Warning: attempted lyrics translation! (Yorinuki Gintama OP4)

[xparrot]

On gintama the full lyrics were posted for the 4th OP of Yorinuki Gintama, Kaatoniago by FLiP (a.k.a. the totally badass, completely un-Gintama-like cat & crow opening), and I figured I'd have a go at translating them. Because, y'know, there's nothing like banging your head repeatedly against the wall of decoding Japanese lyrics, which make if possible even less sense than the words of your average English pop song.

The biggest problem I have with translating Japanese lyrics is that it's really difficult to figure out where to parse phrases, trying to work out whether a verb phrase is on its own or is actually modifying the next noun. Maybe there's a trick to it? (other than not being dumb as a post when it comes to comprehending other languages - oh god I am lucky I was raised an English speaker, because there's no way I could ever have learned it as well as any of the ESL folks on my flist ._.; You guys are seriously amazing.) At any rate, I tend to just go with what's grouped together within a verse, treating verses as single sentences, rather than translating lines individually. ...Which is to say, yeeeeeah, don't expect much accuracy or sense here.

And any edits or corrections are terrifically appreciated! Translator notes/freakouts at the end.


カートニアゴ / KAATONIAGO
FLiP
lyrics from here (with corrections), translation by Xparrot

澱んだ路地裏 石蹴飛ばせば ぎらっと黒猫 振り向く目と目 橙の夕暮れ 黙って引きずる 重い足元に 嫌に伸びた影	yodon da rojiura ishi ketobaseba giratto kuroneko furimuku me to me daidai no yuugure damatte hikizuru omoi ashimoto ni iya ni nobita kage
While kicking a stone in a stagnant back alley I came eye-to-eye with a glaring black cat Orange twilight silences and draws out the shadows, That stretched reluctantly under my heavy footsteps
風つかまえて 夕空ひゅるりと 物知り顔した カラスが見下ろす 人のざま	kaze tsukamaete yuuzora hyururito monoshiri gao shita karasu ga miorosu hito no zama
Catching the breeze And whirling through the evening sky, The know-it-all crows look down upon me
のんべんだらりらっと だらりらっと 生きたあたしに 悲しい報せ 告げるように いま天から使い 舞い降りた	nonbendararira tto dararira tto ikita atashi ni kanashii shirase tsugeru you ni ima ten kara tsukai maiorita
As if to say, "You're idling your life away, just idling," To bring the depressing news to myself there, Now the messengers swooped down from the sky
真っ黒いからだ同士 通じ合って 秘密のいけない 打ち合わせを するように 夕闇に響く カアとカアと ニャアとカアと ニャアゴ	makkuroi kara da doushi tsuuji atte himitsu no ikenai uchiawase o suru you ni yuuyami ni hibiku kaa to kaa to nyaa to kaa to nyaago
Pitch-black-bodied comrades, As if communicating, conspiring wickedly in secret, Their cries resound in the dusk: Caw and caw and meow and caw and meow
不穏な路地裏 迷ってドン突き 行くも戻れぬ 地獄一丁目 子らの落書き 路傍のタンポポ 悪戯に吹く 白綿の羽根	fuon na rojiura mayotte don tsuki iku mo modorenu jigoku icchoume kora no rakugaki robou no tanpopo itazura ni fuku shiro wata no hane
Lost in the disturbing back alleys, Even thrust into the first block of hell without being able to return Children's scribbles, The white fluff mischievously blown off a roadside dandelion {...? Yeah, you got me.}
風ながされて 夕空ふらふら 何食わぬ顔で 見知らぬ街まで 飛んでけ　ほれ	kaze nagasarete yuuzora furafura nani kuwanu kao de mishiranu machi made tondeke hore
Floating on the breeze, And reeling through the evening sky, With innocent looks they fly to the unfamiliar street
まんべんなく笑って なんとなく 生きたあたしを 憐れんで嘲笑うように 黒猫とカラスが ニヤニヤ	manbennaku waratte nanto naku ikita atashi o awaren de azawarau you ni kuroneko to karasu ga niyaniya
All of them grinning, as if, somehow or other, They pity and scorn me, The black cat and the crows smirk.
真っ黒い目で睨んで さよならって 最後に言い残す言葉を せがむように 不気味に響く カアとカアと ニャアとカアと ニャアゴ	makkuroi me de niran de sayonara tte saigo ni iinokosu kotoba o segamu you ni bukimi ni hibiku kaa to kaa to nyaa to kaa to nyaago
Pitch-black eyes glaring, as if to say farewell, To pester me with words left unsaid in the end, Their cries resound eerily: Caw and caw and meow and caw and meow
黒猫見あげた 人のざま	kuroneko miageta hito no zama
The black cat looks up at me.
何遍でも迷って 行き止まって 生きるあたしを 呆れながら諭すように 黒猫とカラスが ニヤニヤ	nanben demo mayotte ikidomatte ikiru atashi o akire nagara satosu you ni kuroneko to karasu ga niyaniya
As if, astonished by how often I lose my way or hit a dead end, They're admonishing me, The black cat and the crows smirk.
真っ黒い目で睨んで 馬鹿だねって 最後に やり残したことは 何だね？　って 問い質してる カアとカアと ニャアとカアと ニャアゴ	makkuroi me de niran de baka da ne tte saigo ni yari nokoshita koto ha nan da ne? tte toitadashiteru kaa to kaa to nyaa to kaatoniago
Pitch-black eyes glaring, Saying I'm an idiot, Saying what did you leave behind, in the end Their cries question me: Caw and caw and meow and caw and meow

* "Nonbendarira, dararira" - DONDAKE~~~~...I have no flipping clue. If it were in katakana I'd think it's a foreign phrase, but it's in hiragana. There's enough hits on Google that I'm guessing it's some kind of slang, maybe a cutesy/crude way of saying some known phrase, but I have no clue what...!
{ETA shayera and mizrock20 came through with definitions!

