w-inds. - Long Road
Originally done on Nov. 1, 2005
Long Road
When I could speak easily of my dreams
I was looking at the map and the clock upside-down
I gazed at you and held you
...but I was really looking for "myself"
The clouds that don't tell of their destination
are torn off by the wind and scattered
That day, I was unable to say even "goodbye" to you
And then I lost sight of my dream too
Because I have nothing left to lose
I can walk on without looking back again
The road I'm always on and the sleepless nights too
They're all connected to tomorrow
on My Own Road
Every time we learn something about love
we all become a little more cowardly
But the lonesomeness of being alone
can't be cured by the strength to not show one's tears
The blue sky that I looked up at
is still too bright for me today, but
if I squint my eyes, I can see my dream, so
I'll take that step towards that distant road
If all of my tears have meaning
I want to take the partings just like I took the meetings
You, whom I have lost, and those I've yet to meet,
somewhere in the future, our paths will cross
on My Own Road
Here we go! How you doin'?
Your own Road
The dazzling flow of time,
within it, come on! Open your eyes!
Shake off your loneliness and sadness! Face this shining wide sky
Towards your road, towards every road
We're all different, there's infinite possibilities
Believe in yourself and your dreams will come true!
It's okay even if I get lost on a detour
Because I'll find flowers that only bloom in that place there
Departures are always lonesome
Pelted by the rain, blown about by the wind
come on, let's go.
Because I have nothing left to lose
I can walk on without looking back again
The road I'm always on and the sleepless nights too
They're all connected to tomorrow
on My Own Road
Translators Notes: I could really go on for hours about this song, but since I'm tired and not completely coherent, I'll try not to.
When I could speak easily of my dreams
I was looking at the map and the clock upside-down
I think here, the speaker is saying that when they could easily (in a casual, lighthearted fashion -- lightly was another possible translation) talk about their dreams, they had their perspective skewed; the map and the clock are upside-down and he didn't know any better. What he saw as the future (hence the "map" and the "clock" -- the road he felt he was on and the passing of time) was wrong. I've also seen this interpreted as the speaker not taking things seriously, and I guess it could be either. I am so hardcore, analyzing w-inds. lyrics. Shungo's a good lyric writer though, so he deserves it.
That day, I was unable to say even "goodbye" to you
And then I lost sight of my dream too
I don't really like this translation, but I wasn't sure exactly how to go about parsing it in English. I suppose more accurate would have been something like "that day, unable to say even "goodbye" to you/or then to the dream I'd lost sight of" but even that's taking some creative license. I tried to get at least part of the feeling across though. The wording in the Japanese was very abrupt and the sentence wasn't really complete. Literally, it was something like "that day, unable to say even goodbye to you/and then, I lost sight of... the dream too", but I hope you can see where that was even more awkward than taking a few liberties with the grammar.
But the lonesomeness of being alone
can't be cured by the strength to not show one's tears
I love this lyric, but putting the first part into English was hell. The actual wording is 'hitori no samishisa', which is a simple enough concept until you realize that most of the words used for that feeling in English are somewhat redundant. 'Hitori no samishisa' is just that -- the loneliness of being by yourself, of being alone. I thought of the phrase you sometimes hear about how being lonely is different from being alone; how you can be one without necessarily being the other. But in this lyric, you're both -- you're alone, solitary, and it's lonely. I tried countless ways of wording this. "The loneliness of being alone" was my first draft, but I figured that was too redundant and might throw people off when they were reading. I almost went for "a solitary loneliness" before remembering that that was how centigrade-j translated that line, and I didn't want to unintentionally steal their wording, and I thought that the feeling was a little different anyway. I eventually settled on lonesomeness instead of loneliness because I think it might have a slightly stronger feeling that works at differentiating it from the alone at the end. I think I need a hobby.
[edit] I also forgot to add that this could also imply that the loneliness is one sided -- to be the only person feeling lonely, to have the loneliness be only yours. I love Japanese, really.
If all of my tears have meaning
I want to take the partings just like I took the meetings
Does this make sense? I really struggled with how to get this line across; I had accept instead of take/took there originally, but I think take is closer to the actual meaning of the verb and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it as take. There's a few subtly different ways you can take this line, but my reading is something like... when you meet somebody for the first time, it's usually a pretty casual event, and usually you don't have a problem with it, you know? So if meeting people is such a natural occurrence, then shouldn't parting from people be just as natural?
It's okay even if I get lost on a detour
Because I'll find flowers that only bloom in that place there
I tried to word this as best as I could. The main gist is that the speaker doesn't mind getting lost because even if he gets lost, that place will still have flowers that only bloom there; my interpretation is that he doesn't mind taking "detours" on the road of life because even if things are mistakes or even if they don't pan out, there's still lessons to learn and beauty to be found there. You can find meaning in anything. I think that's a wonderful thought.
Pelted by the rain, blown about by the wind
come on, let's go.
