Posts tagged: translations

五月天 (May Day) – “而我知道” (And I Know) Translation

Colloquially translated, because it does sound so very poetic (and I’m in a lyrical mood):

冰块
还没融化
你在看表
我笑的尴尬
你说
最近很忙
改天聊吧

那天
我在楼下
想了很久
想你说的话
你说
爱情很窄
世界很大
(而我们应该长大)

就这样吧
就这样吧
我想我听懂你话中的话

而我知道那真爱不一定能白头到老
而我直到有一天你可能就这么走掉
而我知道我知道这一切我全都知道
我就是受不了

而我知道我们曾天真的一起哭和笑
而我知道放开手当不知道怎么忘掉
而我知道你走了以后的每一分一秒
却还是这么难熬

微笑
紧紧咬牙
给你祝福
你自由飞吧
你说
温室没有
灿烂的花
(你总是很有想法)

就这样吧
就这样吧
我同意 可是我 泪如雨下

而我知道那真爱不一定能白头到老
而我直到有一天你可能就怎么忘掉
而我知道我知道这一切我全都知道
我就是受不了

而我知道我们曾天真的一起哭和笑
而我知道放开手当不知道怎么忘掉
而我知道你走了以后的每一分一秒
却还是这么难熬
却还是这么难熬

而我知道我们曾天真的一起哭和笑
而我知道放开手当不知道这么忘掉
而我知道你走了以后的每一分一秒
却还是这么难熬 (而我知道那真爱不一定能白头到老)
却还是这么难熬 (而我直到有一天你可能就这么走掉)
却还是这么难熬 (而我知道我知道这一切我全都知道)

The pieces of ice
Still haven’t melted away
You’re looking at your watch
I laugh awkwardly
You said
Lately you’ve been busy
We’ll chat some other day

That day
I was downstairs
I thought for a long time
Thinking about what you said
You said
Love is very narrow(-minded)
The world is very big
(Besides, we should grow up)

Just let it be this way, I guess
Just let it be this way, I guess
I think I understood the meaning inside your words

And I know that real love isn’t necessarily able to last until white-haired old age
And I know that one day you could just leave like this
And I know that, knowing this much, I know it all
I just can’t bear it

And I know that once, we really cried and laughed together
And I know to let go of your hand but I don’t know how to forget it all
And I know that after you leave, every minute and every second
Nevertheless will still be this hard to endure

My small smile
With teeth clenched tightly
Wishes you luck
You should probably fly free
You said
The greenhouse doesn’t have
So splendid of flowers
(You always did have a lot of opinions/thoughts)

Just let it be this way, I guess
Just let it be this way, I guess
I agreed but my tears fall like the rain

And I know that real love isn’t necessarily able to last until white-haired old age
And I know that one day you could just leave like this
And I know that, knowing this much, I know it all
I just can’t bear it

And I know that once, we really cried and laughed together
And I know to let go of your hand but I don’t know how to forget it all
And I know that after you leave, every minute and every second
Nevertheless will still be this hard to endure
Nevertheless will still be this hard to endure

And I know that once, we really cried and laughed together
And I know to let go of your hand but I don’t know how to forget it all
And I know that after you leave, every minute and every second
Nevertheless will still be this hard to endure (And I know that real love isn’t necessarily able to last until white-haired old age)
Nevertheless will still be this hard to endure (And I know that one day you could just leave like this)
Nevertheless will still be this hard to endure (And I know that, knowing this much, I know it all)

Also, I should note that the name of the band is literally “five” “month” “day”, not in the sense of a five-month-long day, but in the sense of “a day in the fifth month”, or “a day in May.”

“还珠哥哥” 主题曲 (”Princess Pearl” Theme Song) – “不能和你分手” (Unable To Part Ways From You) Translation

当山峰没有稜角的时候
当河水不再流
当时间停住 日夜不分
当天地万物 化为虚有
我还是不能和你分手
不能和你分手
你的温柔是我今生 最大的守候

当太阳不再上昇的时候
当地球不再转动
当春夏秋冬 不再变换
当花草树木 全部凋残
我还是不能和你分散
不能和你分散
你的笑容是我今生 最大的眷恋

让我们红尘作伴 活得潇潇洒洒
策马奔腾 共享人世繁华
对酒当歌 唱出心中喜悦
轰轰烈烈 把握青春年华

At the time when mountain peaks no longer have peaks
When river waters no longer flow
When time stops, and day and night become one
When the ten thousand (multitude of) things of the heavens and earth become nothing
I still won’t be able to part ways from you
Unable to part ways from you
Your warmth is the greatest thing I have to wait for in this life of mine

