21 November 2016

lyrics translation. 'Lover' by Eiko Shimamiya

upd. 17.12.17
some changes in the translation - huge mistakes corrected and minor improvements done
Japanese
どんなに遠く離れても
あなたの事は忘れない
捨て切れないでいた夢を
あなたは叶えてくれたから

言わずもがなのその背中に
言いたい言葉は溢れてる
でも唇から零れたとたん泣き声に変りそうなの
固く結んだリボンを解くみたいに
手と手が離れてゆく 最後に

Lover 抱きしめて 爪跡が
魂に残るほど 狂おしいほど
Lover またいつか生まれ変わる
その時は必ずあなたのもとへ

重い旅行かばんの中に
あなたのシャツ内緒で入れた
私がその胸で泣いて
涙が染み付いたシャツを

あなたは黙って立ち止まり
「ここから先は君ひとりで」
出発ゲートにひとりまた一人と吸い込まれるたびに
この迷子の背中を押すあなたが
憎くて恋しい どうして

Lover この恋と道連れに
ゴルゴダの丘を登れたらいいのに
Lover またいつか生まれ変わる
その時は必ずあなたのもとへ

Lover 抱きしめて 爪跡が
魂に残るほど 狂おしいほど


Translation
No matter how far away we are
I won’t forget you
The dream that I couldn’t give up –
You’ve made it come true for me

I look at your back and even though I know I shouldn’t
There is so much I want to say to you,
But when words start to spill out, my voice is about to break
Like untying a ribbon that was bound tight
We disconnect our hands, and for the last time

My love, please hold me so tight
That your fingernails will leave marks in my soul, that it will be maddening
My love, sometime in the future when I am reborn
I will go there where you are

In my heavy travelling bag
I put your shirt, secretly
The shirt that is dyed with my tears
Because I cried on your chest

You become silent and come to a halt
You say ‘from here you will go on alone’
One by one those who were lost are swallowed by the departure gate
You gently push them in the back
I hate you for that, and still I love you, why is that?

My love, with my love to you
I am prepared to ascend Golgotha
My love, sometime in the future when I am reborn
I will go there where you are

My love, please hold me so tight
That your fingernails will leave marks in my soul, that it will be maddening
_____
Probably the song I like best among the whole Shimamiya's discography. I tried to convey and preserve as much meaning as I could, which at times meant that I had to make long sentences. And, it just felt strange to leave 'lover' as it is.

20 November 2016

translation. Moon Troupe 'Edward VIII'

 
After two months of translation (not counting two weeks of my business trips and holidays), I finally finished my second project of Takarazuka performances translation. Unexpectedly 'Edward' turned out to be more difficult to translate than 'Alice's lover'. Somewhere in the middle I knew that there exists an already translated version, but I didn't care. It was kinda important for me to do it myself. Still, there are a couple of phrases I couldn't understand very well. I apologise for not being able to translate them 100% correctly, but overall this translation must be rather good. I've done as much research as I could. Occasional mistakes and misspells possible.
So, please, have a look.
script
upd. 29.03.17
Было бы странно, если бы я сделала перевод только на английский и не сделала на свой родной язык, да? Подумала я и стала делать перевод на русский. Как и ожидалось, он шел туго, так как мюзикл про Англию с отсылками к ее истории и заимствованиями из английского языка явно будет переводиться лучше на английский. Как не ожидалось, я в процессе нашла еще и ошибки в скрипте. А потом еще месяц протупила и так и не выложила ссылки. Теперь этой глупейшей неопределенности будет поменьше. Так что вот.

18 November 2016

Как понять, что пришла зима? Перестало получаться смотреть на свое отражение в окнах по вечерам - внутри горит свет и отражения не видно.

11 November 2016

Если ты переживаешь, что жил в хостеле за целых 5 тысяч рублей в сутки, хотя хотел бы за три, достаточно посмотреть, сколько стоят отели обычных туристов. Вот бронирование на неделю за 96000 р. Вот отель с шикарным сайтом, где выложены стильные схемы комнат и фотографии чудесного японского сада: стандартный номер на двоих стоит 35 тысяч в сутки.
А я все-таки не такой уж транжира!

09 November 2016

Этот неловкий момент, когда ты всем говорил, что американцы достаточно сумасшедшие, чтобы выбрать Трампа, а тебе все говорили "да нет, что ты", а ты такой - ну да, вроде бы должно пронести...

