Big difference in lyric translations
 

I'm currently having a huge retrospective on WHATEVER, and looking around the net a bit, I noticed something rather odd.

So far I've been able to find 3 different translations to the song - and comparing them all, I personally think that it's a bit weird how some parts are left out, or not added in...

Anyways, check for youself if you like:

Watarus translation:
http://ayumi.primenova.com/lyrics/whatever.htm

Masas:
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27141

Uncredited from youtube (CDL 04-05 - and btw, one of the best lives imo :D):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-USP...eature=related

The overall meaning of the song kinda stays the same, but taking each sentence one by one adds a new dimension :P
Maybe I'm just thinking too much of this, but I can only imagine that this also applies for the other songs...

Whatever, weird post - It's just something I've been thinking about - alot :P

Actuallly, you are not alone. Whenever I search for lyrics, I always find different versions too and it's quite annoying tbh.

But I always take translations from AHS since I like those the best.

Yeah, I've noticed this too, some of them are more poetic, others are just badly translated. I've noticed that on Divine Ayu there's a lot of roomaji mistakes. Which isn't important but...yah...

I like masas lyrics the best! It seems deeper to me.

I think that on YouTube, nationaltraveler and nasGT are fantastic translators. Their lyrics are always more poetic than Masa's I think that Masa's lyrics are more literal translation, I could be wrong though. :)

It really is interesting how there are different translations for each song... Don't worry, I come across the same problem as well.

In my opinion, it'd be the simplest if we knew Japanese. :laugh It's difficult to translate a song because the meaning could be changed. And English really is a difficult and annoying language, so messages could become even more confusing. @_@

If I'm quoting a lyric, I use the most poetic sounding one. But I like looking at each translation and comparing them to eventually get the overall message.

I go to kiwi-musume for lyric translations when I'm too lazy to go on AHS :innocent

i love masa's translations. most of Divine Ayu lyrics are from masa. i actually prefer both. but i can understand the gist of the Japanese, so i don't rely too heavily on the translations anymore. some sentences are best understood in the Japanese language b/c it can't be translated well in to English terms... if some get what i mean. it's like Hmong, my native language. some things are spoken/written in ways that it's hard to put in English terms.

I want to be a translator/interpretator so I know that it's IMPOSSIBLE to literally translate a text, especially something as complex as lyrics or poem. The only way to fully understand it is to learn the language and spend a couple of years in this country. And still you will find things you don't understand. That's life's variety for you.

ME TOO!! but sometimes masa's translations are too lyricized, too much drama respect the easyness on japanese language.
Anyway he's great, really.

Personally I think masa's translations are the best. Especially since I've started learning Japanese myself and I've noticed that wataru doesn't always follow the Japanese grammar properly.
But yeah, translating J-EN is hard 'cause the structures are like totally opposite >.> Sometimes you have to pick between a very literal translation or a more fluent, but less literal one.

masa's tend to be more literal, giving more exact results.

I take these to be my favorite, because it's easier to understand.

After all, when they're more poetic, you kinda start getting into people's own interpretations and their views on grammar and english and stuff...and I just think it gets a lot more messy, even if the translations might sound more beautiful.

I think the people in the best positions are those who understands both japanese and english grammatical structure and metaphors/slang. Therefore, it's a little easier to make a more accurate translation, without being biased. Or you could be someone who understands a bit of japanese, but uses masa's translations as help. So you get the literal meaning, plus the little extra that can't really be expressed in English.


This happens all the time with translations. I encounter it a lot in books.

yeah.... i love MAsa~

well, i sometimes notice that as well, especially the beginning of is this LOVE? I read two translations that are just SO different!(is it a flimsy chair or a girl? xDD)

If you really want to know what a song means, you will always have to look up more than one translation, because sometimes they just are too difference or one doesnt make sense(like one t2m translation, including a line like:
"Just because this is the age full of information and temptations, we should make our decisions on our own"
Which doesnt make any sense, it should be something like
"Even if this is...."

Translations are always difficult to do - especially in a language as complicated as Japanese, where the choice of word helps to convey the feeling or the level at which you're being spoken to.

I think that literal translations are best and like masa's work. I can always go through the original Japanese with my dictionary some time and get the best translation for me, but I think masa's are the best at creating plain English lyrics (great for those of us who aren't fluent in the language!).

Translating from Japanese is exceedingly difficult I think - especially when it comes to lyrics. Often you will get translators that translate the lines literally, which can often make them sound awkward in English or you get translators that interpret the song - thats why translating is also known as interpreting - that way the feeling of the lines are kept in tact, but they flow better in English(or whatever language you are translating into). I tend to gravitate towards the later and not the former.

And then also of course you will get some translators that are just starting out and really don't have enough command of one or even both of the languages to make their translations any good.

Also, strange as it may seem, professional translators generally recommend that you don't translate from your native language into your second language. Typically translations turn out better if you translate your second language into your native one. After all, your native language is the one that you are going to have the better command of. For example, I know that if I tried to translate an english song into Japanese that it would come out sounding much more rubbish than if I were to do one from Japanese to English. That's why I often find translations by native Japanese speakers to English, to often be not as good.(and the same goes vice versa.) Often those translations come out too literal and awkward sounding.

A good-quality translation is a difficult thing to do. And as translations can never be completely literal, some interpretation always comes into play. This is especially true as we get further and further away in terms of relation of the languages in question. So, genetically unrelated languages like English and Japanese are going to vary a great deal, and this is to be expected.

I used to think that literal translations were best, but I no longer think this. Also, while more objective texts can be translated rather well (e.g. technical material, non-fiction, etc.), fiction, poetry, lyrics, and the like cannot be "translated" so much as "interpreted." Obviously, we could translate directly, but the nuances would be lost. So it's often the translator's job to choose expressions that interpret properly the sentiments, register (e.g. politeness, formality, etc.), and idioms in a way that makes sense in the target language.

Sometimes it's a matter of the translator mistranslating something or misinterpreting something. And sometimes it is just a matter of the line being interpretable in numerous ways. I've done a lot of quite literal translations, but the more I've come to understand Japanese, the more English-like I try to make my translations. Because from my point of view, the lyric or story should be enjoyable and accessible in the target language. That is why we translate, after all. If we wanted to preserve the original, it would better to learn the language and enjoy it in the original context.

My two bits. I think my thinking has changed since starting to study linguistics and second language instruction.

Exactly. Its not like Japanese fans read Ayu lyrics and go "these are so great and so literal" lol. :) No, in the native language they are much more poetic than they are literal (usually). So its the translators job to take that same sentiment and interpret it into another language.

AHS lyrics is the best.