Ah if I could dance I'd do it as if I were cursed And if I could drown I'd do it just like Narcissus
Ah...such beautiful red Who is it that excites me Ah...the only thing that I want A body empty of its heart
If I could go mad I'd go in red, yellow and blue1 My whole world is here Hidden in this secret room
Ah, drawing with fingertips Hands between my thighs Ah, thinking how I could melt When it's so easy to feel it
Just like this, all by myself I am kissing the body reflecting at me in the looking glass The only one that I love Is myself, just myself Ah naked alone I am dancing
Ah...whose shadow is this Driving me completely crazy Ah...if you don't care anymore Just turn your back on me
Just like this, all by myself I'm confessing my love to the one in the glass and no other The only one that I love Is myself, just myself Ah naked alone I am dancing
Note: This whole song is a reference to a story from Greek mythology about a beautiful young man named Narcissus. There are many versions of this story, but they all run something like this: Narcissus was incredibly beautiful, and thus many people (both men and women) wanted him as a lover. However, he would have none of them and cruelly spurned them all. Finally, one of the spurned lovers cursed Narcissus, wishing that someday he would know as much pain as they did. The curse came true when one day, while out hunting, Narcissus happened to catch a glimpse of his reflection in a forest pool. He was entranced by the beauty of the person he saw in the pool, not realizing it was himself. But when he bent to kiss his reflection, the water rippled, and he finally realized the truth, at which point he was so overcome he either drowned himself in the pool, stabbed himself, or wasted away staring at his own reflection, depending on the version of the story you read. Despite his failings, he had been so beautiful in life that the Gods took pity on him and turned his dead body into a beautiful flower, which is known today as a Narcissus, after him. This story is also where the term “narcissism” comes from. Based on things I've heard from various Buck-Tick fans over the years, I gather that some of them, perhaps because they harbored feelings similar to those harbored by Narcissus's admirers, believed that this song was Sakurai's manifesto, and that he was actually singing about how he, Sakurai Atsushi, was sexually attracted to and in love with himself. All I have to say to that is, if you're determined to be that literal-minded, you're going to have a hard time appreciating poetry.
1) The word "genshoku" ("primary colors") is often used with a sexual connotation, as in Dir en grey's song "audrey" (though I suppose none of you post-2005 visual kei fans even know who Dir en grey is anymore...)