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petroniaI dumped my entire Japanese music folder into Winamp, put it on shuffle and told it I was going to read the chapters of Death Note I skipped (the raws - and I buy the tankoubons because I want to know exactly what the original Japanese says. Not that the translation is bad but with a series like this?).
It pulled Kuraki Mai's "Perfect Crime".
On that note (what?), some more music as I gradually get around to ripping my CDs:
Jay Chou - Zi Zhan Zhi Shang (Elegy of Armistice)
...Best I could do for the title in less than ten words. What, were you under the impression that Jay Chou lyrics would be easy to render in English? Not that most Sinophones of my acquaintance have any idea of what comes out of his mouth when he raps anyway, so to put the flist on an equal footing I did indeed translate the entire song. It's really a poem; says so on the lyrics sheet.
All about the dramatic minor-key piano loop, baby.
Elegy of Armistice
The light
Weightless as paper
The light
Strewn everywhere
The light flustered in a rustle of applause
Her song tells of
An unbearable wound
The script is on-stage
Giving a last performance
And all the villagers quietly watching from their seats
How time abandons this theatre
The war-flames dirty
Her teary gaze
Who is it whining for candy
In the wind
From the very first shot of this tale
Dust masked the sunlight
Terror is inscribed on the children's faces
The wheat fields have fallen in the chariots' passage
The dandelion's form scatters
Its seeds take flight in despair
She sings only
She thinks only
Of this elegy of armistice
Candlelight burns in the evil night
The sky heaves in the confusion of battle
Laments for the untimely dead carry for a thousand miles
The native land is famine and desolation
On this path
Innocence stumbles and weaves
She is cut by blades of wild grass
What shape has the hope
In children's eyes
Will there be bread for breakfast when they wake up
And a bowl of hot soup
Their crops and villages burnt
Farmers finally pick up guns
But she slowly becomes accustomed
To abandoning resistance
What shape has the hope
In children's eyes
Is there a swing to play on in the courtyard
And candy in their pockets
Knives are polished bright by hatred
Barbarous in the distance
But she smiles unhurried and unflustered
David Tao - Whose Heart Does The Moon Represent?
Sort of the Cpop equivalent of that Chinese literary modus operandi, whereby in the thick of the narrative the author tosses out a classical allusion and the readers... collapse in tears? Shiver in reflexive sympathy? But of course one does sort of need to be familiar with the original.
Teresa Teng - The Moon Represents My Heart
As close to Cpop canon as you can get, post-war. You've probably heard it in a restaurant somewhere, and didn't this play in Rush Hour 2? If David Tao had confined himself to a lite R&B cover that's all it would've been - a lite R&B cover of an ubiquitous classic - but he adds that question mark at the end. The original songs becomes the chorus, and the verses frame it with a narrative of disillusion. "I blame the moon that night / romantic enough to turn one's head / there wasn't much up to that point / just the night was a bit chilly / and suddenly love was hard to set down." Teresa Teng's old chestnut becomes "their song", but the romance it promises is fleeting. And so...?
So it's a lite R&B cover that deconstructs an ubiquitous classic. The PMV piles yet more interpretation on top - no verses, just the story of Mr. Tao and uhh the girl who assists him in "gathering" nature sounds - but this much will do for a Monday.
David Tao - My Anata
Basically it's a parody of 1970s enka (the Japanese cultural equivalent to "when my woman left me she took my truck and ran my dog over" country music); the first time I heard it I nearly laughed my way to a hernia. Extra points for 1) fanboy Japanese, 2) fanboy Kansai, and 3) being about Sadako. From Ringu. I don't think a translation is strictly necessary in order to grok this, but here's one anyway.
My Anata
Sabishii late at night all I hear
Is the ojisan selling meat buns from his cart
Yohji-han desu, where are you?
Could you be drinking nakashi in a kurabu again?
Oh, I don't know if you still love me
Where did I go wrong, please tell me
I can't hit back
I can't argue back
As long as you say "aishiteru" and not "sayonara"
(Baka!)
Hitori de I'm so lonely, Anata
I've been waiting without news for two years and three months
I'm going mad
I hear the doorbell
Sumimasen, the delivery is for next door
Oh, I suspect you don't love me anymore
You're going to leave me
I beg you, please don't go
I'll go on a diet for you
I'll get drunk for you
Please don't say you don't love me my dear Anata
(Anata, Anata oh, please don't go!)
I want you to know
I'll always love you
If I lose you
I won't be able to live
We're the best match
I won't blame you at all
Because one day you'll see me crawl out of your TV
It pulled Kuraki Mai's "Perfect Crime".
On that note (what?), some more music as I gradually get around to ripping my CDs:
Jay Chou - Zi Zhan Zhi Shang (Elegy of Armistice)
...Best I could do for the title in less than ten words. What, were you under the impression that Jay Chou lyrics would be easy to render in English? Not that most Sinophones of my acquaintance have any idea of what comes out of his mouth when he raps anyway, so to put the flist on an equal footing I did indeed translate the entire song. It's really a poem; says so on the lyrics sheet.
All about the dramatic minor-key piano loop, baby.
