# English Translation My beloved hometown, the sweetfish river running through it. You who seek the Golden Land, follow its path downstream and seek the key. If you follow the river downstream, you will see a village. In the village, look for the shore the two will tell you of. There sleeps the key to the Golden Land. He who lays hands upon the key shall travel under the rules below. On the first twilight, you shall lift up as sacrifice the six chosen by the key. On the second twilight, those who remain shall tear apart the two who are close. On the third twilight, those who remain shall praise my honorable name on high. On the fourth twilight, gouge the head and kill. On the fifth twilight, gouge the chest and kill. On the sixth twilight, gouge the stomach and kill. On the seventh twilight, gouge the knee and kill. On the eighth twilight, gouge the leg and kill. On the ninth twilight, the witch shall revive, and none shall be left alive. On the tenth twilight, the journey shall end, and you shall reach the village of gold. The witch will praise the wise, and should bestow four treasures. One shall be, all the gold from the Golden Land. One shall be, the resurrection of the souls of all the dead. One shall be, even the resurrection of the lost love. One shall be, to put the witch to sleep for all time. Sleep peacefully, my most beloved witch, Beatrice. # Original Japanese 懐かしき、故郷を貫く鮎の川。 黄金郷を目指す者よ、これを下りて鍵を探せ。 川を下れば、やがて里あり。 その里にて二人が口にし岸を探れ。 そこに黄金郷への鍵が眠る。 鍵を手にせし者は、以下に従いて黄金郷へ旅立つべし。 第一の晩に、鍵の選びし六人を生贄に捧げよ。 第二の晩に、残されし者は寄り添う二人を引き裂け。 第三の晩に、残されし者は誉れ高き我が名を讃えよ。 第四の晩に、頭をえぐりて殺せ。 第五の晩に、胸をえぐりて殺せ。 第六の晩に、腹をえぐりて殺せ。 第七の晩に、膝をえぐりて殺せ。 第八の晩に、足をえぐりて殺せ。 第九の晩に、魔女は蘇り、誰も生き残れはしない。 第十の晩に、旅は終わり、黄金の郷に至るだろう。 魔女は賢者を讃え、四つの宝を授けるだろう。 一つは、黄金郷の全ての黄金。 一つは、全ての死者の魂を蘇らせ。 一つは、失った愛すらも蘇らせる。 一つは、魔女を永遠に眠りにつかせよう。 安らかに眠れ、我が最愛の魔女ベアトリーチェ。 # In-game tips about the epitaph ## [[Umineko EP 3 - Banquet of the Golden Witch]] - Kyrie: there are three parts to the epitaph: the five first lines, the 11 lines up until the tenth twilight, and the remaining six lines. - Discussion about the "beloved home of old": is it Odawara? - Eva doesn't think it is, despite Kinzo's being born there. - Kyrie: If Kinzo didn't want to become the Ushiromiya family head, why "beloved"? - About the sweetfish: - Rudolf: "People say they live in rivers with clean water, so there are countless rivers that might work." - Kyrie: the first two lines present something, and the next three lines contnue based upon that something. - Kyrie: "It may be that this isn't a 'river' with water flowing down it. The 'sweetfish river' might be some kind of metaphor." - Hideyoshi suggest the idea of clan prosperity. - Natsuhi mentions they are also called 香魚 (kougyo) because they have a pleasant smell. - Rosa suspects a family tree. - Eva suspected it refers to Rosa and Maria because the only 'village' is in Maria's name: 真里亞. - Eva: "It might be better to be flexible and avoid thinking too deeply, focusing on an abstract image of a river where fish swim, or something that can flow… up or down." - Kyrie: "If you think about it this way, I wonder if it was a mistake to split it into three parts. There's actually four parts. 