Comments on The Single "Stand Down" Lyrics

As with the lyrics for ~kyo~, I have trouble making sense what some of the lines are trying to say.
I just translate them as I understand them. :-)

Stand down

混在と混沌に迷走
混在, in all of the examples I found in dictionaries this word is only used as a suru-verb.

飛び立つのさ　Underground
Fly away underground??

MIRROR

嘆く風の声　弾け飛ぶ　明日への誓いよ
Not sure how to interpret the word 弾け飛ぶ in the middle.

届け
This is the imperative of arrive/reach. e.g. "Reach your destination!"
I'm not sure how to translate it understandably (with one word). I've put it as "fulfill." I'll probably change it if/when I can think of something better.

Cloudy sky

脱ぎ捨てちまおうぜ - Let's cast it off
Not sure what is being cast off.

震えるこの魂
In "Kiri no mukou de" there is a line "奮える魂", pronounced the same but written with a different kanji...

明日を射て - shoot tomorrow
Not sure what this means either.

Voice Crew #575

I didn't even try to think of an English equivalent for the riddle. I just left the critical words in romaji.
Later I realized that maybe the word "fun" could be mixed with the English word.

カンはカンでもフンがたくさんつまってるカンって何だ？
A kan is a kan, but what is a kan that is packed with lots of fun?

"Kan" could also mean 缶 (can) and "fun" could also mean 糞 (shit), so the riddle could also be interpreted as "What is a can that is full of shit?" :-)

Anyway, the answer is 時間 (ji-kan) which has 60 minutes 分 (fun).

Voice Crew #574

0:33

音楽とかもこじゃれてる

I'm not sure what connotations the word こじゃれる has in Japanese (it's not in many dictionaries). I decided to translate it with the old-fashioned word "groovy."

0:49

I've have translated the word コーナー as "section", don't know if there's a better word for it.

4:21

自分を切ってなんぼ

I thought about how to translate this for a very long time.

There doesn't seem to be an English idiom with the word "cut" in it that would fit here, so that what Morikubo says next makes sense without a note.

Comments on Morikubo Showtaro ～kyo～ Lyrics (+α)

Many of the lyrics that I added recently from the ~kyo~ album were pretty difficult to translate, or at least to make sense of, so I'll write some comments.

dizzy candy

誰か！目覚めるアイツをキメておくれよ

I have no idea what this means.

"Somebody! Awakening him/her/that guy, please (?)"

決める most often means "to decide" but here it's written in katakana, which means that it uses a slang meaning, I guess?

決める also has the meanings "to score a goal" and "to wear tasteful clothes", but neither makes sense to me.

アイツ also appears later in the lyrics too, where I just translated it as her, which might not be correct.

DoPaMiNe

果てる間も無いくらい激しくイカせてくれ

"Make me come so hard that I don't even have time to finish"

Writing these comments, I changed the translation of this line to how I literally understand it, and it makes no sense.

果てる can mean the same as イく, " to have an orgasm."

Never surrender

落ち出してく

落ちてく "go falling"

落ち出す "start falling"

落ち出してく "start to go falling" What?

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

ひび割れた隙間から滲んだ不完全なモニュメント

How can a monument ooze from a crack remains a mystery to me. Maybe because it's incomplete? :P

Ride Free

排気の悪いBODY蹴っ飛ばして

Since the lyrics refer to riding a motorcycle, "badly ventilated" is probably wrong, but I don't know anything about motorcycles, so...

攻め続けていくワインディングロード

"I keep attacking the winding road"

Not sure about this translation.

捉えたこの大地に

"this ground that I've grasped"

Likewise.

never ends...

星降る

"stars are countless"

Literally this means "stars rain", but if that happened life would end very soon.

"星降る夜 - a night sky full of stars; a star‐spangled night"

From 研究社　新英和･和英中辞典

Build Up!!!【鍛】

Luna sent me the lyrics for this song. They were probably copied by someone who doesn't understand Japanese as they contained errors:

僧帽筋(trapezius muscle) was written as 僧帽菌(trapezius bacteria? Such a word doesn't exist)

"肘は高い位置でKeep" was "宙は高い位置でKeep" which makes no sense.