At the time when the sun no longer rises
When the Earth no longer rotates
When spring, summer, autumn, and winter no longer exchange places
When the flowers and plants and trees all wither and die
I still won’t be able to separate myself from you
Unable to separate myself from you
Your smile is what I am most attached to in this life of mine

Let us keep each other company in this mortal world, living freely (as the wind and rain)
Urge our horses to gallop, together enjoying the bustle of the human world
Allow wine to act as song, singing out the joy in our hearts
Strongly, hold on to the years of our youth

F.I.R. – “Fly Away” Annotation

It has been brought to my attention that while I’ve done translations of Chinese things, I haven’t done detailed translations, which might be useful for the Chinese learners. Thus, I shall endeavor to translate each word of the stuff that I have translated in the past, annotating the hanzi where relevant. I’ve decided not to do a word-for-word translation of Ten Impossible Questions because the grammar of those gets kind of atrocious at times, and y’all shouldn’t be learning off those. So, we’re starting with the next-oldest one: my translation of “Fly Away” by F.I.R. As in the original post, implied pronouns (to the best of my understanding/interpretation) are bolded.

清晨的微风
如此的平凡
看似简单
雾气驱散

The slight wind of the clear morning
So commonplace in this way
Looks as though it so simply
Disperses the fog

  • 清 (qīng)- “clear,” composed of the water radical (the three leftmost strokes) to indicate an association with liquid (e.g. “clear liquid”) and the word for “grue“/青/qīng as the phonetic component
  • 晨 (chén) – “morning”/”dawn,” composed of the sun radical (in this case the simplified version of the starry radical 晶/jīng) and the phonetic component 辰/chén (no longer in common usage, but was used with a set of words to distinguish between items in a given set, such as the year of the Dragon (the given set being “years”), 0700-0900h (the given set being “two-hour periods”), the 5th earthly branch (the given set being “earthly branches”), or the third solar month (the given set being “solar months”))
  • 的 (de) – indicates possession of the following noun by the preceding noun; composed of the characters for “sun”/日/rì, altered to “white”/白/bái, and “ladle”/勺/sháo
  • 微 (wēi) – “micro-”/”small,” composed of the following components: “step with the left foot”/彳/chì and a phonetic component (if you really want *coughirrelevantcough* details…)
  • 风 (fēng) – in the traditional, originally written 風, which is composed of the phonetic component “ordinary”/凡/fán and “insect”/虫/chóng (because insects are borne by the wind)
  • 如 (rú) – “as if”/”like”/”as”
  • 此 (cǐ) – “this”/”these”/”in this case” (I am neglecting to provide etymology for this word and the preceding one because I’m not convinced that my usual sources are accurate, and these words are commonplace enough that they’ve changed a lot and no Chinese person knows the etymology either)
  • 的 (de) – (see above: third character in the preceding line)
  • 平 (píng) – “flat”/”level”/”peaceful”
  • 凡 (fán) – “ordinary”/”common”/”any”/”every”
  • 看 (kàn)- “look”, representing a “hand”/手/shǒu shading the “eye”/目/mù
  • 似 (sì) – “resemble”/”similar to”/”seem” (again, old unclear etymology)
  • 简 (jiǎn) – “simple”/”succinct”, composed of the radical “bamboo”/竹/zhú, to represent what was written on in ancient times, and the phonetic component “(space) between”/间/jiān
  • 单 (dān) – “single” (don’t worry about the etymology)
  • 雾 (wù) – “fog”, composed of the radical for “rain”/雨/yǔ and the phonetic component “matter”/”affair”/”business”/务/wù
  • 气 (qì) – “air”/”gas”
  • 驱 (qū) – “expel”/”drive away”/”spur a horse on”, composed of the radical for “horse”/马/mǎ and the phonetic component “area”/”region”/区/qū
  • 散 (sǎn) – “scatter”/”disperse”/”break up” (I…have no idea how to interpret this etymology, therefore: “it’s not important, of course!”

Anyway, hope y’all enjoyed this installment.

王光良 (Michael Wong) – “第一次” (First Time) Translation

Some editor’s and translator’s notes:

The song is sung by the guy. The colored parts are in the music video: blue is for the guy, red is for the girl, and italicized parts are voice-over’ed, as though the two people are looking back on the story and commenting on it in retrospect. Some of the things the girl says are clearly intended to be insults, but I have no clue how to actually parse them, so I have left them as is and you can feel free to inject a scoffing/frustrated tone.

The girl also says “拜拜!” a number of times, according to the subtitling in the music video, but in the translation I’ve written “bye bye” without an exclamation point; I think that the exclamation point is used differently in the Chinese (as in, it is always tacked on to the end of “拜拜”). (Pedantic note: I did mean “in the Chinese,” meaning in this example in Chinese, as opposed to “in Chinese,” which would imply that the meaning of punctuation is quite different between English and Chinese, and that is not really true.) Anyway, I’ve made changes to the punctuation in the translation as fits the tone of the exchange.

