I am trying to translate this song for practice, and am wondering how 理 (ことわり)
is being used in this particular line.

According to Jisho 理（ことわり）means, "reason; logic; sense; natural way of
things."

Here is the line and the one that follows it. In the line just before these
two, the speaker basically says, "What will X wish for?"

> 「招かれざる理なら/ただ、「在るべき」に返すだけ」.

Translating this literally I got:

> If it is uninvited logic, I will just restore it to 「the way it should be」

> If it (the wish) is uninvited logic, I will just restore it to 「the way it
> should be」

Now this translation sounds odd (but honestly the whole song has very out
there lyrics) and so that's why I am wondering if it means something else.

If this literal translation is correct, I would assume it means that the
people doing the wishing (who are presumably bad) want the world to run on
chaotic logic; i.e. logic that no one wants, that did not get invited. I am
assuming this because of Jisho's "natural way of things" definition (So
literally something like "If it (the wish) is for an uninvited/unwelcome
natural way of things, I will just restore everything to 「the way it should
be」"). If my interpretation of this literal translation is correct, I would
then translate this line closer to that meaning.

According to a Japanese dictionary, the second meaning of 理 is わけ and 理由
(reason; pretext; motive), so is it possible for 理 to be more figurative using
a わけ-like definition?

It's also important to add that this line is repeated in different forms in
the song, which include "許されざる理" (unforgiven logic) and "紡がれざる理"
(unspun/unassembled logic).

So what is your take on this line. Again, please note that this entire song is
very ethereal/figurative, so there is a lot of possibility that this line is
just odd to begin with.
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2021-01-24T10:11:39.120
83866
2023-03-15T23:02:35.353
2021-10-21T19:35:34.687
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question
translation word-usage song-lyrics
What does 理 mean in 招かれざる理なら/ただ、「在るべき」に返すだけ?
In this sentence, "natural way of things" is the closest translation for 理. If
you want a little more comprehensive words, "destiny" or "fate" would fit in
the context. So the translation will be: If (the thing) is destined to be
unwanted, (what I/we can do is) only to restore it to the way it should be.
Here "招かれざる" qualifies the content of the destiny, not the destiny itself.
Assume that "招かれざる" qualifies 理, then "招かれざる理" is a subject of the sentence
and "招かれざる理なら" would be "If (something) is unwanted destiny". However, nothing
can be destiny itself (at least in this context), so the assumption was wrong.

Also, next one "許されざる理" can be interpreted similarly: (the content of the
destiny) is destined to be forbidden. However, the last one is different; in
the line "紡がれざる理", probably "紡がれざる" qualifies 理 itself. I can't explain why
properly, but while 理 is nothing that is neither invited nor permitted, 理 can
be woven("紡がれる") so it is natural to interpret like above, simply.
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2021-01-24T14:19:09.053
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2021-01-24T14:19:09.053
83866
answer