hiroki 5521 Posted October 16, 2016 (edited) As requested. 人魚姫/Ningyohime FoLLoW Written by: MASASHI Lyrics by: MASASHI 夢を見てた 叶うことはない Yume wo miteta kanau koto wa nai I was having a dream, one that will never come true, あなたの腕 眠る横顔は私じゃないの Anata no ude nemuru yokogao wa watashi ja nai no Because the face reposing against your arm isn’t mine. 踊れない足も 聞かせたい話も Odorenai ashi mo kikasetai hanashi mo These legs that can no longer dance, the words that I want to tell you あなたに届かない 伝えられない Anata ni todokanai tsutaerarenai Will never reach you… 「さよなら」さえ言えなくて あなたは違う誰かと 「Sayonara」 sae ienakute anata wa chigau dareka to I can’t even say “goodbye” as you fall in love with someone else; 恋に落ちてく 幸せそうな顔なんて Koi ni ochiteku shiawase sou na kao nante I don’t want to catch sight of your delighted face. 見たくない だって私はあなたの嫌いなところ Mitakunai datte watashi wa anata no kirai na tokoro And that’s why although there isn’t a single thing I dislike about you, 一つも知らない 噂話で嫌いになりたかった Hitotsu mo shiranai uwasabanashi de kirai ni naritakatta I had wanted to hate you by believing in the rumors. 砂に書いた あなたの名前は Suna ni kaita anata no namae wa Your name that I wrote in the sand 海の波に吸い込まれていく 私も同じ Umi no nami ni suikomareteiku watashi mo onaji will be eroded by the waves. And mine, too, 泡となっていく 誰にも知られない Awa to natteiku dare ni mo shirarenai will dissolve into sea foam. They won’t be known by anyone anymore 孤独な世界へ 溶けていくの Kodoku na sekai e toketeiku no In a lonely world, where we no longer are. あなたが眠ってるとき 私をあなたの夢の中に居させて Anata ga nemutteru toki watashi wo anata no yume no naka ni isasete When you’re asleep, please allow me to be in your dream. それが私の夢だから Sore ga watashi no yume dakara Because that is my dream. 心のナイフが刺さり 元には戻れないこと Kokoro no naifu ga sasari moto ni wa modorenai koto A knife pierces my heart, and I know that things will 分かっていたの それだけあなたを愛してしまったの Wakatteita no sore dake anata wo aishiteshimatta no Never be the same again. Yet I had still loved you for all of that. 叫びたがる 胸の奥 Sakebitagaru mune no oku My strangled chest wants to scream—my voice sinking 落ちていくの海の底へ 光が遠ざかる Ochiteiku no umi no soko e hikari ga toozakaru Into the depths of the ocean; the light recedes. 「さよなら」さえ言えなくて あなたは違う誰かと 「Sayonara」 sae ienakute anata wa chigau dareka to I can’t even say “goodbye” as you fall in love with someone else; 恋に落ちてく 幸せそうな顔なんて Koi ni ochiteku shiawase sou na kao nante I don’t want to catch sight of your delighted face. 見たくない だって私はあなたの嫌いなところ Mitakunai datte watashi wa anata no kirai na tokoro But even though there isn’t a single thing I dislike about you, 一つも知らない 嫌いになれば楽なのに Hitotsu mo shiranai kirai ni nareba raku na no ni and while I knew that it would be easier to cope if I could simply hate you, 泡のように消えてくのでしょう そうよ私は Awa no you ni kieteku no deshou sou yo watashi wa all of this will dissolve into sea foam. That’s right, あなたの幸せ願う 愚かな人魚姫 Anata no shiawase negau oroka na ningyohime I’m just a foolish ningyohime who prays for your happiness. --- Notes: “Ningyohime” translates into “mermaid,” and the lyrics of this song are drawn from The Little Mermaid. Masashi makes several familiar references to the fairy tale: the “legs that can no longer dance” and the “knife piercing [her] heart” allude to the potion that the Little Mermaid consumed so that she could gain a pair of human legs and dance with the prince she fell in love with, but at the cost of unbearable pain akin to being stabbed with a knife. The "face reposing against your arms" refers to the princess whom the prince eventually marries. The two references to “dissolving into sea foam” are borrowed from the belief that mermaids don’t have a soul and, unlike humans whose souls live on beyond their physical death, mermaids dissolve into sea foam when they die and cease to exist. Further notes that aren't exactly essential, but read on if you want: Spoiler Some thoughts that went through my head that I'll jot down here for the sake of completeness. 1) Japanese does not systematically distinguish between past tense, present perfect, past perfect, and so on. when i translate a line as "i had wanted to hate you" it could easily have been rendered as "I wanted to hate you", and vice versa. unfortunately, since we are forced to settle for one tense or another in translation, there's no way of preserving the ambiguity of the original as to whether the persona still hates the addressee, or whether her desire to do so persists in the present, and seeing that these nuances weigh critically on your own overall interpretation of the lyrics, i thought it would at least bear mention. 