Finally, there is an idiom that appears twice in the song lyrics (”天长地久”) which I have translated as “eternity”; the idiom is made of the words for “sky/heaven,” “long,” “ground/Earth,” and “long time.” This dictionary provides the interpretation of “enduring as long as the world does,” which I think is quite accurate, but it doesn’t really fit into the context of the sentence terribly well in that form.

这是我第一次对她说
我喜欢你

我喜欢你

哈哈哈
我当做没听到啊
你赶快忘记吧
拜拜!

我就是能当她哥儿们吧
哇   剉塞

当你看着我
我没有开口   已被你猜透
爱是没把握
还是没有符合你的要求
我失   业了
要不要喝一点什么
是我自己想得太多
还是你也在闪躲
如果真的选择是我
我鼓起勇气去接受
不知不觉让实现开始闪烁

喔   第一次我   说爱你的时候
这是我的一次跟她牵手
呼吸难过   心不停的颤抖
喔   第一次我   牵起你的双手
失去方向   不知该往哪走
那是一起相爱的理由
那是一起厮守
喔   第一次吻   你深深的酒窝
想要清醒却冲昏了头
喔   第一次你   躺在我的胸口
二十四小时没有分开过
这是我第一次跟她接吻
那是第一次知道天长地久

干吗穿这样
喔喔…有剉塞
找工作啊

是我自己想得太多
还是你也在闪躲
穿這樣子心情比較好啊
如果真的选择是我
我鼓起勇气去接受
不知不觉让视线开始闪烁

喔   第一次我   说爱你的时候
呼吸难过   心不停的颤抖
喔   第一次我   牵起你的双手
这是我的一次和她拥抱
哼    嘜假
失去方向 不知该往哪走
那是一起相爱的理由   对我

天哪   怎么这么重
感觉你属于我
肉腳
感觉你的眼眸
第一次就决定 绝不会错

喔   第一次我   说爱你的时候
呼吸难过 心不停的颤抖
喔   第一次我   牵起你的双手
失去方向   不知该往哪走
那是一起相爱的理由
好不好吃
那是一起厮守
干吗
没什么
喔    第一次吻   你深深的酒窝
想要清醒却冲昏了头
你上次在这里跟我说什么
喔   第一次你    躺在我的胸口
我忘记了
二十四小时没有分开过
那是第一次知道天长地久

好甜喔!
拜拜!
真的是笨猪一条!
你上次在这里说什么
我喜欢你
我好喜欢你喔

喜欢谁
萧淑慎
谁喜欢萧淑慎
王光良
这是我的第一次

哼   也是我的   嘿嘿

This is my first time saying to her
I like you

I like you

Ha ha ha
I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that
You should quickly forget it
Bye bye

I can just be her friend/brother
Wah   剉塞

When you watched me
I didn’t open my mouth and already you guessed my everything
Love is without certainty
Or does it not meet your demands
I lost   my job
Do you want to drink a little something?
Is it that I think too much
Or are you also being evasive?
If [your] real choice/pick is me
I will summon the courage to receive it
Subconsciously letting the realization begin to flicker

Oh the first time I said I love you
This is my first time holding hands with her
Breathing was difficult and my heart wouldn’t stop pounding
Oh the first time I took your two hands
[I] lost [my sense of] direction and didn’t know which direction to go
That is the justification/reason for mutual love
That is staying together
Oh the first time [I] kissed your deep dimple(s)
[I] want to be clear-headed but instead [my] head becomes completely muddled
Oh the first time you laid on my chest
[We] didn’t part for twenty-four hours
This is my first time kissing her
That is the first time knowing eternity*

Why are you dressed like that?
Oh oh … again 剉塞
Looking for a job

Is it that I think too much
Or are you also being evasive?
Having this kind of attitude is better
If [your] real choice/pick is me
I will summon the courage to receive it
Subconsciously letting the realization begin to flicker

Oh the first time I said I love you
Breathing was difficult and my heart wouldn’t stop pounding
Oh the first time I took your two hands
This is my first time hugging her
Hnn  嘜假
[I] lost [my sense of] direction and didn’t know which direction to go
That is the justification/reason for mutual love to me

Heavens   so heavy
Feeling that you’re part of me
肉腳
Feeling the pupil of your eye(s)
The first time [I] just decided it absolutely wouldn’t be wrong

Oh the first time I said I love you
Breathing was difficult and my heart wouldn’t stop pounding
Oh the first time I took your two hands
[I] lost [my sense of] direction and didn’t know which direction to go
That is the justification/reason for mutual love
Is it tasty?
That is staying together
What?
Nothing
Oh the first time [I] kissed your deep dimple(s)
[I] want to be clear-headed but instead [my] head becomes completely muddled
Last time, what did you say to me here?
Oh the first time you laid on my chest
I’ve forgotten
[We] didn’t part for twenty-four hours
That is the first time knowing eternity*

So sweet!
Bye bye
[I] really am a stupid pig!
Last time what did you say to me here?
I like you
I really like you!

