryoufuu no Utage
Track # 6

Description: Tachibana no Tomomasa Song

sung by Inoue Kazuhiko

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Original / Romaji Lyrics	English Translation
Lyrics from Animelyrics.com yoimachi no kami no rusu ni shinonda heya sarasara to hodoku obi wa ruri no koibumi yami wo mau yubi wa shiroku hakanaki chou tsumasaki ga hosoku shinari haru mikazuki	Lyrics from Animelyrics.com In a room kept secret by the absence of the god who waits for twilight, the eloquent murmur of an obi's loosening is a lapis-blue love letter. A finger dancing in darkness is an innocent, ephemeral butterfly on tiptoe upon the gossamer scenery lit by a springtime crescent moon.
Lyrics from Animelyrics.com yuka ni chitta kariginu ga nukegara ni miete... sameru...	Lyrics from Animelyrics.com The hunting garb scattered upon the floor** looks like the casting off of skin... and an awakening...
Lyrics from Animelyrics.com hitori ne no yume   niji wo daku you ni tookute utsukushii kimi wo   mune ni tojikomeru utsusemi no koi yo	Lyrics from Animelyrics.com In my dreams as I sleep alone, like embracing a rainbow, you, distant and beautiful, are captured within my heart; this is an ephemeral midsummer love.*
Lyrics from Animelyrics.com enrai ni me wo samaseba yoru no tobari tsumeato no akai hashi wo kaze ga wataru	Lyrics from Animelyrics.com If the distant thunder wakens you, the breeze wanders  over the crimson arch of nail-marks beneath the curtain of night.***
Lyrics from Animelyrics.com tsumi no naki kimi no hohoemi kono mune no ito (kanji: kinsen) wo... hajiku...	Lyrics from Animelyrics.com As you weep with guilt, your smile breaks all the strings of the harp of my heart.****
Lyrics from Animelyrics.com samidare no yume   niji wo matsu you ni sotto kuchibiru wo yosetai   kimi no hana shizuku setsuna no eien yo	Lyrics from Animelyrics.com In dreams amid the early summer rain, like waiting for a rainbow, I want to brush our lips together, softly, like the dew upon your flowers in this momentary eternity.
Lyrics from Animelyrics.com hitori ne no yume   niji wo daku you ni tookute utsukushii kimi wo   mune ni tojikomeru kurenai (kanji: hi-iro) no yume   niji wo kou you ni sotto kuchibiru ni umetai   atsuku moeru toge utsusemi no koi yo	Lyrics from Animelyrics.com In my dreams as I sleep alone, like embracing a rainbow, you, distant and beautiful, are captured within my heart; In scarlet dreams, like falling in love with a rainbow, I want to bury myself in your lips, secretly, like their fierce-burning  thorns; this is an ephemeral midsummer love.*

Footnotes:

* The dictionary definition of utsusemi is "(n) cicada, cast-off cicada shell, man of this world, the real world", and it has an additional poetic-usage connotation denoting late summer (Julyish). "Man of the world" does seem plausible, because Tomomasa has a reputation as an indolent charmer, but I think it's trying to imply "hollow love"/"husk of love" and "transient love" as much as or more than the "worldly/hedonistic/citified" connotations of "man of the world". Negitoro from the AnimeLyrics forum says that to him it feels equivalent to hakanai. I can't get all that into one English line and still have it sound coherent, so I went with "ephemeral midsummer love" to try to imply the way that the sound of cicadas makes people feel...

** A kariginu is a type of clothing that Heian noblemen wore; the components of it mean "hunter's silks", and I think the image is of the hunter becoming prey, being skinned like that which he hunts, so I didn't want to leave it untranslated the way I might have despite the fact that it has a specific (and somewhat untranslatable without a picture) definition as a unit of clothing.

*** Literally bridge rather than arch, and marks left by fingernails, but I thought that condensing to "arch of nail-marks" sounded better than trying to get all that into one sentence. Also, it's grammatically fuzzy what the image of the curtain of the night was tied to; I also considered giving it as "if, beneath the curtain of night, you are wakened by the distant thunder..."

**** the word is being pronounced in a way that just means "strings," but the kanji written indicate koto (Japanese harp-like instrument) strings. In English "the harp of my heart" sounds more natural than "the koto of my heart," I think.

Translated and transliterated by Risu-chan

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