Lilly Translation

Japanse Lyrics | Romanji Reading | English Translation | Translation Annotations

リリー

モンゴル８００
百々

色の無い世界　言葉の無い世界
あなたは何を見つめているの

僕の言葉を優しく拾い
頷き笑う　色褪せぬ日々

繋ぐための手　抱くための腕
正義を語る拳はいるぬ

悲しみの雨　喜びの虹
儚き人の夢　我泡沫人

Oh my love, sleep tight Lily.
Sweet dreams, I remember you.
Close your eyes, sleep tight Lily.
Sweet dreams, I’ll never forget your love.
Your love is all.

偽りのない瞳で　何を見てるの
あなたの目が写す鏡のようで
だから。。。


RIRII
Mongoru Happyaku

Momo

Iro no nai sekai kotoba no nai sekai
Anata ha nani wo mitsumetiruno

Boku no kotoba wo yasashiku hiroi
Unazukiwarau iro aserunu hibi

Sunagu tame no te daku tame no ude
Seiji wo katoru kobushi ha irunu

Kanashimi no ame Yorokobi no niji
Hakanaki hito no yume wa utakata hito

Oh my love, sleep tight Lily.
Sweet dreams, I remember you.
Close your eyes, sleep tight Lily.
Sweet dreams, I’ll never forget your love.
Your love is all.
Ituswari no nai hitome de Nani wo miteruno
Anata no me ga boku wo utsusu kagami no you de
Dakara …


Lily
MONGOL 800

Peach

Is it a world without color? A world without words?
What is it that you are staring at?

The kindness gathered in my words
nod and smile in these days that won’t fade

The hand is meant for binding, and the arms are meant to embrace
It’s the fist that talks of justice that we don’t need.

The rain of sadness and the rainbow of happiness
And in the dreams of our fleeting lives, I am a transient being. (1)

Oh my love, sleep tight Lily.
Sweet dreams, I remember you.
Close your eyes, sleep tight Lily.
Sweet dreams, I’ll never forget your love.
Your love is all. (2)

What are you looking at with your eyes that can't deceive me?
Because your eyes are like the one’s I see in the mirror (3)


Translation Annotations:

(1) Hatanaki is one of the more beautiful words in the Japanese language. It means transience, or fleeting. To say someone has died, one can say hatanaki ni naru which means “they have become transient”. It’s usually a word that describes life. The next sentence, he basically says the same thing in the style of a Chinese four-character word.

Also, translating this bit word for word makes it very awkward and not very beautiful. So, I took some poetic license (but not enough to match the beauty of the original lyrics.

(2) This is sort of a common mistake Japanese people make when speaking English since we don’t really have a very good rule of when you should use “all” instead of “everything.” What he probably meant to say is that “your love is everything (to me)”.

(3) There are too ways the sentence can be translated… the most grammatically accurate if one is doing it word by word is the one posted above. That being said though, I really think it should be translated as “What are you look at with your undeceiving eyes? You can’t deceive me because your eyes are the same eyes I see in the mirror”. However, Japanese is deliberately vague, so it’s hard to guess which is the best translation.

Dokidoki Translation

Original Lyrics | Romanji Reading | English Translations | Translation Annotations

It's odd how I remember the details of translating this song so vividly. My friend and I had rented out a room at the Jiyuukuukan, and a dating game. At the time, I was upset about a boy named Kenji who had decided I was nothing, and accordingly, made me feel like it, so we decided to try our hand at no-consequence dating. My friend and I got frustrated, though, because it turns out that making digital people love us faired no better than getting real people to love us. In the end, I got out my computer and began to translate this song while she played FFX-2 .

It was a cathartic exercise, really, even as much as it was painful. I couldn't figure out if the song was a love song, about loss of innocence, or a bit of both. Any of those options made me feel pain in different ways. One, it felt hurtful to know that other people could experience things I was desperate to. Two, because I felt like Kenji had robbed me of my childish notions of love. Three, I didn't see any light at the end of my tunnel. If the song was a love song about the loss of innocence, where was my smiling, understanding person waiting for me at the end?

I think, because I still feel these three ways about different things when I hear this song, I still connect to it emotionally. Having this sort of relational link to my past and present self somehow makes me feel better, though I'm hard-pressed to explain the reason why.

