SURREAL meaning?

[Miltonic]

Well I've been wondering if there are any interviews where ayu explains/hints at the meaning of the song. I love this song to death and I just can't understand it fully yet so I would like more clues lol

[YUKARI]

Well, I remember she told something about this song on the TV programme called Sokuhou! uta no daijiten!! on 2000.10.11 before performing it. I'm sure you can also find some comments on the other TV programmes like CDTV and etc.

[Miltonic]

thanks and i found it, wish it was subed though lol

[Delirium-Zer0]

This is rough, but:

Good evening, everyone. I'm Ayumi Hamasaki. This song has the title "SURREAL" because "Surreal" means "truth outside reality."* In the lyrics, I address things like my own imaginings, and my own wishes, which I sacrifice more than anything else. I wrote what I'm really feeling right now in these lyrics, which the title reflects.

*Really here she just says that "SURREAL" is the English word for "chougenjitsu na koto", but the kanji for "surreal" explains the meaning too, and many English speakers don't exactly know what "surreal" means cuz the term gets thrown around so much... it's art that studies the truth as your subconscious mind sees it, rather than reality as it exists outside yourself.

[Miltonic]

thanks a lot

that really helps and im glad to know a little more about it.

[Delicious n Bold]

According to the dictionary:

Surreal
adjective
having the qualities of surrealism; bizarre: a surreal mix of fact and fantasy.

Walking in on yourself wearing a cat suit is, well, bizarre.

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by Delicious n Bold

According to the dictionary:

Surreal
adjective
having the qualities of surrealism; bizarre: a surreal mix of fact and fantasy.

Walking in on yourself wearing a cat suit is, well, bizarre.

lol true enough I hate this definition though. If you have to use a word twice when trying to define that same word, you're doing it wrong. lol

dictionary.com has this definition:
"having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream; unreal; fantastic." I like that definition. Gives total newbies to the term a good illustration of what it means.

And since the "SURREAL" pv has Ayu actually dreaming about running into herself in a catsuit, being able to put her hand through plants, et cetera, yeah, the title works, haha!

[Miltonic]

yea i always wondered how the tittle connected to the lyrics and what the lyrics actually meant to her. I love the word lol

[Delicious n Bold]

I unno, the lyrics, to me, are completely different from being surreal. The end of the song is more sad and unfortunate than surreal.

[Miltonic]

Well with what deli translated I can see how SURREAL connects to the lyrics in a way which was my main beef with this song lol

I figured if you read the lyrics as if your talking to yourself it makes a lot more sense.

[Ayu-roBeat 13]

I always thought it was kind cool that SURREAL had a small hint of Alice in Wonderland to it. Visually, not lyrically though.

[kotora]

Very simple.

Surreal means unreal.

[Minttulatte]

I realized the meaning at once when I saw the PV. I really adore this song for such a deep meaning. <3

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Delicious n Bold

I unno, the lyrics, to me, are completely different from being surreal. The end of the song is more sad and unfortunate than surreal.

"Surreal" have neither a good or a bad conotation... soemthing can be sad, unfortunate, and still be surreal. Like Frida Kahlo paintings

[primavera♥]

^lol Frida Kahlo...or Dali...etc. I agree it doesn't have a particular emotion. But it can be whatever you want. We make what we want of art.

@Delicious n Bold: I feel differently about the end. Sometimes it causes more melancholy feelings inside me for whatever reasons and sometimes I see it as so positive and happy and I realized it can be that way when I saw one of her lives where she sang it with such positive emotion. It depends on my mood, but I think the lyrics at the end can be taken differently.

[jewelbox]

Ok.. I'm really bad at explaining things.. But as a (wannabe) artist I wanna tell my opinion about surrealism.
Surreal is a difficult concept. It is something between real and unreal. It is playing with imagination and symbolics. It's not just "weird" , it's comletely different thing.. It is like way to describe another reality that can exist only in our minds, in our dreams.
The most easiest way to try to understand that concept is to look Dali's paintings. They define surrealism completely.

I think that ayu's song she could have sang :"In a surreal place I stand as I am." But that's not how it is in translations what I've seen.
In divine Ayu lyrics it is desriced as "non existant place" and Misa-Chan's translation it is "a place which is not anywhere."

Personally, I think that place is a surreal place. A place between dream and reality. That's why in the beginning of the video she's dreaming and then she starts this journey in the dream world and finds from the jungle herself as a wild beast etc.

That's how I understand it

[primavera♥]

^We have a Dali museum in my city, newly renovated actually, and I have yet to go. I'm not the biggest fan of surrealism but I do enjoy the concept. And it's interesting to me for ayu to use the theme of the surreal. I like your understanding, jewelbox

[Miltonic]

Originally Posted by jewelbox

Ok.. I'm really bad at explaining things.. But as a (wannabe) artist I wanna tell my opinion about surrealism.
Surreal is a difficult concept. It is something between real and unreal. It is playing with imagination and symbolics. It's not just "weird" , it's comletely different thing.. It is like way to describe another reality that can exist only in our minds, in our dreams.
The most easiest way to try to understand that concept is to look Dali's paintings. They define surrealism completely.

I think that ayu's song she could have sang :"In a surreal place I stand as I am." But that's not how it is in translations what I've seen.
In divine Ayu lyrics it is desriced as "non existant place" and Misa-Chan's translation it is "a place which is not anywhere."

Personally, I think that place is a surreal place. A place between dream and reality. That's why in the beginning of the video she's dreaming and then she starts this journey in the dream world and finds from the jungle herself as a wild beast etc.

That's how I understand it

yes I like this and from I have gathered in this song she is speaking to herself the real person inside her that shes trying to show instead of the person everyone see aka the famous superficial idol, she is telling herself to be herself...

[Delicious n Bold]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

"Surreal" have neither a good or a bad conotation... soemthing can be sad, unfortunate, and still be surreal. Like Frida Kahlo paintings

I was referring to the lyrics of the song. You know, the part where Ayu says "I want to tell somebody, but I can't" or something.
That is not surreal. That is sad and unfortunate.
Sounds like forbidden love: "I want to tell someone, that that person is more important to me than anyone else."
Granted, the beginning and end ARE 'surreal', but the lyrics from "ah, yubikiri wo shita" to "ano hito ga dare yori taisetsu tte" are all an angst-fest.

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by Delicious n Bold

I was referring to the lyrics of the song. You know, the part where Ayu says "I want to tell somebody, but I can't" or something.
That is not surreal. That is sad and unfortunate.
[/B]

I personally think the lyrics clash realities, so it does have a connection to something surreal. I sometimes feel like that with dreams. Either I'm on a dream and i feel like telling someone something but I can't, or, which is more common I dream of something and when I'm awake there really isn't a easy way I can share with that person something in reality as I did on the dream, even though the dream seemed real enough. The switch in realities can be painful. Sometimes I dream of wonderful things just to wake up and see the reality is different. I think that's what ayu talks about in the song. In a state of a dream where she can construct a world of her own, she can take as many possibilities without responsibilities as she can, it's easier and it has more freedom, and being alone is less painful, but she switches back to reality and mention that you shouldn't shut your senses (sleep), because you are able to do things in reality even if you feel your life has no sense anymore. Still, she complains about the fact she shares a dream with someone that seems impossible so she can't tell people because she's able to live it in a surreal world, but not in the real one, so she can't really share that joy to the world, because as much as it feels real, it isn't...a platonic love?