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.