2) "sakebitagaru" in the bridge is an unusual shift in grammatical voice since we ordinarily use "sakebitai" to express "I want to scream" instead of "sakebitagaru" (someone/something else wants to scream). the effect of estrangement produced by Masashi's use of this verb here is noteworthy: it might refer to the speaker's "mune" (chest) which is somehow screaming involuntarily and isn't a part of her anymore, or perhaps, there's some kind of splitting of persona going on as a result of emotional tensions that the speaker is trying to come to terms with, as in "this 'I' that I don't recognize to be me" which happens a lot in lyrics, etc. 3) Both instances of "dissolving into seafoam" are, as i've mentioned, references to the original tale, but not without a subtle reversal that takes place. in the first instance the two names are the things that turn into foam, and by logical association, the people to whom the names belong to. in the second instance, the object is deliberately unclear but it is possible to suggest that, this time, it's the mermaid's contrived hatred of the addressee that has dissolved. this would be consistent with the final line of the lyrics (and also Masashi's tendency to close with bittersweet cliffhangers). 4) Related to the above point the particle "datte" that precedes "私はあなたの嫌いなところ一つも知らない" ("there isn't a single thing I dislike about you") is one of those incredibly versatile (or, if you prefer, incredibly murky) quotative elements in Japanese that can mean virtually anything: "but," "therefore," "however," "even so." I've translated it differently both times given the disparate contexts, first as "that's why" and second as "even though," but just be aware that there are 20348674806 different ways of translating these lines. Edited October 16, 2016 by hiroki 4 chemicalpictures, BrenGun, Mihenno and 1 other reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BrenGun 2261 Posted October 16, 2016 Ah, so this song is inspired by the little mermaid huh?! still beautiful! thanks for the translation Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
echo 547 Posted October 16, 2016 ☆**(♡*´▽｀*♡)LOVE**☆ Thank yooouuuu <333333333333 (I'll stop the string of hearts here or it will never end LOL) Masashi is amazing. YOU are amazing <33333 I think you did a good job with the translation! ((*´ゝз･)ﾉﾞお疲れ様♪ I wish there were a way to maintain the ambiguities and vagueness of the Japanese without having to write notes/multiple possibilities/sound awkward T_T I guess everyone should just learn Japanese??? lolol I was wondering about that sabitagaru part when I was listening to it. I wouldn't have known how to translate that T_T 8 hours ago, hiroki said: 心のナイフが刺さり Kokoro no naifu ga sasari A knife pierces my heart For this part, is it weird that it's の instead of に? like that the knife is stabbing the heart versus belonging to the heart?? 1 hiroki reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chemicalpictures 1888 Posted October 16, 2016 Man, I love everything about this. From the incredible beautiful lyrics to all you insightful notes, thank you @hiroki, u're a GOD! that's gotta be one of the best lyrics translation I've seen around! What I love the most is that those lyrics can be easily related to any ordinary unfulfilled love story we have in our lifes, the "I don’t want to catch sight of your delighted face." felt like being shot down, lol Masashi is the king... really hopeing he doesn't quit music! thank you again! 2 hiroki and echo reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hiroki 5521 Posted October 16, 2016 (edited) @echo yeah i literally had to check against the recording to make sure the booklet didn't misprint the lyrics lolol. i agree that 心のナイフが刺さり is indeed an unusual phrase. if you press me i'll say that i think there are 2 reasons why masashi had phrased it like this: 1) 心のナイフ can be understood here as indicative of location ("the knife in/within my heart") as opposed to possession ("the knife of/belonging to my heart"), which emphasizes how the knife (figuratively) can never entirely be dislodged from the mermaid's heart; 2) masashi wants to avoid the use of an implied causal subject that surfaces if you say 心にナイフが刺さり, which seems to imply that there's some external agent actively doing the stabbing (even though 刺さる is intransitive), whereas masashi's phrasing lends itself more comfortably to the idea that the pain is self-inflicted and something that 'passively' happens as a result of her own action/choice? that's just my 2c though. @chemicalpictures thanks for your kind words!!! i'm really happy to hear that you liked the translation and my notes (which in all honesty are just there to satisfy my own OCD since i'm certain most people hate them lolol) anyway, masashi is a really amazing lyricist (in addition to being amazing at pretty much everything else) and i'm always a little terrified to translate his lyrics haha... then again i always feel that way for bands i like orz. i definitely hope he sticks around as well because he is pure <33333333333333333333 Edited October 16, 2016 by hiroki 2 echo and chemicalpictures reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
echo 547 Posted October 16, 2016 @hirokiAh that makes sense. I totally didn't think about の as being indicative of location. But yeah, if that's what he was going for then it's pretty much perfect. Or maybe even if it's not self inflicted, just that it exists there and that's where it is because of the situation rather than it actively happening?? Okay sorry I'm not sure if this is making sense anymore. I need to sleep. haha but regardless, I agree. Masashi is <3333333333333333333333333333333 1 hiroki reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
