JOURNAL: Otohiko

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  • Over-thoughtful song time, ha 2005-09-13 01:29:49 Yea.

    Y'see, that seems to be my hobby lately - translating DDT Lyrics into English. Odd as it may seem, the fact is, that sort of helps me deal with them. They really hit me quite hard since I rediscovered several of their records about a month ago.

    So...




    DDT – When you are one
    (Translated from Russian)

    When you are one, when you’re a oneness of shooting shadows
    In a still forest, among the rocks and ice…

    And when the moon crawls on the skin of those frost-bitten birches
    Up to their throat in worlds of sleep
    And in your hand a knife, a robber’s knife of steel
    A satiated lyre

    And you see voices, but not alive
    So indistinct by sound
    Close by the firs, as dry reeds ring

    When on the far shore
    Lights of the village
    Howl to the sky as some disheveled dogs,
    Towards the arc

    On these dead nights come to the lake
    All who have fallen, the killed, the blind
    They shuffle, as they feel their way through darkness
    And unblessed ashes
    All the forgotten…

    And when your telescope has shattered in the heavens
    And when the moon, uniting chaos
    Into a single and a whole expanse
    Froze all that’s raw and inconsistent
    And all the laundry hanging in the yard

    And when alone, alone, alone you’re playing war
    So quiet, so deceitful

    I understand, it’s a delusion that my century resembles
    I’m uninvited there
    Footsteps as words on the snow
    Carelessly rhyme

    These correlations never will create the moon
    Of them unlikely
    Is a new person to be born

    And yet still I am one with these ill clouds
    This freckled moon
    The woods, the lake

    And with the corpses
    And with the corpses
    And with the corpses...

    ***

    This is the very sparse opening track, more poem than a song, from DDT’s 2002 album Edinochestvo - which is a play combining words “Odinochestvo” meaning ‘Loneliness’ or ‘Solitude’ and “Edin” (closely related to root “Odin-” meaning the number 1) – ‘One’ or ‘Whole’.
    ‘Oneness’ is probably the closest translation, even if ‘Edinochestvo’ is technically not an actual word; but semantically speaking – it’s really a very interesting combination, because it really transforms the meaning of solitude and loneliness from their classical understanding as an inner emptiness and detachment from the world around you to instead balance and unity with the real world.
    The poem consistently sends shivers up my spine nowadays, even if it took me a few weeks to sort of wrap my mind around the possible meanings.

    It’s also a very interesting comparison to lyrics of the track that follows it, “Poet”, which also resonates loudly with another dimension of “Edinochestvo” I closely relate to, albeit it does so with quite a serving of angst. 
  • AMV Radioage 2005-09-01 01:57:52 Heh, being a guest on there tonight was more fun than I'd expected.

    Partly fun at my expense, but hey - all in good spirit. Scintilla's voice is awesome for some reason. Well, really, both of his voices.

    If anyone wondered about the uh... squeaks, sobs and coughs just before the radio cut out... that was me. A certain editor in question was exploiting a weakness of mine towards a dumb joke by IM just that moment. I thank my lucky stars that didn't happen earlier in the show, otherwise there would've been an inexplicable editor in tears of laughter... live on AMV radio x__x.

     
  • New profile pic! 2005-08-12 00:29:43 Got a camera in my posession today, took a bunch of pics.

    Thanks to... the editor in question... for editing the picture colours to look good for me :D 
  • Nothing is compulsory, but some things are neccesary. 2005-08-11 02:10:51 Alright, NOW I'm sleepy.

    And still in decently high spirits.

    David Sylvian's music has been either blowing my head off or putting me in a stupor lately. Or both, more likely. In any case, it consistently 'kills' me on the spot, for better or worse.

     
  • All my funny ways... 2005-08-10 02:21:56 I'm seemingly very, very short on sleep and food lately. But in a very good mood nonetheless.

    I will, perhaps surprisingly, want to express my recent - or perhaps not so recent - irritation with the .org forums and IRC chat. As much as I have a lot of respect for a notable but limited group of people that participate on both of these, I've been finding these to be increasingly annoying (intolerably so in the case of #AMV, which I gave up on) and pointless to me personally. So, there may soon come a day where Oto will, for all purposes, bow out of regular .org participation. Or not. I do know that AMV's aren't something I intend to lose interest quite yet though.

    How's that for an "A-M-V.org journal"? :roll: 
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