Help with lyrics translation project, Pt. 2

[R3belD0gg]

こんにちは！

I've been using Jpop lyrics to help me study Japanese. The music helps me with vocabulary and kanji memorization, but can also sometimes be a bit confusing. I posted on a separate thread with a different set of lyrics and got some REALLY helpful responses. As I post these here, I'll link back to the other threads I've posted for anyone who is interested.

http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6852

This song was GREAT. There were so many things packed in here that I didn't know before (-sou, -ba, -te miru, etc.)
I'll refrain from posting my full translation to keep this more compact and to keep from confusing other beginners who may read this, in case I get something wrong. I'll just put my questions in italics under each section. All songs I use are available on Spotify in the US (not sure how Spotify works with licensing, etc overseas) and are usually easily found on YouTube, NicoNico or something like that.

- きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ
- ミラクルオレンジ

風が冷たい夜更けのmoonlight
明日を照らすの
思ってたより難しそうね
星が輝く黒い空に手を伸ばしてみる
吸い込まれそう
深い闇まで

明日を照らすの - why の on the end? Is this a question?
思ってたよる難しそうね - Thinking about this news seems difficult?
吸い込まれそう深い闇まで - Seems like I'm being drawn up to the deep darkness? まで　here makes it "up to the deep darkness?"


瞳を閉じればﾐﾗｸﾙｵﾚﾝｼﾞ
届きそう
あと少し

瞳 means "pupil" as in the eye, however it doesn't seem to mean 目. Is this "If I close my eyes?" Can 瞳 be used in place of 目?
In the song, she sings "wa" rather than "wo." Is this colloquial speech?

夢の中で弾け踊る
ｷﾐと僕の距離はあと100cm
大きな1歩近づいて

Biggest question!　弾け踊る　（はじけ　おどる.） If it was 弾く (ひく　おどる） I would say "play dancing in a dream." The definition for はじけ　seems different. ひく seems to mean "to play (an instrument.)" So I would thin it could be used with dancing, maybe? But はじけ is "to flick." I really don't get this one.

魔法をかけて
裸足で走る
ｷﾐのもとへ会いに行くよどこでも
怖くないの
この力
ﾐﾗｸﾙﾊﾟﾜｰ

魔法をかけて　- かける has a very confusing definition. In this case, I say "cast a spell" but I would like some clarification on the use of かける in general.
キミのもとへ会いに行くよ何処でも - the よ here before どこでも. I've also heard 行くよみな. So can "sentence ending particles" sometimes happen midsentence for emphasis?　Also, why キミ and not 君?


あのときがいいな初めてmidnight
明日を揺らすの
ｷﾐへの想い強くなるだけ

あしたを揺らすの - Shaking tomorrow? Is tomorrow shaking or is something shaking tomorrow? Again with の on the end.

瞳を閉じればﾐﾗｸﾙｵﾚﾝｼﾞ
つかめそう
あと少し

夢の中で巡り巡る
ｷﾐと僕の距離はあと7cm
小さく1歩踏み出して
魔法をかけて
手を繋いだ
ｷﾐの隣歩く僕は絶好調
ｵﾚﾝｼﾞ色無限大
ﾐﾗｸﾙﾊﾟﾜｰ

I can't read 絶好調 without hearing Peter's voice

I know that's a lot, but if anyone wants to tackle some of it I'd be grateful.

Thanks!

Just to make it easier to see, I'll cut & paste the nine italicized portions here:

明日を照らすの - why の on the end? Is this a question?
思ってたよる難しそうね - Thinking about this news seems difficult?
吸い込まれそう深い闇まで - Seems like I'm being drawn up to the deep darkness? まで　here makes it "up to the deep darkness?"
瞳 means "pupil" as in the eye, however it doesn't seem to mean 目. Is this "If I close my eyes?" Can 瞳 be used in place of 目?
In the song, she sings "wa" rather than "wo."
Biggest question!　弾け踊る　（はじけ　おどる.） If it was 弾く (ひく　おどる） I would get say "play dancing in a dream." The definition for はじけ　seems different. ひく seems to mean "to play (an instrument.)" So I would thin it could be used with dancing, maybe? But はじけ is "to flick." I really don't get this one.
魔法をかけて　- かける has a very confusing definition. In this case, I say "cast a spell" but I would like some clarification on the use of かける in general.
キミのもとへ会いに行くよ何処でも - the よ here before どこでも. I've also heard 行くよみな. So can "sentence ending particles" sometimes happen midsentence for emphasis?　Also, why キミ and not 君?
あしたを揺らすの - Shaking tomorrow? Is tomorrow shaking or is something shaking tomorrow? Again with の on the end.

[mmmason8967]

思ってたよる難しそうね - Thinking about this news seems difficult?