Like who?
Xiao ShuShen
Who likes Xiao ShuShen?
Wang GuangLiang
This is my first time

Hnn   mine too  hehe

“老鼠爱大米” (Mice Love Rice) Translation

我听见你的声音
有种特别的感觉
让我不断想
不敢再忘记你

我记的有一个人
永远留在我心中
那怕只能够这样的想你

如果真的有一天
爱情理想会实现
我会加倍努力好好对你永远不改变

不管路有多么远
一定会让它实现
我会轻轻在你耳边
对你说… 对你说…

我爱你
爱着你
就象老鼠爱大米
不管有多少风雨
我都会依然陪着你
我想你
想着你
不管有多么的苦
只要能让你开心, 我什么都愿意
这样爱你

I hear your sound
It has a special feeling
It lets me think nonstop
I wouldn’t ever dare to forget you

I remember that there is a person
[Who will] forever stay in (the middle of) my heart
Even if that’s the only way I can think of you enough

If there there really comes a day
The dream of love comes true
I will double my diligence to (properly) never change [my feelings] towards you

No matter how far/long the road is
[I] Will definitely let it come true
I will softly, by your ear,
Say to you… say to you…

I love you
Loving you
Just like mice love rice
No matter how much wind and rain there is
I will still accompany you just the same
I think of you
Thinking of you
No matter how much pain/bitterness there is
As long as you can be happy, I am willing to do anything
[I] love you this way

F.I.R. – “眷恋” (Attachment) Translation

把爱深埋在记忆中
说不出口一种难过
给祝福太多
不能覆盖我的痛
你要转身你要走
不在多作停留

分开是谁说没什么
最难的决定是放手
眼中的落寞
说的都是我的错
当你笑着挥挥手
你的沉默我懂

请别说爱我
推我想晴天
最温暖的天空
却换了季节
在绝望的面前
洒落一地心碎
就算是伤悲
我不想太狼狈

请别说爱我
别许下心愿
下一秒就出现
你给的纪念
风吹过的思念
曾有过的眷恋
哭红了双眼
再让我心痛一天

Bury love deeply in memory
There’s an inexpressable kind of discomfort
Giving too many blessings
Cannot cover up my pain
you want to turn away, you want to leave
Not staying much longer

Who says there’s nothing to separating?
The hardest decision is letting go
The hidden meaning in your eyes
Says that it’s all my fault
When you smile and wave
I understand your downfall/failure

Please don’t say you love me
Push me towards sunny days
The warmest times
Have, alas, changed seasons
In the face of my dreams/wishes
I scatter pieces of my heart, covering the ground
Even if it is my pain
I don’t want to be too much of a burden

Please don’t say you love me
Don’t make heartfelt wishes
In the next second, it will appear
The memories you gave
Longing that has been blown by the wind
The attachment that was
Having cried until my eyes became red
Let my heart hurt again for one more day

Kyo – “La Vérité Nous Ment” (The Truth Lies To Us) Translation

I was in a terrible state of mind on Thursday, and then I ran across this song, which was amazingly calming and soothing. Then it occurred to me that I didn’t really know what the song was about, so I decided to do a translation. Here goes!

Tu sais le monde a peut-être raison
De ne pas se poser trop de questions
De continuer à vivre
De continuer à croire
Que ce n’était pas à toi de dire la fin de l’histoire

{Refrain:}
Faut pas que tu t’accroches
A ta solitude
Je connais cet endroit, cette habitude
Faut pas que tu t’attendes à décrocher la lune,
La vérité nous ment,
Parfois elle se dénude

C’est vrai ça ressemble à l’amour qui s’en va
Mais derrière lui les traces ne s’effacent pas
Ce qu’il te laisse, tu finieras sûrement
Par l’accepter même, en faisant semblant

{Refrain}

Tu peux mentir ça me servira à rien
Les mensonges en série on n’en voit jamais la fin
Maintenant tu peux contempler le ciel
Et t’avouer que t’as connu plus fidèle

{Refrain}

You know the world has a possible reason
For not asking too many questions
For continuing to live
For continuing to believe
That it wasn’t for you to say the end of the story

{Refrain:}
It’s necessary that you hang on
To your solitude
I know this place, this habit/custom
It’s necessary that you wait to take the moon,
The truth lies to us,
Sometimes she (truth) bares herself

It’s true, it resembles love that leaves
But after her, the traces aren’t erased
That which it leaves for you, you will surely finish
By accepting it all the same, by pretending

{Refrain}

You can lie, that won’t serve me at all
The lies in series, one can never see their end
Now you can gaze at the sky
And confess to yourself that you’ve known, more faithfully

{Refrain}

BoA – “be with you.” Detailed Translation, Part 3

As before, I’ve copied the text of the stanza for this week, both kanji and romanization (ローマ字, rōmaji), from the original post.

