Fearless

I have previously transcribed dialogue from “Lost In Translation” and “Romeo Must Die” and translated it for my language courses. I just recently watched “Jet Li’s Fearless” on Amazon Prime, and there is a scene with which I take particular issue, which I would like to transcribe here.

To give some background, this scene takes place after the protagonist (霍元甲, Huò YuánJiǎ) has had his revelation that things that are different are not necessarily better or worse than each other, and has therefore founded his “Jingwu Sports Federation” to teach all styles of wushu: “All styles of wushu are respected equally.” He is meeting with a Japanese martial artist for tea. The following Chinese transcript is taken from the internet, and I have modified according to the version I saw (there are two extra sentences and one phrase I changed, from “不过” to “有” as is said in the version available to me).

田中：霍先生这么说难道当真不懂茶？
霍元甲：不是我不懂，使我不原意懂，我不想将茶分出高低，是茶就好。
田中：可是这茶却有高低和不同品性之分。
霍元甲：什么是高？什么是低？他们本身都是生长于自然当中，并没有高低之分。
田中：看来阁下真不懂，否则的话自然会品出高低的。
霍元甲：先生说的也对。所以在我看来，茶品的上下高低，并不是由茶来对我们说，倒是由人来决定的，不同的人有不同的选择，我不愿做这个选择。
田中：哦，为什么？
霍元甲：喝茶是一种心情，如果你心情中了，茶的高低还有那么重要吗？
田中：哦，安野不曾想过。以先生看来世上的武术派别如此繁多，难道说也没有什么高低上下之分？
霍元甲：我想是这样。
田中：那么先生，安野想请教，既然武术没有高低之分，为何还要比武竞技呢？
霍元甲：我以为，世上的武术确实没有高低之分，只有习武的人才有强弱之别，通过竞技我们可以发现和认识一个真正的自己，因为我们真正的对手，可能就是我们自己！

田中：先生的这番话，使得安野非常的敬佩！ 品茶！
霍元甲：品茶。

The English subtitles are as follows:

Tanaka: Do you know anything about teas, Mr. Huo?
Huo YuanJia: I don’t really want to know because I don’t like categories. Tea is tea.
Tanaka: Each has its own characteristics, hence different grades.
Huo YuanJia: What’s the purpose of grading? All teas are grown in nature with little discernable differences.
Tanaka: Once you learn, you can tell the difference.
Huo YuanJia: Maybe you’re right. The way I see it, the tea is not in a position to judge itself. We should let people be the judge of the tea. As for me, I don’t want to do that.
Tanaka: Why not?
Huo YuanJia: When you are in a good mood, the grade of the tea does not matter.
Tanaka: I’ve never seen it that way. Even with the various Wushu styles, you still claim that no one style is superior to the others?
Huo YuanJia: That’s what I believe.
Tanaka: Then I have another question. If no particular style is superior, why have so many competitions?
Huo YuanJia: I believe it is impossible to claim the superiority of one style over another. It’s just that the people who practice them have different skill levels. Competitions can help us uncover our weaknesses and discover that we are our own enemy.

Tanaka: Mr. Huo, your words are poignant. Please enjoy.
Huo YuanJia: Thank you.

And finally, my translation of the Chinese follows below (though not word for word, as I do for some translations to better assist Chinese learners).

Tanaka: Mr. Huo, how is it said that you really don’t understand teas?
Huo YuanJia: It’s not that I don’t understand, it’s that I don’t wish to know. I don’t want to categorize teas as good or bad. As long as it’s tea, that’s fine.
Tanaka: But this tea does have differing characteristics which are good or bad to distinguish it.
Huo YuanJia: What is good? What is bad? In and of themselves, they grow in their natural environments, without any distinction of good or bad.
Tanaka: It seems that your excellency really doesn’t understand, otherwise you’d naturally be able to tell whether they’re good or bad.
Huo YuanJia: The mister’s [referring to Tanaka] words are indeed correct. So, the way I see it, the quality of teas is not told to us by the tea, rather it is for people to decide, and different people will make different choices. I do not wish to make this choice.
Tanaka: Oh? Why not?
Huo YuanJia: Drinking tea is a kind of frame of mind. If your frame of mind is on the mark, then is it that important whether the tea is good or bad?
Tanaka: Oh, Anno [referring to himself in 3rd person, as is polite] hadn’t thought about that before. According to mister’s [referring to Huo YuanJia] point of view, of the many varied kinds of wushu schools of thought in the world, would you say there is not any categorization of good or bad among them?
Huo YuanJia: I think it is so.
Tanaka: Then, mister, Anno [referring to himself in 3rd person again] would like to ask for your teaching. As wushu [schools of thought] have no distinction as good or bad, why must we compete in martial arts tournaments?
Huo YuanJia: I believe, the wushu in this world truly does not have any distinction as being good or bad. It is only wushu practitioners who have strengths and weaknesses to distinguish them from each other, and through tournaments we can discover and recognize our real selves, because our real opponent is most likely just ourselves!
[Tanaka reflects silently.]
Tanaka: The mister’s [referring to Huo YuanJia] words make Anno [referring to himself in 3rd person] admire you greatly! [Here is a phrase similar to "please enjoy your tea!"]
Huo YuanJia: [Says the preceding ritualistic phrase back to him]

I think my biggest issue here is that the subtitles make Huo YuanJia sound ignorant, as though he really thinks there are “little discernable differences.” But in the Chinese, he is making a pointed statement about his entire philosophy with regards to life, wushu, and, in this case, tea. It also makes him sound like a simpleton to say “When you are in a good mood, the grade of the tea does not matter.” I think he is referring more to being in the right frame of mind to enjoy the tea for what it is, here.

