Thank you for translation. masa, your contribution is always extremely appreciated! :thumbsup

Your translations are always great, thank you so much masa : )

:) Seconded.

Maybe Melrose should start offering alternative translations. I'd be interested in comparing them. Heaven knows the art of translation is subject to the translator's skill and perspective.

This is a criticism that I see cropping up time and again, and I will always disagree with it.

I don't see how reusing phrases is a bad thing since she's placed them in a different context thus changing their meaning.

Throughout all these years, it's not that Ayu is running out of ideas to write about. It's that Ayu is revisiting ideas, exploring them again, and either saying something new about them or re-emphasizing them, reinforcing her beliefs, or reconfiguring them. There is such nuance in her writing, such small but vital changes, that it's easy to see it as mere recycling.

^Perhaps. You should send him a PM and make sure he's aware of you innovative idea.

I've stated many times what it takes to be good at translations. Rest assured, masa always invites constructive criticism to his work. I think Melrose could have been a little more polite, but people are who they are.

Would the idea of "necessarily, not casually" be covered by "for a reason" or "purposely"? Seems like there's an English word for this, but I can't think of it at the moment.

(But, then I'm a beginner at Japanese and am just considering the English side. :))

I don't post much anymore, but I felt it necessary to say this:

To those who deem it necessary to post comments with negative connotations please understand that it is a privilege to have lyrics translated, period. It is a favor done to those who cannot understand Japanese. So keep this in mind when masa posts these translations. And secondly, it is not an easy task; I know this as a longterm student in Japanese. Japanese is extremely difficult to translate into English while including all of the original nuances. No translator will translate something with such figurative language (this includes poems and songs alike) the same as another. That being said, I'd like to thank masa for his continuous contributions. I hope that in this thread we can continue to discuss the lyrics and how to improve translations in a positive manner. So please, keep on topic and be courteous.

The meaning of many of the phrases seems pretty much the same to me. :shrug If she is going to state the same things repeatedly, I just wish that she would at least come up with a new way of getting the point across, that's all.

Thank you so much for this!

Nice lyrics. I really got myself into a evolution/UNITE! feel when I read those lyrics. I loved them. Now I just keep waiting for the single to be released. :3

Thanks masa for the translation!!:luv2

powerful lyrics as ever!! thanks for the translation

Thanks so much :)

The grammer to japanese translated to english is most of the time out in english standards so when you translate ayus lyrics to english the grammers not going to be spot on 100% all of the time

AWESOME lyrics! GREAT job Ayu! thnx for the translation!!

Looking at the official lyrics, I found there had been several mistakes in my romaji translation. I corrected them, changed some parts in my English translation, and changed the line arrangement according to the official lyrics.
----------------------------------------------------
doko mo kumotte ru --> toko nokotte ru
donna ni kokutte mo --> donna ni kowakutte mo
jishin wa --> kachi wa
hitsuzen nanda ne tte --> hitsuzen nanda tte
okimari na --> okimari no
----------------------------------------------------
"This world isn't yet so bad, though cloudy everywhere"
--> "There remain some places not yet so bad in this world"
"However foggy, I have enough confidence in trying to trust someone"
--> "However much we may feel afraid, it's well worth trying to trust someone"

^ Thank you masa! Rule is like a complete opposite of A Song For xx... in the trusting people part. I'm just so overwhelmed at her change in these 10 years!

OMG!! I love it!! reminds me somewhat of "evolution" ....

Thank's you masa.

Love this song so much.

You're the best ayu-sama song translator