07 November 2016

IMHO. 'Howl's moving castle' book ~ reading is wonderful

This is the second important conclusion I came to after reading 'Howl's moving castle' in the original for the second time. The book kept me occupied for two days. This I can say for sure - even if you realise you're not completely happy with what you read, as long as you read without dropping, reading is wonderful.

story and characters
And as you may have understood, the first conclusion is that I am not entirely happy with the book. While I certainly enjoyed greatly the subtle humour of the dialogues and situations so peculiar to English authors, for some reason I felt like something was missing. By the second third of the book I understood that the shortest way to name that 'something' would be 'love', by which I mean the relationship between Sophie and Howl, at least the way it was supposed to be in my imagination, at least after I watched the anime. I wouldn't necessarily call my impression a disappointment, but I'm not sure I can praise the book as a separate work of art.
I must confess the anime is not full without the book, since certain moments in the anime were made to follow the book to the word but lacked explanation. Such were Sophie's words to Calcifer 'may you live 1000 years' explained by the fact she had the magical ability to make things do what she tells them. Such was the milk dress and hat of Fanny, who married into money thanks to the same ability of Sophie. More importantly, the witch's curse to Sophie seemed more logical in the book since she had a proper reason for the curse, as well as for hunting Howl.
However, the same as the anime needs the book, the book needs the anime too. While Sophie's feelings could be vaguely seen in scenes like when she talks about Howl to the king or Fanny, or feels jealousy towards Lily Angorian, Howl's feelings and Howl's soul remained completely out of sight. He lacked half of his anime charm, starting with the very beginning when he didn't help Sophie out of a difficult situation with soldiers making a move on her (since the scene was different), and ending with the last scene when the closest to a confession we can hear from him is a displeased 'I break my neck to get here, and I find you peacefully tidying up'. He was not a brave protector, since there was no war, and there was not even a trace of his caring side portrayed in the anime so attractively, except for a very, very short mention that he did try to lift Sophie's curse. Even the way Howl gently takes the pan from Sophie and starts to cook instead of her in the anime would make a girl's heart tremble, while in the book there is nothing special about it. I must look like I am overly excited with the cooking scene, but don't misunderstand me, there really was just as much tenderness there as I describe it.

conclusion
While I usually see the story and the characters as a whole, since the story is a number of events happening with the characters, or, you could say, the characters' actions make the story, 'Howl' is the rare case when I have to praise the former while the latter I have to call not very satisfying. It is actually a pun, since in my native language 'character' means only 'personality', not a person. Personality is what mrs. Jones managed to create very well, since all the people (and objects) involved were extremely interesting and amusing. I also mentioned that the dialogues and situations, strange and surprising, were a source of great enjoyment for me. I wish the story flow would be composed in a different way, but if you ask me whether these two days were a happy time for me, I'll say they were.

06 November 2016

IMHO. 'Howl's moving castle' ~ I agree to bacon with eggs every day, where do you sell such handsome guys with earrings who can cook and bother about the house interior s well?

If I try to count how many times I've watched 'Howl', I'd be at a loss. I cannot remember them all. Why is it that I can re-watch it and never be bored? Maybe some special Ghibli magic.

story and characters
Of course I can't really add any in-depth analysis to the comprehensive research papers published by others until now. It's not my purpose either. Here is the first reason I watch 'Howl' again and again: Ghibli stories always comprehend fantastic elements with realistic so well that the result looks much more credible than many other stories set in the real world.
For a more selfish reason, here is another one. You can point at as many ikemen characters of any reverse harem saying 'he's my type' as you like, and I'll answer the same - just give me Howl and I'll leave you with all 'Free' or whatever members.
Finally, if ever I saw a world I wouldn't mind living in, it'd be a world created in Ghibli, namely, Miyazaki's works.

voice acting
What I remember for sure, is that the first several times I watched 'Howl', it was the dubbed version. What you discover when you finally turn on the original sound is that many things are a bit unexpected. If you didn't know the details, you'd be surprised to hear that Sophie is voiced by 63-year old Chieko Baisho even when Sophie is her usual self with the voice slightly changed with a computer to sound younger, that Takuya Kimura is an actor rather than a seiyuu, and that the Witch's voice was lent to her by a male seiyuu, Akihiro Miwa. Nothing of these was news to me, but I was still very amused to hear how it actually sounds like.

music
But now tell me what melody 'Howl' ends with. Many will say it's 'sekai no yakusoku'. It's true that it's the ending theme, but in fact, after the song ends there is Joe Hisaishi's 'jinsei no merry-go-round' playing, starting in g minor, then changing several times between different major keys and the minor to end up in major again. It's too straightforward to say all melodies in major are happy and all in minor are blue, but throw a stone at me if there is no connection between these notions.

conclusion
I guess, this is what the title of the piece is about. After all, life is like a merry-go-round with sad and happy events changing each other. Maybe I watch 'Howl' again and again to see how this merry-go-round leads to a happy end, acknowledged even by the witch Suliman.