As far as I know, nobody else seems to be translating J. A. Seazer’s latest Utena album, which came out in August, to English (please correct me if I’m wrong)… so the job falls to me.

This is track 1, 知恵の竈(アルデル)実験祈祷室, or “Aludel of Wisdom Experimental Prayer Room”. An aludel is a kind of pot used in alchemy; it goes in a furnace (this is significant).

EDIT: I accidentally left out the romaji for one verse and missed a reference in the title; the version with all corrections (at least for now) is here.

EDIT 2: I changed my translation of the title to “Wisdom’s Aludel Oratory-Laboratory”. See here for my explanation as to why that’s a better translation.

金より不純物を除き

それを純粋な形と成し

それをうまくなし遂げる者は かくて、

賢者の石を作りえよう

それは偉大な力の「石」であり

「石」と呼ばれていて石ではない

To remove impurities from gold

To shape that into a pure form

The one who successfully accomplishes this,

By this means, can create the philosopher’s stone

It is a Stone of great virtue

And is called a “Stone” and is not a stone.[i] 錬金術師たち Renkinjutsushitachi The alchemists ああ、永遠の知恵の錬金術

ああ、永遠の知恵の実験室

ああ、永遠の知恵の竃劇場 Aa, towa no chie no renkinjutsu

Aa, towa no chie no jikkenshitsu

Aa, towa no chie no kamado gekijou, gekijou Ahh, eternal wisdom’s [ii] alchemy

Ahh, eternal wisdom’s laboratory

Ahh, eternal wisdom’s furnace theater, theater 夢ではなく現れるドラゴン

世界創造の始めに

波の上を漂っていた神の如し Yume de wa naku arawareru doragon

Sekai souzou no hajime ni

Nami no ue wo tadayotteita kami no gotoshi It was not a mere dream; it materialized, the dragon![iii]

Like unto God, who in the beginning created,

Hovering over the surface of the waters.[iv] 蒸留、昇華、煆焼、煮煎

反射、溶解、下降、凝結 Jouryuu, shouka, kashou, shasen

Kansha, youkai, kakou, gyouketsu Distillation, sublimation, calcination, decoction,

Reflection, dissolution, descent, coagulation[v]. すべて水のなか

黒そのものより

さらに黒

そして

ルビーの燦然たるいろの耀き

その間に発生する

ああ、祝福される緑

万物芽吹かす緑 Subete mizu no naka

Kuro sono mono yori

Sarani kuro

Soshite

RUBII no sanzentaru iro no kagayaki

Sono aida ni hasseisuru

Aa, shukufukusareru midori

Banbutsu mebukasu midori Everything within water[vi],

A blackness still more black

Than blackness itself[vii],

And, too,

The ruby’s brilliantly-colored radiance,[viii]

All the while: generation,

Ahh, happy green,

Which dost produce all things[ix]! 神の霊気の緑

カバラの緑

渦巻く宇宙

秘術師よ緑のライオンを

哲学者の火

賢者の火

鞴よ

錬金炉アタノールの火を熾せ Kami no reiki no midori

KABALA no midori

Uzumaku uchuu

Hijutsushi yo midori no RAION wo

Tetsugakusha no hi

Kenja no hi

Fuigo yo

Renkin ro ATANOORU no hi wo okose

Behold!

The green of God’s mysterious presence,

The green of the Kabbala[x],

The spiraling cosmos,

The Magus, the Green Lion[xi].

The fire of the philosophers,

The fire of the sages![xii]

The bellows!

Light the fire of the alchemical furnace, the athanor. 見よ

哲学の竈||実験室

宇宙の竈||実験室

散らかり放題の

貧乏吹き屋の実験室 Miyo

Tetsugaku no kama no jikkenshitsu

Uchuu no kama no jikkenshitsu

Chirakari houdai no

Binbou fukiya no jikkenshitsu The philosophical furnace–the laboratory!

The cosmic furnace–the laboratory![xiii]

Scattered unrestrainedly,

A poor smelter’s laboratory われら

価値ある人間たらんがために

価値を目指す

錬金術師 Warera

Kachiaru ningentaran ga tame ni

Kachi o mezasu

Renkinjutsushi, renkinjutsushi For us

To have value as humans

To aim for value

Alchemy, alchemy それは一月十七日月曜日正午頃、私の家で、立会人はぺるネル一人だった。人類救済一三八二年の年である。私は水銀に投入を行い、それを約半ポンドの純銀、鉱山のものよりも良質の純銀に変化させた。その後、やはりぺるネル一人の立会いのもとに私の家で、同僚の水銀に赤い石を用いて同じことを行い、四月二五日夕方五時、本当にほぼ同量の純金に変成した。普通の金より確実に良質でより軟らかく、よりしなやかであった。これは真実である。私と同じく理解していたぺるネルの助けをて、私はこれを三回実現したのである。

二コラ・ヴァロワ Sore wa ichigatsu juunananichi getsuyoubi shougogoro, watashi no ie de, tachiainin wa PERUNERU hitoridatta. Jinrui kyuusai sen sanbyaku hachijuu ni nen no toshidearu. Watashi wa suigin ni tounyuu wo okonai, sore wo yaku han-pondo no jungin, kouzan no mono yori mo ryoushitsu no jungin ni henkasaseta. Sonogo, yahari PERUNERU hitori no tachiai no moto ni watashi no ie de, douryou no suigin ni akai ishi o mochiite onajikoto o okonai, shigatsu nigonichi yuugata goji, hontouni hobo douryou ni junkin ni henseishita. Futsuu no kin yori kakujitsu ni ryoushitsu de yori yawarakaku, yori shinayaka deatta. Kore wa shinjitsudeari. Watsahi to onaji rikaishite PERUNERU no tasukeote, watashi wa kore o sankai jitsugenshita nodearu.

