Showing posts with label song translation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label song translation. Show all posts

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Translation of Bonnou no Blues







I’m probably going to be accused of as lazy since it’s been two weeks since I last translated a song, and this one is only one minute long. Yeah? So? I’ve been working on studying for my JLPT II, which also means I have been working on my blog, JLPT Blues.

In any case, enjoy this video of the song as a means of making amends!




The tatami in that room makes very happy for no reason at all. Also, got to love those toothy grins at the end!




ときめく花弁は 一夜限りの夢
手招く甘い 蜜の香りに誘われて
愛は陽炎 ゆらゆら揺れる
恋は翔らう 瞬きもせず
十六夜の月も笑ってる

迷いなさい 苦しみなさい
千切れるほど 悩めなさい
繰り返す 煩悩のブルーズ
僕といつまでも
君といつまでも
煩悩のブルーズ


Tokimeku hanabira Ichiya kagiri no yume
Temaneku amai Mitsu no kaori ni sasowarete
Ai ha kagerou Yurayura yureru
Koi ha kakerau Matatakimosezu
Hizayoi no tsuki waratteiru
Mayoinasai Kurushiminasai
Chigireru hodo Nayamenasai
Kurikaesu Bonnou no BURUUZU
Boku to itsumademo
Kimi to itsumademo
Bonnou no BURUUZU

The Wordly Desires Blues
MONGOL800
Daniel

Within one night, I dreamt of fluttering petals
It has this beckoning smell of honey that invited me
Love is a heatwave, and it ripple sluggishly (1)
Romance soars without even blinking
A sixteen day old moon is laughing.
Get lost (3), be bitter,
Worry so much you tear it into a thousand pieces
It keeps on repeating, this Worldly Desires (Klesha) blues(2)
Always with me,
Always with you

This Wordly Desires Blues

  1. 1.     Yureru usually mans to sway, but I think in this case, it supposed to describe the waves of heat one see on a hot day, so I thought ripple was better.
  2. 2.     Bonnou is a Buddhist word that translates as Klesha. I’m no expert on Buddhism, so this is going to be rather simple. It means the worldly desires, and affliction. It’s not something you want to have if you want to reach enlightenment, essentially.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Happy Birthday Retranslation


This song makes me far too happy. I've never heard anyone be so excited about becoming an old man before.


Happy Birthday
MONGOL800
Go On As You Are



I like birthday. I’ll become old man.
And yet I like birthday.
I like birthday. Because you celebrate
Happy Happy Happy Birthday.

I’m looking forward to so Happy day.
What will you present for me?
Please hold on me.
I’d like you to do nothing for me.
So hold on me. Please give me your love.

I like birthday. I’ll become old man.
And yet I like birth day.
I like birthday. Because you celebrate
Happy Happy Happy Birthday.


誕生日が大好き
年をとるけど
それでも大好き
誕生日が大好き
あなたが祝ってくれるから

僕は最高に幸せな日が気持ちどおしい
あなたは何をくれるかな?
抱きしめてちょーだい!
僕のために何もしなくていいから
だからだきしめてください
あなたの愛を下し


I like my birthdays,
Though it makes me older,
But even so, I like  birthdays
I like birthdays
Because you celebrate them with me

I wonder what you will give me?
I want you to hold me!
It’s ok that you don’t do anything for me
So, please hold me
Please give me your love

Friday, September 9, 2011

SAYONARA DOLL Translation


This song reminds me of feelings I've never had, and it engages me in ways I don't know how to comprehend. It's such a simple song, yet it has a great beauty to it enhanced by the imagery of the lyrics and the nostalgic background vocals.


SAYONARA DOLL
MONGOL800
ETC Works 2


夢を見ていた
長い長い夢を
昔々この島で
君と出会い恋に落ちた

まるでロミオとジュリエット
許されない恋
二人は愛を育む
争いをよそに

不条理な現実
言葉も国境も
壁という壁を
愛は越えた

争いは金を生み
悲しみや憎しみだけが残る
弱い者を盾に槍をつく
平和を餌に蠅が集る

忘れないでこの島を この海を
いつの世も いついつまでも

忘れないであの唄を 約束を
いつかまた出会える日まで
いつの世も いついつ いつまでも

夢を見ていた
長い長い夢を


SAYONARA DOLL
Mongoru Happyaku
ETC Works 2


Yume wo miteita
Nagai nagai yume wo
Mukashi mukashi kono shima de
Kimi to deai koi ni ochita

Marude ROMIO to JURIETTO
Yurusarenai koi
Futari ha ai wo hakugumu
Arasoi wo yoso ni

Fujorin na genjitsu
Kotobo mo kokkyou mo
Kabe to iu kabe wo
Ai ha koeta

Arasoi ha kane wo umi
Kanashimi ya nikushimi dake ga nokoru

Yowaii mono wo tate ni yari wo tsuku
Heiwa wo e ni hae ga takaru

Wasurenai de kono shima wo Kono umi wo
Itsu no yo mo Itsuitsu mademo

Wasurenaide ano uta wo Yakusoku wo
Itsu ka mada deaeru hi made
Itsu no yo mo Itsuitsu Itsumademo

Yume wo miteita
Nagai nagai yume wo

SAYONARA DOLL
MONGOL800

ETC Works 2

I’m dreaming
a long, long dream
of that far away time on that island
where I met you and fell in love.

We’re like Romeo and Juliet,
Our love could not be allowed
We let our love grow (1)
we’ll be indifferent to the struggle (2).

This absurd reality
of words and borders.
That wall,
our love climbed.
We struggled to get money,
and all we were left was sadness and hatred.
The weak take up their spear and shield,
and peace baits flies.
Don’t forget this island, or this sea
never, until the end of time (3)
Don’t forget this song, or our promise
until that day we can meet again
don’t ever forget, ever(4)
I dreamed a dream
It was a long, long dream.


Translation Annotations:


1. Hakugumu means to raise something, or cultivate like one cultivates talent, or a plant. I had trouble finding an English equivalent for some reason.
2. I’m not so sure of this one. I mean, I know that arasoi means struggle, but the yoso worries me. Since I not familiar with the word, I think I may have made a mistake in the translation. It is that, or it’s an Okinawan word that I do not know.
1. Ok… this doesn’t translate well, so I’ll explain it. He is trying to emphasize at what point it’s okay to forget the island and whatnot, but we don't really have words for itsumademo. The first line translates something like… never in this generation, and never until an unspecified that time that is far off. Not really beautiful, eh?
3. Same words as 1, I just translated them different to get the point across.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Anata ni Translation




Maybe the boy in Anata ni is dreaming of Lily from the Momo album.

