Touzisya (properly Romanised ‘toujisha’) by EGOIST is the closing theme song to the newly released Psycho-Pass: PROVIDENCE, which hit Japanese theatres 12 May 2023. The word is somewhat unwieldly to translate out of context but means ‘the person/party directly involved’ in a matter (as opposed to a third party, say). In this case, it’s clear from the lyrics that the song is in Akane’s POV: without giving too much away, in the course of the movie she elects to become the key actor (toujisha) in settling one of the film’s central conflicts: the question of whether or not 22nd century Japan needs the law when they’ve got the Sibyl System.
The track was released on 10 May 2023 and is the fourth song EGOIST have produced for Psycho-Pass after ‘Monster Without a Name’ (名前のない怪物), ‘All Alone With You,’ and ‘Fallen.’
幸せを願っただけど 私の目に見えたのは
shiawase wo negatta dakedo watshi no me ni mieta no wa
I wished for happiness, but what I saw was
誰かの愛が違う 誰かの愛を殺す世界で
dareka no ai ga chigau dareka no ai wo korosu sekai de
A world in which someone’s love kills another’s love and
この手に握った黒鉄
kono te ni nigitta kurogane
The black iron* grasped in these hands
あとどれだけ理性を保っていられるのだろう
ato dore dake risei wo tamotte irareru no darou
Just how much longer will I be able to maintain my sense of reason, I wonder?
それとも私はもう狂ってるの？
soretomo watashi wa mou kurutteru no
Or am I already twisted?
わからない
wakaranai
I don’t know
どんなに未来を描いて、望み、もがいても届かない
donna ni mirai wo egaite, nozomi, mogaitemo todokanai
No matter how I envision the future, hope, strive for it, I can’t reach it
何が正しさだと言うの？
nani ga tadashisa da to iu no
What do you say ‘rightness’ is?
誰が心まで裁くの？
dare ga kokoro made sabaku no
Who can pass judgment on even the heart?
ねえ
ne’e
Hey
命が消える優しさのせいで
inochi ga kieru yasashisa no sei de
Life fades as a consequence of kindness
弱さが罪と言うなら答えて
yowasa ga tsumi to iu nara kotaete
If you claim weakness is a sin, then answer me
私は誰を犠牲に生きていい？
watashi wa dare wo gisei ni ikite ii
By whose sacrifice should I live?
銃口を向ける間違わないように
juukou wo mukeru machigawanai you ni
Aim [your] gun; be sure not to mistake [your target]
[I] aim [my] gun so as not to get [it] wrong
唇を噛む 滲んだ血の味は誰も同じ
kuchibiru wo kamu nijinda chi no aji wa daremo onaji
I bite my lip; the taste of the blood that wells is the same for everyone
あなたはとっくに知ってた
anata wa tokkuni shitteta
You long since knew
終わりがない悲しみの行く先を
owarinai ga nai kanashimi no yukusaki wo
What becomes of sadness that has no end
どんなに怒りを飲み込み、消してもその火は燃え上がる
donna ni ikari wo nomikomi, keshitemo sono hi wa moe-agaru
No matter how I swallow down, smother my rage, the flame of it blazes up
見据えた眼差しの先は
misueta manazashi no saki wa
The focus of my fixed gaze
もう決してぶれたりしない
mou keshite buretari shinai
Will never again waver
響く
hibiku
It reverberates
乾いた銃声
kawaita juusei
The dry report of gunfire
遠くで聞こえる罵声と絶叫
tooku de kikoeru basei to zekkyou
From afar you can hear jeers and screams
正義を問いかける
seigi wo toi-kakeru
Ask what justice is
私と彼らどちらが死ねばいい？
watashi to karera dochira ga shineba ii
Me and them,* which ought to die?
守れるものは一つしかないから
mamoreru mono wa hitotsu shika nai kara
Since there’s only one thing that can be protected
他人（ひと）の痛みを想い 心と寄り添う
hito no itami wo omoi kokoro to yorisou
We feel for others’ pain, draw near to their hearts
人はこんなに美しいのに
hito wa konna ni utsukushii noni
Even though people are this beautiful
理由を見つけ憎しみ合うんだね
riyuu wo mitsuke nikushimi-aunda ne
We find reasons to hate each other
産まれたことに意味がなきゃいられないんだね
umareta koto ni imi ga nakya irarenainda ne
We can’t stand being without a reason for having been born
ならこれが私の答えだから
nara kore ga watashi no kotae dakara
If that’s the case, this is my answer so...
