星の木馬 Hoshi no Mokuba | A Planet's Wooden Horse [1]
artist: 新居昭乃 Arai Akino
disc: RGB (album)

lyrics: Ichikura Hiroshi
music, arrangement: Yoko Kanno

translation by iconoclastiac @ gmail.com
http://melodycafe.iconoclastiac.net/lyrics/

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ひかりと　かぜをつれて
あそびつかれた　うみが
ほしをのこして　かえってゆく

あしたは　かならずきた
とりとめざめる　あさに
やくそくどおり　また　あそびにきた

このほし　ひとりでまわる
きもちわかってた　わたし
このほし　ひとりでいきる
だから　ともだちで　いよう

あしたも　またいっしょに
ずっといきていこう

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hikari to   kaze wo tsurete
asobi tsukareta   umi ga
hoshi wo nokoshite   kaette yuku
	The light takes the wind along
	The sea, tired from playing
	Returns with them, leaving the planet

ashita wa   kanarazu kita
tori to mezameru   asa ni
yakusoku doori   mata   asobi ni kita
	Tomorrow came, as it had to
	On a morning that awakened with the birds
	As they had promised, the light and wind and sea came back to play

kono hoshi   hitori de mawaru [2]
kimochi wakatteta   watashi
kono hoshi   hitori de ikiru
dakara   tomodachi de   iyou
	This planet revolves alone
	Having understood feelings
	This planet lives on alone
	So let's be friends

ashita mo   mata issho ni
zutto ikite ikou
	And tomorrow, lets keep
	Living on, together

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[1] hoshi. 
"hoshi" usually refers to stars, rather than planets. In the general sense, it can mean any celestial body. Here I chose to go with "planet" because birds, wind, and sea suggest a planet that can sustain life. 
[2] kono hoshi. "this planet." 
Subject and point of view are easily changeable in Japanese. Here, I'm reading the "kono hoshi" and "watashi" as being the same subject; that is, the planet is now speaking in first person. 

The imagery I get from this song is of a personified planet, revolving in space. Its surface is teeming with playful life. When it rotates to the point where darkness falls on its denizens, they go to sleep, but the planet goes on turning, alone. Although astronomy isn't normally associated with children's nurseries, the image of a wooden horse juxtaposed on a childlike-Earth somehow works. The lullabye-esque music is soft and sweet, and is bolstered by the children's choir that enters the song halfway through.