I actually started translating this song a long time ago... Maybe four years ago? But it was a bit too high level for me. Actually, in a weird way, it's a still a bit high level for me. I guess that's what studying is for, huh?

I have the most poignant memory of singing this song in my red Toyata Corsa, not too soon after I was forced to scrap my white Toyota Corsa, with my ex-boyfriend (before he was my boyfriend) on my way to see Kamikouchi.
So, sadly, this makes song makes me both angry, and a little nostalgic/sad all the same time.

Also, another translation can be found here. We obviously disagree on some translations....


あなたに
モンゴル800
メセージ

人にやさしくされた時 自分の小ささを知りました
あなた疑う心恥て 信じましょう心から
流れゆく日々その中で 変わりゆく物多すぎて
揺るがないものただ一つ あなたへの思いは変わらない
泣かないで愛しい人よ 悩める喜び感じよう
気がつけば悩んだ倍 あなたを大切に思う
ほら 元どおり以上だよ 気がつけばもう僕の腕の中

あなたに 逢いたくて 逢いたくて
あなたに 逢いたくて 逢いたくて
眠れない夜 夢で逢えたら考えすぎで 眠れない夜
夢で逢えたら どこへ行こうか?
あなたがいれば どこでもいいよ

あなたに 逢いたくて 逢いたくて
あなたに 逢いたくて 逢いたくて
流れゆく日々 季節は変わる 花咲き散れば元にもどるの
こんな世の中 誰を信じて歩いてゆこう
手を取ってくれますか?


Anata ni
Mongoru Happyaku
MESEEJI

Hito ni yasashiku sareta toki jibun no chiisasa wo shirimashita
Anata utagau kokoro haji te shinjimashou kokoro kara
Nagareyuku hibi sono naka de kawariyuku mono oo sugite
Yuruganai mono tada hitotsu anata he no omoi ha kawaranai
Nakanaide itoshiihito yo nayameru korokobi kanjiyou
Ki ga tsukeba nayanda bai anata wo taisetsu ni omou
Hora motodoori ijou dayo ki ga tsukeba mou boku no ude no naka

Anata ni aitakute aitakute
Anata ni aitakute aitakute
Nemurenai yoru yume de aetara kangaesugi de nemurenai yoru
Yume de aetara doko e yukouka?
Anata ga ireba dokodemo ii yo

Anata ni aitakute aitakute
Anata ni aitakute aitakute
Nagareyuku hibi kitsetsu wa kawaru hana saki chireba moto ni modoru no
Konna yo no naka dare o shinjite aruiteyukou
Te o tottekuremasuka?

To You
Mongol 800
Message

I know how small I am when people are being nice to me
You were ashamed of your doubting heart, so let’s believe with all our hearts!
As the days pass, the things that change become too much
There is but one thing that does not waver, and that is my thoughts of you.
Don’t cry, beloved one. Let’s feel the joy of worrying.
If you’ll notice, the pain will double, and I will be thinking of you. (1)
Look, it’s no more than it was before, and if you’ll notice, you’re still in my arms.


I wanna see(2), wanna see you (3)
I wanna see, wanna see you
Sleepless nights, if I think too much about meeting you in my dreams, I can’t sleep
If I meet you in this dream, where shall we go?
As long as you’re there, anywhere is fine.

I wanna see, wanna see you
I wanna see, wanna see you
These passing days, the seasons change, if the blossoming flowers scatter, I’ll put them back together
In the middle of this world, who will you believe, and go walk with?
Will you take my hand?

Translation Annotations:

(1) It is way more than possible that I translated this incorrectly.

(2) This is probably better translated as “I miss you”. The Japanese don’t have a verb was we do for missing something, and even their adjective is a bit off when you try to translate. So, the best way to say “I miss you” is “I want to see you” and this largely because there is no present or future tense in Japanese. So, knowing that it may be in the future tense, can lend it a sort of feeling of longing.

(3) I choose to translate it like this because the way it’s sung, you can barely hear half the syllables. It sort of sounds like “aitate” as opposed to “aitakute”. Also, the better translations is probably, “I miss you”… but that didn’t fit very well. Also, the lyric’s kanji has deliberately chosen the old version of how to write this verb (逢うas opposed to会う). I suppose this is to make the meaning more beautiful.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Lilly Translation




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.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Don't Worry Be Happy Translation



This song was easy to translate. Ten minutes, tops! And that just makes me happy. This one will be different in that there are no annotations, but that is largely because there was nothing complicated whatsoever in the piece. Awesome.

There has been another translation of the song done by Megchan, and you can find it here.

Don’t Worry Be Happy
モンゴル800
Go On As You Are


Don’t worry be happy.
It’s my life.

晴れた日の日曜日
短く長い一日の始まり
決められたする事もなく
ブラブラ町を歩く

透きとおる青い空
太陽さえもじゃまなくらい
2人でHAPPY LUNCH TIME
お腹も愛も満タン

僕とあなたと2人だけで
素敵な星空がくるまで
幸せな時を過ごすこと

Don’t worry be happy.
Happy Sunday. It’s my life.

どうしたの?
何があったの
何をそんなに悩むんでるの
でも心配することなんて
何1つもないよ

簡単に自分を責めたり
自信をなくさないで
もう 明日は日曜日

Don’t worry be happy.
Happy Sunday. It’s my life.

Don’t Worry Be Happy
Mongol Happyaku

MONGOL800

Don’t worry be happy.
It’s my life.
hareta hi no nichiyoubi
mijikaku nagai ichinichi no hajimari
kimerareta suru koto monaku
burabura machi wo aruku

Sukitooru aoizora
taiyou sae mo jyama na kurai
futari de HAPPY LUNCH TIME
onoka mo ai mo mantan

Boku to anata to futari dake de
suteki na hoshizora ga kuru made
shiawase na toki wo sogosu koto

Don’t worry be happy.
Happy Sunday. It’s my life

Doushita no?
nani ga atta no
nani wo sonna ni nayanderuno
demo shinpai suru koto nante
nani hitotsu mo nai yo

Kantan ni jibun wo semetari
jishin wo nakusanaide
mou shita ha nichiyoubi
Don’t worry be happy.
Sunday Sunday. It’s my life.

Don’t Worry Be Happy
Mongol800
Go On As You Are

Don’t worry be happy.
It’s my life.

This Sunday is a beautiful day
the start of this day was long but short
And there’s nothing we’ve decided to do
So we’ll wander around this lazy town.

