 Single: Babel
2017.11.15 Lingua Sounda/Victor
Babel
Lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi
Music: Imai Hisashi
Dark of the universe
I embody oblivion
All things under heaven
Gossamer grace in the moonlit night
Flesh of the lamb
And the wine crimson and red
I want more
I want more
Blood I crave ah give me more1
Tonight am I through Heaven towering
Right to the place where you stand
Call me Babel
Pleasure and joy
Anger and sorrow
Unto the end of desire
Call me Babel
Love the pale moonlight2
Caught in the Fear, if you...3
Fantasy, illusion you are
Here or not here if I...
I myself am nothing but a dream
Oh see the void
Split apart and soak me in
It burns
It burns
How I thirst, losing my wits
Tonight am I through Heaven towering
Until I tremble and sleep
Call me Babel
Pleasure and joy
Anger and sorrow
So do I crumble and fall4
Call me Babel
Love the pale moonlight
Oh see the void
Split apart and soak me in
I want more
I want more
Blood I crave ah give me more
Tonight am I through Heaven towering
Right to the place where you stand
Call me Babel
Pleasure and joy
Anger and sorrow
Unto the end of desire
Call me Babel
Love the pale moonlight
Tonight am I through Heaven towering
Until I tremble and sleep
Call me Babel
Pleasure and joy
Anger and sorrow
So do I crumble and fall
Call me Babel
Love the pale moonlight
Note on the title: "Babel" refers to a famous story from the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, in which the ancient Babylonians, having survived the Great Flood of Noah, set about to build a great tower as a safeguard against a second flood, saying, "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." God looks on and notes, "Behold, the people are one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them." To prevent the people from reaching Heaven, God confuses the people's language. Unable to communicate with one another because they all speak different languages, the people give up building the tower and scatter off into various splinter groups. The site of the tower is named "Babel" because it sounds like "Babylonia," but also like the Hebrew word for "confusion." The word "babel" has been adopted into English to refer to a scene of noise and confusion, or a mixture of many languages.
In addition to being an origin story about why people speak different languages, the Babel story is also a story of the folly of hubris. People seeking to become equal with god are invariably brought low. Stories about the folly of hubris abound in all religious traditions, and stories similar to the Babel story appear in many non-Christian mythologies, including pre-Christian Sumerian mythology and even completely unrelated mythologies of American indigenous peoples.
The Tower of Babel has been the topic of much interest and exploration in literature and theology since ancient times, and its relationship to actual historical structures and leaders has been long debated. Many historical scholars think that the story of Babel was most likely inspired by the ancient Sumerian ziggurat at Babylon, Etemenanki. Etemenanki was a massive religious structure which, if it had been completed, would have been topped by a temple, but the construction was never finished. Alexander the Great ordered Etemenanki to be restored from the ruined state in which he found it, but when the work did not progress as swiftly as he hoped, he ordered the whole thing demolished and rebuilt again from the ground up. However, he died before the project could be completed, so Etemenanki was lost forever.
Many famous artists have depicted the Tower of Babel in their work, often depicting the tower as a spiral-shaped structure, which was inspired by records of Sumerian architecture, Muslim architecture, and the Roman Coliseum, among others. Of the artistic representations of Babel, the most famous was painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1563. In fact, it is Bruegel's Tower of Babel which directly inspired this song. Imai gave the song the working title "Babel," stating that the bass line sounded like a the rumbling of a large building about to fall down. Sakurai stated in Issue #85 of the Fish Tank newsletter that he built the lyrics off Imai's working title in part because Pieter Bruegel's Babel painting was being exhibited in Tokyo at the time, and also because a fan had sent him a re-imagining of Bruegel's Babel by Japanese artist Higuchi Yuuko, which he found "cute and charming." About the lyrics, Sakurai stated, "I couldn't attend the Brugel exhibition because I was in recording... but if you look up the Bible story about Babel, you find that people built the tower to get closer to God. The foolishness of humanity was the subject I most wanted to write about. Beyond that, interpret the lyrics however you want." Sakurai previously made reference to the Tower of Babel in the lyrics to "Lady Skeleton."
1) In this line, Sakurai spells the imperative verb "kure," meaning "give me," as "kurei." Though Sakurai chose to write the word in hiragana, when written in katakana, "kurei" means "clay," which could be taken as a reference to the clay or dust from which mortal bodies are made. Paired with the reference to wine, I can't help but think of this drinking song by Henry Purcell:
He that drinks is immortal
And cans't ne'er decay
For wine still supplies
What age wears away.
How can he be dust
How can he be dust
That moistens his clay?
I suppose it's a long shot to assume that Sakurai is familiar with a song like this, but he's pulled out some surprisingly esoteric references to Western culture before, so it's not impossible. If he doesn't know it, he should. (Watch some latter-day pirates singing it here).
2) I can't help but think that this is a reference to the famous line spoken by Jack Nicholson as the Joker in the 1989 Batman movie, "Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?" What the Joker is really asking is, have you ever examined your own inner darkness, or entertained the elements of your own character and desires which you normally keep hidden? (Out of the "sunlight," as it were). Since this song is all about the way people succumb to their own worst urges, the meaning fits perfectly. Also, it seems that with this song, Sakurai has taken his usual vampire story one step further, this time using the vampire (who drinks blood and can only come out at night) as a metaphor for the way the human race acts like a vampire on the world.