"栄養学も見逃せねぇぜ" was "栄養学も見返せねぇぜ" which means "Musn't look back at dietetics!"

反動をつけるのはNo good

"It's no good to apply recoil"

I'm not sure if this makes any sense. I did found other usage examples of "反動をつける" with Google, but I still don't understand what it exactly means.

By the way, the +α in the title is a wasei eigo (Japanese-made English): プラスアルファ. It means: "and a little extra." The extra was Build Up, since it's not in ~kyo~. :P

Voice Crew Videos #588 & #698

This video is once again about the blood type nonsense.

For about 20 years I lived happily unaware that my blood type was supposed to affect my personality, before I heard about it on some Japanese TV show. :)

They don't seem to realize it, but here Fujita Saki debunks the whole thing by saying:

"They are all Cancerian A types, but they all have different personalities."

Anyway, when I was translating these videos I noticed that maybe I should have translated the introductions as "We are the 20th personalities..."

Oh well...

Morikubo forgets to say "personality" and instead just says "20th Morikubo" at the end.

---

Nothing much to say about this video; it was quite easy to translate.

森久保祥太郎 - 牙月

I'm not sure if "flower of life" should be "flowers of life"?

闇を往くよ

I haven't seen the kanji 往 used for yuku that much, but apparently it doesn't differ from 行 that much.

羅刹 is rakshasa, an evil spirit who devours human flesh, but I decided to just use the word demon.

呼吸止まる刻（とき）まで literally means "Until the moment my breathing stops", but I don't think that sounds very good in English.

後ろの正面は誰

At first I didn't understand what this meant, but apparently it's from a children's game Kagome, Kagome.

About The Copying of My Translations

It seemed to me as hypocrisy to put a notice on my site which said, "copying of the translations without permission is not allowed", so I didn't.

As I myself upload the original lyrics of the artists without permission.

The only notice I have on my site is "For educational purposes only", i.e. you can educate yourself on what the lyrics etc. (might) mean.

I know that the only way to protect your work from not being copied without permission is simply not to post it on the Internet at all.

I don't have anything against people using my translations, even without asking permission; posting them on their blog, translating them to other languages or making karaoke videos, as long as they give credit to me.

Although I'd rather have people not use my translations at all, since they're not that good and I try to improve them every now and then. :)

If you use my translations, put a notice where you got them from – a link to my site.

This should be Internet common sense.

The biggest copying of my translations that I've noticed is the posting of my Onmyo-za lyrics translations to LyricWiki without permission.

I thought for a moment about removing the whole section from my site, but decided not to.

For now, I've added a notice to the Onmyo-za page on my site.

Voice Crew #585 and #598

In the first video I had some trouble figuring out what Morikubo says in the beginning.

It seems to be "人生を是正してます", but I'm not 100% sure.

I don't think I've ever heard the word 是正(ぜせい) before, but it isn't that rare a word.

In the video they use the word 店(みせ) which I've just translated as "shop", but I guess they mean specialized ice cream shops.

There were also quite a few onomatopoetic words and here's how I decided to translate them:

さらさら - dry

しっとり - moist

ふわーん - lightly

ほわー - whoaa (don't know if this is exactly what she means, but the words are somewhat similar)

At the end, at about 4:55, Morikubo doesn't say it very clearly, but I think he says:

"今年の夏は皆さん、Dippin' dotsで"

---

Here at the beginning they use the Japanese greeting お疲れ様, which doesn't have an exact English equivalent. I used "Good work today".

Other than that, there isn't much to say about this translation.

Making it was pretty straightforward.

陰陽座 - 帝図魔魁譚 Comments

Judging by its title, this song might be a reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teito_Monogatari. But I can't say for sure since I'm not familiar with that.

Some comments:

現存する雜魚の群に　畏る者は皆無

現存 literally means "to exist currently."
EDIT: First I put this as "living", but I've changed it to "extant."

祝いと呪いの　苧環紡げば

The sentence seems to be left incomplete: "if you/when you/once you've spun... (then what)".

彼の魁岸は星の蔭に　巡り続けるだろう

この開成も月の影を　照らし続けるだろう

I don't have a clue what these two lines are actually trying to say.