In the transparent blue sky,
the sun won’t move
Together, it is a happy lunch time,
My stomach and heart are full

With only you and me,
Until the beautiful starry comes,
we’ll spend these times happily.

Don’t worry be happy.
Happy Sunday. It’s my life.

What’s wrong?
What’s going on?

What are you worrying about?
But things like worries,
we don’t even have one!
It’s easy to blame ourselves,
Don’t lose faith,
Hey, tomorrow is Sunday.

Don’t worry be happy.
Happy Sunday. It’s my life

Thursday, July 28, 2011

George Retranslation



I'm not entirely sure why this song is called George, but I like to think of reasons from time to time. Maybe they knew a guy named George that liked to talk about a lot of nothing in particular, and this is what he said. Or maybe George is some jaded guy that they felt needed to be cheered up so they wrote them this song.

What's more likely is that they chose a non-sequitur name, because it's a non-sequitur song. After all, that is why they chose the name Daniel for their themeless album.

George
Go On As You Are


When did the fucking world
Come in to being.
Man is by nature a fucking social animal.
No one is free from faults.
What matters is whether you do your best
Or so I do my best at any rate
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today

Lonely world.
I just keeping go my way.
Keep your hope alive.
All I want is love and peace.
For our life.


Japanese Translation:

この世界はいつ出来たんだろう
人はなぜ生まれつき会社的動物
なんだろう
誰も欠点のない人なんかいないよ
大事なのは全力をつくすかどうか
今日出来る事を決して
明日まで延ばすな

自分の道をすすんでいるよ
希望を気持ち続けようよ
ぼくが望むのは愛と平和だけなんだ
希望を気持ち付けようよ
人生のために

Translation of Japanese Translation:

When did this world coming into being?
Why is man, by nature, a social animal?
There is no person without faults
What matters is whether or not you do your best
So I’ll do my best
Never put off until tomorrow
What you can do today.

I’ll continue down my own path
Let’s keep hope alive
All I hope for is love and peace
Let’s keep hope alive
For life.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Dokidoki Translation


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.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Boku and Jelly Translation


While I've technically already translated half of Minami Kaze to Taiyou, I'm still going to call this the inaugural translation for the new album, ETC Works 2. After all, I've drawn a picture for it, and completed the entire translation!

As for the picture, I know the song conjures up less wintry theme, but I decided to relate it to the climate I'm used to, and not Okinawa. I still included a jelly fish, so I don't feel like it's too out of place.

Boku and Jelly
MONGOL800

Etc Works 2


彷徨う 定め
風に乗って 波に乗って
ゼロのなって ユラユラ

漂う定め
風に乗って 波に乗って
ゼロになって ユラユラ


ユラ ユラ ユラ ユラ
ユラ ユラ ユラ ユラ


水面に浮かぶ銀の月
ユラユラと 微笑む


さぁ迷う ただただ 漂う
さぁ迷う ただただ


漣踊る 海の月
ユラユラと 見守るの

Boku and Jelly
Mongoru Happyaku
ETC Works 2


Houkou Sadame
Kaze ni notte Nami ni notte
ZERO ni natte YURAYURA


Tadayou sadame
Kaze ni notte Nami ni notte
ZERO ni natte YURAYURA


YURA YURA YURA
YURA YURA YURA


Suimen ni ukabu Gin no Tsuki
YURAYURAto Hohoemu


Saa mayou Tadatada tadayou
Saa mayou Tadatada


Sazanami odoru Umi no tsuki
YURAYURAto Mimamoru no

Me and Jelly
MONGOL800

ETC Works 2

Our (1) fate is to wander,
to ride the wind, to ride the waves,
and to become nothing, swaying from side to side


Our fate is to drift,
to ride the wind, to ride the waves
and become nothing, swaying from side to side (2)


Drifting, drifting, drifting
drifting, drifting, drifting


The silver moon floats on the surface of the water
swaying from side to side, it’s smiling down on us


Well, we’ll be lost, only drifting (3)
well, we’ll be lost


The moon in the sea dances on the ripples
Swaying from side to side, it’ll watch over us.

Translation Annotations:

(1) This entire song is entirely bereft of subjects, so it’s not really clear whose fate it is to wander. That being said, since the song is called “Boku and Jelly” which translates as “Me and the Jellyfish”, I think I can safely assume he is saying we.

(2) Yurayura is an onomatopoeia used for ripples in water, or someone who is sort of drifting. It’s not a very easy word to translate. But, it is supposed to evoke the image of something moving back and forth.

(3) This is a cool twist of words! “only” in Japanese is often said as “tada”. When you say “tadatada” you are emphasizing that it is the only thing (seriously!). The next word, to drift, is pronounced tadayou. So, he played on the sound “tada” to make a cool sentence.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Daimeiwaku translation



I really love this song. It's fun to sing in karaoke and it's so bizarre that it's a consistently interesting song to listen to. Best yet, it's a covered by Monpachi. There used to be other translations out there, but they seem to have disappeared. Weird. So, you'll just have to make do with mine.

If you're interested in Okuda Tamio or Unicorn, please check out my livejournal community :)


Note about the drawing: This is actually based off of this page in my drawing journal where I make fun of me karaoking the song.

ユニコーン
大迷惑
服部



町のはずれでシュヴィドゥヴァー さりげなく
夢にまで見たマイホーム 青い空

エプロン姿のおねだりワイフ
日なたぼっこはバルコニー Hey it's a beautiful day

突然 忍び寄る 怪しい係長
悪魔のプレゼント 無理矢理 3年2ヶ月の過酷な一人旅
この悲しみをどうすりゃいいの 誰が僕を救ってくれるの
僕がロミオ
君がジュリエット
こいつはまさに大迷惑
君をこの手で抱きしめたいの
君の寝顔を見つめていたいの
町の灯潤んで揺れる 涙涙の物語

枕が変わっても やっぱり するこた同じ
ボインの誘惑に 出来心 3年2ヶ月のいわゆる一人旅
この悲しみをどうすりゃいいの 誰が僕を救ってくれるの
僕がカンイチ君はオミヤ 正にこの世の大迷惑
君をこの手で抱きしめたいの 君の寝顔を見つめてたいの
町の灯潤んで揺れる 涙涙の物語か
この悲しみをどうすりゃいいの 誰が僕を救ってくれるの
君がカンイチ僕はジュリエット この世は正に大迷惑
逆らうと首になる マイホーム ボツになる
帰りたい 帰れない 二度と出られぬ蟻地獄
君をこの手で抱きしめたいよ 君の寝顔を見つめてたいよ
君の作った料理食べたいよ 西も東も大迷惑
帰りたい 帰りたい 君は誰 僕はどこ
あれは何 ナニはアレ お金なんかはちょっとでいいのだ


Yunikoon
Daimeiwaku
Fukubu


Machi no hazure SHOOBEDOWA Sarigenaku
Yume ni made mita MAI HOMU Aoizora


EPURON no sugata no Onedari WAIFU
Hi no bokka BARUCONII Hey, it's a beautiful day!

