Translating Songs - Ichiban no Takaramono

In this entry of Translating Songs, we will study 一番の宝物 (Ichiban no Takaramono), or "My most precious treasure." It is a beautiful and, at the same time, deeply sad song that turns on loneliness, perseverance, and the warmth of precious memories. Below is a link to the full track:

Ichiban no Takaramono - Girls Dead Monster (Angel Beats!)

The song comes from the anime Angel Beats! (2010) and is performed by the in-series band Girls Dead Monster. In the story, the protagonist Yui sings it in the last episode as a farewell to the other characters, just before she herself disappears. That context gives the track an unusual emotional weight: it is not simply a song about two people parting, but about learning to keep living after a final goodbye.

Contents 8

Original lyrics of the song

Below is the original Japanese text of the song as it is heard in the final episode of Angel Beats!. Kanji and kana are kept in their original form.

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顔を合わしたら喧嘩してばかり
それもいい思い出だった

きみが教えてくれたんだ もう恐くない
どんな不自由でも幸せは掴める だから
ひとりでもゆくよ 例え辛くても
きみと見た夢は 必ず持ってくよ
きみとがよかった ほかの誰でもない
でも目覚めた朝 きみは居ないんだね

ずっと遊んでれる そんな気がしてた
気がしていただけ わかってる
生まれてきたこともう後悔はしない
祭りの後みたい 寂しいけどそろそろ行こう

どこまでもゆくよ ここで知ったこと
幸せという夢を叶えてみせるよ
きみと離れても どんなに遠くなっても
新しい麻に あたしは生きるよ

ひとりでもゆくよ 死にたくなっても
声が聞こえるよ 死んではいけないと
例え辛くても 寂しさに泣いても
心の奥には 温もりを感じるよ

巡って流れて 時は移ろいだ
もう何があったか 思い出せないけど
目を閉じてみれば 誰かの笑い声
なぜかそれが今一番の宝物
一人でも行くよ
どこまでも行くよ

Romanized lyrics of the song

The romanized version (romaji) follows the conventional Hepburn system and helps you follow the pronunciation without needing to read the Japanese characters.

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Kao o awashitara kenka shite bakari
Sore mo ii omoide datta

Kimi ga oshiete kureta nda mō kowakunai
Donna fujiyū demo shiawase wa tsukameru dakara
Hitori demo yuku yo tatoe tsurakute mo
Kimi to mita yume wa kanarazu motteku yo
Kimi to ga yokatta hoka no dare demo nai
Demo mezameta asa kimi wa inai nda ne

Zutto asondereru sonna ki ga shiteta
Ki ga shiteita dake wakatteru
Umaretekita koto mō kōkai wa shinai
Matsuri no ato mitai samishii kedo sorosoro ikō

Dokomademo yuku yo koko de shitta koto
Shiawase to iu yume o kanaete miseru yo
Kimi to hanaretemo donnani tōku nattemo
Atarashii asa ni atashi wa ikiru yo

Hitori de mo yuku yo shinitaku natte mo
Koe ga kikoeru yo shinde wa ikenai to
Tatoe tsurakute mo samishisa ni naite mo
Kokoro no oku ni wa nukumori o kanjiru yo

Megutte nagarete toki wa utsuroi da
Mō nani ga atta ka omoidasenai kedo
Me o tojite mireba dareka no waraigoe
Naze ka sore ga ima ichiban no takaramono

Hitori demo yuku yo!
Dokomademo yuku yo.

Translation of the song

The English version below tries to keep the tone and imagery of the original without falling into a word-for-word translation. Wherever the Japanese deliberately leaves a line open to more than one reading, that openness is preserved in English as well.

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Whenever we met, we always fought.
But those are good memories too.

You taught me so many things, so I'm not afraid anymore.
No matter how hard it gets, I feel like I can grasp happiness, so…
Even if I'm alone, I will keep going, even if it is painful.
I will carry the dream I had with you, without fail.
I'm glad it was you, and no one else.
But when I wake up in the morning, you are not here.

I felt like we could keep playing forever.
But I know that was just a feeling.
I no longer regret having been born.
It is lonely, like the end of a festival, but it is time for us to move on.

I will go anywhere, carrying what I learned here.
I will show you that I can make the dream called happiness come true.
Even if I am separated from you, no matter how far apart we are,
I will live on into a new dawn.

Even if I'm alone, I will keep going, even if I want to die.
I can hear a voice saying that I must not die.
Even if it is painful, even if I cry from the loneliness,
deep inside my heart, I can still feel warmth.

Time has circled and flowed on, shifting and fading.
I can no longer remember what happened, but
if I close my eyes, I can hear someone's laughter,
and somehow that is now my most precious treasure.

Even alone, I will keep going.
I will go anywhere.

Breaking down the song

Now let us look at a few key lines of the song more closely. The examples below pair the original Japanese text, the romanization, and the meaning of the main building blocks, so you can see how each phrase is put together.

Example 1: You taught me not to be afraid

きみが教えてくれたんだ もう恐くない。
Kimi ga oshiete kureta nda mō kowakunai.

"You taught me so many things, so I'm not afraid anymore."

• きみ (君) – you
• 教えてくれたんだ – taught me; the explanatory ～んだ gives the line a soft, emotional weight
• もう恐くない – not afraid anymore (mō = already/anymore; kowakunai = not scared)

Example 2: Happiness can be grasped

どんな不自由でも幸せは掴める だから
Don'na fujiyū demo shiawase wa tsukameru dakara

"No matter how hard it gets, I feel like I can grasp happiness, so…"

• どんな不自由 – literally "any hardship / inconvenience"; in context, "no matter how hard things are"
• でも – even, even if
• 幸せは掴める – can grasp happiness; tsukameru is the potential form of tsukamu ("to grab, to seize")
• だから – therefore, so

Example 3: You are not there in the morning

でも目覚めた朝 きみは居ないんだね
Demo mezameta asa kimi wa inai nda ne

"But when I wake up in the morning, you are not here."

• でも – but
• 目覚めた – woke up (past tense of mezameru)
• 朝 – morning
• きみ (君) – you
• 居ないんだね – is not here; the ～んだね ending turns the line into a quiet, almost self-addressed realization

What holds the song together

Three threads run through the lyrics: fighting as affection in the opening verse, defiance and keeping going in the middle stanzas, and memory as treasure at the close. The ending quietly flips the early sadness around: what has been lost is exactly what remains most precious. That is also why the song fits so well in Angel Beats! – it is less a farewell than a quiet permission to keep living.

A full vocabulary list, a complete word-by-word analysis, and alternative translation variants will be added in a future update.

Thank you for reading, and happy studying! ^_^