Then, when Tanaka says “I’ve never seen it that way” in the subtitles, I think the following question, with the words “even” and “still,” make it sound as though his statement of “I’ve never seen it that way” is intended to mean that he absolutely does not agree, as if he said “I do not see it that way.” But my interpretation of the Chinese and his tone of voice there gives more of the impression that the viewpoint he was just presented with is not something that has occurred to him in the past, and that he will ponder it now or in the future.

Overall, when watching the scene and focusing on the English subtitles, I was very confused as to why Huo YuanJia was being so simple/ignorant, and whether Tanaka was truly disagreeing throughout the scene or actually coming to see things Huo YuanJia’s way. With another watching focusing on listening to the Chinese, the scene became much more profound and in line with the overall tone, the overall message, and the flow of the plot of the movie.

There are times when the words that are said are imbued with so much underlying meaning that it is difficult to produce subtitles which can be read in the amount of time it takes the characters to speak the words, especially when speaking in certain styles of Chinese that are very formal and succinct. I don’t know if that’s what happened here, or if this was just an awkward translation that made it through to the final version, but I hope this post shed some light on this scene and helps with the overall understanding/interpretation of the movie.

As a side note: I was trying to figure out what the Japanese character’s name was in Japanese (as the Chinese characters pronounce the Chinese characters in Mandarin rather than Japanese) for the translation, and searched it in Jim Breen’s Japanese Dictionary, specifically the Japanese Names dictionary. Interestingly, the results in order were “Yasuno” for place, surname or female given name, “Anno” for female given name or surname, “Ano” for unspecified person name, and “Aya” for female given name. Among these, then, “Ano” seems like the winner. However, the name in the English credits (which scroll alongside the Chinese credits) is printed as “Anno Tanaka.” Okay, so at this point I’m thinking: there are actually two Japanese men playing the two Japanese characters (as opposed to cross-casting where Chinese women play Japanese women, Korean men play Japanese men, Korean men play Chinese men, and so on (and these are just the examples I came up with in a few seconds off the top of my head), as if all Asians are interchangeable, which we are not, thank you very much), so maybe this could be accurate and the dictionary has simply not added the possibility of “Anno” being a male given name. Then, later in the credits the other Japanese character’s name is simply given as “Mita,” even though in the Chinese credits, his name is “Mita Ryuuichi” (romanized from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters which appear). Now, I realize that the credits really are just done by some random other person involved in the movie. Listening to the Japanese in the movie, I’m unable to distinguish any other form of address Mita uses to address Tanaka other than “Tanaka-kun.” And a brief google search failed to find me any transcripts of the Japanese (so please let me know if you find anything helpful!), though it did give me other English transcripts of this same scene, not necessarily done because the English subtitles presented such a stark contrast to the tone/message I got from the spoken Chinese, but because it is a poignant and important scene. This, of course, makes me all the more sad that the English subtitles failed to grasp the subtleties and the weight of this dialogue.

F.I.R. – “让爱重生” (Let Love Be Reborn) Translation

As always, italicized parts are written/spoken in the music video and are not part of the song, and bracketed words in the translation are implied and not part of the literal translation.

哭泣并不只是因为悲伤
而是感受到爱一个人，是如此的美好
于是，擦干眼泪 让爱重生

不想哭
却又哭出声
不想听
传来心破碎声
不应该
让眼泪继续拉扯
答应过的
会好好的

这一次
决定放手了
这一次
我们终於懂了
爱到用尽全力 都是挫折
我想留的 留不住了
幻灭后该怎么抉择

分开的故事
写满了不舍
说好的爱情
没有你怎么完成
明天的故事
收藏好心疼
爱过的恋人
展开各自的旅程
一个人
让爱重生

这一次
决定放手了
这一次
我们终於懂了
爱到用尽全力 都是挫折
我想留的 留不住了
幻灭后该怎么抉择

分开的故事
写满了不舍
说好的爱情
没有你怎么完成
明天的故事
收藏好心疼
爱过的恋人
展开各自的旅程
一个人
让爱重生

经过多少波折
背负沉重苛责
无怨尤的爱着

分开的故事
写满了不舍
说好的爱情
没有你怎么完成
明天的故事
收藏好心疼
爱过的恋人
展开各自的旅程
一个人
让爱重生

让爱重生

Crying isn’t only caused by the hurt/pain
Rather, feeling that loving a person is so beautiful and good
Thus, dry [your] tears … let love be reborn

Don’t want to cry
Yet, again, [I] cry out loud
Don’t want to listen
The sound of a heart shattering can be heard
[I] shouldn’t
Let tears continue to drag [me] down
[You] promised
It’d be okay

This time
[We] decided to let go
This time
We finally understand
Loving until all [my] strength is gone, is totally frustrating
I wanted to stay, but I couldn’t remain
After my hopes vanished, how am I supposed to choose?

The story of separation
Is written full of unwillingness to let go
The agreed-upon love
Without you, how can it be complete?
The story of tomorrow
Hides heartache well
Past lovers
Unfold their own journeys
[As] one person
Let love be reborn

This time
[We] decided to let go
This time
We finally understand
Loving until all [my] strength is gone, is totally frustrating
I wanted to stay, but I couldn’t remain
After my hopes vanished, how am I supposed to choose?

