1. 江戸の街は今日も深く 夜の帳カケテいく

Romaji: Edo no machi wa kyou mo fukaku yoru no tobari kakete iku

Cultural Nuance: The city of Edo is wrapped in a deep darkness again tonight, as the "curtain of night" descends.

🗣 Japanese Insight: "Yoru no tobari" (夜の帳) is a highly emotional Japanese expression that likens the darkness of night to a hanging veil or curtain.

This symbolizes how Yoshiwara is a "world of the night," completely severed from the bright world of the daytime. From the very beginning, it vividly presents the duality of the pleasure district—lavishly decorated with brilliant lights, yet possessing a profound darkness at its core.

2. 橙色輝いた花 憧れてた 望んでいた いつの間にか藍色の花

Romaji: Daidaiiro kagayaita hana akogareteta nozondeita itsunomanika aiiro no hana

Cultural Nuance: The brilliant orange flowers (the world) I once admired and longed for have, before I knew it, turned into cold, indigo flowers.

🗣 Japanese Insight: The contrast between the warm "Daidai" (orange) and the cold "Ai" (indigo/deep blue) represents the gap between the courtesans' ideals and their reality.

It likens the tragic shift to a change in color: the glamor of Yoshiwara, which she admired from afar as a child, turned out to be a lonely and chilly place once she was inside. It conveys the sorrow of her life being stained with a color far different from the one she had hoped for.

3. 真（まこと）はただ一人のどなたかの為だけに 咲いていたかったのだけれど

Romaji: Makoto wa tada hitori no donataka no tame dake ni saite itakatta no keredo

Cultural Nuance: In truth, I only wanted to be a flower (a woman) that blooms for the sake of one single person I love.

🗣 Japanese Insight: "Makoto" (真) means "truth," "sincerity," or "one's true heart."

This highlights the painful disconnect between her profession as an oiran, who must cater to many customers, and her instinctive desire as a woman to devote her pure love to just one person. The loss of her freedom and innocence is emphasized through the phrase "I wanted to bloom," suggesting she was never allowed to bloom on her own terms.

4. 運命はわっちの自由を奪い、そいで歯車を回していくのでありんす

Romaji: Unmei wa watchi no jiyuu o ubai, soide haguruma o mawashite iku no de arinsu

Cultural Nuance: Fate has robbed me of my freedom and cruelly continues to turn the gears of my life.

🗣 Japanese Insight: Here, unique "Kuruwa-kotoba" (courtesan dialect) such as "Watchi" (I/me) and "-de arinsu" (to be/is) are used.

This was a specialized dialect forced upon Yoshiwara courtesans to hide their regional accents and create an air of high-class, otherworldly elegance. While the words sound beautiful and refined, the reality being described—"my freedom was stolen"—is tragic. The elegance of the language only serves to highlight her lack of freedom.

5. 偽りだらけの恋愛 そして私を抱くのね 悲しいくらいに感じたふりの吉原

Romaji: Itsuwari darake no ren-ai soshite watashi o daku no ne kanashii kurai ni kanjita furi no yoshiwara

Cultural Nuance: You hold me in this romance filled with lies. In Yoshiwara, it's a night where I pretend to feel pleasure, so much that it makes me sad.

🗣 Japanese Insight: The direct and raw expression "Kanjita furi" (pretending to feel) forces the listener to face the fact that this is not true love, but a "fictional love" exchanged for money.

It captures the coexistence of her professional skill in providing false joy to customers and the emptiness she feels having to perform it. It depicts the extreme isolation of a courtesan whose heart remains cold while only her body is present.

6. 願うことはどうかいつか 鳥籠の外連れ出して

Romaji: Negau koto wa douka itsuka torikago no soto tsuredashite

Cultural Nuance: My only wish is that someday, someone will take me out of this birdcage (Yoshiwara).

🗣 Japanese Insight: Yoshiwara was surrounded by high walls and moats, making it a place one could not easily leave. Because of this, courtesans were often likened to "Kago no tori" (birds in a cage).

Her desperate thirst for salvation, which can only be achieved by someone else (a loved one) taking her out, is concentrated in the word "Torikago." It reflects a hope that depends entirely on the actions of others because she cannot leave on her own feet.

7. 貴方様どうか私を買っていただけないでしょうか？

Romaji: Anatassama douka watashi o katte itadakenai deshou ka?

Cultural Nuance: My lord, would you please buy me (buy my time, or buy my freedom)?

🗣 Japanese Insight: To modern ears, the phrase "Please buy me" is shocking, but here it carries two meanings.

One is a business-like request for the customer to choose her for the night. The other is a prayer for a once-in-a-lifetime rescue: for someone to pay off her immense debt and set her free (a process called "Minuke"). By repeating this phrase over a sorrowful melody, the sadness of her life—which depends entirely on being "bought" by someone—is brought into sharp focus.

🎤 Emotional Summary

"Yoshiwara Lament" is a song that brings the "cry" of a single woman, hidden behind the shadows of the gorgeous Edo culture, into the modern era.

While wearing the beautiful mask of "Kuruwa-kotoba" and acting out the fiction of "make-believe romance," she hungers for true love and thirsts for freedom in her heart. The powerful addiction of this song comes not just from its exotic Japanese style, but from its portrayal of a universal struggle: the desperate attempt to live without losing oneself in an unfree world. It is a masterpiece where one can hear the sound of the tears she shed in the rainy nights of Yoshiwara.