[translation] 放課後の飼育 (houkago no shiiku) - ACME (アクメ)

houkago no shiiku – Studying¹ after class

>CDJapan<

fukanzen kanojo no shiiku tadashiku ikiru tame no choukyou

Her education was incomplete, I'm sure she was trained² to live

juujun wa hoshokumachi no chouchou yameru kumo wa tadaito wo hakidasu

The obedience is a butterfly waiting the predation of a sick spider that weaves its web

aisareteta no wa sonzai janakute gotsugoushugi no idol

She wasn't loved for her existence, but for an opportunism of appearances

itsuwari no kasabuta chidarake de hagashite “soredemo suki to itte?”

tearing off with blood a scab of lies "will you keep saying that you like it?"

minna satteitta

everybody leaved

donnani minikui shoutai mo kimi wa aishiteiru to iu

Doesn't matter how the natural form is ugly, you say you love it

adokenai kimi no seishun ni boku wa kubiwa wo kaketa

I putted a collar on your innocent youngness

houkago no shiiku futari HAIDO ANDO SHIKU

Studying after the class both of us play hide and seek

mou iikai madadayo sasayaku

whispering "are you ready?", "not yet!"

kowarenai kimi to kowarekake no boku junsuide kireina ai no shoumei

The unbreakable you and the broken me [live] a pure and beautiful proof of love

chiisana koro wa ii kotte iwaretayo jibun wo osaerareta

When I was a child, people said me that I was a good girl, [so] I restrained myself

atama no naka itsumo issho PAPA to MAMA mo shiranai shinyuu

Inside my mind we’re always together, papa and mama doesn't know about our friendship

karada ga otona ni naru tabi shihai sareteyuku

When her body becomes adult, it will be controlled

houkago no shiiku hitori HAIDO ANDO SHIKU

Studying after the class she plays hide and seek alone

mou iikai madadayo urusai

Shouting "are you ready?", "not yet!"

“sensei, usagi wo ayameta hannin darena no ka boku wa shitteiru”

"Teacher, I know who was the criminal that murdered the rabbit"

yuugure kakurenbo mitsukaranu mama

At dusk, the hidden person, has not be found [yet]

donnani minikui shoutai mo kimi wa aishiteiru to iu kizukeba

Doesn't matter how much the natural form is ugly, you say you love it

kimi ni izon shiteru

Is this a happy ending?

kore wa HAPPI ENDO?

Depends if you will notice

yokubou no hate ni nigori wa kiesaru nukumori naka de umiotosu

The mud disappears at the end of the desire, we born inside the warmth

chi wo araiotoshi saikai wo hatasu dakiageta sore ga aijoudatta

we wash the blood, finish this meet and hug, this is love

kimi ga shiikugakari boku no kai kata

You are in charge of raising me, and keep me raised

Translator notes:

(↑↓) these verses were inverted from the original order for the translation sound better in English.

Parts in italics are adaptations.

1. I know, probably "study" is not the best word here, the closest sense perhaps to "create" would be "raising". When I was working on the Portuguese version, I thought that studying would be more literal by the context, but the literal translation of the Japanese term is "raise". (not sure how it sound in English, hope this to be clear)

2. Trained like an animal.

3. He sings "kimi" and "boku" but in the lyrics I found on the internet it says "toy" and "master / husband". Kind of putting them in a passive / active situation. The translation from what is written would be something like "the unbreakable toy and the broken master [live] a pure and beautiful proof of love."

About some adaptations:

Idol = appearances → she was probably popular, so she was loved for it, not for her existence as it says in the lyrics. If I wrote “idol opportunism” (I think) it would sound weird, so I used “appearances”.

Shouting → she shouts “are you ready”, “not yet”. 五月蝿い (urusai) is a term for when people are being annoying, is there a term for this in English?

Thoughts and ramblings:

This is something I usually do only in portuguese, but I think that this song can bring a lot of misunderstandings, so I will try to explain some points I noticed while translating.

Always remember, music is that cool because it is open for multiples interpretations, I will bring some here, but you can understand it in a different way.

Ok, there are some things that make the lyrics of this song a little confusing, one is that, apparently, the metaphors that, to fit the music, are not very explanatory. But OK.

The song talks about a lesbian couple (which is obvious if you watched the MV). Not only that, but a couple in which a younger girl meets an older girl after school, then the tittle: "studying after school". You can guess what she was learning?

Some metaphors seem to make the situation very negative, but if you read carefully and watch the MV, you will see that this negative question comes from one possible viewer and that, for the girls, everything is ok despite the difference of ages.

The spider metaphor, for example, at first it may make it look that the older woman (spider) is taking advantage of the younger one (butterfly, in a "transition" phase, perhaps) but there is nothing in the music to show that they feel that way, which makes me think that the "predation" thing has to do with sex OR an external point of view (I mean, if a person discover their relationship we know how it will looks like).

When the older woman refers to the younger woman (2x) as an animal (putting a collar on her & saying she has been “trained to live”), it also gives the feeling that it's a abusive relation, BUT if you want to continuing on this positive interpretation that I am offering, you can read as a perspective of "more experienced one teaching a less experienced one", with the collar being a fixed relationship, and having been "trained to live" as a willingness to teach the younger woman to live by their own rules.

In the second time the chorus is sung it looks like a "dark point", even the song goes to a "breakdown" that barely matches the rest, a bit too dark. Which once again makes it seem like the situation between the girls is abusive, but to stay optimistic, we can read as if the difference of age between them was being evidenced, the older woman watching the younger one in school, watching her play hide and seek, not as they play together, but as the child she is, screaming and yelling annoyingly as only a child would do, and showing that she may have been playing all day like this.

It took me a while to come to these conclusions, while translating I was pretty sure that the song was about a pedophile and abusive relationship between two women, the terms they choose to build the song are rather aggressive, at least I think it. But when watching the MV I noticed that if the girls have any difference on age, it is minimal. Which makes me think that as much as society judged them for it (with some reason, because getting involved with minors is probably a crime there as well, as it is here in Brazil), they would not care much about it, because despite their age they feel comfortable together.

So my conclusion is that the song is about two people in love, in a complicated situation, where the older one "teaches" the younger one (“raising” each other). You can choose if you think this is good or bad lol