Hellos and welcome dear readers!
This is Taka Pen here, feeling a bit nervous and excited that I was able to finally upload my first translyrics youtaite video! (Or translated-into-English-from-Japanese-and-singing-the-translated-version-video. Quite a mouthful, actually.) Please excuse the singing style as I am NOT good at singing pop!
And please do excuse the fact that I'm uploading this article about two weeks after I've uploaded the video! I'm not the fastest person ever, tbh. :)
So anyway!
About the Song
The first song I translated was the ending theme for the anime, Isekai Ojisan:
Anime: Isekai Ojisan (Uncle from Another World)
Song: Ichibanboshi Sonority(The First Star Sonority)
Artist: Yuka Iguchi
Lyrics: PA-NON
Composer: Sho Watanabe
Arrangement: Teppei Shimizu
I'd never heard about Isekai Ojisan until I saw the anime and at first was iffy but got hooked on it pretty quickly and pretty good, so I decided to translate the ending song. I usually like slower songs. lol
I'll be going over the original Japanese lyrics, roma-ji version of the original, then my English translated lyrics, and explanation (or excuses!) on how I translated. (Wow that's a lot of going back and forth!)
Reference
The original Japanese lyrics are all referenced from below Japanese website:
https://www.uta-net.com/song/322564/
Roma-ji version, I'm just winging it, so please bear with me if it's not the standard style you see at other places.
Explanation of the Translated Lyrics (or Excuses!)
長く伸びた影
じゃあねって見送った
Nagaku nobita kage
ja-ne tte mi-okutta
To the long stretching shadow
I wave, see you tomorrow
Literal translation from the original Japanese would be:
Saying "See you," I saw off the long stretching shadow.
I rephrased and switched it around to basically:
I wave "See you tomorrow" to the long stretching shadow.
I changed "I saw off" to "I wave (goodbye)" because I wanted something less stilted and less formal.
And I changed "See you" to "See you tomorrow" to fit the melody and to rhyme. I also figured the elf girl's "see you" is her hoping to see ojisan as frequently as possible, so I took the liberty to fill in the gap and made it "see you tomorrow" as in she wants to see him asap. :)
どうして気づかないの？
doushite kizukanaino?
Why are you always to clueless?
Literal translation here would be:
Why won't you notice (me)?
Which unfortunately doesn't fit in the melody unless I want to stretch out every single word double count which would just sound awful.
Since the phrase here is basically the elf girl showing her basically pouting at ojisan's cluelessness, so I rephrased it the way I did.
こんなに見つめているのに
konnani mitsumete irunoni
Here I am, just watching wishing you'd notice
Literal translation: I'm watching you so
Again, totally doesn't have enough syllables to fit the melody. Since she's "watching" so hard because she wants ojisan to take notice of her, I just basically spelled that out. "Hey, I'm here, notice me, hello" kind of thing, just in a lyrical fashion. :)
言えない想いが
ienai omoi ga
Words that I don't dare to say
Literal translation: Feelings that I can't put into words
To make it fit, I changed the "feelings" part to "words" since you have to use words in order to express your feelings anyway, that's exactly what she can't do. I also changed it to "not dare to" because I thought that was kind of cuter instead of just saying "can't."
行き場 探して
yukiba sagashite
Trying to find a place to stay
Literal translation: Looking for a place to go
You might be like "go"? but then why "stay"???
Hard to explain it, but to me, a place to go is also somewhere you can rest, or stay, so to rhyme with "say" I chose "stay."
滲む オレンジに
nijimu orenji ni
To the blurry tangerine
Literal translation: To the blurry orange
Here the "orange" refers to the color, not the fruit, obviously, expressin the color of the early evening sky, but the word didn't fit right in the melody in English, so I changed it to tangerine. After all, the common "orange" eaten in Japan is tangerine or the equivalent. :P
そっと登った
sotto nobotta
Softly slipped right in
Literal translation: Climbed in softly
Changed "climb" to "slip" so we have an alliteration here, and also I preferred the softer sounding word here than "climb".
奏でよう
kanadeyo
My melody
Literal translation: I will play
You can have nooooo idea how much time I spent on this simple short phrase...!!! ARGH!!!
I mean seriously, I needed four syllables with preferably open vowel sounds that would mean "I will play (as in play an instrument)" and still sound pretty.
Just couldn't find it.
So I ended up with "hear my melody" or "here's my melody" just shortening the first part. (Of course if I shorten that part, no one could have any idea what I'm trying to say but... really, there wasn't anything else I could do short of completely changing the whole stanza...)