*JiyuuKuukan translates to Free Time Rooms. There, you pay for a certain amount of hours you intend on spending there, and while you're there you can play on their game systems, sing karaoke, use their drink bar, and get nice massages while you use their computers. It was my favorite place for stress relief.

ドキドキ
モンゴル８００
百々

さぁ　夜も更けてきた　行こうおもちゃの国へ
気付いているでしょ　大切なものを
見失い始めている あなたに
小さな夢でも　かわまわない
誰でも一度は夢見たんだ　心のドキドキ

転寝の春はまだこない
大人になれない子供の歌　心に響けよ

思い出してあの夕陽　心から遊んだ夕暮れ時
服は汚れ顔も手も　僕の心は輝いていた

あの頃と同じ視線のままで
あの日見た夕焼けを見に行こう
忘れていた心のドキドキ
変わらぬ太陽を背にいつまでも

さぁ　夜も明けてきた　行こうおもちゃの国へ
おさがりのシャツで空を飛ぶ
無限のイメージほら見えるよ　世界は眩しい

いつから躓く事を恐れ
足下の石コロに怯えていた
たとえあなたが転んでも
残るは足跡より大きな印

ねぇ　僕出来ること教えておもちゃの兵隊さん
武器なんか捨てて踊りましょう
かすかに聞こえる胸の鼓動　心のドキドキ

Dokidoki
Mongol800

Momo
Saa yoru mo fuketeketa yukou omocha no kuni e
Kitzuiteiru desho taisetsu na mono o
Miushinai hajimetieru anatani
Chiisana yume demo kamawanai dare demo ichido mitanda Kokoro no DOKIDOKI

Utatane no haru wa mada konai
Ootona ni narenai kodomo no uta kokoro ni hibeke yo

Omoidashite ano hi no yuuhi kokoro kar asonda yuugure toki
Fuku wa kegare kao mo te demo boku no kokoro wa kagayaiteita

Ano koro to onaji shisen no mamade
Ano hi mita yuuyake o miniyukou
Wasureteita kokoro no DOKIDOKI
Kawaranu taiyou o se ni itsumademo

Saa yoru mo aketekita yukou omocha no kuni e
Osagari no SHATSU de sora o tobu
Mugen no IMEEJI hora mieru yo sekai wa mubushii
Itsukara umazuku koto o osore
Ashimoto no ishi koro ni obieteita
Tatoe anata ga korondemo
Nokoru wa ashiato yori ooki na in

Nee Boku ni dekirukoto oshiete omocha no heitaisan
Buki nanka suttee odorimashou
Kasuka ni kikoeru mune no kodou kokoro no DOKIDOKI


Dokidoki (1)(Fluttering Heart)
Mongol800
Momo

Well, it’s getting late. Let’s go to the land of toys
You’ve noticed, right? That you’re losing sight (2)
of the important things. It may be
a small dream to you but that doesn’t matter

The sleepy spring (3) hasn’t yet come
In your heart, the song of children who can’t be adults resounds

Remember the sunset (4) of that day. The evening you played with all your heart,
Even though our clothes, face and hands were filthy(5), my heart was shining.

With the same gaze from that time,
Let’s go and see the sunset from that day
The heart you forgot is fluttering
The constant sun is always at your back.

Well, the dawn is breaking. Let’s go to the land of toys
Let’s fly through the sky in our hand me down shirts(6)
The timeless image, look, I can see it.

Since then you were frightened of stumbling
And scared when stones were at your feet
Even if you slip,
What’s left will make a bigger impression than your footsteps.

Hey. Tell me the things I can do, you toy soldier.
Throw away things like weapons and let’s dance
I can hear it faintly, the beat in your breast. The fluttering of your heart.

Translations Annotations:

(1) The Japanese language uses a great deal of onomatopoeias, and dokidoki is the sound of the beating heart. It’s difficult to translate, but it has a very strong image of being excited or nervous.

(2) The lyrics in this song are a little strange in as that he starts he starts a new thought on the same line as another, and continues it into the next. It works a lot better in Japanese, because it gives a sort of double meaning, allowing it to be used in both contexts. I did my best to translate the strange line breaks.

