Translation: Lai Lai Lai

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

Lai lai lai, wow wow wow, lai lai lai wow wow yeah
Lai lai lai, wow wow wow, yeah~

I have a philosophy of not pushing myself over the limit(1) (completely)
Only doing as much as possible (we) won't give up so easily

However much it may be (fundamentally) it's not so different (even if)
I am born anew underneath this light

The world i pursue is nothing but illusions, soon the end will come
The only thing that matters is my unswerving resolution
In this instant, honestly show me your heart.

Let's dance all night, there's a reason for all these tears
Spin, spin, amongst these stars
Modestly, I ride on this dream and swallow my sadness
Because this is the place that we believe in yeah

Lai lai lai, wow wow wow, lai lai lai wow wow yeah
Lai lai lai, wow wow wow, yeah~

The world i pursue is nothing but illusions, soon the end will come
It doesn't matter where we end up,
In this instant, honestly show me your heart.

Let's dance all night, you're not alone, it won't end just like this
Spin, spin, throughout the everyday
Modestly, sing of your dream,
Stow away your loneliness
Because this is the place that we believe in yeah

Let's dance all night, there's a reason for all these tears
Spin, spin, amongst these stars
Modestly, I ride on this dream and swallow my sadness
There was something here that we believed in...

Let's dance all night, you're not alone, it won't end just like this
Spin, spin, throughout the everyday
Modestly, sing of your dream,
Stow away your loneliness
Because this is the place that we believe in yeah

Lai lai lai, wow wow wow, lai lai lai wow wow yeah
Lai lai lai, wow wow wow, yeah~

This song is the shit. I've figured out pretty much most songs on ONE are sad. Oh well, it makes me love them more. I guess the extended metaphor in this one is sad dancing.
Only one context note this time! That means i'm getting better! (Or this song is easy, >_>)
(1) When they say "pushing myself over the limit," they mean 無理はしない, which is literally "not doing an impossible/unreasonable thing." In english, there really isn't any not ugly way of saying this, so I wanted to make clear that they meant doing something wayy unreasonable as opposed to not doing something because you're nino-lazy.

Comments

[yumenoko.livejournal.com]

Oooohhh, translations!!! Yum!! *rapidly reads and digests* Dang, girl, you actually make the lyrics seem decent; nice job of English-izing them. ne, do have older trans? Like, say, from Iza Now? That is still my ab fave Arashi album and I'm curious to know if what I 8think* the songs are about is what they are about! ^__^

Anyway, thanks for this one! *files away*

[dream-raine.livejournal.com]

who would have thought the lyrics are sad for such an upbeat song...thks for translating!

[audreyshaped.livejournal.com]

I like how Lai-Lai-Lai came on my iTunes right as I scrolled down to this.

[bmmn.livejournal.com]

You're awesome! I worship your translating skills.

The song is really sad though. ;_; Aw...

[--aishuu.livejournal.com]

I love the lyrics for this song~~

Thank you for translating!

[dokodemo-honey.livejournal.com]

nice work :)

[acidae.livejournal.com]

Awwww, the lyrics are awesome ^_____^ I'm seriously liking this song more and more. Of course it helped that they performed it (and looked like total smex while they were at it) 8D; Thanks!

[dio-elaclaire.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm a bit too sensitive, but he lyrics really made me cry... Damn.
Once again - thanks a lot for your hard work. Arigatou!

[phasera.livejournal.com]

Jesus christ they LOVE their angsty lyrics over in Japanese. XD Hahaha. I mean, seriously.

You rock~! Thanks again for doing all these? And I look forward to the next installment. :3

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

yeah no problem! I'm just worried that I would be translating stuff that other, better people have already translated so that's why i started on one, but if there's any songs out there that haven't been translated/been translated really confusingly please tell me so i can do them!

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

i know! this song and natsu no namae threw me off so bad.

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

thanks! i'm going to get better though, i'm aiming for being able to translate with very limited use of a dictionary and almost no context notes! hahah, I'm a ways off.

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

no prob! and since i'm a loser i checked out your myspace...
Yay for really tall asian girls! I'm not, 6'0, but i'm like 5'7 and it makes all the boys have height complexes.

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

oh man the smex is an understatement

you know that one part on music station when they all kneeled down and slowly got up?

yeah, i basically died, although there was a frumpy guy from my school watching it too and being all like "Durr, who are these guys??"

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

hahah, there, there! I'll do Subarashiki Sekai next, and i have a feeling it's going to be a tear jerker too, but in the good way, i think.

I'm just glad that my translation flows ok enough to allow you to be moved by the lyrics!

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

See, i could get all academic here but basically Japan loves the hell out of sad love songs.
Be prepared for SS! Although i dont know when i can do it because final exams are coming up X(

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAH OMG I just saw your user icons and the fat cat!!!!! hahahahahah so good!@!

