Translating song - The Game of Life (Hatsune Miku)

Note: This Vocaloid song deals with dark themes such as manipulation, exploitation, and existential futility. The translation below presents the content of the original lyrics factually, without judging or dramatising the song's motives.

In this Translating Song article, you'll study the Hatsune Miku Vocaloid "Jinsei Game" (Japanese 人生ゲーム, "The Game of Life") by the producer Kemu. The song follows a figure who lives eleven different lives, each shaped and moved around the board by a capricious "God." If you don't mind a dark, philosophical setting, feel free to keep reading.

Here is the original song on YouTube (with English subtitles):

Hatsune Miku - Jinsei Game (人生ゲーム) by Kemu

Song Lyrics (Original)

Song Lyrics (romanized)

Translation of the song

Breaking down the song

Below, you'll study a few key lines from the song. A complete song analysis will be added in a future update.

Example 1: 1 回目の人生は退屈で

1 回目の人生は退屈で
Ikkaime no jinsei wa taikutsu de

My first life was boring.

• 1 回目 (ikkaime) - the first time / first round
• 人生 (jinsei) - life
• 退屈 (taikutsu) - boring, tedious
• ～で (de) - copula in informal, conclusive style ("is ..." / "was ...")

Example 2: 2 回目の人生はやりたい放題

2 回目の人生はやりたい放題
Nikaime no jinsei wa yaritai hōdai

In my second life, I could do whatever I wanted.

• 2 回目 (nikaime) - the second time
• 人生 (jinsei) - life
• やりたい放題 (yaritai hōdai) - "to do as one pleases"; the suffix ～放題 expresses that something is done freely and without restraint

Example 3: サイコロ転がすの

サイコロ転がすの
Saikoro korogasu no

(He) rolls the dice.

• サイコロ (saikoro) - dice
• 転がす (korogasu) - to roll (transitive: "to make something roll")
• ～の (no) - here a final, contemplative particle, common in song lyrics

Pattern: 回目 (kaime) for "the x-th time"

The pattern X 回目 stands out in the text - it's the simple way to say "the x-th time" in Japanese. Take a number and attach 回目 (kaime), which combines the counter 回 (kai, "time") with the suffix 目 (me, "the x-th"):

• 一回目 (ikkaime) - the first time
• 二回目 (nikaime) - the second time
• 三回目 (sankaime) - the third time
• 四回目 (yonkaime) - the fourth time
• 五回目 (go kaime) - the fifth time
• 六回目 (rokkaime) - the sixth time
• 七回目 (nanakaime) - the seventh time
• 八回目 (hachikaime) - the eighth time
• 九回目 (kyūkaime) - the ninth time
• 十回目 (jūkaime) - the tenth time
• 十一回目 (jūichikaime) - the eleventh time

The pronunciation is not always strictly regular: いち + かい collapses into いっかい, and the sixth and eighth readings follow their own counting rhymes. Once you're comfortable with the base numbers いち / に / さん / よん / ご / ろく / なな / はち / きゅう / じゅう, you already have the whole pattern.

Song context

"Jinsei Game" is one of the better-known melancholic Vocaloid works of the late 2010s. The producer Kemu is also known for other dark, philosophical songs, including tracks like "Inakunaru" (いなくなる) and pieces from the EXIT TUNES ecosystem. The central metaphor of the song - your own life as a game board, on which an outside power rolls the dice - sits thematically next to works such as "Kokoro" or "Daimewaku," which ask the same kind of question: how much of your fate do you really decide yourself?

Thank you for reading

Thanks for taking the time to translate this song with us. If you'd like more Vocaloid translations with the original Japanese, romaji, and an English rendering, you'll find related articles under our Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid theme. Happy studying, and see you at the next song.