命が消える優しさのせいで
inochi ga kieru yasashisa no sei de
Life fades as a consequence of kindness
弱さが罪と言うなら答えて
yowasa ga tsumi to iu nara kotaete
If you claim weakness is a sin, then answer me
私は誰を犠牲に生きていい？
watashi wa dare wo gisei ni ikite ii
By whose sacrifice should I live?
銃口を向けたあなたに見えるように
juukou wo muketa anata ni mieru you ni
So that you, whom I’ve trained my gun on, can see
そして銃声が響く
soshite juusei ga hibiku
And the sound of gunfire reverberates
遠くで聞こえる罵声と絶叫
tooku de kikoeru basei to zekkyou
From afar you can hear jeers and screams
正義を問いかける
seigi wo toi-kakeru
Ask what justice is
私は生きるあなたを犠牲に
watashi wa ikiru anata wo gisei ni
I will live, sacrificing you
自らの手を汚す事を選んで
mizukara no te wo yogosu koto wo erande
Choosing to dirty my own hands
私は当事者になる
watashi wa toujisha ni naru ima
I will become the person in question (toujisha)
今
ima
Now
Notes on the translation:
- What I have as ‘[what] [I] saw’ in L1 is literally ‘[what] was seen in [my] eyes’ (目に見えた).
- *In L3, ‘The black iron grasped in these hands’ would be the Dominator she’s holding.
- The word I have as ‘envision’ in L7 is ‘egaku’ (描く), which literally means ‘to draw, depict, describe’ but here the meaning is closer to the way it’s used as a compound verb: ‘omoi-egaku’ (思い描く), meaning ‘to visualise, conceptualise.’
- The last part of L7 is literally ‘[something] doesn’t reach’ (届かない) but the implication is that the speaker is unable to actualise the future they’ve envisioned and striven towards, hence, ‘I can’t reach it.’
- L8 is a demand made of the person being addressed, as in, ‘What would you say rightness is?’ or ‘What do you claim rightness is?’ The word ‘tadashisa’ (正しさ) is the noun form of the adjective ‘tasashii’ (正しい), meaning ‘right, correct, fair, just’ and might alternately be translated as ‘right’ ‘righteousness’ ‘uprightness’ or even ‘justice.’
- The word I have as ‘heart’ in L9 is ‘kokoro’ (心) which could alternately be translated as ‘mind,’ since Japanese doesn’t make the distinction. This recalls Akane’s question to Karanomori in S1: “Then, what is a ‘psycho-pass’? What is the ‘heart/mind’?” The Sibyl System might be able to judge one, but no one should be able to judge the other.
- L10 is just the interjection ‘ne’e’ (ねえ), which is a nonverbal way of getting someone’s attention or opening a statement, and can alternately be translated as, ‘hey,’ ‘say,’ ‘you know,’ etc.
- In L11 & L32, I have the word ‘kieru’ (消える) as ‘fades,’ but this is more literally ‘disappears, vanishes’ or, in the case of life, ‘perishes.’
- I’ve rendered the back half of this lyrics as, ‘as a consequence of kindness’ as a workaround for capturing ‘~no sei de’ (~のせいで) — i.e. ‘at ~’s fault’ — in more natural sounding English. It means ‘because of, due to ~’ but specifically when assigning blame. The implication being that sometimes kindness or mercy can lead to the loss of other lives. (Alternately, some people have interpreted this lyric as applying to those who sacrifice themselves in PPP in hope of creating a better world in future which is, one could argue, a form of kindness).
- I was tempted to translate the lyric in L13 & L34 as, ‘At whose expense should I live?’ which would be a less literal translation of the word ‘gisei’ (犠牲), meaning ‘sacrifice,’ but valid given the nature of society under the Sibyl System. However, the word appears again in L39 and is most definitely ‘sacrifice’ in that case, so I went with the slightly more awkward: ‘By whose sacrifice should I live?’. Another valid translation might be, ‘Whom ought I sacrifice [in order to] live?’ though this mimics the structure of the original Japanese less closely.
- In L14 & L35, the word I have as ‘gun’ is literally ‘juukou’ (銃口) i.e. the muzzle of a gun. The phrase ‘juukou wo mukeru’ is literally ‘to direct the muzzle of a gun’ [at something], i.e. to train a gun [on someone].
- L14 could be interpreted one of two ways: ‘Aim [a] gun; be sure not to mistake [your target]’ or, alternately, ‘[I] aim [my] gun so as not to be mistaken/make the wrong choice’. I think in the context of PPP, both interpretations could be argued for.
