Metro-lyrics:  Comparing X-Japan’s “Last Song”

with Harriet Stowe’s “Still Still with Thee”

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Department of Liberal Education

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

Obviously when you sing the last song, it is the last song you sing as a human being. When the morning comes with silver linings taking over, it is the sun breaking silver around dark raining clouds of the night. A rainy night. A night full of rain and questions. Pain, suffering, cries. And the more the one suffering tries to find answers to the questions, all is in a circle. There is no answer. The night is rainy and dark. He was watching the stars of the night. Bright and beautiful but did not realize he was in a story that would end because if the sun comes up the next day the stars will no longer shine. Normally actors know the story they are in but this actor of x-Japan does not know the story he is in. He watch stars but he did not know there is an end to all this. In pain, in suffering and with cries he goes through the night seeking answers but there are none but circles.

The sky is reflecting his heart which is dark during the night, stormy in the rain. Full of pain. But when the morning comes, he will read the last line.

It is like a book he is reading. The book of his own life. The rain of the night feels endless and he walks the walk of life in this rain and it feels endless. It is not going to stop, so it seems. Yet, that is the actor part that does not know the story he is in, since it is going to stop. There is a change in the morning since the silver lining will come on the top of the dark clouds. The rain will stop before the morning and when the rain stops, he will turn the last page of the first chapter of his life. Somehow, this reader wish the night would not end. He asks whether it is wrong to hope the night would not end? He asks whether it is right to wish to live forever in this dark life, in the rain, in pain, in suffering and with cries. Is it wrong not to wish for change in the morning? He knows it is not wrong to sing the last song. Why? All humans are singing last songs. All are dying. When the last song is sung, forever fades. The forever that the singer or reader or actor experience in this dark night is something he wishes would be forever, but in reality it cannot be that way. It has to end. That is why his wished “forever” of this life, the desire to live forever and not die, will fade in the morning when he in fact will die. It is the human not knowing what awaits him in the next life and when the morning comes, he sees red and blue and a silver lining, and knows that he will be in the next chapter of his life.

Yoshiko, the piano player plays this beautiful song but the sad thing about the whole context, is that the main singer that appears in the video on the screen during the show, actually was found dead at his house with a towel around his neck. They suspected that he tried a neck-hydro therapy for sore throats, but there is speculation that he committed suicide. Of course his team members had no answers about this trauma. They also were actors watching the stars and their friend was also one, not realizing the night and story had an end. They also wished it would never end. But it did. And Hideo was found dead. This was the last song of the group x-Japan. When you listen to this and try to understand their lyrics, which is metro-lyrics, you cannot help to think of the other night-song by Harriet B. Stowe in 1855, Still Still with Thee.

In her song the morning is beautiful since this life ends and the Sun of Righteousness, Christ comes and resurrection takes place and the person is with God. The person is also alone, amid mystic shadows, just like the actor of x-Japan who is alone in this story, watching the stars. Lovelier than the morning daylight is the sweet consciousness, that the person will be with God.

Also in her song the stars rest in the morning. There is also an end to the story of life in her song, but the dew is calm and the morning fresh. In x-Japan “Last Song” the morning has a silver lining.

She says that the soul in pain looks up to God in prayer and the sweetness is to wake up and find God there in the morning. The last paragraph captivates this wonderful thought of this life and night ending, with its pain and suffering and tears but when the Morning Sun Christ will come, resurrection will take place and the glorious thought will be “I am with Thee”.

Source:

1.     X-Japan, “Last Song” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRAOU5nN3fg

2.     Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/x/x_japan/the_last_song.html

3.     http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/s/t/stilstil.htm

4.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RfoiZjdOww Song sung under the title “Still Still with Thee” in Youtube.

5.     Lyrics of the song by X-Japan, “Last Song” 1997:

Songtranslators and presenters in this link: (Kenneth W. Hirsch, Ronald N. Miller)

Watching the stars till they're gone

Like an actor all alone

Who never knew the story he was in

Who never knew the story ends.

Like the sky reflecting my heart

All the colors become visible

When the morning begins

I'll read the last line

Owaranai ame dakishimeta yoru ga asa o mukaeru

Kokoro wa mada nureta mama

In endless rain I've been walking

Like a poet feeling pain

Trying to find the answers

Trying to hide the tears

But it was just a circle

That never ends

When the rain stops, I'll turn the page

The page of the first chapter

Kizutsuku dake kizutsuite wakatta hazu no kotae o

Doushite mada toi kaketeru

Am I wrong to be hurt

Am I wrong to feel pain

Am I wrong to be in the rain

Am I wrong to wish the night won't end

Am I wrong to cry

But I know, It's not wrong to sing The Last Song

Cause forever fades

Kigatsukeba mata hikari-yoru no sora o mitsumeteru

Sukoshi-zutsu kiete yuku OUR MEMORIES

Kizutsuku dake kizutsuite wakatta hazu no kotae o

Doushite mada toi kaketeru

I see red

I see blue

But the silver lining gradually takes over

When the morning begins

I'll be in the next chapter

Owaranai ame dakishimeta yoru ga asa o mukaeru

Kokoro wa mada nureta mama

Kizutsuku dake kizutsuite wakatta hazu no kotae o

Doushite mada toi kaketeru

Lyrics of Still Still with Thee (1855):

Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh,

When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee;

Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,

Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee.

Alone with Thee, amid the mystic shadows,

The solemn hush of nature newly born;

Alone with Thee in breathless adoration,

In the calm dew and freshness of the morn.

As in the dawning o’er the waveless ocean

The image of the morning star doth rest,

So in the stillness Thou beholdest only

Thine image in the waters of my breast.

Still, still with Thee, as to each newborn morning,

A fresh and solemn splendor still is given,

So does this blessèd consciousness, awaking,

Breathe each day nearness unto Thee and Heaven.

When sinks the soul, subdued by toil, to slumber,

Its closing eye looks up to Thee in prayer;

Sweet the repose beneath the wings o’ershading,

But sweeter still to wake and find Thee there.

So shall it be at last, in that bright morning,

When the soul waketh and life’s shadows flee;

O in that hour, fairer than daylight dawning,

Shall rise the glorious thought, I am with Thee.