09 いつか ねぇ、交わした約束をちゃんと
10 憶えていますか?
11 いつか きっと 叶えられる
12 そう信じてもいいよね…
13 あなたとだから 今
14 わたしはここにいる

09 itsuka   nee, kawashita yakusoku wo chanto
10 oboete imasu ka?
11 itsuka   kitto   kanaerareru
12 sou shinjite mo ii yo ne…
13 anata to dakara   ima
14 watashi wa koko ni iru

Line 9: itsuka basically means “someday,” nee is the particle that asks for agreement while suggesting that disagreement would be very unexpected; it also can be used as an interjection of “hey” or “come on,” as it is used here. kawashita is the direct, perfect tense conjugation of the verb kawasu, which means “exchange (messages, greetings, etc),” and as always, the direct-style allows it to modify the noun phrase that follows it, which is yakusoku, or “promise,” here (note that the count of nouns in Japanese is not specified). wo is the indirect object marker, and chanto means something along the lines of perfectly/exactly.

Line 10: oboete imasu is the te-form of oboeru, meaning “remember,” and the distal-style, imperfect aspect form of iru (see footnote #3 of the first post in this series). ka is, of course, the question particle. Over these two lines, then, we have “Someday, hey, will [you] remember, clearly, the promise(s) we exchanged?”

Line 11: We saw itsuka at the beginning of this verse, kitto means “surely,” and kanaerareru is the potential/passive (the two happen to look the same) form of kanaeru, which means “grant (a request, wish, etc).” (The “potential” form is “be able to,” and the “passive” form is, well, passive. For example, the potential form of the verb “protect” would mean “be able to protect,” and the passive form of the verb would mean “protected.”)

Line 12: sou refers to a previously mentioned concept or manner1. shinjite mo ii is a construction that takes the form of te-form + mo (a particle that roughly means “also”) + ii (”good”), and it asks for permission to do the verb, which is shinjiru (”believe”), here. yo is the sentence-final particle that indicates that an assertion or an introduction of new information into the conversation is being made, and ne is the sentence-final particle that asks for agreement; here ne serves to soften the bluntness of the yo. “Is it okay to feel that way, do you think, probably?”

Line 13: anata is a form of singular, second person address, most commonly used as a term of endearment. to is a connective particle, roughly translatable as “and,” dakara is a combination of the direct-style, imperfect form of the copula and kara, which means “because,” here2. ima (we have seen this kanji earlier) means “now.”

Line 14: watashi is the first-person, singular pronoun, wa is either the topic particle or a contrastive particle (emphasizing that it is the noun being referred to, and not some other possible noun). koko is a demonstrative that means “here,” ni is a location particle (see footnote #4 of the second post), and iru is “exist,” for animate nouns only. Thus we have “Because [it's] with you, now, I am here.”

All together, then!

Someday…hey, will you remember, clearly, the promise(s) we exchanged? Someday, I’m sure, [a/my/our] wish will be granted; is it okay to feel that way, do you think, probably? Because [it's] with you, now, I am here.

1 This is actually rather difficult to explain; if my explanation here made it clear for you, please let me know. My only recommendation, otherwise, is to try to find more uses of it and infer the meaning for yourself.

2 kara has a number of usages.

“From” [use after a location]
ボストンから来る。
bosuton kara kuru.
[I] come from Boston.
Ordering (”Then”) [use after the te-form of a verb]
食べてから、図書館に行く。
tabete kara, toshokan ni iku.
After eating, I (will) go to the library.
“Because”
食べたから、食べたくない。
tabeta kara, tabetakunai.
Because [I] ate, [I] don’t want to eat.

BoA – “be with you.” Detailed Translation, Part 2

And this week, we’re on to the second stanza! For quick reference, I’ve copied the second stanza, both kanji and romanization (ローマ字, rōmaji), from the original post.