In the end I decided to leave the two uncommon words untranslated.
EDIT: I've changed them to English words.

魁岸(かいがん) means "to have a big and strong build". It's apparently a na-adjective, but is used here as if it were a noun. Kōjien has no usage examples for this word.
開成（かいせい） means "to develop human knowledge and to complete one's undertaking".

星の蔭 and 月の影 literally mean "the shade of the stars" and "the shadow of the moon".

懇願する烏合の衆　取るに足らぬ拝舞

拝舞(はいむ) is a sort of "gratitude dance" performed at a conferment/appointment. First you turn the upper part of your body left, then right and again left and bow.

能書きだの蘊蓄だの　蛆でも喰わない

蘊蓄(うんちく) has the original meaning of "vast stock of knowledge", but currently in everyday conversations it is used with the meaning "trivia".

Why Was Hideki Called Chack?

I came across this very precious video where Ryuichi talks to Hideki on his radio show "Midnight Rock City", and I decided to make a transcription and a translation.

R = Ryuichi

I = Imamura :)

R: えっと、今日はですね、スペシャル企画と申しましょうか？

インディーズナイトとして送りする２時間なんですけども。

まあ、一人目のゲストと言いますかね、SIAM SHADEのイマスくんに来ていただきました。

こんばんは。

R: Let's see, tonight we have a special program, or how should I put it?
It's a two hour program we've dubbed "Indies Night".

Well, here's our first guest, SIAM SHADE's Imas.

Good evening.

I: よろしく、こんにちは。

I: Thank you, good day.

R: えーっと、今日はですね、あの、なぜイマスくんと言うのか？デモテープにはCHACKって書いてあるんですけど。

何でイマスって言うあだ名というか愛称みたいなのついたんでしょう？

R: Let's see... Tonight— Um, why are you called Imas, when on the demo tape it says Chack?

Where did you get this nickname Imas from?

I: スキッド・ロウのヴォーカルにセバスチャン・バックつー人がいまして・・・

その人を意識してんじゃないか？とか皆に言われて、で無理矢理つけられたあだ名がイマスチャン・チャックだったんで、そっから

I: There is this person called Sebastian Bach who is the vocalist of Skid Row.

So, everyone was saying to me: "You trying to imitate him?" and forced on me this nickname: "Imastian Chack", that's how...

R: 今もイマスと呼ばれてると？

お客さんにもイマスと呼ばれてるんですよね？

R: And you're still called Imas?

And your fans also call you Imas, right?

I: そうですね、はい。

I: Yes, that's true.

R: で、多分今こうやってイマスくんと話してても知らない人が多いと思うんですよ、ラジオ聴いてる方。

まだ結成して半年というバンドなんでね。

で、簡単なプロフィールというか・・・

どんなバンドで？何人組みで？どんな人がいるのか？って簡単に言ってもらえますか？

R: Well, as I'm talking to you right now, I'm sure that there are many listeners who don't know who you are.

After all, your band was only formed half a year ago.

So, as a simple profile...

What kind of band is it? How many members? What kind of people are they? Could you tell us briefly?

I: えっとですね、五人編成で・・・えーっと一応ツインヴォーカルが売り物って言うバンドなんですけど、はい。

I: Let's see. It's a five piece band... Um, it's a band whose specialty is the twin vocals.

R: で、ギターも二人ですよね。

R: And, there are two guitarists too, right?

I: ギターも二人です。

I: There are.

R: で、かたっぽのギターの人が歌を歌うっていう？

R: And, the other guitarist also sings?

I: そうです。

I: Yes.

R: その人がソロもとるんですか？

R: Does he also play solos?

I: あ、とる部分もあります、はい。

I: Oh, sometimes he does, yes.

R: じゃ、ツインギターの比重としては両方の人がソロをとったり、バッキングを弾いたりと？

R: Then, the weight of the twin guitars goes so, that both of them play solos and rhythm?

I: はい。

I: Yes.

R: んー・・・そうか、イマスくんは何か楽器を弾かないんですか？

R: Hmm... Is that so? Do you play any instruments?

I: 一応エレクトーンだけなんですが、はい。

I: Only the electronic organ.