[--aishuu.livejournal.com]

haha, i see...yeah, a lot of boys are intimidated by girls that are tall. 5'7"~that's tall too! Haha, we win~~~

[phasera.livejournal.com]

I know right. I couldn't resist Ohno with his chubby kitten blob. XD~ Couldn't resist!

[phasera.livejournal.com]

Awww, please do get academic! Seriously! It's actually something I've been gradually noticing and paying more attention to lately, and wondering about myself. So I'd love to hear a theory or two from someone actually living amongst them but not quite part of the culture~ you probably have a very good perspective of this phenomenon, eh? Share, share! :3

(Also, just for kicks-- any thoughts on why they use so much RANDOM english/engrish in modern Japanese music? I wonder about this one quite a bit, too.)

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

ok, i still haven't done as much research into this as i wish i could, but here's what i gather from the materials i have read/my own observations.

japanese have always loved poignant and tragic stories. for example, the first major novel, the Tale of Genji, deals with the ephermality of human life and beauty. Even the national flower, the sakura, is prized for its extreme beauty but short life span. It's said that "namida" or tears are highly prized as a very moving aspect of human emotion, and tragedy provides a deeper sort of emotion. hence all the sad songs. Summer especially is a season for reflecting on short love flings/reminescing on better days in the past. There's an entire book written on the japanese obsession with tragic heroes but it's out of print so I'm trying my darndest ot find and buy it.

The random english in modern pop music probably stems from japan's overall adoration of the US ever since we defeated them in WWII. this may sound big headed, but its a common accepted fact. even now if you talk about the US to a japanese person, stereotypes aside, they generally have a very positive view of the us. English has thus become an admired language and by adding it into songs it makes the song that much "hipper" and up to date. if you look at japan's music scene, generally it is behind the US's music movement at least 10 years. Like now reggaeton has just gotten popular and hip hop only really got popular in the late nineties whereas it's been going on since the late 70's in the us. Thus, the japanese look towards the us for new trends in music and culture, albeit they do a lot of their own mixing, but take a look at some pop culture things that are "japanese": gothloli, visual kei, manga, valentines day chocolate; all these things stem from western traditions.

Whew~ hope that didn't bore you to death. Can you tell i'm an east asian studies major who's concentrating on japanese pop culture? ahahha

[acidae.livejournal.com]

Omg yesssssssssss. It reminds me of that dance they did in theor IN tour for Kimi wa Sukoshi mo Warukunai, except this one's better because it lacks the bright pink frilly suit with the black lacy skirt thing XD

[epuniza.livejournal.com]

wow...another translation...whenever i sing this song, the word lai lai lai reminds me of chinese word, lai lai... :p

thanx anyway...

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

i know, before the cd came out and just the song titles were available i was thinking "uh oh, chinese style song?!"

[epuniza.livejournal.com]

may i know what is the meaning of lai lai lai actually? i know that arashi did learn some chinese word in mago mago arashi, isn't?

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

haha, sorry i didn't make it so clear.

Lai = La, so basically they're using a creative form of "la la la," they're not saying 来, the chinese word for "come", although it sounds like it, huh? Plus i doubt those boys remember much of the chinese they learned in Mago, ahhah.

[warumono-yum.livejournal.com]

wow yey! i love reading your translations! thx so much! it just give each song a whole new feel when you can think about what they're saying while you listen *havent listened to music i can understand for years -___-;;;*
wow, this song totally opposite from what i expect it about too... i love it!! <3

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

thank you! i enjoy translating these songs.
yeah, songs get so much better when you know what they're saying, especially when they're saying something really sweet/sad.

[epuniza.livejournal.com]

oh...really? i thought there's a certain meaning of lai lai lai... haha..

[bmmn.livejournal.com]

I know that feeling. I'm actually studying Mandarin, but I always have to run for my books for the most part. I've got a long way to go.

[violomana.livejournal.com]

Wow, I really enjoy your translations. It's great to be able to understand it in full context and not broken "Japanese I" meanings. You had no idea how happy I was just to find that "mawaru" in a dictionary meant "to spin, to rotate" and then have it match the dance move they do at that moment. XP

Anyway, would it be possible to create an archive of your translations? It would be great if we could have a memory file on this community just for translations (and maybe even one for downloads), but I don't think I'm authorized to do that (I just joined this community today).... XD

[noesunexito.livejournal.com]

thanks! hahah, i know it's so great that they spin when they say spin!

i think i'll make a journal just for my trans today, but i didn't want to do it initially because i tend to think that translation journals end up being generally not read, hahah, but i guess i'll do that today.

[violomana.livejournal.com]

Yay! Looking forward to it!

[phasera.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, so I realize I'm quite horribley late in getting back to you~ but thanks very much for responding to my request. :) I find the whole thing extremely fascinating! And that's quite a cool major you have for yourself. (What are you going to do with a degree in J-pop?)

So, besides that one out of print book--- can you recommend me any other good books on the subject?