I translated "karasu" as plural "crows" simply because of the many crows in the Gintama OP; it might be better singular. The "their cries" is from the "カアと ニャアゴ" and the title of the song "カートニアゴ" - I've heard the ゴ is 呱, cry, though I was wondering if it might be 語, as in language - "caw-and-meow-speech"? But no idea, really.

Comments

[nijibug.livejournal.com]

That is a seriously awesome song. Thanks for translating and sharing! x3

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

It is pretty badass - and I love the OP (it's not quite Donten, but... ^__^)

Admittedly...

[nijibug.livejournal.com]

Nothing will ever top Donten in sheer badassery ♥

[snarkydame.livejournal.com]

How cool! And thanks for the work translating this (I'm going to assume its pretty close to right, because it sounds awesome to me, and I wouldn't know better anyway :P)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, I'm in a translating mood! You got anything in Japanese you're wondering about, lemme have it ^_^

[mizrock20.livejournal.com]

WWWJDIC gives me this;

のんべんだらり (adv-to) idly; sluggishly; doing nothing, and;
だらり; だらん (adv-to) (on-mim) languidly; loosely

I thought to translate this song too just because it's so effing awesome and it's from FLiP but yours are better than I can ever do.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! Ahhhh I tried a couple online dics but forgot about that one...baaaaka, watashi wa... ^^;

I don't know FLiP but at least judging from this song I like their sound ^_^

[gruskek.livejournal.com]

Can't really give you any constructive cticicism, as I'm still pretty much a beginner with Japanse... but I can say that your translation sounds really good and makes sense :) Good job :)

I love this OP as well. It's great how they ilustrated the lyrics so accurately.

[gruskek.livejournal.com]

Forgot to add that your header is seriously epic :DDD

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, thank you - and glad the translation worked for you, too! Yeah, I like how the opening reflected lyrics of the song that weren't actually heard, like the dandelion...

[gruskek.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.
I agree - including the images from the other verses worked great. Little details like that really made this opening for me :)

[naye]

Whoa, that's a seriously gorgeous translation you have there! I'm so bad at getting Japanese to sound good in English, even when it makes sense in my head, but - wow. This is brilliant. And the song is so, so good whoo~.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I think your translations sound great myself, but thank you! *^^* I'm getting better at making smoother translations - the more confident I get of my Japanese comprehension, the more comfortable I am straying from the literal. And moreso with lyrics, since their meaning tends to be vague anyway ^^; Also I've taken to going to the English thesaurus when the J-E dictionaries aren't offering anything that sounds quite right; since most words aren't exact in meaning anyway there's a lot of wiggle-room.

[feng-huolong.livejournal.com]

Woah, great translation! It flows pretty well ^^
I'd never manage to that xD *goes add it to her lyrics on Word*
Just some heads up on the romaji, with the help of the kanji and some noob knowledge.
一丁目 it's read icchoume (first block) and not ichichoume, due to phonetics.
For the same reason 行き止まって, it's read ikidomatte instead of ikitomatte. It's like "ikidomari" (dead end).
And lastly,何だね it's read "nanda ne" and not "nani". It's not grammatically correct.

Damnit... got some stuff wrong according to the Japanese lyrics. I've to correct them. orz

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Glad it works for you!

Ahhh, that's what I get for copying romaji lyrics, rather than writing them up myself...I skimmed them over and caught a few things, but that site's apparently less than trustworthy ^^;

[feng-huolong.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know Gedou had lyrics XD

[astridv.livejournal.com]

oh god I am lucky I was raised an English speaker, because there's no way I could ever have learned it as well as any of the ESL folks on my flist ._.

Well, for a German native speaker learning English comes pretty naturally; the two languages has such strong common roots. They're really very similar, ultimately. In addition English has stripped out a bunch of grammatical forms, which doesn't hurt. Learning Japanese, by comparison, is in a whole different league. *tears out a hair or two*

And Japanese lyrics are a step above that... I just can't make any sense of them. So cryptic! I printed out your translation, maybe that'll help me get a feeling for how they work.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, French is pretty close to English, too - I can't speak French...or write it because I don't remember any conjugations for any type of verb ^^;;; - but I can read it okay, because the grammar and much of the vocab is so close. Still, am way impressed by all of those people like you who can write English as well as any native!

Japanese is difficult to get one's head around, if you're an Indoeuropean-language-speaker - I'm getting better at it, even if I need way more vocab & kanji to actually be able to read it without a dictionary or watch without subs. If there's anything in the translation that confuses you, just ask - I might've just been guessing but I might be able to explain it, depending ^^;