Origins

Song: Origins

Album: Edo

Artist: Toussaint Morrison

Written by: Toussaint Morrison

Translated by: Jeff Brunnette
Released June 24, 2014

ref: https://toussaintmorrison.bandcamp.com/track/origins

Japanese: 俺は道がにぎやかで、明るい光街に生まれた。毎日生きる事が楽しかった。だが生まれて4年後、父が逃げて、母は妹とと俺を車で光る街を去った。 何週間も運転し続けた。天気が寒くなり、雪がが降り始めた。到着した新しい場所は静かで、誰も笑顔もない、最悪に日差しはどこにも無かった。 ほとんど毎日寒かったので、ほとんど毎日ゲームやってた。それであｒ誕生日にお母さんがテレビにつなげる灰色の箱をくれた。その箱はテレビにビデオゲームと言う映像をうつした。 俺の空想がはるかに広がり、その物語と主人公達に夢中になった。夜は目をつぶり、テレビで見た街の中を歩く。いつかそこへ行くことを誓った。 ゲームの故郷を調べたら、箱に読めない文字があった。お母さんはこれは日本語であり、遠い場所で作られたと言った。 ある日、俺はこの笑顔もない、雪が振る街を去った。荷物つんで、灰色の箱と別れ、新しい光町にー長い間遊び続けた物語の故郷、やり過ぎで英雄と敵が夢の中で英雄戦ってる。江戸を探しに行った。

ある日、この雪が振る街から離れた。荷物つんで、灰色の箱と別れた。江戸を探しに行った。

English: I was born in a shining city where the sun was brightest and parades filled the streets. Every day we celebrated life, and rarely took it for granted. However, four years after I was born, when my mother left my father, she packed my sister and I in her car, and we left our home in the shining city.

We drove for what felt like weeks. The weather grew colder, ice began to fall from the sky. When we finally reached our new home, there were no parades in the streets, no one smiled, and worst of all… the sun was nowhere to be found.

I stayed inside most days, because most days were too cold to play outside. So, on my birthday, my mother bought me a gray box that plugged into our television. The gray box produced images on the television screen called video games. I played them for hours.

My imagination had swum out so far, that I had gotten lost in the stories and characters of the video games. I’d close my eyes at night and wander the cities and places I saw on the screen. I vowed to venture out and find them someday.

Searching for the origin to the games, I discovered letters on the packaging I couldn’t quite read. My mother told me the writing was in Japanese, and that the games were made in a land far away.

One day, I decided to leave my new home where no one smiled and ice fell from the sky. I packed my things, said goodbye to my gray box, and set out to find a new shining city- the city responsible for the games and stories I had played for so long- the city that had produced the heroes and villains dueling amidst my dreams. I set out to find Edo.