小さな 小さな 星の祈り
chiisana chiisana hoshi no inori
This tiniest, this tiniest star prays earnestly
Literal translation: This small, this small star's prayer
So from the previous line, basiscally it's "I'll play this small star's prayer" with "the small star" being a metaphor for herself, the elf girl.
With my take, it becomes "(Hear) my melody. This tiny star prays earnestly" with the "melody" being the metaphor for the sound of the star's prayer.
まだ遠い その空
mada tooi sono sora
The out-of-reach and distant sky
Literal translation: The yet far sky
I took the "yet" to mean that it is not yet within reach, hence the "out-of-reach" part, not to mention I needed to create more syllables to fit into the melody!
いつか 照らしたい
itsuka terashitai
Someday to make it bright
Literal translation: I want to shine on someday
I don't know why, but I just don't like the phrase "I want to shine on you" too much. Kind of sounds weird. So I rephrased it, as well as to go with the phrasing from before.
So my take: "(Hear) my melody. This tiniest star prays to make the sky bright"
Literal translation: "I'll play the small star's prayer: I want to shine on the sky"
届けたい 届かない
todoketai todokanai
I try to give, but you won't take
Literal translation: I want to deliver/reach to you, I can't deliver/reach
This was a tough part as well. Japanese is kind of convenient in that you can change the verb endings to mean "I want to (-tai)" and "I can't (-nai)" whereas obviously, you can't do that in English.
So instead of a play on one verb, I just had to choose opposite verbs.
愛しさ そのぶんだけ
itoshisa sono bun dake
My love for you, and for my heart's sake
Literal translation: The endearment I feel for you, and for that amount of endearment I feel for you
Um yup, won't fit at all into the melody. Sometimes Japanese language can abbreviate a whole bunch of words and phrases to mean a bunch of things. It's convenient, but not when you're trying to translate into lyrics. lol
絶え間なく 瞬くよ
taemanaku matataku yo
Incessantly, I'll shine bright and true
Literal translation: Without any pause, I will twinkle
While I realize it's the metaphored star that's doing the twinkling, I just feel wrong saying "I'm gonna twinkle!" which if you kind of took out the "w" it can mean a whole different thing, so I changed it to "shine" which is the lesser of two evils.
ただ一人の君へ
tada hitori no kimi e
For the one and only you
Literal translation: For the only one that is you
I could've left it at literal translation, but I didn't like how it fit the melody too well, so I changed it around slightly.
ひとつ残った影
hitotsu nokotta kage
Just one shadow left behind
Literal translaton: One shadow left
Just gave it some embellishments to emphasize the elf gir's feeling of loneliness and to fit the melody.
こっそり溜息ついた
kossori tameiki tsuita
I let out one sigh resigned
Literal translation: I secretly sighed
To rhyme with "behind" and to fit in melodically, the "secretly" part kind of got left out. Oh, well.
なんだからしくないよね
nandaka rashiku nai yo ne
Can’t say that’s like me, all motions
Literal translation: Kind of not like me
Needed more syllables to fit into the melody, so I kind of brought over the next line into this one with "all motions."
行ったり来たりのセンチメント
ittari kitari no senchimento
Going to-and-fro with all the emotions
Literal translation: Feelings that go back and forth
They're using the word "sentiments" but the nuance is more like feelings/emotions, so I replaced it with emotions.
無数のヒカリ
musuu no hikari
Countless shining pins of light
Literal translation: Countless lights
Just embelished with extra words to fit in the melody. I wanted to put in something with the meaning "points of light" to show that there were numerous stars which later in this stanza form constelations. Unfortunately "points" didn't fit in well with the melody, so I used "pins" instead, which imho is kinda cuter sounding anyway. :)
見守るように
mimamoru you ni
As if guarding through the night
Literal translation: As if to watch over
Not enough syllables, I swear, so I kind of brought over the meaning in the next stanza to fill in. Also because I couldn't fit int all the words I needed to in the next two lines.
I mean really. It's either not enough or too many syllables. Never just right!
夜を灯して
yoru wo tomoshite
Shine brightly to form in sky
Literal translation: Light the night
All right, so this here not enough syllables to fill in, but I needed to bring in pretty much the whole next line over into this one, that's why it spilled over into the line before.
星座になった
seiza ni natta
Constellations high
Literal translation: Became constellations
We have five syllabes available to use in this melody in this line, yet the word "constellations" take up four of those five syllables!!! So I needed to put in "became" in the line before, and had to add "high" in this line for the one last syllable.