(3) Spring is when Japanese students graduate, and spring is usually used as a metaphor for youth moving into adulthood. Graduation ceremonies drip with this sentiment from people waxing on about the similarities between the season and their life to come.

(4) I’m not going to say anything really, other than the sun imagery is really important here and you should keep an eye on it.

(5) The kanji and the reading for it can either be kegare (clean) or yogure (dirty). I’m not sure if that means anything to the song, but it is interesting to note.

(6) It is more than likely I got this translation wrong. I not sure what kind of shirts they are flying in… but I think it’s 90% likely it’s hand-me-downs.

WiND

Original Lyrics | Japanese Translation | Translation of Translation

I really love this song because of its imagery. Is it written in the most beautiful of English? Not really. Still, the image it evokes is still heart-wrenching that it doesn't matter what vocabulary that was used.

A caged bird is still the son of the wind.

WiND

MONGOL800

Momo (Peach)

I want to fly over the ocean mama.
I want to fly over the mountain daddy.

The wind blows from the south.
The trees are swaying by the wind.

I dreamed I was a bird.
But I was in the cage.
Please let me go outside, I was crying all day long.
But I will be here for the rest of my life dreaming of flying all over the sky.

I want to go over the ocean.
I’m a son of the wind.
I want to go over the rainbow.
I’m a son of the sunshine.
I can fly only in my dreams.

I don’t want to cry anymore.
Let’s sing a lullaby.
I don’t want to cry.

The stars are crying with me tonight.
Can you hear me? Voice of the wind.
The sun is shining bright in the sky.
There is a blue moon and thousands of stars.
And the moonlight lights up the way to go.

WiND

モンゴル８００

百々

この空を飛べたらな
母さんなる海を渡り　父さんなる山を越えて
この空を飛べたらな

風は南から吹いている
木々は風に揺れている

鳥になった夢を見た
だけど私はカゴの中
外へ出たくて一日中泣いたんだ
だけど私は一生カゴの中
大空羽ばたく夢を見る

海を渡り　虹を超える
我は風の子　太陽の子
夢の中では飛べるのさ

泣くのはゴメンだ。
誰か子守唄でも唄ってよ
もう泣きたくなんかないよ
今夜も星様が一緒に泣いてくれるのさ

聞こえるかい？　風の声
お空で歌うお天道様
蒼い月に千の星
月の光が照らす道

Translation:

[NOTE: Full explanation in the ALBUMS section on why I'm translating this. Quick summation of why: It's fun, and the original lyrics and the japanese translation don't actually match up one-hundred percent]

If wish I could fly across mother sea,

and cross over father mountain

I wish I could fly

The wind is blowing in from the south,

and the trees are swaying in that wind.

I had a dream where I was a bird

But I was in a cage

I cried all day to leave for the outside

but I'll be in this cage for the rest of my life

dreaming of flapping my winds through the heavens

Crossing the ocean, and over the rainbows,

I'm the son of the wind, I'm the son of the sun

I fly only in my dreams

I'm sorry for crying,

Anyone, sing a lullaby!

I don't want to cry anymore

I wonder if tonight, too, the stars will cry with me

Can you hear it? The voice of the wind

It sings through the skies, and up to god

There are thousands stars and a blue moon

The moonbeams light up the way to go.

Hoshi no Kazu Tsuki no Kazu Translation

For the inaugural post, I figured I should post a song I like. Of course, I like them all, so it was hard to choose. But after much deliberation, I decided on a song that isn't quite my favorite, but is darn close so I could start off on a good foot, but not completely blow it all before the blog even gets started.

So, without further ado, from the album Momo, Hoshi no Kazu Tsuki no Kazu.