05 一歩ずつ 重ねては
06 今日と云う日が 明日に変わる
07 ふたりでいる時間が
08 わたしには あたりまえなの

05 ippozutsu   kasanete wa
06 kyou to yuu hi ga   ashita ni kawaru
07 futari de iru jikan ga
08 watashi ni wa   atarimae na no

Line 5: ippo is composed of the kanji meaning “one” and “step,” respectively, and zutsu roughly translates to “each,” so we have here “each step,” more or less. kasanete is the te-form of the verb kasaneru, which means “pile up” or “repeat” — one of the meanings of the original Chinese characters is “repeat” (the other is “heavy”/”serious”) — so I might translate this line as “the repeating of each step” plus a topic marker1.

Line 6: kyou is composed of the kanji meaning “now”/”this” and “day”/”sun,” so kyou means, of course, “today.” The next word, to, is a particle that functions as a verbal quotation mark (with which って — tte — can be used interchangeably), so in conjunction with the following verb yuu, which means “say” (and can also be written using the characters 言う and/or pronounced iu), to yuu refers to kyou as what is being quoted/called. (Yes, I know that didn’t quite make sense. Bear with me and keep reading.) Because yuu is the direct (a.k.a. dictionary) form of the verb (which implies that it is direct-style2 and imperfect/unfinished3), it can modify the noun phrase that follows, which it does here. The noun phrase that follows kyou to yuu is hi, which is the same kanji as the second one in kyou and which I already stated means “day”/”sun.” Thus, the noun phrase kyou to yuu hi means “the day called ‘today.’”

Line 6 (continued): The ga that follows that noun phrase is a subject marker, which means that it is the subject that is carrying out the action of the verb that follows. Ashita, which is made from the kanji meaning “next” or “bright” — here it means “next” — and the kanji for “day”/”sun,” means “tomorrow.” Ni is a direction/destination particle here4, so, armed with the knowledge that the verb kawaru means “change” gives us the meaning of this line: “The day called ‘today’ changes into tomorrow.”

Line 7: Futari is normally written using the kanji “二人,” which mean “two” and “person,” respectively. Here, de is the te-form of the copula5, iru is the dictionary form of “to be” for animate objects (as opposed to aru, which is “to be” or “to have” for inanimate objects), and again, because it is the direct form, it modifies the noun phrase that follows, which, here, is jikan, meaning “time” as a period of time. This gets us “the time during which we were two people” or “the time during which we were a pair, together.” Finally, the line ends with the subject marker ga.

Line 8: Watashi is the first-person singular pronoun, ni is an indirect object particle here4, and wa is a contrastive particle that expresses that “to me” (the preceding phrase) might contrast with “to you,” for example. Atarimae is best translated as “natural” or “ordinary,” na is a pre-nominal form6 of the direct, imperfect form of the copula (da), and no is a nominalizer, i.e. a word that might be translated as “one” (e.g. “the black one,” “a pointy one,” “a heavy one,” etc). Thus, I might translate this line as “to me, at least, it was a natural one (period of time).”

So, to sum up this stanza:

Even as these footsteps repeat one by one, the day called “today” changes into tomorrow. The time when we were together was, to me, at least, a natural one.”

1 Topic markers! Topic markers are a wonderful thing, if you know how to use them correctly. Japanese is what linguists call a pro-drop language, which mostly means, to the general public, that there is not always an explicit subject in each and every sentence. It is perfectly acceptable to say “ate already” in the middle of an ongoing conversation, and it could mean “he ate already,” “I ate already,” etc. The reason for this is because each conversation has an accepted topic, which is generally marked by the topic particle, and the sentences/verbs in that conversation refer to that topic, which can range from “that new restaurant that opened down the street” to “my parents” to “the terrible-looking new hairdo the weird girl in our linguistics class has,” etc.

2 Japanese has two different styles called direct/blunt and indirect/distal. Basically, distal verbs used at the ends of sentences are more polite because they are indirect, or less confrontational. It is important to note that not all appearances of direct verbs means that the overall style of the sentence is direct; direct expressions can be used in a variety of ways, including modifying the noun phrase that directs follows it (as we have seen in this post), and only the style of the final clause of the sentence is used to determine the sentence’s overall style.

3 Similarly to other East Asian languages, Japanese does not have a complicated system of tenses for time in the same way that, for example, romance languages do. (Romance languages usually come with a past tense, an imperfect tense, a present tense, a future tense, and then some.) What Japanese has, instead, is a tense that indicates completion (the “perfect” tense/aspect) and a tense that indicates incompleteness (the “imperfect tense/aspect”). For example, if I have finished doing something, I would use the perfect tense, but if I am currently/planning to do it, I would use the imperfect aspect.

4 There are a number of different uses of ni. It can be used to mark a location, a destination/direction, an indirect object, a passive agent, or a purpose.