R: ま、今日来ていただいたのは他でもない、僕らの故郷であるプレイハウスのハヤマさんの今イチオシのバンドということで来ていただいたんですけど。

ま、今日ですね、きっと、本当に知らない人がまだ多いと思うんで、一曲とりあえず聴いてもらうかなと思ってるんですけど。

R: Well, the reason why you are here today is that your band is the band which Mr. Hayama from Play House, which is our home ground, is currently pushing the most.

Well, I think that there are many of those who don't know you, so I was thinking of having them listen to one of your songs.

I: お願いします。

I: Thank you.

R: じゃ、一曲聴いてもらいましょう、SIAM SHADEで「END OF LOVE」。

R: All right, listen to this song, "End Of Love" by SIAM SHADE.

Fan-made Mistranslations

Here are some mistranslations from fan translated Japanese anime and TV shows that I collected some years ago. Since I watch subtitled videos very rarely nowadays, I don't really come across new ones.

Anime

Elfen Lied

この国で未成年を撃ち殺すなんて指令が出るとはなあ

I think that there are too few chicks around here.

おい、いい世の中になったなあ

Hey, you have a good woman don't you?

口を慎め！貴様、任務を何だと・・・

Shut up, don't even mention her!

俺たちは毎日、何の訓練をしてるんだ？　人殺し・・・だろう？

We never know where we'll end up tomorrow, don't you think?

In the above discussion the translator hasn't even done a "guesslation", but has just made stuff up. What is that called, "imagilation"?

これから摘出手術が行いますので

From time to time, you'll be taking these.

(This was said by a doctor after he had given the other character tranquilizers.)

やっぱり５０口径の反動には耐えられなかったか

Guess I really do need tranquilizers from time to time.

拭えぬ血と涙によって少女は獣に変貌する

To question life's infinite struggle.

銀牙伝説ウィード (Ginga Densetsu WEED)

捕れるの？

When are you gonna show us?!

ここにはかつて、人食い熊の一団が人間を一切寄せ付けぬ王国を築いた時代があった

Here long ago, a huge battle was fought against a huge demon bear.

アジトは「牙城」と呼ばれた

He'd created a stronghold called Gajou.

牙城 translates to stronghold. There really isn't a reason to call it "Gajou" also.

だが、アカカブトに果敢に立ち向かう者達がいた

Akakabuto was going to fight to death.

一人のまたぎと…

One dog let the attack.

このことを旅先の総大将に知らせてください

It's an order from the leader.

母さんに持って帰るんだ

M..Mother.. I don't think I can get back..!

何だ、楽勝じゃねーか

It won't be easy then.

サスケ、考えがある

Sasuke, let's think it through.

馬鹿野郎！相手は土佐犬だぞ！俺がかなう相手じゃねー！

You fool! He's not a friend, he's just a Dog! I'm not his friend!

知るか！止めたのに聞かねーから

You should just stop it..

なんて情けねえんだ…

What sympathy he has..

そんなに変わりたきゃ、仏さんに変えてやるぜ！

You can't change yourself just from talking big.

桜、聞いてくれ！

Sakura, please don't!

さっきから総大将とか銀とか言ってるけど、ひょっとして、あの伝説の奥羽の総大将、銀さんの事か？

The story of Gin, the Boss Dog of Ohu... It isn't just a legend!? He's real?

この時、ヴィード、生後6ヶ月であった。

This time, it's Weed's story.

大将の器 (Episode title)

The tool of the leader

俺は高所恐怖症なんだ！

I shout at them but it does nothing..

TV Shows

Music Fighter

わたしは、いきたくありません　ケーキがきらいだからです

I didn't want to live, since I don't like cake.

The translator has mixed up the words "to live" and "to go".

Utaban

この笑顔は…

This laughter...

Although 笑う can mean either "to laugh" or "to smile". 笑顔 simply means "a smile".

来ましたね…奴が

They've arrived... this pair

ちょっと軽く傷付きました

You noticed it pretty easily.

The translator has misheard the word 傷付く (kizu-tsuku) as 気付く (kidzuku).
This is from my own translation. :)

バク天！(Bakuten!)

This was a TV show where Razor Ramon HG (a "hard gay" character of a comedian) appeared.

