ABUKU Lyrics in English by King Gnu
仄かに describes something sensed only faintly or delicately, such as a barely noticeable scent, feeling, or light. In the song, it appears in 仄かに歯がゆい, capturing a subtle but frustrating ache, and it also colors the memory of “that summer’s scent” with a poetic, nostalgic feeling.
"ABUKU" means foam or a bubble, and King Gnu build the whole song around that one image: something that was there a second ago and then just isn't. It opens with "消えたの 泡となり" (it vanished, turning into foam) and "消えたの いつの間にか" (it vanished before I knew it). The narrator is looking back at a feeling, and the regret is very specific: "わかってりゃ もっとずっと一層 清らかに 溶け合ったのにね" (if I had known, we could have melted together even more purely). That ending のにね is worth learning. It means "even though, if only" and it carries a sigh. Japanese packs a whole wistful shrug into two syllables.
Then the picture flips. The feeling "跳ねたの 魚と成り" (leapt up, becoming a fish) and moves "誰よりも 軽やかに" (more lightly than anyone). It is a nice turn: the same water that swallowed the bubble now holds a fish jumping out of it. But the chorus brings it back down with a sound effect, パチン, the little pop of a bubble: "パチンと弾けて 泡のように消えた" (it popped and vanished like foam). Fate here is "呆気のない" (anticlimactic, over too fast), and it "心をえぐった" (gouged out my heart). That verb is harsh, a scooping, digging motion, and it hits hard after all the soft water imagery.
The line that gets me is the plainest one: "あなたは今も どこかで元気ですか?" (are you still doing well somewhere now?). It is the kind of thing you would write on a postcard. Next to it sits "あの夏の匂い 仄かに歯がゆい" (the smell of that summer, faintly frustrating). 歯がゆい literally involves teeth and describes an itchy, can't-quite-reach irritation, the feeling of something you could not fix. By the end the narrator admits "いつしか夢中で 追いかけてたのは影" (before I knew it, what I was chasing so hard was a shadow), and the song closes by repeating "この気持ち" (this feeling) three times, as if saying it enough could keep it from popping.