- L15 actually switches between tenses: ‘bite’ (噛む) is in present tense while ‘welled’ (滲んだ) is in past tense, and the referent isn’t specified, making this technically, ‘bite [one’s] lip, [the] taste of [the] blood that welled is the same for everyone.’ This flip-flopping between tenses is not uncommon in Japanese, especially in literary contexts, but in this case it’s because ‘welled’ is being used as a descriptor for ‘blood’.
- The word ‘yuku-saki’ (行く先) in L17 is literally ‘go-ahead,’ i.e. where something is heading, but is also used to mean ‘the future’ or ‘destination [of something/someone].’ So the ‘yuku-saki’ of unending sadness is essentially ‘what [ultimately] becomes of it.’
- The word ‘saki’ (先), i.e. ‘ahead, in front, tip, etc.’, gets used again in L19 in the phrase ‘manazashi no saki’ (眼差しの先) where ‘manazashi’ means ‘gaze’ and ‘no’ (の) is a possessive particle. It doesn’t translate neatly into English, but it means ‘[what’s] in front of [one’s] gaze,’ i.e. the point one is looking at, the focus of one’s gaze.
- In L20, the word I’ve translated as ‘waver’ is more literally ‘blur; lose focus’ (ぶれる) and has been modified with the 〜たりする・しない inflection. This ‘~tari’ (〜たり), used adverbially, means ‘doing such things as ~’ so, very literally, the lyric would be ‘will never again lose focus or anything again.’
- L24 & L38 are literally, ‘Inquire about justice.’ However, the compound verb used here, ‘toi-kakeru’ (問いかける) means ‘to direct an inquiry (at)’ but also ‘to question’ — hence the translation, ‘Ask what justice is.’ They’re not just asking ‘where is justice?’ but ‘what is justice?’.
- *The ‘them’ in L25 (i.e. ‘Me or them, which should die?’) is almost certainly referring to the Sibyl System, since Akane knows that they’re a gestalt entity and consistently refers to/addresses ‘them’ in the plural.
- In line L27, the kanji 他人 are properly read ‘tanin’ but the lyrics indicate that it’s to be read ‘hito’. The former means ‘other people’ i.e. those not of one’s in-group, people unrelated to one, strangers. The latter means simply ‘people’ but is sometimes used to mean much the same. So the lyricist is using the kanji to specify that people can feel for the pain of those completely unrelated to us, instead of just people in general (our families or friends, say). Japanese will sometimes do this, use ateji to clarify the meaning of a word by assigning atypical kanji to it, or conflate meanings by drawing on both the meaning of the pronounced word and the meanings of the kanji it’s paired with.
- I kept my translation of L27 fairly literal, rendering the phrase ‘kokoro to yorisou’ (心と寄り添う) as ‘draw near to [their] hearts.’ This is an idiomatic phrase that essentially means to become emotionally aligned with someone, feel for their experience, look at things from their perspective, etc.
- L35 was the one I wavered over most since, depending upon how you parse it, it could be interpreted at least four different ways: ‘juukou wo muketa anata’ (銃口を向けたあなた) could mean either, ‘you, whom I’ve pointed a gun at’ or ‘you, who have pointed a gun [at someone]’. Since this lyric is almost certainly about the Sibyl System, either interpretation would be valid. The Dominators are Sibyl’s eyes trained on the populace, but in PPP Akane also points her gun at Kasei, the Sibyl System’s avatar. The back half of the lyric, ‘ni mieru you ni’ (に見えるように), could mean either, ‘so that [it] will be visible to you’ or ‘so that [I] will appear like you.’ Again, either might be valid, since it’s the Sibyl System Akane is ultimately trying to persuade in her actions, but, in a way, she’s also stepping into the role of the one passing judgement. Depending on how you combine the two components, you could come out with four different plausible translations.
- And finally we have the word ‘toujisha’ (当事者) in L41. Those who have seen S3 will know that Akane commits a crime that gets her sent to an isolation facility, despite the fact that her crime coefficient is below the control value and her mental hue is clear (something thought impossible by the general public). By committing said crime with the nation watching, she herself becomes the argument for why it’s necessary to preserve the law despite having the Sibyl System to evaluate crime coefficients and identify latent criminals — i.e. the ‘toujisha.’ If her crime coefficient is below 100, the Sibyl System can’t pass judgement on her, and yet she’s clearly committed a crime — ergo, the System alone is not enough; the law must be preserved.
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