The story of separation
Is written full of unwillingness to let go
The agreed-upon love
Without you, how can it be complete?
The story of tomorrow
Hides heartache well
Past lovers
Unfold their own journeys
[As] one person
Let love be reborn

[No matter] how many twists and turns [we] go through
Bearing heavy criticisms
Without blaming [you], [I continue to] love [you] the best [I can]

The story of separation
Is written full of unwillingness to let go
The agreed-upon love
Without you, how can it be complete?
The story of tomorrow
Hides heartache well
Past lovers
Unfold their own journeys
[As] one person
Let love be reborn

Let love be reborn

I admit to being confused by some of the phrases here, and I attempted to consult the internet, which only reminded me that the internet is full of lies. This video claims to provide a translation, but… oy. And this translation is copied all over the internet (at least in the first few google hits I clicked on)!

The line about not letting tears continue is given in the video, in Chinese, as “flow” when it should be “pull” according to the official music video, so of course it is mistranslated, though this is less of a big deal. The first line in the repeated verse about deciding to let go is mistranslated as letting go of the decision, which is quite different from the intended meaning of letting go of the relationship. The next sentence, I translated as “we finally understand” instead of “we finally understood” because I think of it as a newly realized state, so it’s almost like “we finally understand it now,” and you wouldn’t say “understood” in such a context¹. Later, in the bridge, I was not entirely certain how to translate 苛责, but it is a criticism, not a duty. The last line of the bridge contains entirely the wrong Chinese characters (again, compared to the music video), and the final 着 indicates that the verb “love” that immediately precedes it is a continuing, active thing, so the translation given in the video, using it as a noun, doesn’t make sense (I might attempt to translate the characters they gave as “without any chance due to continuing to love”).

Anyway, I guess the lesson is to not go by internet translations unless you’re willing to only get the gist of happy-vs-sad or is-it-about-love-or-life. I can’t promise that my translation is 100% accurate — after all, part of that depends on how you interpret my translation, though I did try to make it as unambiguous as I could — but I hope that it helps.

¹ This is just like in Japanese, when you have 分かった vs 分かってる! The first one is in “past tense” and usually indicates that the understanding has just happened, while the latter is in “present tense” and indicates that the understanding happened a while ago and is still present. The past-vs-present tense of something doesn’t always match when-it-happened-relative-to-now, basically.

月亮代表我的心 (”The Moon Represents My Heart”) Translation

你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
我的情也真
我的爱也真
月亮代表我的心

你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
我的情不移
我的爱不变
月亮代表我的心

轻轻的一个吻
已经打动我的心
深深的一段情
教我思念到如今

你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
你去想一想
你去看一看
月亮代表我的心

轻轻的一个吻
已经打动我的心
深深的一段情
教我思念到如今

你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
你去想一想
你去看一看
月亮代表我的心

你去想一想
你去看一看
月亮代表我的心

You ask me how deeply I love you
How much I love you
My feelings are real
My love is real
The moon represents my heart

You ask me how deeply I love you
How much I love you
My feelings are unmoving
My love is unchanging
The moon represents my heart

A soft kiss
Has already touched my heart
A period of deep emotion
Teaches me to think of now

You ask me how deeply I love you
How much I love you
Go and think about it
Go and take a look
The moon represents my heart

A soft kiss
Has already touched my heart
A period of deep emotion
Teaches me to think of now

You ask me how deeply I love you
How much I love you
Go and think about it
Go and take a look
The moon represents my heart

Go and think about it
Go and take a look
The moon represents my heart

F.I.R. – “需要你的爱” (Need Your Love) Translation

This is a duet, so Faye’s lyrics are in red, Xin’s are in blue, and the parts they sing together are in green (per traditional Chinese karaoke coloring).

当你选择拉远了距离
就这么自私做的决定
穿破天际飞去
排山倒海崩塌的回忆
无时无刻袭击我的心
痛得不能自己
或许你
以为把这一座城市抛开
就可以终结伤害
却不明白

我需要你的爱
不管多少阻碍
不求什么未来
不管命运会怎么安排
我会用眼泪洗去所有的不堪
狠狠地把心痛了断
深深地把一切重来
我需要你的爱
像掉进了深海
也像坠落悬崖
找不到地方可以逃开
别让那些谎言把爱给活埋
当心碎成一块一块
当爱碎成一段一段
我会等待
你的爱

排山倒海崩塌的回忆
无时无刻袭击我的心
痛得不能自己
或许你 (或许你)
以为把这一座城市抛开
就可以终结伤害
却不明白

我需要你的爱
不管多少阻碍
不求什么未来
不管命运会怎么安排
我会用眼泪洗去所有的不堪
狠狠地把心痛了断
深深地把一切重来
我需要

我需要你的爱
像掉进了深海
也像坠落悬崖
找不到地方可以逃开
别让那些谎言把爱给活埋
当心碎成一块一块
当爱碎成一段一段
我会等待
我会等待
我会等待

别让那些谎言把爱给活埋
当心碎成一块一块
当爱碎成一段一段
我会等待

When you chose to pull away, widening the distance [between us]
Just such a selfishly made decision
Pierced the horizon and flew away
The memories that collapsed, turning my world upside down ¹
Timelessly attacked my heart
Hurt so much, I’m beside myself ²
Or maybe you
Thought that throwing out this one city
Could just end the pain
But [you] didn’t understand

I need your love
No matter how many obstacles
Not asking for any kind of future
No matter what destiny has planned
I will use [my] tears to wash away all that is unbearable
Resolutely making [my] heart hurt until it breaks
Deeply starting everything over

I need your love
Like being dropped into the deep sea
And like falling off a cliff
[I] can’t find a place where [I] can escape from [it]
Don’t let that lie bury love alive
As [my] heart crumbles into pieces and pieces
As love breaks into parts and parts
I will wait for
Your love

