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11) When all else fails, cheat. Some songs are at least partially translated
on subtitled videos, and many can be found on the Web. It's very
interesting to look at someone else's translation because each person has a
different style and allows herself different amounts of artistic license. Use
the other translation to point you in the right direction (go back to the
dictionary, etc.) but don't plagiarize! Many translations are copyrighted.

12) When cheating fails, guess. I personally try to keep things as literal as
possible because I *don't* speak Japanese and I want to keep information
as uncorrupted as I can... but sometimes I *do* guess if I think I understand
the gist of a line. (I usually 'fess up in the notes at the end of the song, so I
don't mislead anyone.) I'm counting on the more educated people out there
to keep me honest and correct me when I screw up.

13) Give up. You'll probably have a few lines you're absolutely stuck on.
Accept it. If I have *no* idea, I just leave "[???]" there and hope someone
bails me out.

That's it! Expect a translation to take several days *at least*. It's a lot of
work but it's really satisfying when things come together. You learn a lot of
vocabulary and kanji too. Ganbatte, ne!

Eh?! Still with me? You must be serious! Try my list of reference books.

Back to Page 1/Back to the Song List

At this point you may be saying:

"Hell, I don't speak Japanese either! I wanna try this!"

Here's what I do. Try it yourself! Depending on the song (and the singer)
translation can be surprisingly easy or horrific. Warning: trying to
translate "Namida wa Shitteiru" (the second Ed song from Rurouni
Kenshin) may cause the translator's head to implode. Mine did.

1) Learn hiragana. (Learning katakana will make your life easier but isn't
as essential.) If you don't learn hiragana, you'll have to use a chart. This
will make transcription a living hell (i.e. no fun). There are only 46
characters, so it'll only take you a day or two!

2) Get out the liner notes from the CD and transcribe the hiragana and
katakana lyrics into romaji. Leave generous spaces where the kanji are.

3) Listen to the song repeatedly until your ears bleed or uncontrollable
twitching begins. Fill in the blanks where the kanji are with what you
*think* the singer is saying. This can be dangerous. Remember to only
write things that can actually be said in Japanese (i.e. use only the 46
sounds -- and derived compounds -- available to you.) A tip: If the singer
sings a vowel for two beats before a consonant, it usually means the
consonant is doubled. Ex: you hear "so-o-to". Write "sotto".

4) Get out your romaji dictionary and start translating the words you can
find. If your dictionary has kanji in it, they will allow you to discriminate
between homonyms. If not, write all of the homonyms down.

5) Get out the Kanji guide. I'm using Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide. It's
handy because you can search for kanji based on what they sound like or by
what they look like. ("It's an alien on a sled with a barbell wearing a
beret...") Kanji are initially annoying but very useful for distinguishing
homonyms. ("Is that 'naka' for 'inside' or 'naka' for 'relationship'?")
Remember to use the kanji to check the words you blithely wrote down
from your Romaji dictionary! With more practice, you can skip Step 3!

6) Just to make things a little more confusing, there are also "visual
homonyms" where the same kanji will be used in different sounding words.
For example, the kanji for "sora" or "sky" can also be pronounced "kara",
meaning "empty". (Don't invite your friends out for "soraoke" when you
want "karaoke"!) Some lyrics will include tiny hiragana to help you tell
the kanji apart. If not, you'll have to listen to the song yet again!

7) Verbs are difficult, as they are not conjugated in the dictionary. You can
either learn the rules for conjugation (which I haven't) or buy a verb book.

8) Get out the particle book. There are a seemingly endless number of
particles, and they can completely change the meaning of a sentence. The
example in my book uses the phrase: "Watashi ____ sakana ____ taberu".
Depending on the particles used to fill in the blanks, this can mean anything
from: "I eat fish" to "The fish eats me" to "Even I will eat, if it's fish."

9) Regard with suspicion any words that don't seem to fit the theme of the
song. If it doesn't make any sense to you, *don't* chalk it up to the language
barrier. Your translation is probably faulty. Try splitting up syllables or
putting them together in different combinations. I thought I heard "Anata to
te wa itai" (you and your hand hurt) when the song actually said "Anata to
deaitai" (I want to meet with you). o_O; Sweatdrop.

10) You'll notice that important words (often the subjects of sentences) are
often left out. "Kokoro ga itai" means "heart/mind hurts" but is it my heart?
Yours? That alien creature's? To make things worse, there's no distinction
between singular and plural, so the person could be singing about one heart
or 62 hearts. When you want to scream (and you will!) remember: words
are left out of Japanese sentences not to drive us insane, but because it is
assumed that they are self evident, and to voice them would be redundant.
It helps to know the storyline of the anime, because that gives you an idea
of how the characters normally behave/interact, etc. Fill in the implied
words with something plausible.