Interpreting the Rising Poem

[Anonymoose]

We always have threads for these on New Years, so why not, right?

As always, translations are amateur and unpolished.
Please suggest better translations if you spot anything that seems amiss. It can only help the final interpretations.

ENGLISH

Neath pillars of whorling strife,
founders the dross of despair.
O'er pillars of eddying life,
surge high the gales of prayer.
Flux and flow do the gyres,
joined by the crystal in thy keep.
Thy adamant spear bores steeps entire,
thy argent blade cleaves oceans deep.

JAPANESE

『渦巻く意思の円環の　底に積もるは　嘆きの澱
Swirling Ring of Will / Pooling at the Nether / The Dregs of Sorrow

逆巻く命の円環の　天に上るは　祈りの風』
Surging Ring Life / Rising up to Heaven / The Winds of Prayer

『流転する螺旋を繋ぐは　汝の水晶
Binding their Spiraling Flux / Thy Crystal

巌を穿つ金剛の槍　海原切り裂く白金の剣』
Piercing the Rock, the Adamantine Spear / Cleaving the ocean, the Silver Sword

GERMAN

Der Zweifel lähmt die schäumende Lebenskraft
The doubt paralyzes the frothing vital force

Er sinkt auf den Grund der Seele und lastet schwer
He sinks to the foundations of the soul and is weighed down

Die Hoffnung beflügelt die tosende Lebenskraft
Hope inspires thunderous vitality

Sie fliegt wie Gebete zum Himmel und tanzt umher
She flies like prayer to the skies and dances

Des Schicksals unabsehbare Windungen,
The destiny unforeseeably wanders

sie alle vereint bereits dein Kristall
already united within thy crystal

Er ist der felsdurchbohrende Speer,
He is the spear pierced into the stone

das Lichterschwert im hier und überall
the Blade of Light in here and everywhere

FRENCH

Au fin fond du cercle de la volonté,
In the depths of the circle of volition,

Les âmes déchaînées envoient leurs complaintes.
the souls unchained send their laments.

Au sommet du cercle de la vitalité,
At the summit of the circle of vitality,

Le souffle des prières arrive en terre sainte.
the breath of prayer arrives in the holy land.

La spirale des émotions et de la fatalité
The spiral of emotions and fate

Est contenue dans ton cristal de lumière.
Is contained within your crystal of light.

Solide comme la lance plantée dans un rocher,
Solid as the spear planted within the stone

Tranchant comme l'épée qui fend les vagues et l'air.
Sharp as the sword that cleaves the waves and the air.

Moose's First Guess at a Combination
Swirling vortex of will, at the bottom He laments in the descent of soul.
Spiraling vortex of life, at the summit She dances in the rise of prayer.
Emotions and fates in flux are as ever united within thy crystal(s of Light).
His is the spear that pierces the stone. Hers is the blade that divides the sea.



Now, if you've been following Hydaelyn and Zodiark very closely, this is almost entirely a recap and combination of all things previously associated with them. Zodiark is the Darkness, the moon, the force of Soul. Hydaelyn is the Light, the planet, the force of Life. The two are ever entwined and inseparable, their conflict embedded into time itself. Light & Shadow and Astral & Umbral are in all things.

The spear (of Darkness?) that pierces the stone..
The blade (of Light) that cuts the sea...

Who wants to take a stab at the deeper, more accurate meaning?

[Nalien]

Hmm... I took the pillars thing an entirely different way, granted I only had the one translation to work off and these things usually have multiple meanings anyway...

I took the Pillar of Strife to be Garlemald, with Ala Mhigo despairing underneath their heel...
Then I took the Pillar of Eddying Life (The Circle of Life?) to reference the rise of Primals... Specifically Garuda, given the mention of gales and the upcoming new dungeons... Basically, we live to die, and thus we struggle (tying back to strife) and ultimately pray for some form of salvation, allowing Primals to rise from that faith...

I still very much see the story going down the "Ascians want a world without death!" route (with that also likely being how things once were), and that bias is definitely showing with this interpretation... The Circle of Life makes bad things?! Gasp! If only we could have a world without conflict and death! Everything would be better, right? Right?!

[Zohar_Lahar]

Now, if you've been following Hydaelyn and Zodiark very closely, this is almost entirely a recap and combination of all things previously associated with them. Zodiark is the Darkness, the moon, the force of Soul. Hydaelyn is the Light, the planet, the force of Life. The two are ever entwined and inseparable, their conflict embedded into time itself.

The spear (of Darkness) that pierces the stone..
The blade (of Light) that cuts the sea...

Who wants to take a stab at the deeper, more accurate meaning?

Wait, so does that mean Sephirot = Hydaelyn and Sophia = Zodiark?

Well, that aside, the only thing I take from this is that we're gonna cut up the ocean.