The memories that collapsed, turning my world upside down ¹
Timelessly attacked my heart
Hurt so much, I’m beside myself²
Or maybe you (maybe you)
Thought that throwing out this one city
Could just end the pain
But [you] didn’t understand

I need your love
No matter how many obstacles
Not asking for any kind of future
No matter what destiny has planned
I will use [my] tears to wash away all that is unbearable
Resolutely making [my] heart hurt until it breaks
Deeply starting everything over
I need

I need your love
Like being dropped into the deep sea
And like falling off a cliff
[I] can’t find a place where [I] can escape from [it]
Don’t let that lie bury love alive
As [my] heart crumbles into pieces and pieces
As love breaks into parts and parts
I will wait
I will wait
I will wait

Don’t let that lie bury love alive
As [my] heart crumbles into pieces and pieces
As love breaks into parts and parts
I will wait

¹ The idiom 排山倒海 refers to the mountains toppling and the seas being overturned, and is commonly translated as “earth-shattering.”

² To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of this line, exactly. The words:

• 痛: hurt, pain
• 得: “that”
• 不: <negation>
• 能: can
• 自己: myself

So I … don’t see the verb there. The second character can also mean “to get/obtain” or “should,” but I don’t think those interpretations solves my problem. So… I just translated it sans verb. If anyone has any idea(s) on this one, let me know in a comment!

[2/24/2017 Edit: Apparently 不能自己 means that you're beside yourself or that you can't control yourself, so I altered the translation above according. Yay learning!]

F.I.R. – “我们的爱” (Our Love) & “把爱放开” (Let Go Of Love) Translations

This first song is one of the most painful I’ve ever come across, and I was surprised that it hadn’t made it onto this blog yet. But I’ve just remembered that I had done the translations for both of these songs on my old website (which doesn’t exist on the web anymore), so while Iron-Blogger was going on, it felt like cheating. But it really should be on the interwebs, and Iron-Blogger has concluded its run, so here you are.

The first song is “我们的爱” by F.I.R.; the title is translated as “Our Love.” The italicized parts in the lyrics/translation below either appear on the screen or are spoken by either the male or female lead, if indicated, in the music video (which you can find on youtube, though they don’t appear to have an official channel, so I’ll not link to a particular upload instance).

末日将至
我们天真的以为
只要在一起 什么都不怕

回忆里想起模糊的小时候
云朵漂浮在蓝蓝的天空
那时的你说要和我手牵手
一起走到时间的尽头

从此以后我都不敢抬头看
仿佛我的天空失去了颜色
从那一天起我忘记了呼吸
男：你不怕吗？
女：跟你在一起我什么都不怕
眼泪呵永远不再
不再哭泣

我们的爱过了就不再回来
直到现在我还默默地等待
我们的爱 我明白 已变成你的负担
只是永远我都放不开最后的温暖
男：不怕
走啊
快！快！
你给的温暖

女：是谁
能让你付出生命的全部
不管明天
终点在哪里
我们不知道
只要飞向时间的尽头
天空就蓝的好像不会变黑

从此以后我都不敢抬头看
仿佛我的天空失去了颜色
从那一天起我忘记了呼吸
眼泪呵永远不再
男：生日快乐
不再哭泣

我们的爱过了就不再回来
直到现在我还默默地等待
我们的爱 我明白 已变成你的负担
只是永远我都放不开最后的温暖
你给的温暖

不要再问你是否爱我
现在我想要自由天空
远离开这被捆绑的世界
不再寂寞 喔

我们的爱过了就不再回来
直到现在我还默默地等待
我们的爱 我明白 已变成你的负担
只是永远我都放不开最后的温暖
你给的温暖

还是要在一起
即使全世界与我们为敌

We’ve arrived at the last day
We naively believed
As long as we’re together there’s nothing to fear

In blurry memories of my childhood
Clouds drift in the blue sky
The you of that time said that you wanted to, hand in hand,
Walk together to the end of time

After that time I had not the courage to raise my head
As if my sky had lost its color
From that day forth, I forgot to breathe
Male: You’re not afraid?
Female: With you, I’m not afraid of anything
My tears, oh, will never again
Will never again fall

Our love, having gone, will never return
All the way until now, I’ve still been waiting silently
Our love, I understand, has become your burden
It’s just that I will never be able to let go of the last bit of warmth
Male: Don’t be afraid
Go!
Quickly! Quickly!
The warmth you gave

Female: Who is it
That can make me give all of my life
Without caring about tomorrow
Where our destination is
We don’t know
As long as we fly towards the end of time
The sky is blue, just as if it will never turn black

After that time I had not the courage to raise my head
As if my sky had lost its color
From that day forth, I forgot to breathe
My tears, oh, will never again
Male: Happy birthday
Will never again fall

Our love, having gone, will never return
All the way until now, I’ve still been waiting silently
Our love, I understand, has become your burden
It’s just that I will never be able to let go of the last bit of warmth
The warmth you gave

I don’t want to ask you again whether or not you love me
Now I just want a sky of freedom
Leaving far behind this bound world
To never be lonely again, oh

Our love, having gone, will never return
All the way until now, I’ve still been waiting silently
Our love, I understand, has become your burden
It’s just that I will never be able to let go of the last bit of warmth
The warmth you gave

We still have to be together
Even if the world opposes us

The next song is a sort of sequel, as it appeared on F.I.R.’s subsequent album and sampled the original song. It’s called “把爱放开,” which means “Let Go Of Love.”

