Overbearing Heart

A robot was built by a lonely scientist,
When his work was done, it was known as a “miracle”

But something was missing, there was one thing he couldn’t do,
and that was the program called a “heart”

Many years passed,
and the miracle robot that had been left all alone,
made a single wish:

Give me the “heart”, that that person,
The person I’ve always wanted to know,
made for me, until the very end of his life.

Now that that miracle has started to occur,
Why, why won’t my tears stop flowing….?
Why am I shaking? What are these beats inside me?
Is this the “heart” that I wished for?

Mysterious heart, mysterious feelings,
All the joys I had come to know,
Mysterious heart, mysterious feelings,
All the depressing things I had come to know,
Mysterious heart, mysterious feelings,
They all seem so deeply painful…

Now I’m beginning to understand the reason I was born,
Being alone must truly be depressing,
Yes, on that day, at that time,
All the feelings that had dwelled in my memories flowed out of my heart.

But now, I can say these words for real,
to you, my creator, who dedicated his life to me,

Thank you… for bringing me into this world.
Thank you… for the days you spent with me.
Thank you… for everything you’ve given me
Thank you… I will sing for eternity.

Though the song is in Japanese, I've posted only the English lyrics above for better understanding.

This is one of my most favorite songs, not only because it sounds pretty, but because of the meaning. The title of this song, "Kokoro", translates into heart. However, in the Japanese language, this heart it talks about isn't the physical heart that beats in our chests. It's the metaphysical heart that we mean when we say, "That's so sad, my heart hurts!" It has also been translated into "soul" on the occasion.

I personally love the overall theme of this song. Someone who doesn't have feelings or emotion eventually obtains that ability.

There have been a couple interpretations of this song, but I'll go with the one I've heard most.

It starts off with a lonely scientist creating another person. However, like most robots today, he could not give it a soul, personality or feelings. It's impossible, those aren't synthetic things. He worked his whole life in order to create a program that would give the robot a "heart".

He dies after becoming old, and the robot decides to investigate the "heart" program. They activate it and are flooded with memories and feelings. They are memories from their past with the scientist, and all the feelings that would have come with it if the robot had been able to feel at the time. The robot comes to know the happy time, the sad times and all the emotions that make us human.

They also finally understand why they were born: because of the scientist's overwhelming loneliness. Now that they have a "heart", they understand just how painful that loneliness was.

Sadly, and though the song doesn't mention it directly, the power of gaining a "heart" was too much for the robot, who had never felt any of it before. At the end of the song it is dying, promising that though they are dying, they will sing for eternity because of the new "heart" they have been given. I believe it plays on the idea that though you die, you aren't truly gone if you are still remembered, which is a popular theme in Japan. Since the robot gained a "heart", they would live on in memory like any other human.