'Go down the sweetfish river', 'find the key to the Golden Land', 'journey to the Golden Land', and 'the treasure of the Golden Land'." - Kyrie: "\[The key\] might also be a code or a keyword. \[…\] This key indicates a certain group of six people. No, we should say it indicates a certain group of six things… if this doesn't mean a literal command to offer sacrifices. For example, it could be an anagram." - Rosa: "Golden Land" is always written '黄金郷' (ougonkyou), except in the tenth twilight, where it is written '黄金の郷' (ougon no sato). - EVA: "If the word sweetfish is too complicated, why not forget it?" - EVA: "Linking \[a river\] with a 'family tree' wasn't a bad idea. Try thinking about how to link a river with something else along those lines." - Eva: "…It isn't a river? But where else could sweetfish swim? Oh, but if we're talking about places sweetfish can swim, then maybe the ocean has something to do with this… Didn't my husband even say that they go out into the ocean, even though they're river fish…? …With the ocean….No, …but, … …Huh…?" - EVA: "…Did you notice? But that's just a faint memory. There's supposed to be a room for storing books in this building, right? If you investigate, you can make sure." - Eva: "…If that's the 'sweetfish river'… And if the key might be a six character word… Then could the key actually be resting in that river?" - EVA: "Don't think of it like it's something as massive as the riddle of the epitaph, but like it's a child's riddle. Men are always children, no matter how old they get." ## [[Umineko EP 5 - End of the Golden Witch]] - The "beloved hometown" is to be taken literally, and it is not Odawara. - Rosa: "The sweetfish part didn't really matter that much at all, did it?" - Eva: "That isn't true. It was an excellent hint, wasn't it? Well, of course, maybe there was no need for it to be sweetfish". - The key is six characters long. - First twilight: remove the six characters which constitute the key. - Second twilight: either remove or put a gap between two characters which are close in position. - Third twilight: probably an anagram. - The word symbolizing the first twilight probably has 11 or 13 characters so that we can crush the five remaining characters. - Rosa observes that, in the tenth twilight, there is no "Golden Land" but a "village of the gold" instead. - Rosa used to think that the first twilight would be one-tenth of the way on the road to the Golden Land. - She thought the Golden Land (黄金郷, "Ougon Kyou") was related to Kyoto (京都). # Discussions - I believe there may be a connection between the epitaph and the names of the characters, so I'll write their Japanese names below. - Ushiromiya Kinzo: 右代宮 金蔵 - Ushiromiya Krauss: 右代宮 蔵臼 - Ushiromiya Natsuhi: 右代宮 夏妃 - Ushiromiya Jessica: 右代宮 朱志香 - Ushiromiya Eva: 右代宮 絵羽 - Ushiromiya Hideyoshi: 右代宮 秀吉 - Ushiromiya George: 右代宮 譲治 - Ushiromiya Kyrie: 右代宮 霧江 - Ushiromiya Rudolf: 右代宮 留弗夫 - Ushiromiya Battler: 右代宮 戦人 - Ushiromiya Rosa: 右代宮 楼座 - Ushiromiya Maria: 右代宮 真里亞 - Nanjo Terumasa: 南條 輝正 - Ronoue Genji: 呂ノ上 源次 - Shannon: 紗音 - Kanon: 嘉音 - Gohda Toshiro: 郷田 俊朗 - Kumasawa Chiyo: 熊沢 チヨ - Also, Rokkenjima (六軒島, lit. "Six House Island") and Kuwadorian (九羽鳥庵, lit. "Nine Birds' Retreat") may be important. "Six House Island", and the key is six characters long… - About the sweetfish ([鮎](https://jisho.org/word/%E9%AE%8E)): "the ayu or sweetfish, Plecoglossus altivelis, is an amphidromous fish, the only species in the genus Plecoglossus and in family Plecoglossidae. It is a relative of the smelts and is placed in the order Osmeriformes. Native to the Palearctic ecozone, it occurs in rivers, lakes, and coastal waters of western Hokkaidō in Japan southward to the Korean Peninsula, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The name 'sweetfish' is due to the sweetness of its flesh." - Maybe the river is the path from Hokkaido to the continent? If you follow from Hokkaido all along Japan and the islands of the Okinawa prefecture, you get to Taiwan and Hong Kong. - What if the first twilight was a haiku? Haikus can totally be 11 or 13 characters long…