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This is the context.

> Yura yura to yuganda sora e  
>  **Kimi no moto e tonde yuke**  
>  Konna ni mo chikaku ni kanjiteru  
>  Futatsu no omoi
>
> ゆらゆらと歪んだ空へ  
>  **君の元へ飛んでゆけ**  
>  こんなにも近くに感じてる  
>  ふたつの想い

This is my try:

> Through the warped and wobbling sky  
>  **may I fly to you/if only I could fly to you**  
>  I feel so close  
>  the feelings of us (our feelings)

I don't know how to translate this imperative (命令形). There is a second person
pronoun, "君の", so it can't be a simple imperative, where the speaker orders a
second person to do something (fly to you/fly to yourself!). The speaker
doesn't order himself to do something (in this case he/she would say "fly to
him/her!"). Has it an optative meaning? "May I fly to you! If only I could fly
to you! Let me fly to you!"

Is, in general, 命令形 used also as optative, in Japanese?
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2016-06-23T15:58:16.930
36124
2016-06-24T14:06:42.707
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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question
grammar song-lyrics imperatives
君の元へ飛んでゆけ - imperative or optative?
ふたつの思い is probably the (poetically delayed) intended subject of 飛んでゆけ. I
previously incorrectly stated that it is being used as an imperative (please
see l'électeur's answer for why it is optative - I have tweaked the wording to
fit an optative mood but maintained the position that the thoughts (as opposed
to the singer) are what will travel towards the singer's '君').

In other words, the singer is hoping/wishing that those "thoughts of us two"
will fly to the receiver's location.

Since it is a song, it is not unusual if liberties are taken with word
ordering and abbreviations. If we **consider 飛んでゆけ to be a "quote", ie, spoken
to the singer's thoughts** (or rather to the singer themselves as they 'send'
those thoughts), **while the rest of the song** is to 君, it works. (This is
probably more natural than the 君 as a "proper noun" approach I alluded to in a
comment).

For example, here's a rough version where I've explicitly added what I think
the singer 'abbreviates' (while deleting some intervening stuff for clarity):

> 君の元へ、「飛んでゆけ」（と祈って、)ふたつの思い（を送った）

Or in English:

> To the place where you are, "(May you) go, fly!", (I wish as I send you) my
> thoughts of us"
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2016-06-23T16:07:37.130
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2016-06-24T14:06:42.707
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answer
It is **_optative_** in meaning even though it grammatically takes the
imperative form. This usage is quite common in song lyrics and other fictional
writings in Japanese.

At least in the Japanese-speaking mind, a person's [想]{おも}い ("feeling(s)",
"thought(s)", etc.) has no will and it cannot fly away ([飛]{と}んでゆく) to
someone; therefore, you do not order your 想い to perform actions that only
humans and animals can.

(How this works in other languages, I have no idea and I do not claim to
know.)

How you "translate" the optative, however, is another matter altogether. It
could be translated just like the imperative if that made sense and/or sounded
natural in the target language just as long as you understand that it is
considered optative in the original Japanese.

Other examples of optative phrases:

「[風]{かぜ}よ、[吹]{ふ}け！」,「[星]{ほし}よ、[輝]{かがや}け！」,「[雨]{あめ}よ、[降]{ふ}れ！」, etc.
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2016-06-24T11:19:43.363
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2016-06-24T11:19:43.363
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answer