Original Japanese | Romanji Reading | English Translation | Annotations

ORIGINAL LYRICS:

星の数　月の数
モンゴル８００

モモ

夕暮れ時空へ続く道
赤く染まる
照れ笑うあなたの頬のよう
信号待ち時を刻む針
あざ笑うよ
焦る僕の気持ちを
言葉より確実な想い
手紙より愛歌う詩より
何一つ形にできないけど
誰も答えなんてわからない
それもまた乙かもね
泣かないで
僕に出来る事なんて
高が知れている
星の数だけ君を傷つけ
月の数だけ愛を贈る

一つだけ願い叶うなら
一つだけ感覚がほしい
五つでは伝えきれぬ想い
不器用に創られた
人間に足りない感覚
伝えなきゃ　伝えなくちゃ
この想い胸をしめつける
願いををかけた星は数知れず
人の尽きぬ悩み月の悩み
星の数だけ君を傷つけ
月の数だけ愛を贈る
星の数だけ
月の数だけ愛を贈る

ROMANJI READING:

Hoshi no Kazu Tsuki no Kazu
Mongoru Happyaku

Momo

Yugare toki sora he tsutzuku michi
akakusomaru
Terewarau anata no hoho noyou
Shingomachi toki wo kizamu hari
Aseruboku no kimochi wo
Kotoba yori gakujitsuna omoi
Tegami yori ai utau utayori
Nan hitotsu katashi ni dekinai kedo
Dare mo kotenante wakarani
Soremo mata kou kamo ne
Nakanaide
Bokuni dekiru koto nante
Taka ga shiretiru
Hoshi no kazu dake kimi wo kisutuske
Tsuki no kazu dake ai wo okuru

Hitotsudake negai kanunara
Hitotsu da ke kankaku ga hoshii
Itsutsu de ha tsutaekirenu omoi
Bukiyou ni tsukareta
Ningen ni tarinai kankaku
Tsutaenakya tsutaenakucha
Kono omoi mune wo shimetsukeru
Negai wo kaketa hoshi ha kazu shirezu
Tsuki no kazu dake ai wo okuru
Hoshi no kazu dake
Tsuki no kazu dake ai wo okuru

TRANSLATION:

The Number of Stars, The Number of Moons
MONGOL800

Peach

When twilight comes, and the road that continues into the sky
Is dyed red
Like a waiting at a traffic light, your embarrassed laugh
Is etched onto your cheeks (1)
I’m (You’re?) sneering
My impatient feelings are
more certain than these words
more than this letter, more than this love song I sing.
I can’t do this one thing,
however, no one knows the answers.
This too, is just a back-up plan(2)
Don’t cry
I’m discovering the
Extent of things I can do
As many stars as there are, I will hurt you
My love will decrease to the number of moons.(3)

If I had only one wish,
I’d only want this feeling
I can’t tell you my feelings with only five senses(4)
Us awkwardly made humans
just don’t have enough senses to feel this
I’ve got to tell you
I have to tell you
That this feeling constricts my heart
That I haven’t discovered how many stars grant wishes
Or how many worries the human heart has, or the moon’s worries (5)
As many stars as there are, I will hurt you
My love will decrease to the number of moons.
As many stars as there are
My love will decrease to the number of moons

ANNOTATIONS:

(1)Ok, I took A LOT of liberties translating this….

(2) Although in the lyrics, it is written as乙 (reading being otsu) it is read as 甲(reading being kou). I they mean the same thing, but have different kanjis and reading. It means arch, or tortoise shell. There is actually a kotowaze (proverb) using these two kanji in any number of “one man’s ____ is another man’s______”. I don’t know if this has anything to do with the song, but it is interesting, nonetheless.
However, I’ve been told by the kindly science teacher that this often means a “plan b” scenario, since the kanji 乙 would really only be used if甲is unavailable.

(3)I tried forever to translate this correctly, but I just couldn’t. No matter what I do, it didn’t sound as nice as it does in Japanese. (I am a failure as a translator!) What it should say is that he knows he’ll hurt the girl as many times as there are stars, but that he’ll only love her. I think it’s implied that he doesn’t mean to hurt her, he just knows that he will. This song is a song about struggling to say I love you, and letting her know. “I love only you.”

(4)Kankaku or feelings, in this case, is in respects to the five senses. It’s hard to translate since English already has a concept of a sixth sense, and it certainly has no relation to the beauty of this song. He doesn’t see ghosts, or see the future. He’s saying that his love is not felt by the five senses alone. You need a sixth one.

(5) This is a pun that can’t be translated… well, not really a pun. More of a play on words. In Japanese, the two phrases sound very similar. Tsukinu namiya (worries that don’t run out) and tsuki no namiya (The moon’s worries) sound the same, and since he’s talking about the moon already, he’s talking about the worries of love.