Toutsuzen Shinobiyoru Ayashii kakarichou
Akuma no PURESENTO Muriyari Sannen Nikagetsu no kankoku na hitori tabi

Kono kanoshimi dou suryaa ii no?
Dare ga boku wo sukuttekurerru no?
Boku ga ROMIO Kimi ga JURIETTO
Koitsu wa masa ni daimeiwaku
Kimi wo kono te de dakishimetai no
Kimi no negao wo mitsuteitai no
Machi no tou un urunde yureru Namida Namida no Monogatari

Makura ga kawattemo Yappari Surukota onaji
BOIN no yuuwaku Dekigokoro Sannen nikagetsu no iwareru tabi

Kono kanoshimi dou suryaa ii no?
Dare ga boku wo sukuttekurerru no?
Boku ga KAN'ICHI Kimi ga OMIYA
Kono you wa masa ni daimeiwaku
Kimi wo kono te de dakishimetai no
Kimi no negao wo mitsuteitai no
Kono kanoshimi dou suryaa ii no?
Dare ga boku wo sukuttekurerru no?
Boku ga KAN'ICHI Boku wa JURIETTO
Kono you wa masa ni daimeiwaku

Sakurau to kubi ni naru MAI HOMU BOTSU ni naru
Kaeritai Kaerenai Nidou to derarenu arijikoku

Kimi no sukutta riori tabetai no Nishi mo Higashi mo daimeiwaku
Kaeritai Kaeritai Kimi wa dare Boku wa doko
Are wa nani Nani wa are Okane nanka chotto ii no da
Machi no tou un urunde yureru Namida Namida no Monogatari


UNICORN
Pain in the Ass
FUKUBU


On the outskirts of town,
Shoo-be-doo-wa!
Not a care in the world (1)
My home is as much as I’ve dreamed,
And the sky is so blue.

The shape of an apron,
And a nagging wife
Basking in the sun on my balcony
Hey, it’s a beautiful world.

Suddenly, it creeps up, this suspicious chief clerk (supervisor)
This demon’s present is against my will
And it’s a three year, two month long harsh journey by myself (2).

What should I do with this sadness?
Who will save me?
I’m Romeo
You’re Juliet
That fucker is a goddamn pain in the ass(3)
I want to hold your hand,
I want to look upon your sleeping face
The town’s lights dim, and sway. Tears, this tale of tears!

Even if you change the pillows, what you do is still the same **
Victim to the seduction of your big breasts, this so-called three year two month long journey by myself.

What should I do with this sadness?
Who will save me?
I’m Kanichi
You’re Omiya (4)
This world is a goddamn pain in the ass

If I reject this, I'll be fired
I want go home, but I can’t go home. You can emerge from hell twice (5)
I want to hold your hand.
I want to look upon your sleeping face
I want to eat delicious food
From East to West, this is a pain in the ass
The town’s lights dim, and sway. Tears, this tale of tears!

I want to go home, I want to go home
Who are you? Where am I?
What’s that? That is what?
Stuff like money, it’s a little good...


Translation Annotations :

1) This sort of means “in a casual manner” but that sounded really stupid in English.

(2) I was only able to translate this awkwardly… hitori tabi means “a journey undertaken by one person” Originally, I thought this song was about an affair, so I thought it meant that the three year and two months he spent with her might as well have been alone. But now I think it is about being transferred against his will.

(3) Japanese cussing… well… they don’t really cuss. They just use implied rudeness… So, I spiced it up! Daimeiwaku means “big trouble” and can sometimes mean “pain in the ass” but it so much stronger than that. Koitsu means “that guy” but the fact your separating him from yourself, means that you think he’s barely human (but that can depend on the tone of voice).

(4) Omiya and Kan'ichi are part of a tragic story called Konjiyasha (金色夜叉) about two lovers torn apart when the former decides to marry for money.

(5) OK, this actually says “you can’t leave the lair of fire ants twice”, but the kanji used for lair of fire ants is hell… So… owing to the fact we have no cultural connection to emerging from fire ant lairs, I decided to just stick with hell.

** I thought this was in regards to sleeping, but my friend Aki says it's about masturbation...

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Baby Monster Translation




BABY MONSTER
モンゴル800
ディニエル


Hi My baby monster!!
Eat the world!! Eat the future!!

君は Walking Walking(1)
歩き続ける 果てしなく長い人生を

We must be happy happy
目指せ日々 happy 幸せにhungry

Tell me more 聞かせてよ
Tell me more 君の夢
Good night 二度寝しても夢みよう

ドキが胸々 ワクワクしてる
32色でも明日は描けない

Don't cry ラララ ピカブー
このくらいで泣いたらダメ
All smile ニッコリ笑っていこう

Hi My baby monster!!
Eat the world!! Eat the future!!

愛された日々の愛された意味を
君と重ねて僕と問く その心は
愛はくり返す

Hi My baby monster!!
Eat the world!! Eat the future!!

Hi My baby monster!!
Eat the world!! Eat the future!!

na na na na na…

BABY MONSTER
Mongoru Hyappyaku
Deinieru


Hi My Baby Monster!!
Eat the world!! Eat the future!!
Kimi wa WALKING WALKING
arakitsutzukeru hateshinaku nagai jinsei o
We must be happy happy!
mezase hibi happy shiawase ni hungry
Tell me more kikasete yo
Tell me more kimi no yume
Good night nidone shitemo yume miyou
Doki ga munemune wakuwaku shiteiru
sanjyuusan soku demo asu wa kakenai
Don’t cry RA RA RA PIKABU
kono kurai de naitara dame
All smile nokkori warattikou
Hi!! Baby Monster!
Eat the world!! Eat the Future!!