Location
大学にいる。
daigaku ni iru.
[I] am at college/university.
Destination/direction
図書館に行く。
toshokan ni iku.
[I] (will) go to the library.
Indirect object
教授にくれた。
kyouju ni kureta.
[I] gave [something] to the professor.
Passive agent
蚊にさされた。
ka ni sasareta.
[I] was bitten by a mosquito.
Purpose
よくなりに練習する。
yoku nari ni renshuu suru.
In order to become better, [I] practice.

5 Copulas are helping/passive/linking verbs that connect a subject to a predicate. “To be” is an English example of a copula. A good way to distinguish between an action verb and a copula is to try replacing the verb with the appropriate form of “seems”; for example, “jump” in the sentence “John jumps into a ditch” is an action verb, while “look” in the sentence “John looks enthusiastic about this project” is used as a copula. Common forms of the copula that are useful to know follow:

  • da – direct-style, imperfect aspect
  • desu – distal-style, imperfect aspect
  • datta – direct-style, perfect tense
  • deshita – distal-style, perfect tense
  • darou – direct-style, volitional mood (roughly translated as “it’s probably … “)
  • deshou – distal-style, volitional mood
  • dete-form
  • (see footnote #6 about pre-nominal forms)

6 There are two pre-nominal forms of the copula in Japanese: na and no. Which of the two forms is used is determined by the noun phrase that precedes it: a subset of nominals (a term I use to refer to a grammatical class of words that are conjugated in a particular way, as opposed to verbals and adjectivals) that usually correlate with words that English-speakers use as adjectives are known as na-nominals. These pre-nominal forms are used to connect two noun phrases, such as “I” and “book” in watashi no hon, which means “my book,” or “beautiful” and “flower” in kirei na hana, which means “[a/the] beautiful flower.” (More on the other usages of no to come….)

BoA – “be with you.” Detailed Translation, Part 1

So I kind of feel like me just doing translations is kind of boring, both for me and for you. Sure, I spend a good amount of time per translation, but it’s hard to let the reader into the process without dumping vast amounts of time into it. Thus, I have decided to focus on a smaller portion of a song and explain the translation process as thoroughly as I can for each installment of this “detailed translation.” Hopefully it will aid people somewhat more in their Japanese-learning process than plain ol’ translations do. Here begins part one.

First off, I found the lyrics for this song online, and then transcribed a romanized version using the Hepburn romanization system. I preserved the spacing, and capitalized the romanization where katakana is used in the lyrics. The spaces between “words”1 are my own, to increase readability, and I have romanized the topic particle (は), the subject particle (が), and the direct object particle (を) as wa, ga, and wo, respectively. I also added line numbers to make future references to various lines easier. Inline romanizations of Japanese words are italicized.

01 さくら舞う この道を
02 あなたと並び 歩いている
03 風はまだ肌寒い
04 けどなんかシ・ア・ワ・セ

05 一歩ずつ 重ねては
06 今日と云う日が 明日に変わる
07 ふたりでいる時間が
08 わたしには あたりまえなの

09 いつか ねぇ、交わした約束をちゃんと
10 憶えていますか?
11 いつか きっと 叶えられる
12 そう信じてもいいよね…
13 あなたとだから 今
14 わたしはここにいる

15 足を止め 立ち止まり
16 あなたは空を あおいでいる
17 風に包まれながら
18 穏やかな表情で…

19 一秒って ほんとうは
20 とっても長い 時間なんだと
21 そばにいてくれるから
22 そう感じられるの きっと

23 いつか ねぇ、交わした約束をちゃんと
24 憶えていますか?
25 いまは まだ 叶えられて
26 いない約束さえ
27 大切なの だから
28 あなたと共にいる

29 この時代 思いどおりの
30 希望なんて持てない
31 そのたびに 不安になるけど
32 あなたがいてくれるから…

33 いつか ねぇ、交わした約束をちゃんと
34 憶えていますか?
35 いつか きっと 果たせたとき
36 もっと深い絆
37 手に出来るの だから
38 ふたりはここにいる

01 sakura mau   kono michi wo
02 anata to narabi   aruite iru
03 kaze wa mada hadasamui
04 kedo nanka SHIAWASE

05 ippozutsu   kasanete wa
06 kyou to yuu hi ga   ashita ni kawaru
07 futari de iru jikan ga
08 watashi ni wa   atarimae na no

09 itsuka   nee, kawashita yakusoku wo chanto
10 oboete imasu ka?
11 itsuka   kitto   kanaerareru
12 sou shinjite mo ii yo ne…
13 anata to dakara   ima
14 watashi wa koko ni iru

15 ashi wo tome   tachidomari
16 anata wa sora wo   aoi de iru
17 kaze ni tsutsumare nagara
18 odayakana hyoujyou de…