男：看到她的崩溃无助
惊觉这是一场错误
还是试炼
我们终究没有回头
我第一次感到害怕
关于毁灭一个人

如果还能双手紧握
我只给自己一次后悔的机会
而我们 谁也没有回头

当你开始追寻你要的自由
放开我们紧握的手
带走我的爱和天空
我不知所措
我以为我会董
我们的爱 我们的爱

当我独自走到时间的尽头
回忆和我擦身而过
带走你的爱和笑容
我无力承受
最后的一点心痛
我们的爱 我们的爱

把爱放开 把手放开
如果你的心已不在
把爱放开 不再等待
你的温柔是一片空白

把爱放开 把心打开
这次我决定走出回忆重来
就让我彻底的伤再彻底的醒过来
就让我彻底的伤再彻底的醒过来

女：这是我们第一次知道
什么叫通彻心扉
我的世界没有罪恶
他的世界没有誓言
我在他的眼神中
看到另一个世界

当我独自走到时间的尽头
回忆和我擦身而过
带走你的爱和笑容
我无力承受
最后的一点心痛
我们的爱 我们的爱

把爱放开 把手放开
如果你的心已不在
把爱放开 不再等待
你的温柔是一片空白

把爱放开 把心打开
这次我决定走出回忆重来
就让我彻底的伤再彻底的醒过来

终于明白爱已不再
从今以后再也没有什么能去依赖
我还有什么期待

把爱放开 把手放开
如果你的心已不在
把爱放开 不再等待
你的温柔是一片空白

把爱放开 把心打开
这次我决定走出所有回忆重来
就让我彻底的伤再彻底的醒过来
就让我彻底的伤再彻底的醒过来

Male: Helplessly seeing her falling apart
I fear this is a mistake
Or is it a failed try?
We eventually won’t have times-to-come
For the first time, I feel fearful
About destroying a person

If we can still hold our two hands tightly
I will only give myself one opportunity to regret
And we…no one looked back

When you started to pursue the freedom you wanted
Letting go of our tightly held hands
Taking away my love and sky
I didn’t know where the wrong was
I thought I would understand
Our love, our love

When I walked to the end of time alone
Memories brushed against me and passed me
Taking away your love and smile
I don’t have the strength to bear
The last bit of heartache
Our love, our love

Let go of love, release it from your hands
If your heart is already gone
Let go of love, don’t wait any longer
Your gentleness is so emotionless

Let go of love, open your heart
This time I’ve decided to walk out of my memories once again
Just let my complete pain wake completely again
Just let my complete pain wake completely again

Female: This is the first time we understood
What it means to completely understand one’s soul
My world didn’t have crime
His world didn’t have promises
In his eyes, I
Saw another world

When I walked to the end of time alone
Memories brushed against me and passed me
Taking away your love and smile
I don’t have the strength to bear
The last bit of heartache
Our love, our love

Let go of love, release it from your hands
If your heart is already gone
Let go of love, don’t wait any longer
Your gentleness is so emotionless

Let go of love, open your heart
This time I’ve decided to walk out of my memories once again
Just let my complete pain wake completely again

I finally realized love will never be again
From now on, there will never again be anything dependable
What more do I have to look forward to

Let go of love, release it from your hands
If your heart is already gone
Let go of love, don’t wait any longer
Your gentleness is so emotionless

Let go of love, open your heart
This time I’ve decided to walk out of all my memories once again
Just let my complete pain wake completely again
Just let my complete pain wake completely again

“元素” (Elements) Lyrics and Translation

So recently there was an article on boingboing titled “The Elements Song (Tom Lehrer tune), Super Cute Japanese Version,” which featured two 13-year-old girls singing “元素” [genso]*, meaning “element” (Japanese doesn’t have articles or plural forms of nouns), a Japanese rendition of the well-known tune “The Elements” by Tom Lehrer. Because it is awesome, I’ve decided to transcribe the lyrics and translate them (obviously, for most of the song, the translation is fairly obvious) here. First, I’ve made a table of the elements in the order that they are sung — unlike Tom Lehrer’s version, there are no extra words like “also”, etc, so these are the lyrics to most of the song — with chemical symbol in the left column, Japanese name (as written in the youtube video — there are alternate ways to write some of the names, which I’ll talk about later) in the middle column, and Hepburn romanization in the rightmost column, followed by the final sentence in the song….

The final line of the song is “これが今ま派遣された全てな元素の集まりです” [kore ga ima made haken sareta subete na genso no atsumari desu], which roughly translates to “this is all of the elements collection that have been sent up ’til now.”

Here comes the random spew of notes about the song, transcription process, translation process, etc: the order of the elements is the same as in the original, but there are more of them, which have been tacked on to the end of the song. In fact, the last element in the song is new enough that when I was going through and checking my transcription/romanization using WWWJDIC, I found that the dictionary didn’t have it. And in checking the transcription/romanization, I ended up finding two mistakes. I’m also considering giving this mass of katakana to my Japanese-Learners students for practice. How about it, guys?

