Biting her nails

I am such a geek. I actually watched Blade Runner before finishing this.

From Arai Akino's recent double album release. Thought I would start with an "easy" one.

Original title: Tyrell
Artist: Arai Akino

( full song, Romaji and English translation )

But yes, the amount of snow we've had (or should I say haven't had) so far this year is pitiful.

Original Japanese title: mahiru ga yuki [ listen ]
Translated title: Snow in Broad Daylight
Artist: Sakamoto Maaya

( full song, Romaji and English translation )

Yeah, so I'm probably the last person on the planet to hear Sakamoto Maaya's newest. I'm not that fond of Christmas-themed albums but there are some nice lyrics happening throughout this one.

Original title: Driving in the silence [ listen ]
Artist: Sakamoto Maaya

( full song, Romaji and English translation )

Revision of another oldie. As mentioned in the notes, some of the events that inspired the lyrics have turned out not to have occurred at all, but the emotions and message behind the song are still genuine, and that's probably all that matters.

Original Japanese title: supuutoniku [ listen ]
Translated title: Sputnik
Artist: Arai Akino

( full song, Romaji and English translation )

It's probably a good idea to occasionally water whatever you "plant" though.

Another one from Daredemonai niwa, the Japanese edition of the German book Der Niemandsgarten, written by Michael Ende and edited by Roman Hocke. Which means, yes, this is a translation of a translation. Sorry?

Speaking of translations, in the forward to this book the Japanese translator made the peculiar choice to leave some words in their original language. So, apparently the German word for "image" is "bild", which looks (and sounds?) a bit like the English word "built". How cool is that?

Original German title: unknown
Translated title, Japanese: uchinaru sekai ga arehatenai tame ni
Translated title, English: In Order For the World Within Not To Fall Into Ruin
Author: Ende, Michael
Translator, Japanese: Tamura Toshio

( English translation )

eden is still my favourite Arai Akino album, and the last track is still my favourite song on the album.

Original Japanese title: suna no kishibe [ listen ]
Translated title: The Sandbank
Artist: Arai Akino

( full song, romaji and English translation )

Have always loved the part that starts with "The cold white kisses of aluminum…"

That's enough, isn't it?

Original Japanese title: kakuseitoshi [listen]
Translated title: City of Awakenings
Artist: Arai Akino

( full song, romaji and English translation )

Because the demotape that Arai Akino received when asked to write lyrics for this song was labelled "Kafka Song".

Original Japanese title: shiro
Translated title: The Castle
Artist: ZABADAK

( full song, romaji and English translation )

There are song lyrics that completely take over the mind and won't leave you alone until a full translation's been committed to file. A lot of Sakamoto Maaya's song lyrics have had this effect, and this new one from her upcoming album "You can't catch me" is no exception.

Done completely by ear. Accuracy 100% NOT guaranteed. I usually don't like posting translations without seeing the printed lyrics first since my hearing isn't the best, but since I'm feeling pretty confident about this one. We'll see how well (or not) I did when the actual album comes out in January. Finally! Fully revised against the printed lyrics. In hindsight, I didn't do too bad.

Original Japanese title: himitsu [watch]
Translated title: Secret
Artist: Sakamoto Maaya

( full song, romaji and English translation )

My apologies to anyone (still) following this Livejournal for more "Frozen Teardrop" updates!!! I've unfortunately been completely consumed by the work side of things since August, and more recently I've been down with a nasty cold. Rest assured that I have every intent to continue with the translations though, albeit slowly.

Luckily for the rest of you, I'm not the only one sharing translations online. Translations for the other chapters so far can be found here:

• http://corpus-yaoi.livejournal.com/21193.html (Chapter 1, Part 1)
• http://corpus-yaoi.livejournal.com/22596.html (Chapter 1, Part 2)
• http://kokoronomelody.livejournal.com/98367.html (Chapter 2, Part 1)

I'm hoping to start tackling Chapter 1 myself soon. If you like your translations with an obsessive number of end notes, stay tuned ;)

Meanwhile, the prologue has been revised. (Look ma, no more missing words!) Some major changes to note: "Cathy" has been changed to "Kathy" to differentiate from Catherine Bloom. Also, her title has been changed from Officer to Lieutenant, and "Roshi Chang" has been changed to "Master Chang", both to be consistent with the North American release of Gundam W. See the prologue itself for further details.

Finally, I mentioned in the end notes for the prologue that the quote from Episode 18 was missing lines vs. the actual TV broadcast. This episode has always been a favourite of mine, especially that last scene where Heero pretends to read an essay, and it's probably one of the earliest things I properly translated. It was nice to dig up the old manuscript and clean it up for the prologue after all these years. Here's the full version, just for the heck of it.

( English translation )