Who is the subject and object in this sentence?

Question

These excerpts are from the lyrics of the music 迷子犬と雨のビート by ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION:

1. 連なるウィンドウに並び立つ人形の悪い夢
2. それとも倉庫に隠れて塞いでいたって
3. 埃だけ被って見つからない
4. 誰の手にだって触れられない

Who is having the bad dream? Is it a dream about dolls or is it the dolls that are dreaming? Then the second line continues saying that something (the narrator or the dolls?) was forcibly hidden in a warehouse​. Is this a exemple another type of bad dream or it is still talking about the dolls?

The third and fourth lines seems easier, as it just says that whatever was hidden in the warehouse is gathering dust and being hidden from sight (cannot be found) and that it will not be able to touch anyone's hands. Is my assumption correct?

Answer 1

While I admire your persistence in rephrasing your question, the reason you haven't gotten an answer is because there simply isn't sufficient context to do so.

Even after skimming through the full lyrics, I can't give a definite answer, only my impression, which could be off the mark. If your level of Japanese is up to it, you might have better luck asking on Japanese sites such as Yahoo!知恵袋, fan sites for the band, or maybe sites for the 四畳半神話大系 for which it's the theme song.

At any rate, I have the impression that the passage you quote is mentioning dolls that are either lined up in a series of windows having a bad dream, or hidden away in a warehouse, obstructed by other objects and gathering dust, to be touched by no one.

It is, however, entirely possible that the speaker is the one having bad dreams about the dolls.

The only point I can be sure of is that the final 触れられない is a passive form, not a potential one, so whatever is gathering dust in the warehouse will not be touched by anyone's hand rather than not be able to touch anyone's hand.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

To interpret Lyrics are sometimes difficult because they sometimes have some metaphors and ambiguous phrases.

I think there are some interpretations. My interpretation is as follows.

This 人形 may be a metaphor of human. The first line would be able to interpret as "having a bad dream is dolls" or " the bad dream about dolls". After the second line was talked about the dolls. I translated them as "Or being depressed hidden in the warehouse, you can't be found with gathering dust, not being touched by anyone". This wouldn't be related to the bad dream.

Answer 3

The key is that the speaker/singer is (symbolically) one of the dolls lost in the display windows or the storehouse, and so is the person being sung to.

Does that help?

(To clarify this, I'm claiming this as a literary interpretation -- going by the rendition of at least one version where it is used as the opening theme of the anime. I would not argue if only the person being sung to is one of the dolls, however.

Also, without such an interpretation, the lyrics do seem to lack a real cohesiveness.)