壊レタ世界ノ歌 || A Song for the Ruined World

壊レタ世界ノ歌
kowareta sekai no uta
A Song for the Ruined World

Vocals: 河野万里奈 (Marina Kawano)
Lyrics: ヨコオタロウ (Yoko Taro)
Composed by: 岡部啓一 (MONACA)
Album: NieR: Automata Official Soundtrack [Official site]

Requested by: Sakura

I don’t normally translate officially licensed songs, let alone ones that already have an official English translation (mainly because they’re a nightmare to deal with in terms of copyright), but I received this as a request and I think the NieR: Automata OST is amazing, so I made an exception. To start off with, I just want to say that the official translation is excellent. I struggle to make translations fit with how a song goes, so I have nothing but respect for people who are able to do that.

Putting all that aside, what makes the official English version different from the Japanese version? The main difference is in the chorus, since the beginning part is quite similar, so that’s what I’ll talk about a bit below.

The song as a whole seems to exist on the boundary between the personal and the collective, nature and machinery, the present and the past. I’m quite fond of that contrast, which I suppose is why I like this game’s aesthetic so much. Though there are some incredibly personal moments in here in which the speaker directly addresses their deity, the chorus moves the focus further out, looking at how a broader congregation of believers reacts to losing their deity. This is the main area of difference – though the official translation maintains ‘we’ from the Japanese version, the focus is on the speaker, who is only “one girl” trying to save everyone.

Finally, I capitalised each instance of ‘You’ to further strengthen the idea that this song is addressed to some sort of higher power. The world is ruined, and I think it’s ruined because its deity has vanished.

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非公式の英訳/Unofficial translation

Salvation fades away
and my body ceases to function.
Even now, the sky is dark.
The clock has stopped
and the machinery has gone quiet.
My voice will not reach You.

The depth of my sins
is a curse upon me
though Your prayers
embrace my tainted soul and provide redemption…

And now
though it is useless, we cry out
a song for the ruined world.
And now
though it is meaningless, we simply pray
for a future by Your side.
Your smiling face from those days vanishes while it is still beautiful.

Here, nature is abundant
and lives are lost.
The wind is still so distant.
Rust is stripped away and blades writhe about
in a forest in which death lurks.

The pain of murdering a promise
is a curse upon me.
Though Your prayers
are atonement for abandoning that final dream…

And now
though it is useless, we cry out
our love for the tainted world.
And now
though it is meaningless, we simply pray
for more time with You.
My sinking consciousness fades away while it is still so gentle.

And now
though it is useless, we cry out
a song for the ruined world.
And now
though it is meaningless, we simply pray
for a future by Your side

And now
though it is useless, we cry out
our love for the tainted world.
And now
though it is meaningless, we pray
for more time with You.

Though my prayers cannot grant me forgiveness…

…I still—