19 ichibyou tte   hontou wa
20 tottemo nagai   jikan nan da to
21 soba ni ite kureru kara
22 sou kanjirareru no   kitto

23 itsuka   nee, kawashita yakusoku wo chanto
24 oboete imasu ka?
25 ima wa   mada   kanaerarete
26 inai yakusoku sae
27 taisetsu na no    dakara
28 anata to tomo ni iru

29 kono jidai   omoi doori no
30 kibou nante motte nai
31 sono tabi ni   fuan ni naru kedo
32 anata ga ite kureru kara…

33 itsuka   nee, kawashita yakusoku wo chanto
34 oboete imasu ka?
35 itsuka   kitto   hataseta toki
36 motto fukai kizuna
37 te ni dekiru no   dakara
38 futari wa koko ni iru

And with that, we’re on to the actual translation!

Line 1: sakura can mean a number of things, but here it likely refers to cherry blossoms. Mau is a verb that perhaps desires to be translated as “dance” or “flutter” in this context, so sakura mau is a sentence saying that the sakura blossoms are fluttering/dancing (in the air). Kono is a demonstrative that refers to “this $noun” (which is necessarily closer to the speaker than the addressee, as opposed to “that” that is closer to the addressed party than the speaker — sono — or “that over there” that is not particularly close to either party involved in the exchange — ano), and the $noun is not implied here; kono (as well as sono and ano) must be followed by $noun. The noun that follows kono here is michi,2 which refers to a path, a street, etc. Finally, wo is the direct object marker, so here it indicates that “this street/road/path” is the direct object of whatever verb follows.

Line 2: anata is a term of address for the second person, although most Japanese speakers and dictionaries will also add the information that it is most commonly used as an affectionate term of address between spouses, especially from the wife addressing the husband. to is perhaps best translated as “and”, and narabi is a noun that means “line” or “row.” aruite is the te-form3 of aruku (歩く), meaning “walk,” and combined with the imperfect (uncompleted) form of the verb iru, meaning “be,” aruite iru means that the subject of the verb is currently walking (or plans to be in a state of “walking” in the future3). Thus, kono michi wo anata to narabi aruite iru is best translated as “[I] walk in line with you on this path” (the “I” is implied).

Line 3: kaze means “wind,” wa is the particle that marks the topic of the sentence, mada means “still,” and hadasamui is an adjective that can be translated as “chilly” or “unpleasantly cold.” Basically, “the wind is still unpleasantly cold/chilly.”

Line 4: kedo is best translated as “but” or “however,” nanka is an expression that might be translated as “something like,” and shiawase means “happiness.” I should note that here, shiawase is written in katakana, which gives the word some special emphasis, since it would normally be written using a combination of kanji (漢字, literally “Chinese character”) and hiragana (平仮名, one of the Japanese syllabaries). Hence, interpreting this with the previous line, we get something like “the wind is cold, but somehow [we have] happiness.”

Thus, we have our translation of the first stanza:

The sakura blossoms flutter; I walk in line with you on this path. The wind is still cold, but somehow we have happiness.

1 Japanese, like Korean, is an agglutinative language, which means that most words are formed by joining morphemes together, and thus it is not always clear where words begin and end; by some metrics, most sentences are composed of only a few words, but these sentences can also be said to contain a multitude of morphemes that can be broken apart, analyzed separately, and combined in other ways to create other meanings. Thus, in some places I have broken the morphemes apart as much as I can in order to explain them separately in the future, while in other places I have left the words alone and will explain the entire word in a giant chunk because it’s not necessarily useful to understand the parts of the word out of context.

2 Michi (道) is not to be confused with machi (町/街). The kanji for michi refers to a path, a way (think “The Dao”, as in Daoism — or “The Tao”, as in Taoism, depending on your romanization system), while the first possible (and preferred) kanji for machi refers to a raised path between fields and the second possible kanji for machi refers to a street. In Japanese usage, however, while machi can also be used to refer to a street, it is more commonly used to indicate a town.

3 The te-form of a verb is sometimes called the gerund form, even though this is not entirely accurate. For now, let’s just say that one usage is to follow the te-form with another verb to indicate that the second verb follows the first (kind of — tabete kuru, the te-form of taberu (”eat”) combined with kuru (imperfect form of “come”), is roughly translated as “I will eat and come,” where the act of “eating” occurs before or during the act of “coming” but is definitely finished before one’s arrival at the intended destination). When the te-form is followed by iru, the imperfect form of “be”/”exist” (for animate objects only), it is intended that the subject is currently performing the first verb (e.g. tabete iru can be thought of as “currently in the act of eating”); it is also possible for the intended meaning to be that the subject is planning to be in the state of performing the first verb in the future — the imperfect tense is not always terribly specific, and context is often helpful in determining meaning.

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