Luna Halo - The Way To Your Heart

[Vlad!]

Does anyone happen to own the CD with this song on it? A friend had me listen to the Japanese poem thing that is read at the end in the hopes that I could translate it. However, and probably due to my limited Japanese knowledge, I just can't make sense of it. Some of the words don't even seem to be real words, so I'm probably hearing them wrong. If the liner notes actually contain the words to this poem (preferably in Japanese, though English works too), I would greatly appreciate a scanned copy.

[murlough23]

Does anyone happen to own the CD with this song on it? A friend had me listen to the Japanese poem thing that is read at the end in the hopes that I could translate it. However, and probably due to my limited Japanese knowledge, I just can't make sense of it. Some of the words don't even seem to be real words, so I'm probably hearing them wrong. If the liner notes actually contain the words to this poem (preferably in Japanese, though English works too), I would greatly appreciate a scanned copy.

I have that album, and I believe there is a translation to the poem within it. I'll look it up over the weekend.

Great song and album, by the way.

NP: "The Henney Buggy Band", Sufjan Stevens

[Vlad!]

Thanks. I spent some quality time with Google trying to find a transcription of the Japanese, but had no luck.

[murlough23]

Thanks. I spent some quality time with Google trying to find a transcription of the Japanese, but had no luck.

I know I found it somewhere, if not in the liner notes, then it was in an interview. Back when my wife and I were first dating, I put that song on a mix CD for her, and I actually wrote out an entire lyric booklet with all the songs on that CD. I put in the translation of the poem as a "hidden page". She probably never found it. I'll see if I can track it down, if it's not in the Shimmer booklet.

NP: "Pittsfield", Sufjan Stevens

[Vlad!]

I having trouble coming to terms that either the words or the translation cannot apparently be found online anywhere. I tried searching for phrases from the poem both in Japanese and in English with no luck (although since my translation is very spotty then the English may be on there and I'm just not using the right words).

[dgp11776]

I'm quite sure it's on the liner notes, but I'm not at home right now to be sure.  I'll look it up tonight if I remember.

[ewok20t3]

The translation is in the liner notes. It reads...

I find it hard to walk on my own,
So I stumble towards the light.
Sometimes it seems so far away
Yet, I feel the warmth on my face.
What can I do to bring it closer?
When will I shimmer?
Will I ever glow with the brilliance
Of A thousand stars?
Someday I will.
I know.

[Vlad!]

Thanks, ewok.

There are definitely some things that I was getting wrong (I was hearing tsumazaki, tiptoe, instead of tsumazuki, stumble). I'm not sure if it's really bad Japanese or really good Japanese that I'm not understanding, but at least now I have the cheat sheet.

[murlough23]

I guess ewok got to it before I did. Hope it's illuminating for you, Vlad!

[Vlad!]

It's illuminating in the sense that I am totally confused about how they got from point a (the japanese text) to point b (the english text). It would be very interesting to know if they wrote the poem in english and had it translated, or in japanese and had it translated for the liner notes. It sounds more poetic in the japanese, with the word dakedo (however) repeated twice and with a good use of meter, but it also sounds like they tried to take some english words (like shimmer) and force them into the japanese, where there is no 1:1 equivalent.

I also note that there are some textual differences, like hoshizora, which means "starry sky" but is translated as "a thousand stars".

[murlough23]

It's illuminating in the sense that I am totally confused about how they got from point a (the japanese text) to point b (the english text). It would be very interesting to know if they wrote the poem in english and had it translated, or in japanese and had it translated for the liner notes. It sounds more poetic in the japanese, with the word dakedo (however) repeated twice and with a good use of meter, but it also sounds like they tried to take some english words (like shimmer) and force them into the japanese, where there is no 1:1 equivalent.

I believe they wrote it in English and were going to have it recited in English, but then they met a Japanese woman in a sushi bar and decided to ask her to recite it in Japanese for them.

[Vlad!]

With the help of the translation ewok provided and a number of dictionaries, I have attempted to supply my own, incomplete translation. While there are still gaps, I hope the parts I was able to complete will show why I am skeptical that the poem as read bears any more than a superficial resemblance to the translation in the liner notes.

The Japanese text
I have footnoted things that gave me trouble or that I had to look up. I have bracketed things I'm not sure of.

hitori de kiru[3] tte[9] totemo tsurai
tsumazuki[1] [na rana mo]
hikari ni [mo kan]
toki ni [kanama no]
yumenimo[2] omo[8]
dakedo, dakedo
kono mune ni kanjiru
hitotsu no akari
doushite na tsukamaeru[4] no
itsu ni natta akari akeru no
ano kirameku[5] hoshizora[6] no youni[7]
kitto itsu ka, kitto itsu ka
ano hoshizora no youni

[1] tsumazuki: i-form of tsumazuku (to stumble)
[2] yumenimo: not in the slightest (not in one's wildest dreams). Could also be "yume ni" (in a dream) "mo" (also).
[3] kiru: to finish (http://linear.mv.com/cgi-bin/j-e/jis/dosearch?sDict=on&H=PS&L=J&T=kiru&WC=none)
[4] Given the context, tsukamaeru (to sieze, to grasp) seems most appropriate, but it sounds more like tsukaneru (to fold, to govern)
[5] kirameku: to glitter
[6] hoshizora: literally, starry sky
[7] Despite the fact that youni is a pretty popular word, I have yet to truly grasp its meaning, and it's not in most dictionaries (it might be the conjugated form of a verb). The closest I can come is "in the way of" or "to do in the same manner as". I have also seen it translated "just like" (kaze no youni: just like the wind).
[8] By cheating and looking at the supplied translation, I'm pretty sure omo is used to mean face here. However, I'm having difficulty fitting it into the rest of the translated text given my lack of success at identifying some of the surrounding words.
[9] Thanks to a co-worker: tte is a colloquialism for wa, the topic marker.


The official translation
To keep you from having to scroll up.

I find it hard to walk on my own,
So I stumble towards the light.
Sometimes it seems so far away
Yet, I feel the warmth on my face.
What can I do to bring it closer?
When will I shimmer?
Will I ever glow with the brilliance
Of A thousand stars?
Someday I will.
I know.

Vlad!'s incomplete and probably crappy translation
Words that I'm not at least fairly sure of or cannot look up for whatever reason are in brackets.

To finish alone is very heartbreaking.
I stumble [narana mo] in the light [mo kan]
In those times [kanama no]
couldn't even dream of it [omo]
However, however
Inside this heart, a lone light can be felt
In what way can I sieze it?
When will I become light as the dawn,
like the glittering, starry sky?
Surely, some day?
Surely, some day?
Like the starry sky.

Google's attempt
Just for fun, I fed this into Google translator.

If the [tsu] [te] which one person it is possible very and others you stumble and but also the [hi] temporarily and at the time of the can raw dream the main thing just the light of can [ji] [ru] one how the [chi] [te] you catch the light which has become sometime you open to the effect of somewhere that you glitter, we want, and others the way certainly once upon a time, certainly that we want once upon a time, and others the way

Riiight.

[murlough23]

If the [tsu] [te] which one person it is possible very and others you stumble and but also the [hi] temporarily and at the time of the can raw dream the main thing just the light of can [ji] [ru] one how the [chi] [te] you catch the light which has become sometime you open to the effect of somewhere that you glitter, we want, and others the way certainly once upon a time, certainly that we want once upon a time, and others the way

That's waaaaaaay more poetic.

NP: "Tension & Thrill", Sleeping at Last