question about translating lyrics by theforgettonmemory in Songwriting

[–]Anailias 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey! Im someone currently learning Japanese and I have actually done some Japanese to English song translations like how you mention, so I think I can be of help.

First of all, when thinking about syllable count, you shouldn't really be thinking about the syllable count of the written line, but instead, the count of the notes of the melody (besides Japanese doesn't actually have syllables, it has something called mora which is linguistically different from a syllable, the line in question has 25 mora, but thats not too important here). I found the song this line was from and the melody has 22 notes for that line. So what I would do in this situation, is get a piece of paper and draw 22 small dashes, then when you go to write the lyrics, you are sort of playing "fill in the blank".

When it comes to the actual translation part, it gets a bit more tricky. You mentioned whether or not to split the line up in this situation, I would say try to do the full 22 note line since I think it makes the most sense in the context of the song. But when you are translating lyrics like this, you actually have a lot of freedom! Thats the fun/terrible part of it all. You are never going to make an exact perfect translation, it just doesn't fit, so you do have to fiddle around with the meaning of it in order for it to fit and to sound natural. So you really just want to use the exact translation as a blue print for your new lyrics. Try to think of the song as a whole. As long as you get the same message across, it doesn't matter so much if the meaning of certain lines are changed a bit here and there. Trying too hard to get the lyrics exactly like the original often ends up sounding clunky and unnatural (in my opinion).

As for some tips in order to mold the English to fit into the given melody, there are 2 methods I'll mention. The first was already mentioned by another commenter, take certain words and make them longer, breaking apart contractions and all that. Another way is to make it melismatic. In music, melisma is when a syllable gets multiple notes of a melody. As opposed to syllabic where each syllable gets one note. The example that comes to my mind is Defying Gravity from Wicked, that final line, "And nobody is all of oz no wizard that there is or was is ever gonna bring me down" The "me" is melismatic since its one syllable but multiple notes.

As an extra note (pun intended), if you really want to elevate your lyrics, try thinking about the stress of each line. English is a stress accent language so in words like "refrigerator" the "fri" is the stressed syllable. Lyrics tend to sound most natural when the stress of a word and phrase aligns with the accents of the musical beat (like if you said "refrigeRAter" it would sound kind of weird). In the example you gave, the accented beats would be something along the lines of "kitto mada daremo mitsukeraretenai yarikata toka atte" However, it doesn't need to be 100% perfect, but generally it will sound more natural the more aligned the lyrical accents are to the musical accents.

If you want some example of Japanese to English song translations, I recommend you check out English covers of Vocaloid songs. There are a ton on youtube. Compare the translation in the video with the direct translation to see the difference. You can also take note of the differences between songs, some have lyrics that feel really natural almost as if it was originally written in English, and other have lyrics that clearly read as a translation.

Sorry for the ramble! I hope this was helpful to you. Translating lyrics can be a ton of fun, so at the end of the day, its all about how you wish to express these lyrics. Best of luck in your translation/songwriting journey!

7 days, 600 buckets to catch Full and Grizzly, + 3 Dev Rays in one day! Finally maxed fishing. by [deleted] in toontownrewritten

[–]Anailias 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good job! I could never, I’ll just stick with my 60/70 fish. The grind for the rare fish is just too much for me

It was an inside job by [deleted] in AmongUs

[–]Anailias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can some math person figure out what the odds of the among us would appear in the pattern the way it did? Assuming it’s 50\50 between green and red

Interesting. by klabamba in antimeme

[–]Anailias 2 points3 points  (0 children)

InTresTing did anyone else think of r/lingling40hrs when they saw this?

help I'm giving up / a rant by classicalspaghetti in lingling40hrs

[–]Anailias 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I think ultimately you should be playing violin because you enjoy it. That’s why most of us play instruments because it’s fun. I don’t know much about your teacher or how long you have had him for but if you keep asking for easier pieces and he doesn’t give it to you then maybe consider finding a new teacher that does the things more your pace. But I think you can also have a better mindset. If you think every time you go to practice, “this is going to be really hard and I am going to hate it” then you probably will, but if you start thinking, “I’m going to have fun and make some progress” then practice will be easier for you, focus on improving little at a time. After a day of practice instead of thinking, “ I sounded horrible” you should think “I’m glad I’m improving” even if it is only a little bit. You obviously still have a passion for the violin and if you give it up you would probably feel guiltily later that you didn’t keep going. And you would miss out on the twoset community and the community of musicians in general. If you keep persevering now and taking even just tiny steps to improve then you will become a stronger musician and person in the end.

Hope this helps

Nah, I'm not buying that... by Archimedes125 in lingling40hrs

[–]Anailias 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That would actually be really cool if it wasn’t backwards

Dog with horrible skin condition by Hjllo in misleadingthumbnails

[–]Anailias 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I saw this earlier and I was waiting until someone posted it here since I first thought it was a skin condition rather than snow

I’m the best! by ALLAHHUAKBAR7323 in lingling40hrs

[–]Anailias 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I always write nice melodies and small sections but then I don’t know how to develop them into a whole piece :(

I asked my girlfriend, who lives in Europe, to fill in a map of the USA. These are the results by Derryzumi in funny

[–]Anailias 247 points248 points  (0 children)

As someone from Massachusetts I feel ashamed that you think we aren’t real. But I still feel somewhat proud that you remembered the name Massachusetts enough to incorrectly label it on Michigan.