来る者拒まぬこの体

They can't say no to my body

The translator was probably unfamiliar with the expression "来る者は拒まず".

マジ超ウケる

I'll totally take that!

The translator wasn't familiar with slang. It means "That's super funny!" (or what would be the current English slang equivalent of that :-)

HEY! HEY! HEY!

それこそ早う脱いだらええやん

That's exactly what they shouldn't do.

I can't remember what the context was for this one.

ド下ネタやないか

Is this some kind of dirty joke?

The translation is rather weak. "That's the dirtiest joke I've heard in a while" might be closer to the original.

めちゃイケ (Mecha Ike)

あったやろ？筆箱の中に《物差しが》

It is right though...

さのさん、かまないように

Sano-san, please don't bite...

The English word bite doesn't have the meaning "to fumble or falter with one's words" that the Japanese word has.

カミ確率78％

Probability 78%

Here the translator has ignored the word altogether.

今に見とけよ、お前たち！

What are you looking at?

受験発表並みなんだけど・・・

These are "exam result" tears...

The translator has misheard the word "nami" as "namida".

ハロー！モーニング (Hello! Morning)

すずめの国から　巣立ち

From the land of sparrows, building a nest

笑っていいとも！ (Waratte Iitomo!)

お腹かなり出ちゃってんのよ

If you don't hold your breasts, they will come out!

続くでしょ。20何人いるのか、今？

So how many of you are now in Tsunku Family?

Quiz Hexagon II

大どんでん返し！

Dai Don Den Gai!

Probably some sort of inside joke by the translator. :)

ぼちぼち辞め時ちゃうか！

Will you get your act together!?

やだ！ここが引退？やだ！

No! I'm just gonna retire here!

The meaning of the lines is reversed.

 Uchikuru

 僕らが天然素材で勢いある時に、歌を、CDを出そうと。

Since we look like airheads, we thought we'll be able to sell. 

The translator probably did not know the group Yoshimotojirushi Tennensozai.

カバーしたの。

However...

僕らが歌ったのをまた自分でカバーした。
I found we sounded like frogs after hearing ourselves sing.
本当はこういう風に歌うんだよっていうこと？
You guys really sang that way you know?

FUJIWARA的には凡人！？
Fujiwara = Typical average joe!?

まあまあスベるし。
He's able to do whatever he likes.

セクシー！
Well, it's not really...

フルテンションでやったけど・・・
Mine is already not in use.

Gaki no tsukai

都内某グランド
Glove, bat, and ground.

About This Blog

I decided to start a blog where I can comment on my translations at my site and maybe write about other things.

People who are interested in translation or are learning Japanese might find it interesting.

A little about me:

I started learning Japanese sometime in 2000/2001 since I was interested in anime and video games.

I started by learning the hiragana and katakana and trying to figure out what was written in some Japanese video games. Some of those notes might still exist (on paper, at my parents home).

I haven't took any classes, I learned Japanese by myself with the help of the Internet.

Sometime around 2004, I think, I started uploading translations to my site.

Since I translate from a language that is not my native tongue into another such language, it is sometimes frustrating.

Sometimes the feeling of doubt arises that maybe everything I know about Japanese and English is somehow mistaken, that I've learned everything all wrong. :-)

About the blog title:

Reading a book about music (Finnish translation of Welt Der Tonkunst by Hans Schnoor), I encountered the word "aivokummitus" which is Finnish and literally means "brain ghost".

I'd never seen that word before and thought that now there's a funny word.

Since the book is translated from German, maybe it's a direct translation? (Google returns only 48 results for "aivokummitus")

As I was deciding what I should name this blog, I thought that maybe it should be a four kanji word like my main site.

So I thought what would "brain ghost" be in Japanese. 脳内幽霊. (脳内 means literally intracerebral, within the brain)

From there I just changed the kanji 幽 into the antonym of its homophone, that is, from 有 to 無.

The most important thing of course was that Google didn't give any results for "脳内無霊". :-)

I can only guess what connotations it gives to a native Japanese speaker.

脳内無霊 translates to 脳 brain, 内 inside, 無 no, 霊 spirit/soul.

Well then.

Thank you very much in advance (for your kind cooperation). ;-)