The first time that I made projection was upon a Monday, the 17th of January, about noon, in my house, Pernelle only being present, in the year of the restoring of mankind, 1382. This was upon Mercury, whereof I turned half a pound, or thereabouts, into pure Silver, better than that of the Mine. And afterwards, following always my Book, from word to word, I made projection of the Red Stone upon the like quantity of Mercury, in the presence likewise of Pernelle only, in the same house, the five and twentieth day of April following, the same year, about five o'clock in the evening; which I transmuted truly into almost as much pure Gold, better assuredly than common Gold, more soft and more pliable. I may speak it with truth, have made it three times, with the help of Pernelle, who understood it as well as I.

–Nicolas le Valois[xiv]

[i] The last two lines of this verse are from Les Cinq Livres or La Clef des Secrets, by Nicolas le Valois, a French alchemist rumored to be the deceased Nicolas Flamel, supposedly using an alias after attaining immortality through the Philosopher’s Stone. I don’t know of any English translation of this text, but the original French is online at https://alchimie.000webhostapp.com/cinq_livres_valois.html. It’s likely that the first lines are also from alchemical texts; I just haven’t been able to identify them

[ii] Eternal wisdom—a phrase from Heinrich Khunrath, used in the title of his book The Amphitheater of Eternal Wisdom. There is an English translation by Peter J. Forshaw, but I have not yet been able to find it; I have, however, contacted the translator inquiring how to obtain it.

[iii] Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy: “The dragon is probably the oldest pictoral symbol in alchemy of which we have documentary evidence. It appears as the Ouroboros, the tail-eater, in the Codex Marcianus, which dates from the tenth or eleventh century, together with the legend ‘the One, the All’. Time and again the alchemists reiterate that the opus proceeds from the one and leads back to the one, that it is a sort of circle like a dragon biting its own tail. For this reason the opus was often called circulare (circular) or else rota (the wheel). Mercurius stands at the beginning and end of the work: he is the prima materia, the caput corvi, the nigredo; as dragon he devours himself and as dragon he dies, to rise again in the lapis. He is the play of colours in the cauda pavonis and the division into the four elements. He is the hermaphrodite that was in the beginning, that splits into the classical brother-sister duality and is reunited in the coniunctio, to appear once again at the end in the radiant form of the lumen novum, the stone. He is metallic yet liquid, matter yet spirit, cold yet fiery, poison and yet healing draught - a symbol uniting all the opposites.”

[iv] This is a clear reference to Genesis 1:1-2. “Like unto God” recalls the story of the Garden of Eden; Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because it would make them like God. Alchemists were also seeking knowledge that would make them like God, although the authors quoted in this song emphasized that one could not attain it without God’s blessing.

[v] These are all names for different techniques in the chemical process. Most are still used in chemistry today (only the terms “reflection” and “descent” are no longer used, as far as I know).

[vi] Valois explains that “water” means something different in alchemy. Basically, this water is a truly universal solvent, capable of absorbing anything into itself. He uses an interesting metaphor for this: “It’s this Maid Beïa, which has not yet been corrupted or lost its liberty, to marry infirm and ill-shaven bodies, as captives are, who can never leave their filthy prisons without the help of men. Thus preserving liberty with its integrity, we see in a philosophical manner this luminous star making infinite circulation turns, until it came in some reign.”

[vii] Putrefaction, the nigredo, the black stage in the alchemical process. The idea is that there must be sacrifice to facilitate new growth.

[viii] The philosopher’s stone is sometimes called the “celestial ruby.”

[ix] These two lines are from The Rosary of the Philosophers; however, I used the translation of the quote found in the translation of the Exposition, rather than the original text, although that can be found in English too: http://sociedadquimicamexico.org/rosarium.pdf. Here, it’s given as, “O blessed greenness, which engenders all things.”

[x] Many alchemists, both Jewish and non-Jewish, drew on the Kabballah (Jewish mystical texts), although how well they really understood it is questionable. I myself am not at all well-versed in this, but it seems that in the Kabballah, the color green represents healing and harmony.

[xi] The Green Lion typically represents the same thing as the dragon. E.g. The Glory of the World mentions “the Green Lion that imbibes so much of its own spirit.”

[xii] The author of The Glory of the World wrote of “indelible, living, or Divine fire, of that kind which God has placed in the Sun; and wherein God Himself burns as with Divine love for the consolation of all mankind… This is the fire of the Sages which they describe in such obscure terms, as to have been the indirect cause of beguiling many innocent persons to their ruin; so even that they have perished in poverty because they knew hot this fire of the Philosophers. It is the most precious fire that God has created in the earth, and has a thousand virtues – nay, it is so precious that men have averred that the Divine Power itself works effectually in it. It has the purifying virtue of Purgatory, and everything is rendered better by it. It is not wonderful, therefore, that a fire should be able to fix and clarify Mercury, and to cleanse it from all grossness and impurity. The Sages call it the living fire, because God has endowed it with His own Divine, and vitalising power.”

[xiii] Different names for the athanor, a kind of furnace. The alchemists viewed their work as the creation of a microcosmos, a “petite universe” if you will. “Cosmic furnace” doesn’t seem to have been common in English, but one does find the French version, fourneau cosmique.

[xiv] This passage is adapted from Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures. By attributing it to Valois, Seazer continues in the tradition of claiming him as part of the legend of Flamel. We can infer from this passage and its attribution that the two voices we hear singing this song are meant to represent Nicholas and Per(e)nelle, Flamel’s wife, purported to have been an alchemist in her own right.