TMC. part 3 ~ grammar or lexis?

intro

people tend to believe more and more that grammar is not as necessary as vocabulary. who cares if a participant of an international conference, prominent scientist and dedicated researcher, whose mother tongue is not English, uses Past Simple instead of Past Perfect if everything is understandable?

in that case, I feel a little remorse, but I have to admit that this is not the case to get angry. 'tis not that all people feel the same respect towards languages they learn. and they do not aspire to become translators, as well, seeing a foreign language only as a means of international communication

'freelancing'

there are cases, however, when people have to become translators - if not they, who will? students, young people studying Japanese have already embedded it into their duty - to translate manga, to make subtitles, to translate song lyrics, so that the others, who are not as fortunate as them to be able to learn Japanese, could enjoy the product of Japan's modern entertainment industry

are they high professionals? nope. do they get reward for this? nope. in other words, since they do it out of their free will, we cannot blame them or demand something from them. or so I believe

it only bothers me a little that they have no pride and no ambitions to exceed the level of beginning amateurs. it strikes me very often how many of them see only one word out of three, and dream the rest up, and leave the grammar absolutely unnoticed

lyrics

just the other day I saw lyrics of Psycho le Cemu's 'Rin ~ai suru mono no tame ni~' where the line

叶わぬ思いだけは音もなく迫る炎に遮られて was translated as 'The feeling of an answer, this silence is drawing near and the flame is blocked'. a nice text it may seem, if we are to close our eyes to the fact that there is no word like 'answer' in the Japanese line, 'kanawanu' is a negative form of 'kanau' which is not rendered in the translation, 'oto mo naku' is not a noun but an adverb, 'semaru' is not a predicate but a participle because it stands before the word 'honoo', and the particles 'wa' after 'omoi' and 'ni' after 'honoo' are just overlooked, which made the flame 'be blocked' instead of making the 'feeling' be 'blocked by flame'

Tegamibachi

even I know that a verb ending in -i, the so-called second stem or -masu form, with the particle 'na' makes imperative mood, and a verb in dictionary form ending in -u with 'na' makes negative imperative mood. even I know that one must read all the possible variants of translation in the dictionary to understand the meaning fuller, and even I know that 'forge' may mean 'temper', but can also mean 'falsify'. even I know that words should not be ignored if they are used in the text, and I can read in jisho.org that 出なおす means 'to come again', 'to make a fresh start'

therefore, even I would be able to translate this properly - 'come back after you have tempered your 'heart' enough!'

and still, they write

probably this is not important. probably it does not affect reading the manga. probably I am too scrupulous. but I do believe that ignoring overtones and nuances even once leads to ignoring them more often, and also to ignoring more important parts as well. and I do believe that ignoring whatever - a short line or a long monologue - distorts the image of the character. Zazzie is not a misanthrope who gives up Mackey completely because of his cheating. vice versa, he encourages him to try again, but warns that a strong heart is needed. this is a big change in Zazzie's personality. am I wrong?

translation! Psyco le Cemu 'rin ~ai suru mono no tame ni~

I actually wrote down the lyrics myself, but I must confess I used http://j-lyric.net/artist/a0324d5/l00320e.html to check one word - 微睡 is almost impossible to hear in the song itself, and absolutely impossible to find in the dictionaries I use (with the reading 'bisui' as 'tis pronounced in the song). therefore, I took its 'madoromi' meaning...

'tis interesting when some words in manga or ranobe or song lyrics are written with kanji, but their reading is like that of other kanji or not kanji at all... but it actually creates some obstacles, too. well, the problem is, since the rest of the words are as I wrote them, they are different from what you can find anywhere else. for example my 'toki' is written as 時, but the original has it as 瞬間 - 'shunkan'. there are some other cases like this, so check the link I provided or search it in the web if you like

please bear in mind that though I thank a lot the person who uploaded this vid, I consider the English translation provided on its YT page absolutely incorrect, however beautiful it may look, due to ignored grammar

凛 ～愛する者のために～

ああ、この夜が永遠に続くように
ああ、今だけは星空に願いを託した
この目に映るものが真実ならば、身を捧げても
恐れるものはないと教えてくれた刹那を感じる命

もう誰でもない、自分さえ見失いそうさ
もう少しだけ立ち上がる力をください
涙が涸れ果てるまで、泣いて泣いて血を流しても
叶わぬ思いだけは音もなく迫る炎に遮られて

伝えたい、この声を、巡り合えた定めに心まで委ねても
届かないこの壁はあまりにも高すぎて

ああ、眠らない静けさを刻むように
この寂しさは未来さえ壊してしまうのか
この先　僕が消えて、時が止まる、取り残されても
優しくできるものよ、微睡の彼方、変わることがないなら

冷たさ、激しく抱かれてこのまま

忘れない、いつまでも、交し合えた言葉で近付けた気がしても
望めない、この日々に何気ない瞳から流れ落ちる涙も
届かないこの壁はあまりにも高すぎて
あまりにも高すぎて


Frigid ~for the beloved one~

Ah, I want this night to last forever
Ah, I entrusted my wish to the starry sky only now
If what these eyes reflect is true, then even if I sacrifice myself,
There is nothing to be afraid of; in my life I feel the instant that taught me this

I feel like I almost lose sight even of myself, not of others
Please, bestow me with the strength to stand up a little more
Even if I cry and cry and shed blood until my tears dry up,
The desire that won’t come true is still blocked by silently approaching flame

I want this voice to reach you, even if I devote everything up to my heart to the fate I was able to meet,

It won’t reach you, as the wall is too high

Ah, like I etch in my mind the silence when I am not sleeping
Will this loneliness crush even my future?
Even if from now on I disappear and time stops, and I will be left behind,
The one who can be kind, if there is no change in you, beyond the slumber…

Coldness, still tightly embraced by it…

I won’t forget, ever, though it seemed to me we became closer by the words we exchanged,
I can’t hope, and the tears that flow from the eyes that look so nonchalant these days
Won’t reach you, as the wall is too high
It is too high

_____

as far as I understand the lyrics, this is a story of a person deeply in love, ready to give everything for the sake of the one he loves and thinking of that person as of the only thing to cling to, but feeling extremely lonely because of not being able to meet or communicate with that person, to the extent he can't move on and becomes unable to apprehend himself, and thus crying with invisible tears that no one around can notice, thinking that he's all right

what I particularly like in this song is the mute passion described. my favourite line is the last one in the first verse - 'the desire that won’t come true is still blocked by silently approaching flame', and also I was moved by the line which I imagine as counting seconds in silence in the night when one struggles with insomnia

speaking of the melody, of course I love every scream-like beginnings of chorus - like 'I want my voice to reach you' or 'I won't forget'

p. s. why does it happen that I always feel like translating only tragic songs like this?..