“A Sight Seeing Crow’s Hide and Seek”
Context Notes:
This song is sung from the perspective of the Tengu reporter “Aya Shameimaru” from the Touhou Project. She has the power to travel incredibly fast and goes around investigating and ‘reporting’ on things going on to put into her newspaper. She embellishes and exaggerates a lot for dramatics in her writing, but (at least, from my interpretation from the games) she’s just really curious about how things are and how things work.
鬼さんこちら さぁ
手の鳴る方へ
鬼さんこちら さぁ
「もういいかい？」
鬼さんこちら さぁ
手の鳴る方へ
鬼さんこちら さぁ
Catch me, if you can
oni-san kochira saa
te no naru hou e
oni-san kochira saa
“mou ii kai?”
oni-san kochira saa
te no naru hou e
oni-san kochira saa
Catch me, if you can
Oni-san[1], this way,
to the sound of hands clapping
Oni-san this way, here, “ready or not, here I come?”
Oni-san, this way,
to the sound of hands clapping
Catch me, if you can
See 紅い瞳
Feel 見逃せない合図
Now set me free 翼を翻し
To find the real 謎の正体
See akai hitomi
Feel minogasenai aizu
Now set me free tsubasa o hirugaeshi
To find the real nazo no kotae
See ~ crimson eyes.
Feel ~ a unmissable sign
Now set me free ~
Letting one’s wings spread
To find the real ~
answer to the riddle
故きを温ね 新しき事
書き散らすの 気の向くまま 今めかし
猫にゃ 過ぎる好奇心 天狗にゃ上々
どこまででも 追いかけるの
深く深く果てなく
furuki o tazune atarashiki koto
kakichirasu no ki no muku mama imamekashi
neko nya sugiru koukishin tengu nya joujou
doko made demo oikakeru no
fukaku fukaku hate naku
Looking in the past to learn the new[2]
I write down what I feel like writing, as I feel like writing, now and then.
Curiosity is too much for a cat, is just right for a tengu
I’ll chase after it wherever it leads
deeper, deeper, without end
嗚呼 紅葉の錦
白雪 桜の雲に 萌える若葉の色
山の彩り 七変化
嘘か真か 風に乗る言の葉
天狗の団扇 仰げば三日月
涼しい顔で 教えてあげましょ
鴉の秘密 与太話
お代はツケで 未来の君に
aa momiji no nishiki
shirayuki sakura no kumo ni moeru wakaba no iro
yama no irodori shichihenge
uso ka makoto ka kaze ni noru koto no ha
tengu no uchiwa aogeba mikadzuki
suzushii kao de oshiete agemasho
karasu no himitsu yotabanashi
odai wa tsuke de ashita no kimi ni
Ah, a brocade of fall leaves
White snow, a cloud of cherry blossoms, the color of blooming young leaves
The coloring of the mountain
A dance in 7 colors[3]
False or Truth, the leaves of language[4] riding the wind
A Tengu’s fan, when you look up, a crescent moon
With a cool face, I’ll tell you about it
The crow’s secret idle talk
The bill is on your future self’s tab
鬼さんこちら さぁ
手の鳴る方へ
鬼さんこちら さぁ
「もういいかい？」
鬼さんこちら さぁ
手の鳴る方へ
鬼さんこちら さぁ
Catch me, if you can
oni-san kochira saa
te no naru hou e
oni-san kochira saa
“mou ii kai?”
oni-san kochira saa
te no naru hou e
oni-san kochira saa
Catch me, if you can
Oni-san, this way,
to the sound of hands clapping
Oni-san this way, here, “ready or not, here I come?”
Oni-san, this way,
to the sound of hands clapping
Catch me, if you can
ほら 紅葉の錦
白雪 桜の雲に 萌える若葉の色
山の彩り 七変化
嘘か真か 風に乗る言の葉
天狗の団扇 仰げば三日月
涼しい顔で 教えてあげましょ
鴉の秘密 与太話
お代はツケで 未来の君に
hora momiji no nishiki
shirayuki sakura no kumo ni moeru wakaba no iro
yama no irodori shichihenge
uso ka makoto ka kaze ni noru koto no ha
tengu no uchiwa aogeba mikadzuki
suzushii kao de oshiete agemasho
karasu no himitsu yotabanashi
odai wa tsuke de ashita no kimi ni
See, a brocade of fall leaves
White snow, a cloud of cherry blossoms, the color of blooming young leaves
The coloring of the mountain
A dance in 7 colors
False or Truth, the leaves of language riding the wind
A Tengu’s fan, when you look up, a crescent moon
With a cool face, I’ll tell you about it
The crow’s secret — idle talk
The bill is on your future self’s tab
Notes：
[1] An Oni is a type of youkai (demon), but in this case, she’s referring to the person who is ‘it’ in a game of Oniwatashi/Onigokko — the Japanese version of ‘hide and seek’. The line (もういっかい — mou ikkai) reinforces this as that’s what the person who is it says when they’re about to start seeking.
[2] This is an ancient confucian proverb/expression (think something like quoting the bible)
[3]: A 七変化 (shichihenge, lit. “Seven changes”) refers to a type of kabuki dance where the dancer changes to differently colored outfits 7 times during the performance.
[4]:
風に乗る言の葉
kaze ni noru koto no ha
the characters for a word are (言葉 – kotoba)
but separately 言 still means “say/word” but “葉” means “leaf”.
By adding a の (basically an apostrophe) here, it becomes a sort of play on the ‘fall’ theme of the song —
“The words that dance on the wind” instead becomes
“The leaves of [concept of saying/words] dancing on the wind”
Dancing Funkos 
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