New Year's Poem 2026

It's that time of year, again! The... beginning of it, that is...

Please don't hesitate to correct transcriptions or translations.


ENGLISH
Our past astern, we scan the sea
In search of that which may yet be
Frail playthings of the restless tide
Yet wind and wave shall be our guide

From the journal of a well-traveled young man


JAPANESE

かの大陸での旅を終え、船上にて思う。
Having completed my journey on that continent, I was reflecting whilst aboard the ship.

古きを知いて継ぐべきを見出すは、波に似たい。
To know the past, and identify what to carry forward, is like the waves.

新しきを練いて変ずるべきを兒出すは、風に似たい。
To create something new, and bring forth necessary change, is like the wind.

それらは船を水平線の彼方へと導くのだから。
For these guide the ship beyond the horizon.


ある青年の回想録より抜粋
—Excerpt from a Young Man's Memoirs

GERMAN

O stolzes Schiff, so trag' mich fort, zu meinen heut'gen Aufbruch
O proud ship, carry me forth to my departure t'day,

Der Wellen Schaum an deinen Bug flüstert alter Wissen
The foam of the waves on your bow whispers old knowledge,

Des Windes Spiel um deinen Mast lockt mit Zeiten Umbruch
The play of the wind around your mast beckons with times of change,

O Gezeiten, ermahnet und geleitet mich, hinaus zu neuen Ufern!
O tides, caution and guide me to new shores!


Aus den Memoiren eines jungen Mannes
From the memoirs of a young man

Thanks for the fix, Hox!

FRENCH

Notre voyage s'achève, et le large m'appelle
Our journey ends, and the open sea calls to me,

Le vague est tradition, une mémoire eternelle
The wave is tradition, an eternal memory,

Le vent est changement, force de création
The wind is change, the force of creation,

Ils poussent poussent le navire par-delà l'horizon
They push the ship beyond the horizon.


Extrait des mémoires d'un jeune sage
Excerpt from the memoirs of a wise young man

COMBINED PANSLATION

With Tural at our backs, the sea calls once more.
The support of the waves, so like the rhythm of tradition;
The drive of the breeze, so like the impetus of change;
Together they bear us over another new horizon.


I do like the sound of leaving on a boat... (as opposed to a shard-gate...)

Getting some pirate-y high seas vibes from that poem! My pirate expansion senses are tingling.

Sounds like it might be time for the bizarro X expansion after all...

I'm guessing this is probably from Erenville's point of view (it could be Alphinaud's, but Erenville feels more connected to the expansion).

I think it is more broadly referring to Yoshi P wanting to learn lessons from the past while also looking toward change in the future for FFXIV, but the imagery of ships, the sea, wind and waves are consistently used and I hope they have some meaning here too! I'd love to see a high seas adventure, Aerslaent, the Blindfrost, all of that. I'm not interested in shard travel though, so I'm always grasping for anything that might point elsewhere - haha!

The Japanese kind of makes my head hurt. 波に似たい should amount to "[I] want to be like the waves," but that basic idea is usually rendered as なりたい. Honestly 似たい is one of those rare conjugations that reminds me I'm only conversationally fluent at this point and poetic language is still beyond me.


But the gist I get from the Japanese is "I want to be the wind and waves because those are what move the ship." In short, a desire to be in control of one's direction in life. But that idea isn't really rendered in the other languages at all so back to spiraling into self-doubt for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fenral

The Japanese kind of makes my head hurt.

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Same.

I wasn't sure whether I was reading it right, and therefore wasn't sure if I should explicitly be using the word "want".

For the "first draft" guess of how to interpret it, I left it at a sort of implied admiration for the qualities they're ascribing to the waves and wind, as they would allow one to successfully navigate tradition and change. Leaving it implied kept the focus on the analogy - successfully navigating tradition and change enables a people to successfully move from where they are to their next great adventure, much like the literal ship being literally departed on here.

I figured worst case scenario I was overthinking it and someone would just correct me, lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fenral

The Japanese kind of makes my head hurt...

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It's unusual that all four versions seem to have gone their own way this time. Each one seems to give rise to its own theories, lol.

Could it maybe be something like, "In knowing what is past, and what to carry forward, I wish to be like the waves."
"In shaping what is new, and that which ought to change, I wish to be like the wind." ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lunaxia

It's unusual that all four versions seem to have gone their own way this time. Each one seems to give rise to its own theories, lol.

