Question about JEWEL lyrics
 

I'm just not quite sure what she's trying to say in the first verse.

Translation from Masa:

Under the grey and square sky
Is filled with all kinds of desires today
But I don't lose sight of the light among them
And can walk, looking forward
Because you always show me
That there remains a purity even in a corner of this city

Translation from Kiwi-musume:

Today, once again, my every craving
Fills the square, grey sky
The reason I can keep walking
Without losing sight of the light

Is because you always taught me
That there are pure things
Left even in the corners of this town

Mainly the first few lines, about desires under the square, grey sky. Just doesn't make sense to me. I'm having a tortoise moment, haha.

What are your thoughts?

xx

I've always seen it like she is talking about a gloomy and somewhat dark day where she usually thinks about all the things that she wants but doesn't have and how that usually gets her down but this time she's remembering all the good things in her life and not really focusing on the sadness.

About the "square sky", I'm thinking she means the sky that she sees when she's in the city. She has used this reference a couple of times in other songs as well.

UNITE!
Greatful Days
I guess the "square sky" comes from the obscuring from the buildings in the city. When you stand in the streets and look up, the sky may appear framed into a square by surrounding buildings. From ayu's lyrics, it seems to give a sense of being enclosed and trapped, I feel.

And about the desires, I think she means she is filled with those desires, not the sky.

Just my opinion, though. We can only guess until ayu herself clarifies it (which she almost never does lol). :)

i'm oftenly confused comparing my translations to masa's and to other people's translations..i think it's due to the fewer rules in jaapnese grammar that don't help and moreover the interpretation has its weight on this

In Japanese, sentences doesn't need a subject and object to make sense, unlike in English. Often, we have to guess what or who she is talking about.

Also in lyrics esp, the sentence structure gets mixed up to fit the melody. For example, a normal sentence will go "A is B about C", but in the lyrics it may appear as "B about C, A is". That kinda thing.

So alot depends on the translator's interpretation.

I think "Square sky" is the sky in the city, with many building that frame the "square".
And desire is people's desire - people who live in that city, who busy with their lives. Desire filled the sky and also filled their soul, so there's not any "pure" emotion that remains.

I personally think this song is about someone that is different and special, who still "remains a purity" in this complicated era, that lead her to the light, and teach her to "keep walking without losing sight of the light".
That's why that "someone" person is her precious treasure.

Yeah I think it has a similar subject matter to Free & Easy.