千年恋歌 (Sennen Koi Uta)

Note: Korean version here.

ROMANISATION

SENNEN KOI UTA

Tatoe karada kieru hi mo kono omoi kienai
Kawaiteyuku hana sae towa no inochi wo tsugu

Sen nen no namida ga kokoro wo tsutau
Nando umare kawatte mo anata ni aeru made

Mezameru mae monogatari yume no hate te wo furu
Hikari ga sasu kanata ni toki no setsuna wo shiru
Sen nen no negai wa sora ni habataku
Hagate moe tsukite ii anata ni aeru nara

Haruka na tabi soyo kaze ga hitorikiri samayou
Kareta hana ni furu ame kanashimi wo tsutsumu yo
Sen nen no ai demo tsutae kirenai (dekinai)
Tsuki ga yoru ni nemureba anata ni aeru no ni

Sen nen no omoi yo tsugare yuku uta
Itsuka umare kawattara anata ni au tame ni

Credits: caryncyh @ dbsgLJ

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TRANSLATION

ETERNAL LOVE SONG

Even on the day my body vanishes, this love won't disappear
Even the flowers will wither away, but this feeling will last long enough to take the place of 'eternity'

One thousand years of tears will drench my heart
No matter how many times I'm reborn... until I can meet you again

Before I awaken from this fantasy, you wave to me
In the real world, morning comes and for an instant in time, I understand
One thousand years of wishes soar in the sky
It's alright if they never come true, as long as I can meet you

On a journey far away, I wander alone in the gentle breeze
The rain that falls on the withered flowers conceals the sadness
Even with a thousand years of love (a thousand years),
I can't fully express my feelings for you (I can't)
When the moon can't be seen in the night sky, I'll be able to meet you

One thousand years of feelings, living on in a song
So that someday, when I'm reborn, I'll be able to meet you


Credits: lunatunalover@LJ (Alicia)


Translator's Notes -

I'd just like to note that I haven't seen the Korean movie this song was originally the theme for (or well, the Korean version of the song that is). From what I can gather, it seems to be a period piece and I feel like the song would probably make more sense if I had that as context. So, as usual this is all my interpretation and if anyone who's seen the movie has any insight (or even if you haven't), feel free to let me know ^_^ Sorry there are so many of them this time!

While the first line is pretty much literal, I would like to note that the word 'omoi' can be translated quite a few ways, and I just chose 'love' in this case. It can also be 'feeling,' and I use that in the second line (despite the word itself not actually being spoken there, I felt it was assumed). The 2nd half of the 2nd line was rather... interesting XD More literally, I guess it would translate as 'it will succeed/inherit the existence of eternity.' The verb here is usually used for inheriting something down family lines or succeeding a business but when I looked at the definition in Japanese, one of them basically said 'In order to prevent something from going extinct, something else will come in and continue in its place.' So, the feeling that I got here was that this love/feeling is so strong and enduring that it will last so long as to outlast eternity, thereby coming to encapsulate eternity itself. Since it would be impossible to last longer than eternity (as eternity is forever-lasting), this line just re-enforces how strong this love is.

More literally, this line would be 'one thousand years of tears course down/follow my heart' as 'tsutau' is usually used with cheek and would be more along the lines of 'tears streamed down.' Maybe it was just my state of mind at the time I translated but 'tears course/stream down over my heart' just sounded awkward in English. So, even though 'drench' isn't actually used here, I felt it got the idea across and sounded better English wise ^^;;

The majority of this verse is an interpretation verses a translation. In the first line, the word 'monogatari' (story) is used, followed by 'yume no hate' (end of the/a dream). If it they had flipped 'story' and 'dream' and put 'yume monogatari no hate' it would be 'the end of a fantasy,' or something along those lines. I really didn't know what to make of this word choice, so I assumed they meant some sort of dreamed up fantasy. I also just chopped the 'end of' part because if you wake from a dream, that would be the end of it. The second line would more literally be 'on the other side, light comes' but I thought the idea was that the other side was reality and the morning sun pulling him away from his dreamworld where (she) exists. The third line is pretty much literal, but the first part of the final line would more literally be 'it's alright if they all burn out.' The idea is that they vanish away, but I felt saying wishes 'burn out' just seemed a bit 'o.O wha?' in English, so I took some creative license and just chose to say 'never come true.'

Even though the song lyrics themselves didn't use parentheses to denote the parts sung in the background, I chose to include them because I felt they emphasized the feelings in the line, Technically the parts in parentheses would be 'love' and 'can't' but for the echo to work in English, I felt the first part would need to be a re-emphasis of the length of the love, verses the love being there itself, so I interpreted accordingly. The final line would literally be 'when the moon sleeps at night, I'll be able to meet you' but I felt this perhaps needed a bit of tweaking for an English speaking audience. The impression that I got was how impossible it seems for these lovers (perhaps?) to meet. The idea of the moon sleeping at night seems preposterous because that's what it does during the day, so I think the idea here is that (his) hope here is rather impossible. I chose to interpret it more like 'when the moon doesn't appear in the night sky' to get that across in English, but hopefully it worked ^^;;;

Finally, the last verse. Once again, the verb 'tsugu' (to succeed) made an appearance but this time in a form that would translate to something along the lines of 'to be succeeded'. I felt the idea here was that his feelings were being continued in this song, so I chose to translate it as 'live on' because of that. ^^

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JAPANESE KANJI

千年恋歌

たとえ身体消える日も この想い消えない
乾いてゆく花さえ 永遠(とわ)の生命(いのち)を継ぐ
千年の涙が 心をつたう
何度生まれ変わっても あなたに会えるまで

目覚める前 物語 夢の果て手を振る
光が差す彼方に 時間(とき)の刹那を知る
千年の願いは 空に羽ばたく
やがて燃え尽けていい あなたに会えるなら

遥かな旅 そよ風が一人きり彷徨う
枯れた花に降る雨 哀しみを包むよ
千年の愛でも 伝えきれない
月が夜に眠れば あなたに会えるのに

千年の想いは 継がれゆく歌
いつか生まれ変わったら あなたに会うために