3) This line contains a beautiful word play. In Japanese, the word I translated as "the Fear" is "ifu," meaning "dread, fear, or awe." But of course, "ifu" sounds like the English word "if." Sakurai juxtaposes the two to subtly underscore the fact that he's talking about fear of death as the main motivator of selfish and indulgent human behavior. His use of the phrase "here or not here" in the next line is very similar to the way in which he employed "to be or not to be" in the lyrics to The Mortal's "Dead Can Dance."
4) Though the Tower of Babel is never explicitly destroyed in the Bible, its divine destruction reappears in later Christian mystical imagery, most notably in the Tarot, on the Tower, Card 16 of the Major Arcana. Though one of the most feared cards in the deck, the Tower represents nothing more or less than the "moment of truth": the complete shattering of illusions. Sakurai may or may not be familiar with Tarot symbology, but the shattering of illusion theme matches well with the lyrics in this song about people being nothing more than illusions and dreams. It also calls to mind another Shakespeare reference, Prospero's famous speech in "The Tempest" -
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
NOTE: The Spanish translation is a re-translation of the English translation by Cayce. Cayce has only a marginal familiarity with Spanish, so the quality of this translation is unvetted, but Spanish-speaking fans, enjoy. Babel Letra: Sakurai Atsushi Música: Imai Hisashi Traducción: Natalia H. En la oscuridad del universo Encarno al olvido Todas aquellas cosas bajo el Paraíso Son agraciadas a la luz de la luna La carne del borrego Y el vino tinto carmesí Quiero más Quiero más Ansío la sangre ah dame más Esta noche atravieso el Paraíso Justo en el lugar en el que tú te encuentras Llámame Babel El placer y el regocijo El enojo y la tristeza Hacia el fin del deseo Llámame Babel Ama aquella pálida luz de luna Atrapada en el Miedo, si tu… Fantasía, fueses una ilusión Estar aquí o no si yo… Si yo mismo fuese sólo un sueño Oh veo al vacío Separándose y hundiéndome Me quema Me quema Estoy sediento, pierdo el juicio Esta noche atravieso el Paraíso Hasta que tiemble y me duerma Llámame Babel El placer y el regocijo El enojo y la tristeza Así es como me desmorono y caigo Llámame Babel Ama aquella pálida luz de luna Oh veo al vacío Separándose y hundiéndome Quiero más Quiero más Ansío la sangre ah dame más Esta noche atravieso el Paraíso Justo en el lugar en el que tú te encuentras Llámame Babel El placer y el regocijo El enojo y la tristeza Hacia el fin del deseo Llámame Babel Ama aquella pálida luz de luna Esta noche atravieso el Paraíso Hasta que tiemble y me duerma Llámame Babel El placer y el regocijo El enojo y la tristeza Así es como me desmorono y caigo Llámame Babel Ama aquella pálida luz de luna Babel
作詞：櫻井敦司
作曲：今井寿
暗黒宇宙 わたしは無である
森羅万象 月夜に嫋やかに
ラムの肉を 赤いワインと
足りぬ 足りぬ もっと血をくれい
今宵は 天を貫く
おまえのもとへ 我はBabel
喜び 悲しみ 怒り
欲望の果て 我はBabel
月光よ愛せ
畏怖の念 If you... お前は幻想
在る 無い If I... 我も夢 幻
おお 空よ 裂けよ 濡らせよ
焼ける 焼ける 渇き 気がふれる
今宵は 天を貫く
震えて眠れ 我はBabel
喜び 悲しみ 怒り
頽れて 尚 我はBabel
月光よ愛せ
おお 空よ 裂けよ 濡らせよ
足りぬ 足りぬ もっと血をくれい
今宵は 天を貫く
おまえのもとへ 我はBabel
喜び 悲しみ 怒り
欲望の果て 我はBabel
月光よ愛
今宵は 天を貫く
震えて眠れ 我はBabel
喜び 悲しみ 怒り
頽れて 尚 我はBabel
月光よ愛せ
Babel
Lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi
Music: Imai Hisashi
Ankoku uchuu watashi wa mu de aru
Shinra banshou tsukiyo ni taoyaka ni
Ramu no niku wo akai wain to
Tarinu tarinu motto chi wo kurei
Koyoi wa ten wo tsuranuku
Omae no moto e ware wa Babel
Yorokobi kanashimi ikari
Yokubou no hate ware wa Babel
Gekkou yo aise
Ifu no nen If you... omae wa gensou
Aru nai If I... ware mo yume maboroshi
Oo kuu yo sake yo nurase yo
Yakeru yakeru kawaki ki ga fureru
Koyoi wa ten wo tsuranuku
Furuete nemure ware wa Babel
Yorokobi kanashimi ikari
Kuzuoerete nao ware wa Babel
Gekkou yo aise
Oo kuu yo sake yo nurase yo
Tarinu tarinu motto chi wo kurei
Koyoi wa ten wo tsuranuku
Omae no moto e ware wa Babel
Yorokobi kanashimi ikari
Yokubou no hate ware wa Babel
Gekkou yo aise
Koyoi wa ten wo tsuranuku
Furuete nemure ware wa Babel
Yorokobi kanashimi ikari
Kuzuoerete nao ware wa Babel
Gekkou yo aise
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