Anyway, to the last line: it’s hard to get the number of syllables exactly right for everything, so some of the vowels are stretched out when sung. The problem is, in Japanese, the length of the vowel is a differentiating trait between words. The final line is sung with extra elongated vowels (so that it sounds like “haaken saareta”), but given that we’re probably trying to approximate the last part of the original “The Elements” song, I settled on the word 派遣 [haken] (defined in WWWJDIC as dispatch/send) as the noun to form the compound verb “send” when combined with された [sareta], the perfect/past form of the potential form of する [suru], meaning “do.” Thus, the combination “派遣された” [hakensareta] roughly means “was sent,” and it modifies the noun phrase “全てな元素の集まり” [subete na genso no atsumari], where 全て [subete] means “all”, な [na] is a nominal-connecting particle, 元素 [genso] means “element” (or, as pointed at near the beginning of the post, could be interpreted as “the elements” because of the lack of articles and plural noun forms in Japanese), の [no] is the other nominal-connecting particle, and 集まり [atsumari], derived from the verb 集まる [atsumaru], which means “gather up” or “collect”, means “collection.” Thus, the noun phrase can be translated as “all of the elements collection,” and since it is modified by “派遣された” [hakensareta], I translated that chunk of the sentence as “all of the elements collection that have been sent.”

As for the rest of the sentence, これ [kore] is a demonstrative that means “this” (and here refers to the aforementioned elements, of course), が [ga] is a subject marker that indicates that “これ” [kore] is the subject of the imperfect, distal copula, です [desu], at the end of the sentence. And the “今まで” [ima made] component of the sentence can be broken into 今 [ima], meaning “now,” and まで [made], a particle meaning “until.”

So now, some comments about the names of the elements, because I find them somewhat intriguing: most of the element names are from English, German, or Chinese, as exemplified in アルミニウム [aruminiumu], アンチモン [anchimon] (from “Antimon”), and ヒ素 [hiso], respectively. Okay, so the completely katakana names have origins that are fairly obvious — they’re nipponizations of either English or German, mostly (I’d say all, but some are potentially ambiguous, and superlatives are difficult to support). A handful of elements share the exact same kanji as their Chinese counterparts: Fe/鉄 [tetsu], Au/金 [kin], Ag/銀 [gin], Pb/鉛 [namari], and Cu/銅 [dou]. Another handful of elements are derived from the Chinese: As/ヒ素/砒素 [hiso], I/ヨウ素/沃素 [youso], B/ホウ素/硼素 [houso], Si/ケイ素/珪素/硅素 [keiso], and F/フッ素/弗素 [fusso]. (All of the non-素 [so] 漢字 [kanji] are not considered common kanji, according to WWWJDIC.) Going down the list one at a time, then: 砒 is pronounced pī​ and means “arsenic” in Chinese, which is where the Japanese pronunciation derives from. The Chinese word 沃 is pronounced wò​ and means fertile/rich/irrigate; again, Japanese pronunciation derives from the kanji and is thus written with katakana because it’s a loan word of sorts. Oddly, the Chinese 硼, which does mean “boron,” is pronounced péng​, so this nipponization is beyond me…. Both 珪 and 硅 mean “silicon,” though the first character has a radical that is generally used with precious materials and can refer to a “jade tablet” (according to MDBG), while the second character refers specifically to the chemical element and is the character used in the Chinese periodic table; both characters are pronounced guī​, for which the nipponization makes sense again. Finally, we have 弗, pronounced fú​ and meaning “not” in Chinese (according to MDBG), though the meaning of the 漢字 [kanji] in Japanese is “dollar” (according to WWWJDIC); the pronunciation makes sense, but I’m unsure as to the rationale behind the meaning….

Of course, some of the names are original to Japanese: H/水素 [suiso] meaning “water element,” O/酸素 [sanso] meaning “sour/acidic element,” N/窒素 [chisso] meaning “plug-up/obstruct element,” Br/臭素 [shuuso] meaning “stinky element,” Hg/水銀 [suigin] meaning “liquid silver,” Pt/白金 [hakkin] meaning “white gold,” S/硫黄 [iou] meaning “yellow sulfur” (the first character is the same as the Chinese character for elemental sulfur, while the second character means “yellow”), Zn/亜鉛 [aen] meaning “come-after lead,” Cl/塩素 [enso] meaning “salt element,” and C/炭素 [tanso] meaning “charcoal/coal element.” The hypotheses for nitrogen and zinc that Ben came up with on zephyr follow:

[Nitrogen] blocks oxidation and/or breathing.
Traditional early experiments in such things involved burning metal in a confined volume of air, allowing one to measure that 30% of the air’s mass was added to the metal and 70% was left unreacted. Isolation and further study of that remaining portion shows that it obstructs breathing, etc..

I think it has to do with the refining process — if you have mixed zinc and lead ore, the lead will reduce out first, but if you go to higher temperature (???) then the zinc will come off.

So there you have it. “The Elements” song in Japanese!!

* Japanese in this post is followed by the Hepburn romanization in brackets, as it is through most of the blog.

F.I.R. – “I Don’t Care” Translation

More or less complete lyrics (I say more/less because there’s this yelled part that involves the world “this world is not fair / it’s not fair … you know I don’t care” but I can’t make all of it out and apparently no one on the internet cares enough to have published it):

Hey

Hey

So what did you want to talk about?

I…I want to break up.

What?

Look, I’m just tired of all of this. We always fight.

You can’t just leave.

You know what? I can, and I am. I, I’ve had enough of this.

You think you can just walk out on me?

Are you threatening me?

Get over here! I’m not gonna let you go!

Let me go!

It’s not over, you can’t do this!

Let go of me, let go of me!

*slap*

A! It’s over, I don’t care, it’s over!