[Zeno_McDohl]

Wait, so does that mean Sephirot = Hydaelyn and Sophia = Zodiark?

Well, that aside, the only thing I take from this is that we're gonna cut up the ocean.

Probably not? There's the 3rd Warring Triad, so a set of 2 doesn't make a ton of sense unless it was 3.

[Frederick22]

Wait, so does that mean Sephirot = Hydaelyn and Sophia = Zodiark?

Well, that aside, the only thing I take from this is that we're gonna cut up the ocean.

warring triad and hydaelyn/zodiark are different things.

[Aeliott]

All but the last 2 lines about the spear and blade seem to be general metaphorical tomfoolery for the cycle / balance of light and darkness. Given that the Warriors of Darkness are now coming to the foreground, I'd wager it's a reference to them. There's a clear duality. Pillars of life (WoL), pillars of strife (WoD), despair vs prayer etc. And this is somehow connected to thy (our) crystal of light. Hm... also

Thy (your) adamant spear bores steeps entire (pierces stone)
thy (your) argent blade cleaves oceans deep

We have...great power. That can pierce hard things :P

I find the French version a bit more easy to speculate on than the other vague ones.
"the souls unchained send their laments." - the Warriors of Darkness? Ascians?
"the breath of prayer arrives in the holy land." - we'll be travelling to a land considered holy? The end of the Dragonsong war?

There's a lot of spiral imagery, but the English version especially is littered with aquatic association words. Whorl, dross, eddy, flux, flow, gyre, oceans.
Wasn't the first expansion a toss-up between sea and sky (the sky being Heavensward)? Maybe it's a very vague nod to the next expansion somehow, assuming there will still be a water theme. Then again, it's _only_ the English version which has this, the others have no such theme.

Just tossing ideas at the wall :P

[Fenral]

I still very much see the story going down the "Ascians want a world without death!" route (with that also likely being how things once were), and that bias is definitely showing with this interpretation... The Circle of Life makes bad things?! Gasp! If only we could have a world without conflict and death! Everything would be better, right? Right?!

I'm going to say you have it backwards, and that the Ascians simply want to end all mortal life. There's nothing to indicate the Ascians give a single flying [kupo] about us, neither individually nor as a whole, so why give us immortality when, already, the only thing that can kill them is fighting us to accomplish their objective? Eldibus is not that noble, and Lahabrea certainly wasn't.

I think it'll be more like, "You're all going to die anyway, so should you not die willingly so the original order can be restored?" It's the logical extreme of Louisoix and the Scions' ideology, and would present a conflict that someone might actually have to think about for more than two minutes.

Not that a world without suffering and death can't become some other faction's objective down the line. My money's on the Allagans.
(Also, Bleach ended last week, and, uh, yeah. We can now say that Tite Kubo did it. That's not a good thing.)

[Morningstar1337]

Should we be expecting giant robots with drills at some point? maybe some pointed triangular shades for glamour? :P

There being aquatic references makes some sense. Gyr Albana is to the east bordered by an ocean and IIRC there are some bodies of water around Ala Mhigo.

Now I have a question. Does Yoshi always intends the poems to be a sort of puzzle. Something that requires all four translations to fully understand?

[PArcher]

I'm going to say you have it backwards, and that the Ascians simply want to end all mortal life

Well, its also possible that, to them, these are the same. Death exists because mortals do, so eliminating mortals = no more death! Is that the truth? Can't say at this point (I mean, Ramuh mused about Light and Dark splitting when man was created...he was wrong, but still)

[Anonymoose]

the English version especially is littered with aquatic association words. Whorl, dross, eddy, flux, flow, gyre, oceans.
Wasn't the first expansion a toss-up between sea and sky (the sky being Heavensward)? Maybe it's a very vague nod to the next expansion somehow, assuming there will still be a water theme. Then again, it's _only_ the English version which has this, the others have no such theme.

I had this same thought. English is, for all its clusterf[KUPO]kery, a very flowery language with an extensive selection of synonyms, each have their own connotations. None of the words chosen for English must be related to water, but often are used in relation to water.

Ever since that interview where it was said, "We had a debate - flying or swimming." I've been joking that since we have so much warning for swimming, there's ample time to include Blitzball. Now, the lead-up to 4.0 obviously wants us to think Gyr Abania is coming, and it likely is. But 3.0 had both Dravania and the Floating Continent; who's to say 4.0 won't have Gyr Abania and oceanic content? There are a few islands we know about (and many we possibly don't!). Thavnair, for starters. And what's with all these Final Fantasy X homages at Fan Fest? All things are coming up roses for that running joke, imho.

TL;DR
WE'RE GOING TO BUILD A BLITZBALL SPHERE, AND THAVNAIR IS GOING TO PAY FOR IT.