Amayadori / taking shelter from the rain

[eliyes]

This is a bittersweet duet from Koko wa Greenwood. "Amayadori" does literally mean "take shelter from the rain" but also connotes how people from very different backgrounds can, for a time, share a space together because of it, and then part. I love this song because not only is it a perfect image song for the deeper level of the relationship between the two characters (whose voice actors are) mainly singing it, but it is also the essential underlying theme for the entire series. The school, and more specifically the dorm, Greenwood, is the great tree under which most of the students find themselves meeting and sharing a space, before parting again to go out into the world, and possibly never meet again.

I took the text from here and tweaked it in one place where I felt the transliteration could be improved. Many thanks to the original transcriber and translator; I am posting it to my LJ to have it, basically, in case that site goes down.

Romaji transcription

tooku de kudakeru shiosai mitai ni
amaoto kikutabi kon'na fushigi'na kimochi

itsumo hashaideta kimi ga kakete kuru
kono mama toki ga tomareba... sotto negau yo

meguriau kiseki ga areba mou ichido ka'nau no kamo
shibaraku wa kono mama koko de
ooki'na ki no shita no amayadori

sora wo nagameteta kumo ga waratteta
ryoute ni koboreru ashita wo furimaki nagara

toki wa nagaredasu zawameki tokashite
tooku e mukau BASU no naka boku wa hitori me wo tojita

dare kashira mado no mukou de ukareta waraigoe ga
ano basho ni subete aru no sa
o'naji yume wo meta ne amayadori

meguiaru kiseki yo itsumo
te no hira no naka ni are
maboroshi ga ima mo warau yo
ooki'na ki no yureru ano basho ni



English translation

Whenever I hear the sound of rain breaking in the distance like the ocean's roar,
it brings this strange feeling.

Always frolicking, you run away and return;
if time could stop in a moment like that... I wish for that quietly.

If that chance encounter was a miracle, I wonder if that wish could be granted once more.
Just for a little while, just like this, right here,
under a great tree, taking shelter from the rain.

I gazed at the sky, the clouds were laughing
while they sprinkled tomorrows spilling from both hands.

Time pours out and noisily dissolves;
inside a bus that faces into the distance, alone, I closed my eyes.

I wonder who it is looking through the window with a laughing, festive face.
In the place where everything is,
we saw the same dream, didn't we? Taking shelter from the rain.

O miraculous encounter, ever
be within the palm of my hand.
The illusion still smiles--
swaying beneath a great tree, in that place.