风轻吹
吹干泪
泪流了一夜 才觉得浪费
是错对
无所谓
我让你去飞

别再做无畏的美梦想去挽回
就别再做困兽之斗去挣扎一切
那些美丽容颜如今都已破碎
飞越谎言冲破无力改变的世界

I don’t care
It’s not fair
就让你犯你得罪
I don’t care
No more care
带着下一个梦去追我不后悔不后退
就是那么的绝对
我要的完美不是不是不是你能给
将一切毁灭
I don’t care

风轻吹
吹干泪
泪流了一夜 才觉得浪费
是错对
无所谓
我让你去飞

别再做无畏的美梦想去挽回
就别再做困兽之斗去挣扎一切
那些美丽容颜如今都已破碎
飞越谎言冲破无力改变的世界

I don’t care
It’s not fair
就让你犯你得罪
I don’t care
No more care
带着下一个梦去追
我不后悔不后退
就是那么的绝对
我要的完美不是不是不是你能给
将一切毁灭
I don’t care

I don’t care
I don’t care
No more care

I don’t care
It’s not fair
就让你犯你得罪
I don’t care
No more care
带着下一个梦去追
我不后悔不后退
就是那么的绝对
我要的完美不是不是不是你能给
将一切毁灭
I don’t care

All three of the non-redundant verses:

风轻吹
吹干泪
泪流了一夜 才觉得浪费
是错对
无所谓
我让你去飞

别再做无畏的美梦想去挽回
就别再做困兽之斗去挣扎一切
那些美丽容颜如今都已破碎
飞越谎言冲破无力改变的世界

I don’t care
It’s not fair
就让你犯你得罪
I don’t care
No more care
带着下一个梦去追
我不后悔不后退
就是那么的绝对
我要的完美不是不是不是你能给
将一切毁灭
I don’t care

And the translation for those non-redundant verses:

The wind blowing gently
Blows dry my tears
Only after tears flowed an entire night do I realize it’s a waste
Whether it’s wrong or right
It doesn’t matter
I’ll let you fly

Don’t keep dreaming those fearless dreams, trying to redeem [yourself]
Just don’t keep acting the bound animal, only fighting to struggle against everything
Those beautiful looks [facial features] are now already broken
Fly over/past the world that no power/force can change, thoroughly broken by lies

I don’t care
It’s not fair
I’ll just let you commit your sins
I don’t care
No more care
Go chase the next dream [you] brought along
I don’t regret, won’t retreat
It’s just that absolute
The beautiful conclusion I want isn’t isn’t isn’t something you give
Everything will be ruined
I don’t care

Interestingly, the translation I had on file was as follows:

The wind blowing gently
Blows dry my tears
Only after tears flowed an entire night do I realize it’s meaningless
Whether it’s wrong or right
It doesn’t matter
I’ll let you fly

Don’t keep dreaming those fearless dreams of turning it all around
Just don’t act the bound animal, fighting and struggling
Those beautiful features are now already broken
Fly over the lies that crushed the world that cannot be changed

I don’t care
It’s not fair
I’ll just let you commit your crimes
I don’t care
No more care
I’ll chase the next dream
I don’t regret, won’t retreat
It’s just that absolute
The beautiful conclusion I want isn’t isn’t isn’t something you give
Destroy everything
I don’t care

The first, second, and third lines of the second verse have changed a moderate amount, seeing as some of the adjectives have shifted to modify different things, etc. More importantly, the line immediately following “no more care” changed quite substantially, and I can’t tell whether it’s just because I’m really out of it because it’s past bedtime, or what. We might find out in next week’s post, or I’ll just edit this when my mind is clearer. Ta!

Language Classes Update #5

For the last class and the upcoming class (which is over a week from now), we’re going over homework worksheets in class. Last time, there were just a few exercises, but I still managed to make a mistake or two (one was debatable, because we did manage to come up with an explanation for the slightly unexpected sentence).

While writing up the homework assignment for the next class, I tried to maintain a balance of grammatical forms, to keep them equally fresh in the students’ minds. Some of the sentences are to be translated from Japanese, some into Japanese; some of them use the distal form, some the direct form; the vocabulary words used are picked from as many different sets of vocabulary as possible: some are colors, some have to do with shopping, some have to do with the weather; some time expressions refer to the date, some refer to the day of the week, some refer to the time of day, etc; so on and so forth. Where possible, I tended towards the more frequently used or irregular vocabulary or measure words, to really emphasize those.

It’s an interesting process, writing worksheets like this, because I get to think about the sizable amount of knowledge that we’ve covered. And yet at the same time, I did have to revise the sentences that came to mind every now and then because they did, in fact, contain grammatical structures or vocabulary that we haven’t covered yet.

Both last time and this time, I threw in a katakana loan word that we hadn’t covered in class, that the students get to sound out and figure out on their own, which I hope adds some entertainment value and a sense of accomplishment in figuring out vocabulary words without having to be taught them or look them up.

Last class session, the students said that going over the worksheet was very useful, and possibly more useful than just the class sessions we’ve had so far where we’ve covered conversations and the grammar and vocabulary contained within, probably because we get to really think about the structure of the sentences instead of just going along with precomposed constructs. If anyone has more suggestions or feedback on what else might be useful to really solidify concepts that students have previously been exposed to, I’d be glad to hear it.

Translation Musings

I was re-watching a Japanese movie recently, and because the last time I saw it, my Japanese was still the self-taught variety, I paid more attention to the translation of the dialogue into the subtitles this time. Considering how ubiquitous this version of the subtitles was, one would normally assume that they had won out over the other crappy translations floating around, but with translations of Japanese material, it was entirely possible that this was simply the most widespread translation that got floated around more than other ones did. Turns out, the latter case seems more applicable. (I will also be making random comments about amusing lines and other thoughts I had during the movie, and not just about translations, in this post.)