Ai sareta hibi no ai sareta imi wo
kimi to kasanete boku toku sono kokoro wa
ai wa kurikaesu

BABY MONSTER
Mongol800
Daniel


Hi! Baby monster!
Eat the world! Eat the future!
You are walking, walking,
you keep on walking through this limitless life
We must be happy, happy!
Aiming for happy days! Happily(2) hungry
Tell me more, let me listen
Tell me more, your dream
Goodnight, though you’re falling back asleep, let’s go dream!
In the chesty-chest, it beats(3), and looking forward
Even if we have 32 colors, we can’t draw tomorrow.
Don’t cry! Lalalala Peek-a-boo!
It’s no good if you cry like that!
With only smiles, let’s go laughingly(4)
The days that are loved’s meanings that are loved
you me repeat it (5). This heart,
This love, it will happen again.
Hi My baby monster!!
Eat the world!! Eat the future!!

Hi My baby monster!!
Eat the world!! Eat the future!!

na na na na na…

Translation Annotations:

(1) This song is heavy with onomatopoeias, and he’s trying to imitate them by repeating the English twice. Also, the words “walking walking” with a Japanese accent sounds like “waku waku” which means to look forward to something excitedly.
(2)This works better in Japanese, because he’s using English and Japanese…. So.. of course, when you translate in to English, you just end up using the same two words.

(3) From what I can glean, this is a bit of a nonsense line that supposed to sound a little childish. It should be doki doki ga mune. But instead of repeating doki, he repeated mune. Not really sure why…

(4)He uses three words that all mean smile… I tried my best to translate!

(5) Impossible! This song uses really childish strange Japanese on purpose, and as a non-native speaker, I really don’t know how to translate. I get the meaning, but English babytalk and Japanese babytalk just don’t match in anyway!


Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Kame Translation




I love this song, mostly because it's not the most explicit telling of Urashima Tarou, and seems to tell the story differently than the tradition. I also love it because the chorus is just amazingly cute. Read the translation below. You'll see.


(Turtle)
モンゴL800(MONGOL800)
ダニエル (Daniel)

Long, long time ago
And he was walking in the market
He saw big sea turtles being sold
The sea turtle was crying and looked like he was dying
So he bought him and returned to the ocean

After a while, he was caught in a big storm on the ocean
All his friends were drowned
He was floating and felt something at his feet
Oh, here is the sea turtle he saved before

Oi Oi Oi…
It’s a tradition

亀は食べちゃダメ 俺たちの約束
遠い昔からの言い伝え

TRANSLATION:

Mr. Turtle, don't go and eat our promise
It's a story from a long time ago.

(Alternatively, the first line may actually be "Promise me you won't go and eat me")

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Hunky-Dory Translation


This is absolutely my favorite song by MONGOL800. I loved it so much that I refused to listen to it after a boy had broken my heart into very tiny vulnerable pieces because I was afraid that I would associate it with that time. I always, always, ALWAYS want to listen to this song and think about the early morning streets of Kyoto, the turning leaves in Monzen, and waves crashing along the road while I drove to Suzu. I want to remember the feeling of when I realized that love doesn't have to be planned, and I stopped being afraid of relationships.

Hunky-dory, man. Everything is just hunky-dory.





Hunky-dory
モンゴル800
ダニエル


I love行き先 決めない driving
あなたと二人どこまでも
人生ナビなんていらないよ
次の笑う角を曲がろうか

短気は損気 Monkey baby
僕は波風立てない台風の目
人生もブレーキも遊びが必要で
季節折々 時々 刻々 手の鳴る方へ

人生は一つのストーリー
起承転結はあなたの思い通り
やるだけやったら結果 後悔なんかしないよ
偶然!?必然!!まるで Fairy-tail

伝えたい想いを メロディーにのせて
風にのっかって 知らない街まで ゆるゆると
Hunky-dory 今まで通り

大事なのは日々の積み重ね
大事なのはその積み方ね
下手な鉄砲も残り一発
当たり障らない日々にサヨナラ

何でもアリだな 僕が思うより
転んでもアリだな 君が思うより
答えは出てるんでしょう 相談するくせに
どこでもいいなら君もつれて行くよ

夢の中へ つれてゆくよ
夢の中へ まるで Fairy-tail
Hunky-dory 今まで通り

Hunky- dory
Mongoru Happyaku
Danieru


I love yukisaki kimenai driving
Anata to futari dokomade
Jinsei NABI nante iranaiyo
Sugi no warau kado wo magarou

Tanki ha sonki Monkey baby
Boku ha namekazetatenai taifuu no me
Jinsei mo BUREKI mo asobi ga hitsuyou de
Kisetsu oriori jijikokukoku te no naruhoue

Jinsei ha hitotsu no SUTORII
Kishoutenketsu wa anata no omoitori
Yarudakeyattara keka koukai nankashinaiyo
Guuzen!? Hitsuzen!! Marude Fairy-tail

Tsutaitai omoi wo MERODEII ni nosete
Kaze ni nokkatte shiranai machi made yurayura to
Hunky-dory ima made doori

Daijinano ha hibi no tsumikasane
Daijinano ha sono kasamekatane
Hetana teppo mo nokori ippatsu
Atarisawaranai hibi ni SAYONARA

Nandemo ARI da na boku ga omou yori
Korondemo ARI dana Kimiga omou yori
Kotae wa deterundeshou soudan suru kuse ni
Dokodemo ii nara kimi mo tsureteyuku yo

Yume no naka he tsureteyuku yo
Yume no naka he marude Fairy-tail

Hunky-dory ima made doori


Hunky-dory
MONGOL800
Daniel


I love driving with deciding a destination,
Anywhere(1) with you.
I don’t need things such as life(2) navigation (3)
Shall we go around the next smiling corner?

No use being angry, Monkey baby(4)
I’m calm in the eye of the hurricane
Both life and brakes need pads,
Every moment of every season, I’ll go to the sound of your hands.

Life is just one story
And the outcome is just as you think
If we do everything we can, then there will be nothing to regret
Accidentally!? Necessarily!! It’s all a fairytale (5)

The thoughts I wish to tell you fly(6) with the melody,
they fly with the wind, unhurried, to an unknown town.
Hunky – dory, like this until now (7)

The important thing is that the days pile up
The important thing is to know how to burden it (8)
The poor gun and the left over bullets are useless(9)
Every day is a sayonara

It’s more than I think
It’s slipping more than you think
The answer is escaping us, all because we are talking about it
Anywhere we go is fine, as long as you follow me

Into a dream, I’ll follow you.
Into a dream, it's like a fairy-tale

Hunky-dory, like this until now.


Translation Annotations

(1) Anywhere is usually dokodemo, but this is dokomademo, which means anywhere, but it has a connation of being endless.