What's that supposed to mean, "high"? I have no idea. :)
たとえば
tatoeba
Let’s say for one
Literal translation: For example
Well.
Sure.
The syllables fit.
Sounds goddamn awful though!?
I mean really. It's not like this is an essay you're handing in for schoolwork!
Another way of saying "for example" in this case would be "if."
Sure.
We can stretch out "if" for the duration of the melody.
Iiiiiiiiiiif
Nice.
Yeah... so... "let's say for one (instance)" was the best I could do...
I did think of "say even if" but I needed open vowels for this part, so didn't work. Didn't want to be singing "iiiiif" at the end of the line either!
遥かな 遥かな闇の向こう
So far away, so far away out in the dark beyond
Literal translation: Far away, far away beyond the darkness
Just gave it some embellishments to fir the melody.
逸れて しまっても
hagurete shimattemo
Say even if we lose our ways
Literal translation: Even if I stray
Basically meaning "even if I lose sight of you." However, I phrased the way I did "we lose our ways" because "lose sight of you" didn't fit in, and I didn't want to use "stray" which could mean "I" wandered away on my own volition.
いつも照らしたい
itsumo terashitai
I’ll shine on you always
Literal translation: I want to shine on your all the time
Just rephased to fit the melody, even if that meant saying "I'll shine on you." This was pretty straight forward so not much room to rephase any other way.
変わらない 変われない
kawaranai kawarenai
Unchanging and unchangeable
Literal translation: Unchanging, unchangeable
Had to put in "and" to fit the melody.
気持ちと 出会えたから
kimochi to deaeta kara
This dear new heart I’ve met, it’s such a marvel
Literal translation: Feeling, that I was able to meet
I changed the "feeling" part to "hear" because you could plausibly interpret this part to mean "the feeling that I was able to meet" instead of "that I was able to meet this feeling."
I added in "it's such a marvel" to rhyme and also because I couldn't otherwise fit this melody line...!
今までと 違う自分
imamade to chigau jibun
A different me than ever before
Literal translation: A different me than before
Embelished to fit the melody.
生まれてゆく予感
umarete yuku yokan
Maybe now I can explore
Literal translation: A feeling that (a different me) will be born
In Japanese, it sounds kind of nice and poetic. In English, it kind of sounds like "huh? um, ooookay."
Basically "a feeling that a new me will be given birth" would mean something akin to "I think I there will be a new me," which of course is bland, so I just touched it up to "Maybe now I can explore a different me than before."
君へと 君へと
For dearest you, for dearest you
Literal translation: For you, for you
... I could do "foooh-or you" which would sound pretty bad, so I just added "dearest." I chose "dearest" also because it squeezes in a "t" sound which is of course far different from the "to" sound in Japanese, but y'know, kind of a near sound.
もっと光って みせるよ
motto hikatte miseru yo
Brighter I will shine, I swear to you
Literal translation: I'll show you that I'll shine more brightly
Just kind of flipped things around and rephrased so that it flows more melodically. Also, although literal translation is "I'll show you," that can be interpreted to mean "here look, I swear I'll..." so I rephrased it to "I swear to you."
奏でよう
小さな 小さな 星の祈り
まだ遠い その空
いつか 照らしたい
届けたい 届かない
愛しさ そのぶんだけ
絶え間なく 瞬くよ
kanadeyou
chiisana chiisana hoshi no inori
mada tooi sono sora
itsuka terashi tai
todoketai todokanai
itoshisa sono bun dake
taemanaku matataku yo
My melody
This tiniest, this tiniest star prays earnestly
The out of reach and distant sky
Someday to make it bright
I try to give, but you won’t take
My love for you, and for my heart’s sake
Incessantly I’ll shine bright and true
Pretty much the same thing repeated until the last line.
お願い ねえ 見付けてね きっと
onegai ne-e mitsukete ne kitto
Won’t you please, for once, look up and find me, won’t you
Literal translation: Please, hey, find me, for sure
... :)
Not enough syllables, and sounds way too awful as a lyric line.
So, just embelished some with added words and changed the last "for sure" to "won't you." I kind of wavered between repeating "won't you" and "promise." Ended up going with "won't you" because I don't like singing "promiiiiiiiiiise" which sounds awful to me.
So anyway, that's it! Although there are many sections which can be improved or interpreted differently, I'm more or less satisfied with what I've done! Thanks for taking the time to read all this! 'TIl the next time! :)