One of the amusing lines was “耳落ちるぞ” [mimi ochiru zo], which was delivered in such a deadpan, indifferent tone that the subtitles just didn’t convey. Personally, I think it would’ve sounded ridiculous if it had been said in English.

I should point out to my Japanese classes that “どうしたの?” [doushita no] is a useful phrase: “what’s up?” or “what’s the matter?”, loosely. I should also point out to them two interesting sentence endings that I noticed and didn’t realize were usable. The first was when a girl used the sentence final particle “ぞ” [zo], which was explained to me, by a guy who lived in Japan until the age of 16, that it was the brutish-guy equivalent of “よ” [yo]. Karl likes to refer to it as the “yakuza particle,” but after hearing it in this context, I am really not-confident in the truth of that moniker. The second unexpected sentence ending was when the hospital security guard was speaking to the dark, empty room and said “誰がいます?” [dare ga imasu] with the inflection on “す” [su] that indicated a question. I had always thought that such a usage was fairly girly (and my Japanese 先生 [sensei] may have said as much, too), but maybe not? The guard did not seem particularly effeminate, at any rate.

One scene seemed particularly rife with interesting translations (or maybe I was just managing to pay closer attention, which seems likely). After saying that some previous situation was messed up, the detective then said “今こそ” [ima koso], which I would literally translate as “now too,” meaning that the current situation was also messed up; personally, I find this perfectly comprehensible in context as a translation. The subtitles, though, read “all of it.” Later in the same scene, one guy picks up the phone, hears the voice ask for another guy in the room, and hands the phone to him, at which point the guy who just received the phone says “変わりました” [kawarimashita], which is the distal perfective form of the verb “change,” to indicate that the speaker has changed. The subtitles, though, have been translated as “Hello?” (At some later point in the movie, the new speaker says “今変わりました” [ima kawarimashita] — literally, “now changed” — which gets translated as “Hi, there.”) Finally, in this scene, the verb “消える” [kieru] is translated as “lose,” while it should be more accurately translated as “disappear.” I think “does your connection disappear” makes just as much sense as “do you lose your connection,” and kind of fail to see why this particular choice in translation was made.

I’m also fairly certain that some of the numbers in the movie are mistranslated. A few times when the characters say “50″ the subtitles read “54,” and so on and so forth. And about ninety minutes in, a boy clearly says “あなたとあなたは” [anata to anata wa] which doesn’t get translated at all — the subtitles entirely skip this item in the boy’s list.

Last thing in this mini-rant/examination: when a computer screen displays “明日…のライブ会場に集まれ” [ashita...no raibu kaijou ni atsumare] it is translated as “…concert tomorrow” as opposed to “come to the concert venue tomorrow.” I … disapprove.

蔡依林 (Jolin Tsai) – “你快乐吗” (Are You Happy) Translation

谁都没权利
要求你离开他
即使他总让你
伤心牵挂

我只能在你身边
听你说说话
听你说着他
泪如雨下
跟自己挣扎

其实很多人
都爱得很傻
天真的守着
相爱承诺的话

不问自己快乐吗
只是一味爱他
直到黯然心碎
才知心乱如麻

我想这就是所谓爱的代价
没有人多潇洒
爱好像燃烧的火花
会随时间升华

我想这就是所谓爱的代价
你不必逼自己离开他
别去管别人怎么看你
说你是傻瓜
问问你自己
你快乐吗

其实很多人
都爱得很傻
天真的守着
相爱承诺的话

不问自己快乐吗
只是一味爱他
直到黯然心碎
才知心乱如麻

我想这就是所谓爱的代价
没有人多潇洒
爱好像燃烧的火花
会随时间升华

我想这就是所谓爱的代价
你不必逼自己离开他
别去管别人怎么看你
说你是傻瓜
问问你自己
你快乐吗

我想这就是所谓爱的代价
没有人多潇洒
爱好像燃烧的火花
会随时间升华

我想这就是所谓爱的代价
你不必逼自己离开他
别去管别人怎么看你
说你是傻瓜
问问你自己
你快乐吗

No one has the right
To request that you leave him
Even though he always gives you reason to*
Worry about heartbreak

I can only, by your side,
Listen to you saying things
Listen to you talking about him
Tears falling like the rain
Struggling with yourself

Actually, many people
All love very foolishly
Naively holding on to
Words promising mutual love

Not asking yourself if you’re happy
Just blindly loving him
Until sad heartbreak
Only then do you realize how confused your heart is

I think this is simply what is called the price of love
There are no people who are naturally unrestrained
Love seems like a flaming spark
That will, with time, grow

I think this is simply what is called the price of love
You don’t need to force yourself to leave him
Don’t go caring about how other people see you
Saying that you’re a fool
Just ask yourself
Are you happy

Actually, many people
All love very foolishly
Naively holding on to
Words promising mutual love

Not asking yourself if you’re happy
Just blindly loving him
Until sad heartbreak
Only then do you realize how confused your heart is

I think this is simply what is called the price of love
There are no people who are naturally unrestrained
Love seems like a flaming spark
That will, with time, grow

I think this is simply what is called the price of love
You don’t need to force yourself to leave him
Don’t go caring about how other people see you
Saying that you’re a fool
Just ask yourself
Are you happy

I think this is simply what is called the price of love
There are no people who are naturally unrestrained
Love seems like a flaming spark
That will, with time, grow

I think this is simply what is called the price of love
You don’t need to force yourself to leave him
Don’t go caring about how other people see you
Saying that you’re a fool
Just ask yourself
Are you happy

* The words here more literally translate to “even though he always lets you,” but such a phrasing did not seem to give the intended meaning, so I translated it slightly differently.