蜩
長山洋子 Lyrics

The song 蜩 by 長山洋子 is about the fleeting nature of life and the agony of unfulfilled love. The verse talks about how short-lived life is and how short-lived a woman's prime years are. It then talks about the sound of cicadas in the evening, which seems to convey a yearning for human companionship. The chorus talks about the inability to express love through words or letters and asks if the person being addressed would cry and hold the singer close when they die. The second verse talks about how much the singer loves the person being addressed, but how they can't overcome the barrier of fate that keeps them apart. The chorus repeats with a question about forgetfulness being the truth of love.

The song is a poignant expression of love and the essential transience of life. The cicadas are used as a metaphor for the singer's own emotional state, with their cries symbolizing the aching loneliness and longing for love. The lyrics suggest that the singer's love for the person being addressed goes beyond words and that even death cannot extinguish that love. At the same time, there is a sense of acceptance that the person's love may not be reciprocated, and that forgetting might be the only way to move on.