(2) This particular word for life is jinsei. There are a lot of words for life in Japanese. This one has the nuance of death in it… Sort of like the life you lead up until you die.

(3) This image is a lot more poignant in Japanese, since every car here (except mine!) is equipped with a Navigation system called Navi (or if your Japanese, Nabi). The idea is that he doesn’t need a destination indicator to tell him where to go in life.

(4)This is really cute in Japanese, because it repeats the syllables “nki” a lot. Tanki ha sonki Monkey baby. Too bad it doesn’t translate well….

(5) As far as I can tell, they didn’t mean to spell Fairytale wrong, so I’m just going to translate with the correct spelling. Also, “accidentally” “necessarily” is very pretty Japanese because it repeats a syllable for both words (guuzen and hitsuzen). It was hard to translate properly, but I ended up changing them into adverbs so they could end in the same syllable as well. It should be “A Coincidence?! It was necessity!!”

(6) In both cases, the word “ride” is the correct translation. However, ride on the wind is usually translated as fly with the wind. In order to keep the deliberate repetition, I changed “ride on the melody” to “fly with the melody”. It sounded more leisurely to me than “ride on the melody and ride on the wind”.

(7) This is great because it’s a play on the the dory of hunky-dory. Doori in this case means “like that”, but it supposed to give a sort of image of “it’s been alright up until now” but it literally translates as “like until now”. Basically, the double meaning was impossible to achieve in English.

(8)This is a really cool play on words. To pile up is tsumikasane and then tsumu means to load, or bear. Both use the same kanji for the tsumi/tsuma. It looks like a big change, but in Japanese it’s a very clever change.

(9) This is a play on a Japanese proverb, which is 下手な鉄砲も数撃てば、あたる。(hetana tepou mo kazu uteba ataru). It’s hard to translate, but it’s something like “even a bad shot can hit the mark if he keeps shooting” . The English proverb is “if at first you don’t succeed, try try again”.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

WiND


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.


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.

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

[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.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Breakfast at Akebono Translation Notes

Okay, so I broke down and asked my friend Mayuko about the lyrics I didn't understand in Breafast@Akebono. Here is what she said:


脇が甘い means to have weak defenses. The meaning of 詰めが甘い depends on context, but it usually means what you do is not perfect. If you're 詰めが甘い on a travelling plan, it means you don't plan enough. If you're 詰めが甘い on cleaning, you don't clean enough. Got it? :)


So, basically, Kiyosaku is employing a play on words with all his talk of sweetness, he leads it into Japanese idioms. I guess the best way to translate it, then, is that "You have weak defenses and don't do things as well as you could" but it loses the coolness of repeating "sweet".

Le sigh. Why is it so hard to translate the beauty of Monpachi's phrasing?!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Ryuukyuu Aika Translation



When I was teaching English, the only way I could get my students to listen to English music is if I played Monpachi or Avril Lavigne. I didn't like the latter, and I loved the former, so it's pretty obvious which one I choose. Of course, they only wanted to listen to the Japanese songs by Monpachi, so it often backfired, but on the whole it worked out all right.

One of my students, though, always wanted to listen to Ryuukyuu Aika. Why? I have no idea. I wish I had asked. Unfortunately, at the time, my Japanese wasn’t great and I didn’t really know what the song was about. Now, I really want to know why a student from the middle of Japan indentified with such a patriotic song of a place he has very little to do with.

Oh Masashi, I wish I could ask you.

[EDIT : The kimono the person is wearing above is the Okinawan style kimono. The design is inspired by my favorite traditional singers, Tink Tink (テインクテインク) in this video.]


琉球愛歌
MONGOL800
メッセージ

泣かないで人々よ あなたのため明日のため
すべての国よ うわべだけの付き合いやめて
忘れるな琉球の心  武力使わず 自然を愛する
自分を捨てて誰かのため何かができる

日々あなた思い 一生が終わればいい
日々の暮らしの中 間違いだらけこの世の中

責任たらい廻し 子は親殺し 平気な顔
貧しい国見殺し 無力な自分 くずれる今

日々あなた思い あなた思い 一生が終わればいい
日々あなた思い あなた思い 一生が終えてもいい
日々あんたと僕 あなたと僕 一生を終えようか

Ryukyuu Aika
Mongoru Happyaku
MESSEEJI

Nakaide hitobito yo Anata no tame ashita no tame
Subete no kuni yo Uwabedake no tsukiai yamete
Wasureru na ryuukyuu kokoro buryoku sukawazu Shizen wo aisuru
Jibun wo sutetee dare ka no tame nanika ga dekiru

Hibi anata omoi Isshou ga owarebaii
Hibi no kurashi no naka Machigai darake kono yo no naka

Sekinin tarai mawashi Ko ha oyagoroshi Heiki na kao
Mazushii kuni migoroshi Muryoku na jibun Kuzureru ima

Hibi anata omoi Anata omoi Isshou ga owarebaii
Hibi anata omoi Anata omoi Issho ga oetemoii
Hibi anata to boku Anata to boku Isshou wo oeyouka


Ryuukyuu (1) Love Song
MONGOL800
Message

They are people who don’t cry for you or tomorrow
This whole country should stop socializing with just outward appearances
Don’t forget your Ryuukyuu heart, which doesn’t use military force (2) which loves nature
Leave yourself behind because you can do anything for someone else’s sake.

Day after day, your thoughts are that it’d (3) be better if it ended
Day after day in our lives, the world is full of mistakes

Responsibilities are being passed around, children kill their parents with calm faces
We let this poor country die, we have no power, and it’s all crumbling

Day after day, your thought, your thoughts are that it’d be best for it to end
Day after day, your thoughts, your thoughts are it’d be okay to finish it
Day after day, you and me, you and me, let’s finish it!


ANNOTATIONS:

1. Ryuukyuu is the native name for Okinawa. Obviously, it’s a more patriotic term for Okinawans who don’t feel that connected to mainland Japan.

2. I’d like to explain this a bit more, but since I’m not an expert I think I’d like to let this quote from a 1968 TIME article say it all (well, most of it anyway):
“History of Okinawa reveal distinguished record of conquerors.
We have honor to be subjugated in fourteenth century by Chinese pirates, In sixteenth century by English missionaries, In eighteenth century by Japanese warlords, And in twentieth century by American Marines."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841453,00.html#ixzz1MC3nAOKp

3. This isn’t about suicide… It’s just really hard to translate what it’s talking about. It uses the kanji for one and life (pronounced isshou) and it doesn't translate too well into English. It can mean doing something your whole life, or it can mean life (as in life, or an era) until its end. So… I just decided to call it “it” to be vague as well.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Minamikaze to Taiyou Translation



Original Lyrics | Romanji Reading | Translation | Annotations


I'm about... a year or soo late on this, but I figure I should translate it anyway seeing as no one else has yet. Especially when it's about one of my favorite Disney movies.

