遠い旅をしている... 君は

A sad news five months late: Sakai Izumi (of Zard) has passed away on 27 May 2007. May her music remain with us for a long time to come.

If not for all the tribute videos on YouTube, who knows when I would find out about this..

She was one of the earliest singers (if not the earliest) that I noticed in my first foray into J-pop, and I remembered sampling all the Zard songs I could find and collecting the translation to all her lyrics.

A pencil drawing of Sakai Izumi that I did at the start of my obsession.
She was definitely more beautiful than this, though..

I haven't been a dedicated fan, as I only care for a very limited subset of her discography, but learning about her death shook me enough to write about it all the same.

Musical-wise, it was her self-written touching, down-to-earth lyrics that I admire; but it was more her quiet kind of beauty and intriguingly modest image that earned my sort-of idolization, as I believe they also did for her many fans.

While the heart-wrenching Eien (as my long-time favourite) might be more fitting for the occasion, here is instead, the song from her latest album in 2005 (not counting compilations) that relived my adoration of her after quite a few years -- the definition being, one that had me scrambling all over trying to find upon seen on TV.

遠い旅をしているみたいに
別々の道を このまま...
二人もう 会えないのかな
もうサヨナラだね
君とのふれあい

Just like a long journey
On separate roads like this
The two of us will never meet again, will we?
It's the end to everything
The reunion with you

Kanji lyrics quoted from: http://www.videouncovered.com/lyrics/4705/1190/zard/kimi-to-no-fureai.html

Translation is my own attempt with help from the clip subtitles; correction will be much appreciated.