What does this grammar mean?

Question

In the song キティ, the first line states:

伝わらない想いだけが心染めて
悲しみに溺れたような泡沫の爆ずバラッド

I really don't understand if it's だ after ballad, or になる, or is it describing 泡沫 or 泡沫のはずバラッド It's probably not 泡沫, and I don't get how after a transitive verb with a object a noun can still describe. How does this structure work?

Answer 1

A grammatically faithful translation would be:

悲しみに溺れたような泡沫【うたかた】の爆ず【はず】バラッド
A ballad where bubbles looking as if drowned in sorrow burst.

• 泡沫の爆ず ("in which bubbles burst"): A relative clause that modifies バラッド.
  • 泡沫 ("bubbles") is the subject of 爆ず.
  • 爆ず is an intransitive verb meaning "to burst".
  • の is a subject marker here (How does the の work in 「日本人の知らない日本語」?).
• Lastly, 悲しみに溺れたような ("(looking) as if drowned in sorrow") is an adjectival phrase that modifies 泡沫. It's lyrics, so don't ask me how a bubble can be drowned.

This is a 体言止め "sentence". A noun phrase is forming an entire sentence, and nothing is omitted after バラッド. If you're uncomfortable with this idea, you might choose to translate it assuming some verb like "(I) hear (a ballad)" is implied.