help with デイニー

[Raichu]

Full lyrics and draft translation. If you like you can hear it on piapro or NND.

I'm having some trouble with v2:

私が見ていた世界は
こんな綺麗だったんだ
いつも灰被りの街
ずっと変わらないはずなのに
The world that I had been seeing
was so pretty.
I had expected the town, always ash-covered,
to remain unchanged.

1. Does anyone know what 灰被り means?
2. It seems のに is contrasting her past expectation with her present reality. Any ideas/tips on how to express that in the translation?

Also with v5:

乾いた心を　抱えて
面影探していた
手を繋いでほしかったんだ
はりぼての姿だけど
Bearing a parched heart,
I searched for traces of you.
I wanted to hold your hand,
even though it looked like papier mache.

Wouldn't 手を繋いでほしかった mean "I wanted you to hold my hand"? So does that mean that it's her own hand that looks like papier mache? Or is it him that looked like papier mache? Any ideas on how to interpret that line?

[EJTranslations]

Full lyrics and draft translation. If you like you can hear it on piapro or NND.

I'm having some trouble with v2:

私が見ていた世界は
こんな綺麗だったんだ
いつも灰被りの街
ずっと変わらないはずなのに
The world that I had been seeing
was so pretty.
I had expected the town, always ash-covered,
to remain unchanged.

1. Does anyone know what 灰被り means?
2. It seems のに is contrasting her past expectation with her present reality. Any ideas/tips on how to express that in the translation?

灰被り is the Japanese name for Cinderella: http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E7%81%...81%B6%E3%82%8A

Funny that it doesn't get as much pop-culture use as the English version of the name, unlike, say, 白雪姫 or 眠り姫, but I guess シンデレラ's just not that hard to say.

As for the のに, it doesn't seem that complicated to me? She expected everything to remain drab and ash-covered, like Cinderella pre-fairy godmother as it were, but now in fact it's beautiful. I would probably just say "... was so pretty, even though I had expected..."

[Raichu]

Ah, so the contrast is between the ash town and the pretty world. Yes, thanks,0 that makes more sense.

The song as a whole compares her good past with her mournful present, which is what threw me. That line is comparing her good past with her drab former past.

[Raichu]

FYI I asked a Japanese native speaker and they said that はりぼて can mean someone who puts on show of strength but is really a coward. I found this definition: 見かけは立派だが、実質の伴わないことやもの, i.e., something that shows itself pretty good but lacks real substance.