平沢　進　白虎野の娘訳してみた (Susumu Hirasawa "Byakkoya no Musume" translation)

published: 2026-2-20

last updated: 2026-2-20

language: jp/en

tags:

Paprika - what if your dreams are not yours?

This song, Byakkoya no Musume, or “the girl in White Tiger Field” is the theme song of the SF anime movie “Paprika”. Before we go to the translation, I would like to talk a bit about this movie. The story revolves around a group of scientists who developed a device that allows people to enter into other people’s dreams. While it was intended for good purposes like therapy, things go south when someone stole it and started using it as a weapon for psychic attacks. Then the trouble escalates, leading to a mass invasion of dreams, fusing people’s mind into a corrupted, degenerate dream world…

I can definitely recommend this movie to someone who like SF or human-drama.

As a work of Sci-Fi, it explores the concept of dreams, a place of ultimate privacy and autonomy in that it can only exist inside one’s mind, and only when he/she is in REM sleep. Normally inside your dreams you have the power. You write the scenario. It challenges this dominion by asking “what if you didn’t own your dreams?”. As a peak anime film, it’s got some really mesmerizing visual presentation of the world of dreams, where things are close approximations of the reality, but bent to the desire and image of subconscious mind of the dreamer.

The concept of dreaming really does elude me. In a way, your mind fabricates a really intricate facade of reality to make this world realistic enough for “you” to believe in its authenticity while you are in it, but also bizarre enough to be able to realize its falsity the moment you step out of it. It does a really good job of depicting this fraudulence of dreams and the eeriness that comes out of it.

And the story and the character depictions endorse this idea to the fullest. Everybody has a secret that even they do not recognize themselves. And dreaming is sometimes the only way your mysterious subconscious will step out of its shadow to the main stage, and with its conductor’s baton, shine a spotlight on your hidden thoughts so our purblind mind can finally see it. Haven’t you ever dreamed about somebody you had thought nothing of, and realized that you actually cared about them greatly? The main characters also have secrets that only appear in their dream worlds. It might be a secret desire, a hidden persona, or a trauma from the past. And they get to have a chance to reconcile with them through the event.

I hope I did a fine job of selling this movie to you dear readers. If I failed, it is entirely up to my bad authorship. In all honesty, the movie is great. Here is the trailer.

Who is Susumu Hirasawa?

Susumu Hirasawa(平沢　進) is a Japanese singer/song writer who did the music for the movie. He is known for mystical music, cryptic lyrics, and very unusual performances. He also did the soundtrack for the 1997-98 anime series Berserk. This song is actually an adaptation for the movie of one of his songs with a very similar name - “Byakkoya (White Tiger Field)”. White Tiger field is an alias of Bạch Hổ oil field located offshore of south Vietnam. During the chorus, this song “partly” (I said partly, because this song is so nuanced that I cannot possibly dissect it into its exact symbolic constants) describes the way the oil from the field, which can be, depending on how you look at it, a blessing from the earth and the creatures that once lived there eons ago, lights up the city of man, celebrating the advancements made by the earth’s new master with its power of knowledge, but in a somewhat cynical way. And the dreamy, surreal tone underlying the entire song really makes up a nice contrast to this industrial image.

Translation

I’m not going to say that this is the “correct” translation. The original lyrics is very nuanced, leaving many things to the listener’s imagination. It really challenged me to be creative to convey this surreal, dreamy texture that is emotional and evanescent in a very F-major way. Hope I succeeded. Enjoy!

遠くの空　回る花の円陣のかまびすしさに

In distant sky, a ring of flowers goes spinning

あの日や、　あの日に　越えてきた分岐が目を覚ます

And they are awaken, those branches of time I have crossed a long long time ago.

カゲロウに身を借りて　道を指す娘を追い

Following the girl who points the way, with her borrowed body of a mayfly,

　高台に現れた　名も知らぬ広野は懐かしく

from the watchtower I saw a familiar field, whose name I know not.

　あれが夢で見せた町と　影の声が囁いた

The voices from the shadow whispered, “there stands the city from the dreams”.

　来る日も　来る日も　幾千の分岐を越えたとき

Day after day, I have crossed thousands of branchings.

　暗がりの賢人が　捨てられた日々を集め

And the hermit of the glades, he collected the days gone by

　海沿いに　海沿いに　見も知らぬ炎を躍らせた

and on the shore, along the sea, there danced a flame! whose name I knew not.

(chorus)

　あゝ　マントルが饒舌に火を噴きあげて　捨てられた野に立つ人を祝うよ

And the mantle eloquently blew up flames, to celebrate the men on the deserted field.

　あゝ　静かな静かな娘の視野で

_And in the iris of a silent, silent girl _

　あゝ　見知らぬ都に灯がともりだす

a city was lit up whose name I knew not.

(chorus end)

　高く空　朱に染め　火の燃えるごときの雲模様

Now the sky is dyed orange, the clouds move like billowed flames.

　あの日や　あの日や　あの時に失くした道を見せ

The vision shows the road I’ve crossed and missed, on that day and on that time, and on another day and on another time.

　繰り返し　夢に吹く　風を追い　時を下り

I followed the wind from many dreams, descended the river of time.

　川沿いに　川沿いに　見も知らぬ至福の花を見た

And there! By the river, along the bank, I saw a most serene flower whose name I know not.