Could it maybe be something like, "In knowing what is past, and what to carry forward, I wish to be like the waves."
"In shaping what is new, and that which ought to change, I wish to be like the wind." ?

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Having had time to sleep on it and talk it over with my good friend "context" over fun drinks that numb my pesky inhibitions a bit, yeah. It kind of has to, otherwise the だから in the last sentence is left hanging arguing for a metaphor instead of the speaker's aspiration towards that metaphor.

I think the idea is that carrying and shaping can be done in other ways, but should be done in a way that brings the boat along to its destination. It's kind of the tonal opposite of the "Frail playthings of the restless tide" in the English version, which expresses being at the mercy of those forces, but elaborates on "Yet wind and wave shall be our guide" in a bit more detail.

They're all pretty different this time around, with the specific mentions of wind, waves, boats, and guidance being pretty much all they have in common. Pirates?

Maybe my dream of Blindfrost being Viking-inspired isn't actually that far off ...?

Wind? Wave? It seems like Yoshida just confirmed the new Pokémon games releasing this year!

Joking aside, I think we are traveling by boat again. From seeing certain YouTube videos speculating things, I’d say Blindfrost would be a good location seeing as it’s blanketed by a strong mist that can stop ships. It’s based on Nordic mythology, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we got Corsair with it or a job that uses a hammer weapon.

Here comes all the Corsair and Viking job speculation.

Warrior already has too many Viking-adjacent skills and gear sets. Unless they wanted to somehow make it fight like the III Viking's optimal setup (double shield style e.g. Rhitahtyn), I can't see how they would add it and make it distinct from Warrior...

Corsair already has elements of it's own style baked into other classes, like Ninja (Rogue), Machinist, and to an extent Viper...

I don't think we can quite dismiss jobs just because similar jobs exist, as the team has shown some creativity in how they translate them for XIV. SCH usually dealt with items (or BLM+WHM without the fencer capabilities of RDM), SGE was an upgrade on WHM, and, well... SMN...

They can have something that works with the theme of Viking or Corsair while giving them their own identity. (For Corsair in particular, I've been wanting an opposite of RDM, a mellee job thatbulds up for a ranged burst)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WhiteArchmage

SCH usually dealt with items (or BLM+WHM without the fencer capabilities of RDM), SGE was an upgrade on WHM[...]

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Those are actually extremely bad examples, and seem to be locked within very specifically FFIII for some reason; I won't begrudge you having a favorite Final Fantasy, it's just weird that it's III. For example, Sage actually flickers in identity constantly, being roughly close to Red Mage and Alchemist at various times (despite looking like a White Mage upgrade, in FFIII it was actually a Red Mage), and is more just a broad title for 'Late-Game Magic User' than it is a codified skillset. I'd instead argue that Astrologian is a good example of how they get clever with pre-existing archetypes, because who the hell looked at the Setzer-style gamblers and Time Mage and said 'those two, at the same time, as a healer'?

The question of identity remains with these two when you remember that there needs to be a unique sales pitch. And to me, is also a pretty easy way to knock out these thoughts for jobs, because they don't really have one. What is Viking bringing to the table, that Warrior and potentially soon Beastmaster doesn't already? What would Corsair bring that I don't already get from Machinist or Red Mage? Yes, there's value in making up a whole new route, but if we're doing that, then why does it have to be Viking or Corsair? That's especially true for Viking, which is a very specific historical role and aesthetic that, again, Warrior basically already covers. You can't exactly reinvent 'vikings', they're pretty firmly their thing.

And I mostly haven't cared about this poem, because I noticed it's conceptually damn near identical to the 2024 poem, which as also 'someone setting out on a naval journey and reflecting on the possibilities of what is to come'. Which kinda just means all my thoughts are two years old, but I remember people also getting weirdly certain we were getting Corsair in Dawntrail, too. And I wonder how many times people will go 'this time we're getting Corsair' and then be wrong before they resolve that maybe we're not getting that.

...granted, this is coming from the girl on her fifth straight year of 'THIS TIME we're getting Gelmorra content' cope. I guess maybe I'm just confused why people are so certain and optimistic about their constantly-dashed hopes.