Full disclosure: I literally never watched .hack//SIGN, the anime to which this song belongs. I got this song just before high school, searching desperately for anything Japanese to listen to. This song somehow made it safely through two computer changes in the intervening seven or so years.

Anyway, say what you will, but my fourteen-year-old self was a sucker for plaintive flutes (despite the fact that Ms. Kajiura is a little out of her range here). I myself happen to be a sucker for nostalgia (and plaintive flutes).

優しい夜明け
“Gentle Dawn”
作詞：梶浦由記 作曲：梶浦由記
Song and lyrics by KAJIURA Yuki

永遠探す君は移り気な夢見人
浮気な夢にすがり貴方は何処へ行く

Searching for eternity, you’re a capricious dreamer
Clinging to fickle dreams; where are you going?

黄昏開く鍵を深して月の影
届かないまま泣いた私は何処へ行く

I who wept, searching for the key that opens the twilight
but unable to reach the shadow of the moon: where am I going?

二人瞳に秘密失くしても
重ねた腕をほどきはしないわ

Though I lose my secrets in our eyes
I will not loose our clasped arms

一月の蒼い月朝焼け隠してよ
終わるはずのない夜に優しい夜明け

O pale January moon, hide the glow of morning
The gentle dawn of a night which ought not end

近付く程に痛む恋の重さのせいで
離れすぎてた胸を自由と呼んでいた

This love hurts so much that I move closer to you— it was so heavy
That I called “freedom” this breast, too far away

暗い場所にだけ光るものがあると
小さな窓の遠く見つめてた

Thinking there are things that shine only in dark places
I gazed distantly through a little window

一月の蒼い月どこまで落ちて行く
終わるはずのない恋に優しい夜明け

O pale January moon, how far will you sink?
The gentle dawn to a love which ought not end

一月の蒼い月朝焼け隠してよ
終わるはずのない夜に優しい夜明け

O pale January moon, hide the glow of morning
The gentle dawn to a night which ought not end