Elegy of Armistice
The light
Weightless as paper
The light
Strewn everywhere
The light flustered in a rustle of applause
Her song tells of
An unbearable wound
The script is on-stage
Giving a last performance
And all the villagers quietly watching from their seats
How time abandons this theatre
The war-flames dirty
Her teary gaze
Who is it whining for candy
In the wind
From the very first shot of this tale
Dust masked the sunlight
Terror is inscribed on the children's faces
The wheat fields have fallen in the chariots' passage
The dandelion's form scatters
Its seeds take flight in despair
She sings only
She thinks only
Of this elegy of armistice
Candlelight burns in the evil night
The sky heaves in the confusion of battle
Laments for the untimely dead carry for a thousand miles
The native land is famine and desolation
On this path
Innocence stumbles and weaves
She is cut by blades of wild grass
What shape has the hope
In children's eyes
Will there be bread for breakfast when they wake up
And a bowl of hot soup
Their crops and villages burnt
Farmers finally pick up guns
But she slowly becomes accustomed
To abandoning resistance
What shape has the hope
In children's eyes
Is there a swing to play on in the courtyard
And candy in their pockets
Knives are polished bright by hatred
Barbarous in the distance
But she smiles unhurried and unflustered
David Tao - Whose Heart Does The Moon Represent?
Sort of the Cpop equivalent of that Chinese literary modus operandi, whereby in the thick of the narrative the author tosses out a classical allusion and the readers... collapse in tears? Shiver in reflexive sympathy? But of course one does sort of need to be familiar with the original.
Teresa Teng - The Moon Represents My Heart
As close to Cpop canon as you can get, post-war. You've probably heard it in a restaurant somewhere, and didn't this play in Rush Hour 2? If David Tao had confined himself to a lite R&B cover that's all it would've been - a lite R&B cover of an ubiquitous classic - but he adds that question mark at the end. The original songs becomes the chorus, and the verses frame it with a narrative of disillusion. "I blame the moon that night / romantic enough to turn one's head / there wasn't much up to that point / just the night was a bit chilly / and suddenly love was hard to set down." Teresa Teng's old chestnut becomes "their song", but the romance it promises is fleeting. And so...?
So it's a lite R&B cover that deconstructs an ubiquitous classic. The PMV piles yet more interpretation on top - no verses, just the story of Mr. Tao and uhh the girl who assists him in "gathering" nature sounds - but this much will do for a Monday.
David Tao - My Anata
Basically it's a parody of 1970s enka (the Japanese cultural equivalent to "when my woman left me she took my truck and ran my dog over" country music); the first time I heard it I nearly laughed my way to a hernia. Extra points for 1) fanboy Japanese, 2) fanboy Kansai, and 3) being about Sadako. From Ringu. I don't think a translation is strictly necessary in order to grok this, but here's one anyway.
My Anata
Sabishii late at night all I hear
Is the ojisan selling meat buns from his cart
Yohji-han desu, where are you?
Could you be drinking nakashi in a kurabu again?
Oh, I don't know if you still love me
Where did I go wrong, please tell me
I can't hit back
I can't argue back
As long as you say "aishiteru" and not "sayonara"
(Baka!)
Hitori de I'm so lonely, Anata
I've been waiting without news for two years and three months
I'm going mad
I hear the doorbell
Sumimasen, the delivery is for next door
Oh, I suspect you don't love me anymore
You're going to leave me
I beg you, please don't go
I'll go on a diet for you
I'll get drunk for you
Please don't say you don't love me my dear Anata
(Anata, Anata oh, please don't go!)
I want you to know
I'll always love you
If I lose you
I won't be able to live
We're the best match
I won't blame you at all
Because one day you'll see me crawl out of your TV
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-11 08:30 pm (UTC)Also, um, you know, YOU ARE BACK and I haven't yet talked to you at all I don't think, so it is sort of :((( and a little >:0 but nothing that can be easily solved, at least not until November 6 arrives and goes. <3
no subject
Date: 2004-10-11 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-11 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-11 09:08 pm (UTC)what's that song dammit?? (>_<)##
Date: 2004-10-11 09:17 pm (UTC)I just can't put my finger on the original song... i think its an old 80's or 90's song that i sang it in Karaoke before coming back from Japan... Anyways, its definietly familiar(>_<)
That last song "My Anata" is great though :-P
I love the Japanese inserted in there (^^;)
面白い歌なんだけど、全部日本語で歌ったらいいだと思う。「貞子」の話だからね(^_-) 今、この歌を聞いたら日本人に聞かせたくなった(^_-)
「リング」見た？俺は VCD で持ってるよ そして上坂先生も持ってる(VHSで) もし見たかったら、言って下さい 貸してあげるからね(^_-) VCDで中国語の字幕もあるよ（でも聞くだけで分かるでしょう？だから字幕要らなさそう さすがサビナちゃん！(^o^)）
no subject
Date: 2004-10-11 09:54 pm (UTC)He's like a geeky R&B clean-living Eminem.
He's been getting voice lessons, though. The last two albums are more coherent than his earlier works.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 07:38 am (UTC)a song for Sadako. oh, the love. <33333 XD
no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 11:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 06:10 pm (UTC)And a song about Sadako... *is ded*
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 03:54 pm (UTC)