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Brief translation gig: Translation of Japanese song to English phonetics

DrL

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4 Nov 2015
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Greetings,

I am a recording artist here in Washington, DC. I am planning to record a Japanese song, "Progress" by Kokua, using the original Japanese. As I am not a Japanese speaker, I would like to have the Japanese pronounciation of the lyrics in English phonetics so that I can read and sing them.

This is, of course, a very brief project. I am happy to pay the sum of $25.00 US by Paypal for the completion of this magnificent task.

Let me know if you can help. I can be reached by private message here on the forum if you are interested. I have posted the lyrics below for your reference. Many thanks.

ぼくらは位置について 横一列でスタートをきった
つまずいている あいつのことを見て
本当はシメシメと思っていた
誰かを許せたり 大切な人を守れたり
いまだ何一つ サマになっていやしない
相変わらず あの日のダメな ぼく
ずっと探していた 理想の自分って
もうちょっとカッコよかったけれど
ぼくが歩いてきた 日々と道のりを
ほんとはジブンっていうらしい
世界中にあふれているため息と
君とぼくの甘酸っぱい挫折に捧ぐ・・・
あと一歩だけ、前に 進もう
空にはいつでも まるでぼくらの希望のように
こぼれそうなくらい 星が輝いて
届かないその手を伸ばしたんだ
ガラスケースの中 飾られた悲しみを見て
かわいそうに・・・なんてつぶやいてる
こんな自分 ケリたくなるくらい キライ!
ねぇ ぼくらがユメ見たのって
誰かと同じ色の未来じゃない
誰も知らない世界へ向かっていく勇気を
ミライっていうらしい
世界中にあふれてるため息と
君とぼくの甘酸っぱい挫折に捧ぐ・・・
あと一歩だけ、前に 進もう
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I removed your E-Mail address to prevent you from being bombarded with SPAM and added anyone interested can contact you with a private message here on the forum. We have had problems with spammers in the past.
 

Lanthas:

Thank you.

I have a second need here--one that I am happy to pay you 25.00 for.

That is to match the english translation of the lyrics as closely as possible to the music.

This is somewhat difficult to do as the lyrics, translated to english, do not have the same meter, length and rhyme as the Japanese, of course, and not speaking the language, it is diffuclt to distribute them across each line.

I suspect that the easiest way to do this is one of two ways, depending on whether you are a musician or not:

1) If not musician: Under each Japanese line of the lyrics, place the English words that match, e.g.:

bokura wa ichi ni tsuite
We at the starting

(example for form, no idea if translation matches, which is why I need this :>)

2) If musician, or familiar with guitar chords: There is a tabulature of the chords for progress here:
Progress / kokua のコード進行

It would be helpful to have the English lyrics under the chords for the song here.

I appreciate your help, and would like to give the 25.00 to you in appreciation for this.

Very best,

AJL
 
Japanese and English grammar are completely different... You can't match the English translation word-by-word to the original Japanese, it's impossible. Word order is so different that in some sentences, it's the exact reverse of the English equivalent. Words get split up or merged. Some cannot be translated at all and need to be replaced by a suboptimal approximation, or worse, dropped.

Your only option is to replace sentence by sentence (or on an even higher level) to something that fits the melody and still more or less gets the same meaning across. Speaking of which, even getting a good translation in the first place can be challenging. The few that I found for this particular song did have mistakes in them. Don't ask me to translate it though, songs are still far above my level...

(Wait a minute. Didn't you want to record the song in Japanese? Why the English translation now?)
 
Japanese and English grammar are completely different... You can't match the English translation word-by-word to the original Japanese, it's impossible. Word order is so different that in some sentences, it's the exact reverse of the English equivalent. Words get split up or merged. Some cannot be translated at all and need to be replaced by a suboptimal approximation, or worse, dropped.

Your only option is to replace sentence by sentence (or on an even higher level) to something that fits the melody and still more or less gets the same meaning across. Speaking of which, even getting a good translation in the first place can be challenging. The few that I found for this particular song did have mistakes in them. Don't ask me to translate it though, songs are still far above my level...

(Wait a minute. Didn't you want to record the song in Japanese? Why the English translation now?)

I am considering multiple options for the song. This is one. This is also why it helps to pay for things.

Thanks for your help.
 
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