There's a common colloquialism lurking in this one.　The ~te iru form indicates an ongoing situation and is often shortened to ~te 'ru in speech. For example, 結婚してる (kekkon shite'ru) means "I am married". The past tense version, ~te ita or ~te'ta, is used for what used to be (but is no longer) an ongoing situation. So I think this line actually says:-

思って いた　よる　難しそう　ね
omotte ita yori muzukashisou ne
It seems to be harder than I thought

マイケル

[R3belD0gg]

Ah! I never would have seen that. I thought is was 便り (たより), News; tidings. ありがとうマイケルさん! 教えてに なりました。

[mmmason8967]

In the song, she sings "wa" rather than "wo." Is this colloquial speech?

When I listen to it, I think she definitely sings "wo"...

Edit: ignore the "w" and listen closely to the vowel sound!

マイケル

[R3belD0gg]

In the song, she sings "wa" rather than "wo." Is this colloquial speech?

When I listen to it, I think she definitely sings "wo"...

Edit: ignore the "w" and listen closely to the vowel sound!

マイケル

Hmm... I keep listening and I hear "wa." Maybe it's the way she says "wo." Like "wao" or something. But I thought, when used as the action particle, を was pronounced "o," without the "w" sound.

Edit: just noticed your edt lol. Reading this on my phone.

[mmmason8967]

吸い込まれそう深い闇まで - Seems like I'm being drawn up to the deep darkness? まで　here makes it "up to the deep darkness?"

The first word is "suck", "absorb" or "draw", and it's passive, and it ends そう, so I agree that it means something like "seems like I'm being sucked/absorbed/drawn".

まで marks an end-point in time or space, so "up to" is a reasonable translation. However, since we're being sucked, absorbed or drawn, I think that "into" is better. That's interesting: if I was asked to translate "into the darkness" I don't think I'd have considered まで as a possibility for "into"...

深い闇 seems to be "deep darkness". It sounds a bit clunky to me but I can't come up with a better alternative. So I think the complete line is pretty much as you had it: It seems like I'm being sucked/absorbed/drawn into the deep darkness.

Finally, the previous line talks about reaching for the black sky, so it's very likely that the "deep darkness" in our line is referring to the darkness of that black sky, so maybe it should be its deep darkness rather than the deep darkness. Which gives us: It seems like I'm being sucked/absorbed/drawn into its deep darkness.

マイケル

[community.japanese]

R3belD0ggさん、マイケルさん、
こんにちは！
Thank you for another productive thread!

明日を照らすの - why の on the end? Is this a question?
あしたを揺らすの - Shaking tomorrow? Is tomorrow shaking or is something shaking tomorrow? Again with の on the end.

The particle の at the end is often used by female and the meaning is similar to ～んだ(よ).
So, she's telling something giving you new information, and confirming that information.
Don't worry too much about this particle.
As to 明日を揺らす ...it's poetic and I don't think it means something real (typical of recent songs).

瞳 means "pupil" as in the eye, however it doesn't seem to mean 目. Is this "If I close my eyes?" Can 瞳 be used in place of 目?
In the song, she sings "wa" rather than "wo." Is this colloquial speech?

Yes. Literally, 瞳 is rather inside part of eyes (pupil), but we can't really "close" only pupil...
It sounds more beautiful or "cool" maybe when we use different words in lyrics.
Normal expression is 目を閉じる but 瞳を閉じる sounds more poetic.
Regarding "o", it has to be "o" because even colloquial speech wouldn't take "wa" if she wants to
give the same meaning.

Biggest question!　弾け踊る　（はじけ　おどる.） If it was 弾く (ひく　おどる） I would say "play dancing in a dream." The definition for はじけ　seems different. ひく seems to mean "to play (an instrument.)" So I would thin it could be used with dancing, maybe? But はじけ is "to flick." I really don't get this one.

弾ける has several connotations originating in "bouncing".
So, 弾け踊る describes "energetically dancing, jumping a lot" kind of situation.

魔法をかけて　- かける has a very confusing definition. In this case, I say "cast a spell" but I would like some clarification on the use of かける in general.
キミのもとへ会いに行くよ何処でも - the よ here before どこでも. I've also heard 行くよみな. So can "sentence ending particles" sometimes happen midsentence for emphasis?　Also, why キミ and not 君?

I think in the case of 魔法をかけて, you should rather remember this as fixed expression: 魔法をかける
かける has an idea of putting something over something OR covering something with something.
The opposite to 魔法をかける is 魔法を解く, so we see 魔法 as something you cover something/someone with
and unless you escape from "that thing (魔法)", you're inside 魔法 which needs special "key" to release.
And regarding your second questions here, the sentence is ended with 行くよ, but we can add names or
words like "everyone" to pull attention. However in this case, どこでも is an added information which is supposed
to be included in the previous sentence. This can happen only in colloquial or spoken language, not written.
And it often adds certain emphasis. This is lyrics, so it might just be added without good reason.
君 in katakana is just to make the word special. Again, lyrics...

