My charming younger sister, with her innocent smile Was born happy, because she was favored by God
She was a cute angel who couldn't do anything for herself And was loved by all; I envied her
Don't pity poor, homely me "I wish my sister [that girl], who makes me so miserable, would just die..."
The next morning my sister fell ill with a high fever I'm sorry, God, I didn't mean that wish
Perhaps my repentance reached Him, for soon her fever lowered But then my mother fell into the swamp of illness
In her dying moments, my mother left behind these words: "Your sister [that girl] is different from other people, so her big sister [you] should look
after her..."
When my mother passed away, our lives changed To make a living, I worked from morning 'til night
The men of the village were kind to us, but The women of the village soon grew cold
It was a poor life we led, but there was warmth... "-- We lived shoulder-to-shoulder; in that, there was happiness..."
Even so, why... why did this calamity befall us... tell me, God! Wasn't the child my sister [that girl] was blessed with a child of God, sent by the Lord?
-- The night my sister was found to be with child The men of the village looked at each other and held their tongues What broke the heavy silence was a striking sound so loud I couldn't believe my ears The sound of the young proprietress of the tailor's shop knocking my sister to the ground...
-- Fragmented memories... accusatory jeers... Ah... what is that woman shrieking about? She makes me sick The world shook, I grabbed at the proprietress...
My vision was stained red; I tasted bitter earth and rust; the quarrel flew over my head; the priest's words were harsh
Purity... bedding a demon... seed of destruction... the Virgin Mary's... anyone, Gabriel... she'll be burned at the stake
"Ah... you're the ones in league with the demons!"
-- And then... in her final moments, my sister said "thank you"...
The heartless words, the heartless treatment -- however much they hurt that girl... Even so, she would... because she was a kind girl... she would forgive everything
-- But I can't forgive them... So if this world is, after all, only a poor replacement for Paradise, and we are all sinners,
-- hadashi no musume kooritsuku you na hohoemi o ukabe yurameku honoo sono yami no mukou ni "kamen no otoko" o mite ita--
-- The barefoot maiden wore a smile that seemed frozen Beyond the darkness and the flickering flames, she saw the man with the mask--