I just wanted to fangirl about this part. How wonderful is that? Even though you're getting soaked and cold... come on, this is important, it's okay, let's go. That takes a lot of courage. I just really love nicely done metaphors, shh. XD
Long Road
When I could speak easily of my dreams
I was looking at the map and the clock upside-down
I gazed at you and held you
...but I was really looking for "myself"
The clouds that don't tell of their destination
are torn off by the wind and scattered
That day, I was unable to say even "goodbye" to you
And then I lost sight of my dream too
Because I have nothing left to lose
I can walk on without looking back again
The road I'm always on and the sleepless nights too
They're all connected to tomorrow
on My Own Road
Every time we learn something about love
we all become a little more cowardly
But the lonesomeness of being alone
can't be cured by the strength to not show one's tears
The blue sky that I looked up at
is still too bright for me today, but
if I squint my eyes, I can see my dream, so
I'll take that step towards that distant road
If all of my tears have meaning
I want to take the partings just like I took the meetings
You, whom I have lost, and those I've yet to meet,
somewhere in the future, our paths will cross
on My Own Road
Here we go! How you doin'?
Your own Road
The dazzling flow of time,
within it, come on! Open your eyes!
Shake off your loneliness and sadness! Face this shining wide sky
Towards your road, towards every road
We're all different, there's infinite possibilities
Believe in yourself and your dreams will come true!
It's okay even if I get lost on a detour
Because I'll find flowers that only bloom in that place there
Departures are always lonesome
Pelted by the rain, blown about by the wind
come on, let's go.
Because I have nothing left to lose
I can walk on without looking back again
The road I'm always on and the sleepless nights too
They're all connected to tomorrow
on My Own Road
Translators Notes: I could really go on for hours about this song, but since I'm tired and not completely coherent, I'll try not to.
When I could speak easily of my dreams
I was looking at the map and the clock upside-down
I think here, the speaker is saying that when they could easily (in a casual, lighthearted fashion -- lightly was another possible translation) talk about their dreams, they had their perspective skewed; the map and the clock are upside-down and he didn't know any better. What he saw as the future (hence the "map" and the "clock" -- the road he felt he was on and the passing of time) was wrong. I've also seen this interpreted as the speaker not taking things seriously, and I guess it could be either. I am so hardcore, analyzing w-inds. lyrics. Shungo's a good lyric writer though, so he deserves it.
That day, I was unable to say even "goodbye" to you
And then I lost sight of my dream too
I don't really like this translation, but I wasn't sure exactly how to go about parsing it in English. I suppose more accurate would have been something like "that day, unable to say even "goodbye" to you/or then to the dream I'd lost sight of" but even that's taking some creative license. I tried to get at least part of the feeling across though. The wording in the Japanese was very abrupt and the sentence wasn't really complete. Literally, it was something like "that day, unable to say even goodbye to you/and then, I lost sight of... the dream too", but I hope you can see where that was even more awkward than taking a few liberties with the grammar.
But the lonesomeness of being alone
can't be cured by the strength to not show one's tears
I love this lyric, but putting the first part into English was hell. The actual wording is 'hitori no samishisa', which is a simple enough concept until you realize that most of the words used for that feeling in English are somewhat redundant. 'Hitori no samishisa' is just that -- the loneliness of being by yourself, of being alone. I thought of the phrase you sometimes hear about how being lonely is different from being alone; how you can be one without necessarily being the other. But in this lyric, you're both -- you're alone, solitary, and it's lonely. I tried countless ways of wording this. "The loneliness of being alone" was my first draft, but I figured that was too redundant and might throw people off when they were reading. I almost went for "a solitary loneliness" before remembering that that was how centigrade-j translated that line, and I didn't want to unintentionally steal their wording, and I thought that the feeling was a little different anyway. I eventually settled on lonesomeness instead of loneliness because I think it might have a slightly stronger feeling that works at differentiating it from the alone at the end. I think I need a hobby.
[edit] I also forgot to add that this could also imply that the loneliness is one sided -- to be the only person feeling lonely, to have the loneliness be only yours. I love Japanese, really.
If all of my tears have meaning
I want to take the partings just like I took the meetings
Does this make sense? I really struggled with how to get this line across; I had accept instead of take/took there originally, but I think take is closer to the actual meaning of the verb and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it as take. There's a few subtly different ways you can take this line, but my reading is something like... when you meet somebody for the first time, it's usually a pretty casual event, and usually you don't have a problem with it, you know? So if meeting people is such a natural occurrence, then shouldn't parting from people be just as natural?
It's okay even if I get lost on a detour
Because I'll find flowers that only bloom in that place there
I tried to word this as best as I could. The main gist is that the speaker doesn't mind getting lost because even if he gets lost, that place will still have flowers that only bloom there; my interpretation is that he doesn't mind taking "detours" on the road of life because even if things are mistakes or even if they don't pan out, there's still lessons to learn and beauty to be found there. You can find meaning in anything. I think that's a wonderful thought.
Pelted by the rain, blown about by the wind
come on, let's go.
I just wanted to fangirl about this part. How wonderful is that? Even though you're getting soaked and cold... come on, this is important, it's okay, let's go. That takes a lot of courage. I just really love nicely done metaphors, shh. XD