There are two things to be noted before I start the translation though:

1. Stitch is an anime version of the Disney movie, and it seems to be an alternate reality. Instead of landing in Hawaii, Stitch lands on a fictional island in Okinawa. There he meets Yuna, and finds a stone that could make him the most powerful creature in the universe provided he do enough good deeds. The series follows him doing good deeds. I think. I haven't really watched much of it, in any case.

If you're wondering why they decided to make an anime out of it, I do have a theory. When I arrived in Japan, Stitch was hugely popular. You saw him on key rings, pencils, blankets, clothing.... basically, everything! But the thing is, nobody saw the movie Lilo and Stitch. They basically just thought he was a character, which is not really all that uncommon in Japanese society. Hello Kitty, for example, was just a character created to sell. It wasn't until after she was used as a marketing tool (on everything!) that she was made into a television series which was used as a vehicle to create more characters and increase profits. I'm thinking that Disney saw that since the original movie was fairly unknown to the Japanese, that it would make an anime marketed to Japanese people to further hype the character Stitch to make more money.

2. The song "South wind and Sun" has an interesting title. Why? Because there is poem by James Whitcomb Riley by the same name. Riley, of course, is infamous author of the poem "Little Orphant Annie" that spawned a media treasure trove. Though the poem and the song seem to be unrelated, I find it far too interesting not to share!

And now, I'll stop jabbering on and on! On to the lyrics!


南風と太陽
モンゴル800
スチッチ

ここホレホレ ここもホレ
こころに オハナ 咲かせましょう

太陽と南風と
おでかけですか?

燦々降り注ぐ
Sunshine ティダの光
颯爽と吹き抜ける

South wind 南の風


Minamikaze to taiyou
Mongoru Happyaku
Stitch Soundtrack

Koko HOREHORE Kokomo HORE
Kokoro ni OHANA Sakasemashou

Taiyou to minamikaze to
Odekakedesuka?

Sansan furisosogu
Sunshine TEIDA no hikari
Sassou to fukinukeru

South wind Minami no Kaze

The South Wind and the Sun
MONGOL800
Stitch Soundtrack

Hooray (1) for here, and hooray for here too!
Let’s allow family (2) to bloom in our hearts

Are you going with south wind and the sun?

Its brightness will rain down (3)
Sunshine is the rays of the sun (4)
And they nobly blow through

South wind, the south wind (5)


ANNOTATIONS:

1. Okay, I actually don’t know what the “hore” here means, though I’m reasonably sure that it’s one of the nonsense exclamations that are made during Japanese traditional songs, and enka. They tend to mean encouragement, praise and enjoyment, so I just decided to translate it as “hooray”. It could very well be wrong.

2. I love how clever Kiyosaku is with words. “Ohana”, if you’ve seen Lilo and Stitch, is explained as being family. “Ohana”, however, in Japanese, is the word for flower. So, it’s really quite ingenious that he uses the verb “to bloom” here :)

3. No note here. It’s just cool that he’s using a rain metaphor to describe the sun.

4. He says sunshine in English here, and then uses the Okinawan word for the sun (“teida”) so I had to try and mix it up a bit.

5. Here, he sings the same thing in English as he does in Japanese, hence its repetitiveness.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Breakfast@ Akebono Translation






This song took far too long to translate, and it’s all because he’s decided to phrase everything in interesting and beautiful ways! How dare he? That means I have figure them out, and then explain them to you all!

Okay, while it was a pain, it was actually pretty fun.

Anyway, this is my favorite song off of eight-hundreds, so I decided to translate it first. Before I go into it though, I think I should mention a bit about the structure of the song. As far as I can tell, it is written as two separate thoughts which are connected by the concept of “love as a mysterious power moves people mysteriously”. It certainly follows along MONGOL800s two most typical themes in writing songs, which is “love” and “peace”.

What’s interesting is that in the second part, which is more social critique than the first (the first being about romance), the guitar speeds up and his singing becomes very frantic. I, of course, have my opinions for that, but I'll let you decide if that means anything.

Breakfast@ 曙
MONGOL800
eight-hundreds

お涙頂戴 結末の見える物語
毎度お馴染みのハッピーエンド
めでたしめでたし ある意味めでたいね

奇を衒って頂戴 生増愛に期待してないの
慣れ合うより戯れ合いたい
形振りかまわず 見て呉れかまわず

曖昧な I MY ME 二束三文 アイノウタ
ふわふわ浮遊 YOUR YOU
手のひらで Dancing all night long
転げ落ちてあげる

愛という不思議な力で
動くという不思議な人間さ

何か頂戴 愛より甘いヤツ 酸いより甘いヤツ
脇と詰めが甘いヤツ お口で溶けて手に溶けないヤツ
Hey yo What’s up 兄弟! 現実はSo甘くないみたいだせ
底辺 x 高さ ÷ 2 = 現実 実社会 甘さ0無糖BLACK!!

歌が疑うの 好きな味は現実味
お口に合わないの 無駄な殺生と無駄な折衷案
和洋折衷 I want you!! 普通に喪中

愛という不思議な力で
動くという不思議な人間さ
愛という見えない力で
動くという不思議な人間さ

哀れな人間さ
おバカな人間さ


Breakfast@Akebono
Mongoru Happyaku
eight-hundreds



Onamida choudai Ketsumatsu no mieru SUTORI (1)
Maido onajime no HAPPII ENDO
Medetashi medetashi Aru imi medetaine

Ki wo taratte choudai Ainiku ai kita shitenaino
Nareau yori tawamure aitai
Narifuri kamawazu Mitekure kamawazu

Aimai na I MY ME Nisokusanmon AI NO UTA
Fuwafuwa fuyuu YOUR YOU
Te no hira de Dancing all night long
Koregeochite ageru

Ai to iu fushigi na chikara de
Ugoku to iu fushigi na ningen sa

Nanka choudai Ai yori amai YATSU Sui yori amai YATSU
Waki to tsume ga amai YATSU Okuchi de tokete te ni tekenai YATSU
Hey yo What’s up kyoudai!! Genjitsu ha So amakunai mitai daze
Teihen kakeru takasa waru ni wa genjitsu – Jisshakai Amasa ZERO Muto BLACK

Uta ga utagau no Suki na agi ha genjitsumi
Okuchi ni awanaino Muda na sesshou to muda na secchuan
Wahei sechuu I want you!! Futsuu ni mochuu

Ai to iu fushigi na chikara de
Ugoku to iu fushigi na ningen sa
Ai to iu mienai chikara de
Ugoku to iu fushigi na ningen sa

Aware na ningen sa
OBAKA na ningen sa


Breakfast@Daybreak
MONGOL800
eight-hundreds


Give me your tears! It’ll be the story of an end we can see
Each time it’ll be a familiar happy ending
It’s so wonderful, wonderful, and it is the meaning of joy, right?

