Do as Infinity - 楽園

The Music

I chose this song more by chance than anything – it has sat in my files for years; I doubt I ever knew how or when I obtained it. But being one of the first songs in Japanese I can remember hearing, I figured it was as good a place as any to start my journey through language and music. As it turned out, translation presented some challenges far beyond my level of Japanese, but we'll see what I can glean at this depth.

If you've heard the original song, you can probably remember well the simple cello ostinato that gives pulse to the verses, and the pickup pizzicato figure that sits well on the top. I didn't have the skill to translate these idiomatically to a solo guitar piece, but what I could capture was the verse-chorus contrast: more contemplative verses that focus on the present, and rocking high-energy choruses that drive toward the future.

Below is my translation. It's a bit loose, given that it wouldn't sound very good if it weren't.

誰もが皆知ってる 消せやしない傷を どれくらい続くの もう要らないよ	Dare mo ga mina shitteru keseyashinai kizu wo Dore kurai tsuzuku no Mō iranai yo	Everybody knows there are wounds that can never be healed How much longer will they last? We don't need them anymore
誰もが皆待ってる 争いのない日々を 戦場の兵士たち 思い出してよ 今母の温もりを	Dare mo ga mina matteru arasoi no nai hibi wo Senjō no heishi-tachi omoidashite yo ima haha no nukumori wo	Everybody waits for days free from conflict Remember the soldiers on the battlefield now, your mother's warmth
この果てしなく広い世界に 自分だけの地図描いて 涙こらえて僕らは 歩いてゆこう 立ち上がれ今ほら何度でも 眠れる獅子呼び起こして 生きてゆくんだ 明日へ	Kono hateshinaku hiroi sekai ni jibun dake no chizu egaite Namida koraete bokura wa aruite yukō Tachiagare ima hora nando de mo nemureru shishi yobiokoshite Ikite yuku n'da Ashita e	In this vast, boundless world draw a map of your own fighting back the tears, let's walk together, let's go Everybody stand up now, however many times, wake up the sleeping lion. We'll push forward to tomorrow
誰もが皆持ってる 一欠けらの愛を 憎んでも何一つ 生まれないんだよ そんなのもう要らないよ	Dare mo ga mina motteru hitokakera no ai wo Nikunde mo nani hitotsu umarenai n'da yo Sonna no mō irania yo	Everybody holds a fragment of love From hatred, nothing is born at all We don't need such a thing anymore
この限りある時間の中で まだ見ぬ楽園目指して どこまでだって僕らは 歩いてゆこう 振り向かないで前だけを見て この体朽ち果てるまで 生きてゆくんだ 未来へ	Kono kagiri aru jikan no naka de mada minu rakuen mezashite Doko made datte bokura wa aruite yukō Furimukanaide mae dake wo mite kono karada kuchihateru made Ikite yuku n'da Mirai e	In the limited time we have, aim toward the yet-unseen paradise However far, let's walk together, let's go Without turning back, looking only ahead, until this body rots away We'll push forward to the future

The Language

An interesting aspect of this song is the use of what is as far as I know considered “old” Japanese. Instead of the usual “to go” verb of Japanese, 行く iku, this song substitutes ゆく yuku, which has the same meaning but is considered to have an antiquated feel. I wonder if this choice reflected the song's time theme, if it feels better to sing an emphatic yu, or if Do As Infinity just shared my affinity for the fish-shaped ゆ kana and wanted to use it when possible. [Note - As I would later discover, substituting ゆく for いく just seems to be a song convention.] A second example is in まだ見ぬ楽園, a “still unseen paradise.” As I understand, conjugation of a verb by appending ぬ nu to its stem renders a somewhat archaic negative. Given that a more textbook translation of “still unseen” might look more like まだ見ていない mada mite inai or even the actually passive まだ見られていない mada mirarete inai, perhaps this was simply the best way to fit “unseen” into a small handful of moras.

The verses were considerably more difficult to translate than the choruses, as they tended to leave explicit connections between images either unspoken or beyond the grasp of my inferior Japanese. Consider a gloss of the last three lines of the second verse:

戦場の兵士たち思い出してよ今母の温もりを
battlefield-GEN soldier-PL remember-“TE FORM” EMPHATIC now mother-GEN warmth-ACC

So we have a nominative “the soldiers of the battlefield” of unclear case, a verb “remember / recall” which is of unclear mood (though likely imperative given the emphasis / informing particle yo), and “now, mother's warmth” as an object. Unless the last line goes with a verb in the chorus (none of which seem to want it), I suppose your mother's warmth is what's being remembered. Or are these mothers of the soldiers? Given the lack of particle on 兵士たち, it's not clear who's remembering what, unless it is and I just don't get it. Thus, I went with the English translation I did, which is about as unclear. A clever interpretation, or an uninformed cop-out? Perhaps it can be both. [Note - I still kind of like my cop-out, but this is probably just "Soldiers on the battlefield, remember now your mother's warmth."]

Ah, “wake the sleeping lion.” Hey, that's what it says. I just have to wonder – does this sound less lame in Japanese? Or perhaps even more cliché? If you thought it sounded cool, then a thousand pardons.

On the other hand, 朽ち果てる is a terrifically cool verb. To rot away, to die in obscurity, to fall to ruins. (Definitions from here). Given that it is composed of two root verbs - “to rot” and “to reach the end” respectively – I can't give it too much credit for lexicalizing the concept of slow, creeping decay into oblivion, but it's still a flavorful addition to any vocabulary.

As a final translation note, I rendered 歩いてゆこう and 生きてゆくんだ the way I did because the more literal “let's go, walking!” and “it's that we subsist” are clearly not going to work. Though come to think of it, the similarly literal “go on living” is not a terrible choice for the latter. Better translations are heartily welcome.

In the end, the song is about leaving behind the struggles and hatred of the past and moving forward together to a better future – toward 楽園, toward paradise. It feels a bit trite, though that's probably more the fault of my translation than the Japanese. (Then again, wake the sleeping lion, let's go!...) But it's well executed, and it can get pretty catchy. As can most things when you listen to them enough to translate and record them, but just as well. Speaking of which, in the recording I switch a couple lines, but I think the meaning stays intact. I also screw up 生まれない umarenai into 埋まらない umaranai, giving the line a meaning more like “nothing is buried by hatred.” Against all odds, that almost works too. I was totally going for that.

© 2012 Larry Kenny