Jigoku no Sata mo Kimi Shidai (TV Version)

The Road to Hell is Paved With You

Hoozuki no Reitetsu

Sung by: Jigoku no Sata All Stars (Aoyama Kiriko, Kakihara Tetsuya, 

Kitamura Eri, Kobayashi Yumiko, Nagasako Takashi & Yasumoto Hiroki)

Subtitled

Houzuki no Reitetsu (鬼灯の冷徹) Opening (With Subtitles)

Romaji and English

HAI! Nihon no jigoku ha jigoshou jigoku tsumi ni awasete 2-7-2 goku Koko ha jigoku, jigoku, suteki na jigoku jigoku JIGO jigo jigoku da yo~ tougatsu, kokujou, shuugou, kyoukan, daikyoukan, shounetsu, daishounetsu (ari!) fukisho ni oujukushou Nyohichuudasho ni jyukumuusuuryousho hariyama chi no ike madamada iro-iro jigoku ha aru kamoshirenai yo konoyo no okonai ki wo tsukete! KOKO ha jigoku, jigoku, suteki na jigoku jigoku, JIGO jigo jigoku da yo~ KOKO ha jigoku, jigoku tanoshii jigoku jigoku JIGOJIGO jigo-jigo JIGOJIGO jigo-jigo JIGOJIGO jigo-jigo jigoku da yo~ Nihon no jigoku ha jigoshou jigoku tsumi ni awasete-omotenashi Nihon no jigoku ha jigoshou jigoku tsumi ni awasete-omotenashi!

HEY! Japanese Hell is an ex-post-facto hell With 272 prisons to handle all your sins! This is H-E-L-L, H-E-L-L, Lov-e-ly H-E-L-L H-E-L-L, H-E H-E H-E H-E H-E H-E-L-L! Reviving Hell, Black Thread Hell, Crushing Hell, Screaming Hell Loudly Screaming Hell Roasting Hell, Broiling Hell (Endless Hell!) Departments of Devouring, Slow Cooking, Mincing, Countless Sufferings Needle Mountain, Blood Lake And many, many more Hell just might exist, you know So be careful how you act in life! This is H-E-L-L, H-E-L-L, Lov-e-ly H-E-L-L H-E-L-L, H-E H-E H-E H-E H-E H-E-L-L! This is H-E-L-L, H-E-L-L, So-much-fun-in H-E-L-L H-E-L-L, H-E, H-E, H-E, H-E, H-E, H-E,  H-E, H-E, H-E, H-E, H-E-L-L! Japanese Hell is an ex-post-facto hell With quality service to handle all your sins Japanese Hell is an ex-post-facto hell With quality service to handle all your sins!

For kanji lyrics, refer to AnimeLyrics.

Translation Notes

The Title - “Jigoku no Sata mo Kimi Shidai”

This is a play on the idiom Jigoku no Sata mo Okane Shidai - “Even the judgments of hell may be influenced by money,” the notion being that money works everywhere, even in hell. I’ve seen it translated to English as: “Money makes the world go ‘round.” The song title switches the word okane (money) for kimi (you). I wanted to get the pun across while keeping “hell” in the title, so I found another English idiom - “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” - and inserted the “you.” Which I think gets the playfulness of the title across, but the meaning is different enough that it irks me a little. I’ll keep thinking about it.

The List of Hells

The first eight are the “Eight Hot Narakas” in Buddhism, known in Japanese as “Hachidaijigoku” - the Eight Great Hells. These are somewhat like the seven circles of Hell found in Dante’s Inferno. Each of the Eight Great Hells are then divided into sections (which I translated as “Departments”) where very specific punishments are carried out for very specific sins. Four of these departments are mentioned in the song as well.

If I was going to translate these Hells directly, then I’d probably have to throw down the original Sanskrit names. This is, by the way, what the translator on the Houzuki no Reitetsu Wiki opted to do. And I understand the impulse, but the Sanskrit names will mean absolutely nothing to anyone without an extensive background in Buddhist and/or East Asian culture studies. So, for the Eight Hells, I opted to sort-of directly translate the actual names, largely because the shift from “Screaming Hell” to “Loudly (大) Screaming Hell” is (to me, anyway) pretty damn funny.

As for the four “Departments”...these were a bit trickier. After a great deal of research (in Japanese, no less), I sort of decided to translate them based partly on the kanji used in their names, and partly on the punishments inflicted in each. I also opted to keep them as short as possible, since this part of the song is sung so quickly that the long titles would have been impossible to read (and the current length is still no easy feat!).

Additional Reading

For anyone interested in knowing more, click here for some good stuff (in English) on the Eight Hot Narakas. However, if you want to read up on the many sections of Japanese Hell (including the four mentioned in this song), your best bet is to plug the kanji into Wiki Japan. Keep your dictionary handy, as Google Translate is reliably useless.