Mermaid Song

"This is the last song on the Thailand-inspired Siren (Seireen) album and the first one on the Switched-On Lotus memorial album. The person speaking in Thai at the beginning of the Switched-On Lotus version is naming nine Kathoey friends of Susumu Hirasawa who all died within the space of a few years. The Switched-On Lotus album is dedicated to them."

Lyrics

 * 1 "Another possible translation might be “The tower rattles in a wind inaudible to even the birds soaring high above” if you read this line as all one sentence, i.e. with takaku tobu tori sae kikenai (“inaudible even to the birds soaring high above”) modifying kaze (“wind”)."
 * 2 "I considered two different translations for this line:

“Like an aged sailor, on this windy day I will set out to sea”

and

“like an aged sailor who sets out to sea on a windy day”

The difference is that in the second one I read it with kaze no hi ni fune wo dasu (“set sail on a windy day”) modifying toshioita suifu (“aged sailor”), i.e. “an aged sailor who sets out on a windy day”, while in the first one only the word toshioita (“aged”) is modifying suifu (“sailor”), and the whole line would be read as “toshioita suifu no you ni kaze no hi ni fune wo dasu”.

It might also be possible to translate these two lines as one long sentence (kaze no hi ni fune wo dasu toshioita suifu no you ni / hana wo te ni hito yo kite ano koe ni mi wo nageyou) instead of two separate ones if you were to read fune wo dasu as modifying suifu.

I kind of like the second reading, but since songs like “Bandiria Ryokoudan” feature someone chasing after a distant voice by ship, the first reading might be more appropriate, in that this could this be the day the speaker actually sets out in pursuit of the voice."