A nearly sunken seeming deserted island
Not marked on any globe, without even a name
Yesterday the ship of our hopes drew close, but
It didn’t come to greet us.
Looking longingly at the sun, we got slightly burned
Holding up a prism to the sky, my hands wavered
Can you feel?
Can you feel that hybrid rainbow?
Even those of us who were left behind yesterday
Are waiting for tomorrow
Our mostly deflated zeppelin is
Skimming just barely over the ground
I wonder if the fabric containing those indescribable colors
Will be pecked to shreds by the birds?
Can you feel?
Can you feel that hybrid rainbow?
Not just yet
This can’t be the end
There must be more to go
Can you feel?
Can you feel that hybrid rainbow?
I want to believe that we’re still only partway through
I can feel
I can feel that hybrid rainbow
Even those of us who were left behind yesterday
Are holding onto tomorrow
Translator Notes:
I was talking with a friend about translations of songs and realized I’d never attempted it, so I got curious to try. This song is one of my favorite songs in Japanese from FLCL. I’ve been singing the transliteration and following along with the animelyrics.com translation since middle school (dating myself here), some aspects of which have always eluded me.
The song starts a little oddly in English with no subject where in Japanese the subject (I or we) is implied, but there’s no way specified in the song to connect the speaker to the setting. In English we might say something like “stranded on a deserted island”, but in Japanese it just starts describing the island without the need to specify a subject.
WrexSoul’s translation moves the first line into a more standard English grammar order, but I wanted to try to preserve more of the original word order from “hotondo shizunderu” to “nearly sunken”
This line confused me when I was younger: “Holding a prism up, I waved my hand but” The Japanese “futta”, past tense of “wave” isn’t quite as strong as the vigorous wave connoted in the English word “wave”, so I used to misinterpret that as the speaker holding up the prism with one hand and waving to catch the attention of passing ships with the other. I changed it to “waver” to give the impression that this is only a minute movement to make the colors reflect off the inside of the prism.
The original translation “Even we, who weren’t chosen up till yesterday” is more faithful, but I took some liberties to try to make it smoother: “Even those of us who were left behind yesterday”
I kept the zeppelin line because it sounds much better than blimp or airship and I couldn’t improve on it. 😊
The word “sugata” (form/shape) is kind of hard to translate. WS goes for “look”. I almost went with “appearance”, but sugata can mean “dress” (clothing) as well and I thought it made more sense for birds to pick apart something tangible like cloth instead of something intangible like colored light. Another translation by Terra on Pirozu.net suggests that the fabric being torn apart is that of the airship, but I’m not exactly sure since the Japanese doesn’t specify.
“Not just yet
This can’t be the end
There must be more to go”
The literal translation of the middle line (genkai nante konna mon ja nai) is “the limit couldn’t be like this”, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense in English because we tend not to use the word limit like that.
On the other hand, translating “genkai” literally as “limit” uses the word in a way that it can be used but that English speakers typically don’t use, so it’s kind of creative and different and breathes new life into typical rock song vocabulary. It makes you think about how language shapes how you think and offers readers a taste of the original language in their own tongue, which is exciting.
Literal translations can be useful for language learners too if the words can be matched up. I remember listening to this before I took any Japanese classes and trying to figure out which word was which (and struggling to pronounce/make sense of “erabarenakatta” lol, which is “not chosen”, so it’s to choose + passive + past tense grammar forms).
As much as I don’t mind the literal translation, it is a bit confusing and I wanted to try a more interpretive translation that reads more naturally in English.
“I want to believe that we’re still only partway through”
I’m kind of proud of that line because it can be sung to the original melody “koko wa tochuu nanda tte shijitai” The other lines vary from awkward to impossible to okay to good in terms of trying to sing them with the music. I’ve always thought English covers of Japanese songs sounded a bit awkward and now I know why. There are a lot of parts where you have to sing faster or slower to cover the same meaning in English because they take more or fewer syllables to describe than in Japanese.
It’s amazing that some cover artists can do it successfully. For example, the chorus of JubyPhonic’s cover of “Aishite Aishite Aishite” is very catchy and I see it used as an audio on Tiktok fairly often. “Love me I say” means and sounds pretty similar to “aishite”. I’m partial to Lollia’s cover of “Bad Apple!!”, I think her deep voice goes well with the dark lyrics and rock instrumentals.
Rainych Ran’s Japanese cover of Doja Cat’s “Say So” is also really good, though I don’t know how natural it would sound to native Japanese speakers. It keeps some words from English, especially in the rap sections, which works because Japanese rap songs often incorporate English lyrics for flavor. The way the Japanese “sakebe” and English “scream it babe” sound similar is genius!
Have you ever tried translating a song?
What are some of your favorite translated covers?
Do you have any tips for translating songs?
Let me know in the comments!
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