I can't read 絶好調 without hearing Peter's voice

Nice

I might have written somewhere, but recent songs are really risky to use for studying purpose.
My recommendations are usually from 70s when people would sing from heart.
Some songs have lyrics very grammatically correct and easy to understand even if it's spoken language.
They have stories and doesn't have strange order of phrases like this song.
It's really a matter of taste when we talk about which music we like, and of course we want to
understand what exactly they are singing and also to use their songs to study. There's nothing bad there.
But there could be better songs, education wise.

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[R3belD0gg]

マイケルさん、奈津子さん、ありがとう！Things have been kind of off for me the past couple of weeks and my studies have suffered a bit, but I'm getting back on track now. I really appreciate the time and effort you guys have taken to answer these questions. I'm not sure that this is the *best* way for me to be supplementing my study, but it sure is fun. I don't know why I like girly Jpop so much lol. I get strange looks at redlights for sure, especially when they see this giant 6'4 300lbs (193cm, 136kg) trucker singing along.

For の at the end of sentences, I was kinda thinking that it was just a sentence ender like ね or な but I wasn't sure. I've seen it used to mark questions (どうするの？）　Thanks for the clarification.

With 瞳, I was thinking that it was maybe just poetic. So I will refrain from using this where 目 would suffice!

After listening over and over, I realized she IS saying "wo." I am hearing in other songs she pronounces the "w" in "wo," which I thought you didn't do. I guess I had tricked my ear into hearing "wa."

For 弾け踊る, this is odd... I use several dictionary sources. I am now using a different web browser but with one of the same add-ons (Rikaichan.) It gives a better definition of this word, as do my other sources. I think I just got lazy on this one, I think I see it better now. 弾け is the imperative form of 弾く (To play (piano, guitar...) 弾ける could be used as "bursting" in the English phrase "Bursting with laughter." I would have assumed this was 弾く　rather than 弾ける, though, because I don't know what happened to the る！ But I will take this as a set phrase for now and am just glad to understand the line.

R3belD0ggさん、マイケルさん、

魔法をかけて　- かける has a very confusing definition. In this case, I say "cast a spell" but I would like some clarification on the use of かける in general.
キミのもとへ会いに行くよ何処でも - the よ here before どこでも. I've also heard 行くよみな. So can "sentence ending particles" sometimes happen midsentence for emphasis?　Also, why キミ and not 君?

I think in the case of 魔法をかけて, you should rather remember this as fixed expression: 魔法をかける
かける has an idea of putting something over something OR covering something with something.
The opposite to 魔法をかける is 魔法を解く, so we see 魔法 as something you cover something/someone with
and unless you escape from "that thing (魔法)", you're inside 魔法 which needs special "key" to release.

面白い！ 掛ける seems to be a difficult word, but I understand it in this context. I was reading through example sentences in my Japanese iPhone app. I can see what you mean about "covering something" or even "applying to something" in many of the sentences. I think I won't dwell on this one too much, and just accept it as a fixed expression. And hey, if I every decide to write a book about Japanese wizards and witches, I already know how to say 魔法をかける and even have the hero save the princess by 魔法を解く！　 　Thanks for the new word.

I might have written somewhere, but recent songs are really risky to use for studying purpose.
My recommendations are usually from 70s when people would sing from heart.
Some songs have lyrics very grammatically correct and easy to understand even if it's spoken language.
They have stories and doesn't have strange order of phrases like this song.
It's really a matter of taste when we talk about which music we like, and of course we want to
understand what exactly they are singing and also to use their songs to study. There's nothing bad there.
But there could be better songs, education wise.

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

I will look into this suggestion. I don't know much about Japanese music from the 70s and would actually love to see what was popular in Japan then. I am a musician and grew up extremely eclectic, regarding what I listen to, so I'm good with most styles of music. I was using this kind of pop because it's so catchy and clear and, I assumed, didn't use any really crazy poetic speech. Also, it's pretty easy to find the music and lyrics. I do have another きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ song that I want to translate next (I just go with whatever sticks in my head!) but it seems to be much simpler. Kind of a lullaby, almost. I was also wanting to translate one you suggested in a podcast, but I forgot until now. 故郷。I looked up the 歌詞 as well as a good, clear YouTube video with a lady singing it. I will give that a go soon. This weekend I plan on strapping in and making up for lost study time over the holidays.

Any suggestions for good 70s music from Japan? I have a slight predilection for female vocalists.