From: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org (basia-digest) To: basia-digest@smoe.org Subject: basia-digest V13 #110 Reply-To: basia@smoe.org Sender: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "basia-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. basia-digest Sunday, May 31 2009 Volume 13 : Number 110 Today's Subjects: ----------------- ITGA Japanese edition - Japanese song titles [Krysia Szurek Subject: ITGA Japanese edition - Japanese song titles In one of the interviews Basia said that In Japanese edition all the lyrics are translated. Indeed, there was an additional booklet with the Japanese edition (nothing special though - just white pages with lyrics in English and Japanese translations). I was somewhat surprised to notice that titles are mostly not translated - they are the English titles written in katakana (which is one of Japanese alphabets, it is mostly used to write foreign names or words that were adapted from other languages) - so these titles are somewhat the closest that Japanese alphabet can go to the English pronunciation of the titles. Here goes the list of how it would look written back in roman letters (maybe Japanese fans that are on the list could correct me, please?): In Kanji characters (so apparently translated) I am not able to read it - will have to ask a friend :-) samuwan fuo euriwan ai masuto a gifuto euiribadi on ze mu-u In Kanji buremu itto on ze sama tou airanzu rau raizu buri-dingu uina-zu zei nou naisingu abuto asu Amelki &miech (in Polish, song not translated, only written that it is in Polish) ittsu zatto ga-ru agein In Kanji Krysia _________________________________________________________________ Windows LiveT: Keep your life in sync. Check it out! http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_explore_012009 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 14:42:26 -0400 From: Joe Palcher Subject: Re: ITGA Japanese edition - Japanese song titles The titles of the songs on the Japanese version would be transliterated as follows: 1. Ima ja nai nara itsu na no? (literally translated as "if not now then when?" 2. Samuwan foo evuriwan 3. Ai masuto 4. A gifuto 5. Eburibadi on za muubu 6. Namida no riyuu ("Reason for tears") 7. Bureimu itto on za samaa 8. Tuu airandozu 9. Rabu raizu buriitingu 10. Winaazu 11. Zei nou nasshingu abauto asu 12. Amelki Smiech 13. Ittsu zatto gaaru agein 14. Harukana chiheisen ("Far-off horizon") So Krysia you were mostly right! I am not sure why the song titles are mostly transliterated and not translated. (Transliterating is the using a language of a different writing system to mimic the sounds of another language as close as possible). This is often done with Japanese album versions of foreign language music. I have a few assumptions as to why. It may be too difficult to translate literally so they opt to transliterate the sounds. Also, though most Japanese are not proficient in English, the use of English in Japan for entertainment titles, advertisements, and signs is very eye-catching and possibly gives them a small sense of entitlement that they can understand some or at least use it. With this album there were three song titles that were translated, probably because they were very easy to translate or they were able to come up with a similar title modified to sound better in Japanese. When song lyrics are translated the line-by-line meanings are usually quite different the the original language. So maybe having it transliterated gives it the closest connection it can have to the true original meanings of the song. joe On 5/30/09 1:59 PM, "Krysia Szurek" wrote: > > In one of the interviews Basia said that In Japanese edition all the lyrics > are translated. Indeed, there was an additional booklet with the Japanese > edition (nothing special though - just white pages with lyrics in English and > Japanese translations). > > I was somewhat surprised to notice that titles are mostly not translated - > they are the English titles written in katakana (which is one of Japanese > alphabets, it is mostly used to write foreign names or words that were adapted > from other languages) - so these titles are somewhat the closest that Japanese > alphabet can go to the English pronunciation of the titles. > > Here goes the list of how it would look written back in roman letters (maybe > Japanese fans that are on the list could correct me, please?): > > > In Kanji characters (so apparently translated) I am not able to read it - will > have to ask a friend :-) > samuwan fuo euriwan > ai masuto > a gifuto > euiribadi on ze mu-u > In Kanji > buremu itto on ze sama > tou airanzu > rau raizu buri-dingu > uina-zu > zei nou naisingu abuto asu > Amelki &miech (in Polish, song not translated, only written that it is in > Polish) > ittsu zatto ga-ru agein > In Kanji > > Krysia > _________________________________________________________________ > Windows LiveT: Keep your life in sync. Check it out! > http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_explore_012009 ------------------------------ End of basia-digest V13 #110 ****************************