Give me your eccentricities that you put on for show, and I won’t expect this to be an unfortunate romance
I want to flirt with you more than I want to get used to you
Regardless of appearance, regardless of show

It’s a vague (2) “I” “my” and “me” , dirt cheap, love song
It’s an airy, floating “your” and “you” (3)
dancing all night long in the palm of my hand

By this mysterious power called love,
Mysterious people can move.

Give me anything! Something sweeter than love, and sweeter than acid
The side and filling are sweet things (4) Things that melt in your mouth, but not your hand. (5)
Hey yo, what’s up bro(6)? Reality so doesn’t look that sweet. (7)
The base times the height divided by two equals reality, the real world (8) Zero sweetness! Sugarless Black!!

This song is doubting. My favorite flavor is a sense of reality (9)
It’ll never fit in the mouth. Useless destruction of life and useless proposals for compromise.
A compromise for peace, I want you! Mourning normally.

By this mysterious power called love,
Mysterious people move.
By this power we cannot see called love,
Mysterious people move.

These pitiful people
These stupid people.


ANNOTATIONS:

1. This isn’t that important to the meaning, but I want to include it anyway because that’s just how I roll. The kanji in the lyrics is written as “monogatari” which means “tale”, so I think it’s interesting that he actually sings the English word “story” instead.

2. Here, he is playing with Japanese and English pronunciations. Vague in Japanese is pronounced “aimai” which sounds exactly like “I” “My”.

3. He’s playing with pronunciations again! Floating in Japanese is “fuyuu”, so he’s using the “you” sound to repeat the pattern he started above.

4. To be honest, I have no idea what this translates to. What I know is that “waki ga amai” (sweet side) is a term for “weak defense”, so I know he’s employing some sort of play on words. I also know that “tsume” is a filling… also.. “waki” means “armpit!” So, basically, this phrase confuses me.

5. Yes, they have the same phrase in Japanese for M&Ms. This makes me happy for some inexplicable reason.

6. I love this. He says “kyoudai” which means “brothers” in Japanese. If you watch anime, you may recognize this from things like Fullmetal Alchemist, where the brothers are referred to as the Elric Kyoudai. But I translated it as bro, but I really think that was what he was going for in his cute Japanese-y way :)

7. I like to think he intended to sound a bit valley girl here. I also love this phrase because it sounds like how I talk with my friends who speak English and Japanese.

8. “Teihen” translates as base for geometry, but it also translates as the base for society. So, this entire phrase has two meanings. The base of society times height (as in the height one can achieve) divided by two equals reality. So basically, reality really doesn’t match up to what is.

9. Another cool phrasing. He takes the word “genjitsumi” which can be translated as a “sense of reality”, and twists it into saying it’s his favorite flavor because the last character of the word means “flavor” by itself. Amazing!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Ai Suru Hana Translation




愛する花
モンゴル800
Go On As You Are

愛する花に水をあげよう
大切に大切に
愛する花が枯れないように
やさしさと厳しさをあげる

月明かりが僕とあなたと歩く道を照らす
心配なんかいらない 歩いていこう

愛する花に水を
枯れないようにやしさを
太陽の下で笑い
正直な心 素直な言葉
Oh my girl. My sweet honey.

少しのことで逃げに回るな
甘えない立ち向かえ
まわりの見る目 気にせず進め
自分の正しい道を
おひさまはいつもあなたの上で
見守っているよ
だから泣き顔なんかみせてないで
素敵な笑顔を見せて
神様はまだまだ死んでない
見捨てられてなんかいないよ
心配なんかいらない 歩いていこう

愛する花に水を
枯れないようにやさしさを
太陽の下で笑い
正直な心 素直な言葉

Ai Suru Hana
Monguru Happyaku
Go On As You Are

Ai suru hana ni mizu ageyou
taisetsu ni taisetsu ni
ai suru hana ga karenai you ni
yasashisa to kibishisa wo ageru

Tsukiakari ga boku to anata to aruku wo terasu
shinpai naka iranai aruiteikou

Ai suru hana ni mizu wo
karenai you ni yashisa wo
taiyou no shita de warai
shoujiki na kokoro sunao na kotoba
Oh my girl. Me sweet honey.

Sukoshi no koto de nige ni mawaru
amaenaide tachimukae
mawari no miru me ki nisezu susume
jibun no tadashii michi wo
ohisama wa itsumo anato no ue de
mimamotteiruyo
dakara nakikao nanka mesetenai de
suteki na egao wo miset
kamisama wa madamada shindenai
misuterarete nankainai yo
shinpai nanka iranai aruitikou

Ai suru hana ni mizu wo
karenai you ni yasashisa wo
taiyou no shita de warai
shoujiki na kokoro sunao na kotoba

The Beloved Flower
MONGOL800
Go On As You Are


Let’s water the beloved flower
carefully, carefully
we’ll give it kindness and strictness
so the beloved flower won’t die

The moonlight is illuminating the path you and I walk
We don’t need to worry, so let’s keep walking.

So it doesn’t wither
we will give it water and kindness
Laughter under the sun
An honest heart and sincere words
Oh my girl. My sweet honey.

Don’t let little things give you the run around
Don’t be spoiled, stand and fight.
Without paying heed to wandering eyes,
just continue down your correct path.
The sun will always shine above you,
and it will watch over you.
So don’t show it your crying face
show it your smiling face (1)
God hasn’t died yet
You’ve not been abandoned
We don’t need to worry, so let’s keep walking

So it doesn’t wither
we'll give it water and kindness
Laughter under the sun
An honest heart and a sincere words



Annotations:

1.
It could be translated as “don’t show me your crying face, show me your smiling face” but I’m not entirely sure. Since there is not object indicated, it’s a bit difficult to say.

Another translation, done by someone who actually professionally translates, can be found here. Hadn't realized someone else had translat