正邪の後進 || Seija’s Reversal

正邪の後進
Seija no koushin
Seija’s Reversal

Vocals: どみにゃん, Roverta, 中雑魚酒菜, and 菊一倖殷
Arranged by: 中雑魚酒菜 (Sakana Nakasako)
Album: Dancing Phantasmagoria
Circle: 街角麻婆豆 (Machikado-Mapoze)
Event: C86
Original theme: Reverse Ideology [リバースイデオロギー]

This one is a fun track from one of my most loved Touhou circles. I know I mentioned before that I like to translate things with ‘singability’ in mind, but I ignored that rule for this translation. I went light, and (slightly?) liberal at points. This song is just so lighthearted – it’s basically Seija boasting about how evil she is. Imagine her sitting there, speaking really quickly, beaming with pride. Of course, the official image that goes with this song tells a completely different story. I wonder whose version of the narrative is correct…?

歌詞

すわ事件だ　巫女出動　弾幕勝負中に
動きを逆さにして　妨害するのが快感
相手からは　感謝されて　困惑していたら
ピチュッた巫女ブチ切れ　泣いて退散

地図片手に　山を目指す　白黒魔女の邪魔
看板入れ替えて　迷ったところに追い撃ち
箒奪い　橋落として　着いた森の奥で
レアキノコ発見　つい舌打ち

お尋ね者　道具を手に　目指すは下剋上
ズル・嘘・裏切りと　何でもアリが方針
追手だらけ　襲いかかる　回避不能弾幕
逃げる背は見せない　いざ後進

Romanisation

suwa jiken da miko shutsudou danmaku shoubu chuu ni
ugoki wo sakasa ni shite bougai suru no ga kaikan
aite kara wa kansha sarete kon’waku shiteitara
pichutta miko buchigire naite taisan

chizu katate ni yama wo mezasu shirokuro majo no jama
kan’ban ire kaete mayotta tokoro ni oi uchi
houki ubai hashi otoshite tsuita mori no oku de
rea kinoko hakken tsui shitauchi

otazunemono dougu wo te ni mezasu wa gekokujou
zuru. uso. uragiri to nan demo ari ga houshin
otte darake osoikakaru kaihi funou danmaku
nigeru se wa misenai iza koushin

Translation

During the Suwa incident—when the Miko set out—whilst she was having a danmaku fight,
I reversed her movements! Disturbing others is such a pleasant feeling…
She was ‘thanked’ by her opponent, and whilst she was bewildered,
that Miko went ‘Pichun,’ flipped out, and ran away, crying…

A map in one hand, aiming for the mountain, went that black-and-white magician…
I swapped the signposts around, and I attacked her whilst she was lost!
I stole her broom, dropped her off the bridge, and when she finally got inside the forest…
She discovered a rare mushroom!—And I was smacking my lips…

I’m a wanted girl. With my tools in my hands, I’m aiming for a complete turnabout!
Cunningness. Lies. Treachery. Anything goes—that’s my policy!
With nothing but pursuers behind me, I’m being attacked by impossible danmaku…
But I won’t show them my fleeing back! Now—reversal!

Posted

12 December 2014

Touhou, Translations, 歌詞

Releska

Tags:

C86, Dancing Phantasmagoria, Machikado-Mapoze

Comments

4 responses to “正邪の後進 || Seija’s Reversal”

Anon

17 March 2015

First off, thank you so much for doing this, I’ve listened to this song many times over and always wondered what the lyrics meant!

But upon examining the picture that goes with it, I can’t help but think you may have inverted some of the lyrics. I see you’ve noted there’s a bit of a discrepancy: are you sure the lyrics aren’t about Seija being thanked by Reimu’s opponents and being driven off in tears when the miko (who went ‘pichun’) comes back with a vengeance? The way you’ve written them here it seems as if Reimu’s the one being thanked and flying off crying afterwards.

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1. releska
  
  17 March 2015
  
  Hi there! Thanks for the comment 🙂 I see where you’re coming from, and I must admit that I doubted myself a bit to begin with when I saw the picture. But, I guess the ‘trick’ of this song is that it’s told from Seija’s point of view – Seija being the very embodiment of ‘reversal.’ So basically, she’s an unreliable narrator. The true events are, as you said, the ‘opposite’ of what’s being described; hence, the existence of the picture, which shows us what ‘really’ happened.
  
  But yeah, the way I’ve translated it is absolutely consistent with the original lyrics, which is what leads me to the above interpretation 🙂
  
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Kappashiro

16 December 2014

Thanks for the translation! I’ll add lyrics to my video as soon as I find some available time! Keep up with good as always! Also found of this circle is my friend. He send me all of his works a while ago as thanks for introducing his circle to foreign touhou fans hehe. He is really kind and generous guy I ever met! Anyways keep up with good work as always! <3!

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1. releska
  
  16 December 2014
  
  Thanks for the support! I’ll do my best 🙂 Machikado-Mapoze is really a wonderful circle – it’s a shame that there aren’t more translations of this wonderful circle’s work… hopefully I can fix that.
  
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