"Nee, aishitara
Dare mo ga konna kodoku ni naru no?..."
No Need to Promise
Theme to "Vision of Escaflowne"
...
Why am I so lonely?
I thought that if I fell in love this loneliness would disappear…
Why do I suffer so deeply?
I wander, unseeing, through life, immersed in the darkest night…
I love you, and if you loved me,
We would shine through the night
I know
I know now that I'll never leave you
Because I love you with all of my heart
Whatever you do, I'll always believe in you
Until the end of time
Why, when I love you so deeply,
Must I continue to fear that someday I'll lose you?
Why do I dread that you'll leave me,
Abandon me, never look back, and fade in the distance?
No, our love is as deep as the sky
You will always be there
I know
I know now that I'll never leave you
Because I love you with all of my heart
Whatever you do, I'll always believe in you
Until the end of time
If this love doesn't last 'till forever,
And if, as I fear, I lose you as well,
I know my heart will always endeavor
To shine in the dark of night
Crying and smiling I call, do you hear me?
I need the strength of you by my side
No need to promise, I know that you'll be there
And shine with me through the night
Smiling and laughing I call, and you hear me
And I get new strength with you by my side
Deep in your eyes I see that you'll be there
Through to the morning light.
...
(Music by Yoko Kanno)
(Lyrics by Yuho Iwasato)
(Sung by Maaya Sakamoto)
(Singable English Translation by Blik)
I've long felt this was a great song and it was a shame that there was no singable English translation. Sure, versions of this abound in many languages, but none that had the correct cadence to fit to the original music. So, using the translation provided by the Yoko Kanno Project, as well as my passable poetry skills, my bare-bones knowledge of American pop music, a thesaurus, and a hard wall against which I could hit my head, I turned out this version over the course of a week.
Because Japanese pop music in particular and also pop music in general has little rhyming as compared with more traditional English song forms, I tried to preserve the parallelisms and poetry of the original as much as I could. Thus the use of "Why" at the beginning of each line where the Japanese has "Nee." Also, I translated both "kitto" and "zukko" as "I know," mostly to preserve the long "o" vowel. The last two stanzas are very similar, and reuse words just like the original.
There's twice as much here as in the TV version of the song, because I translated the full version. If you aren't familiar with it, I can't provide a link but here's the YouTube hash:
watch?v=BFyJIzLH30Q
Let me know what you think of my version. I'm open to input, whether it involves an alternate meaning from the original Japanese, or simply my poetic word choice. I'll readily admit I'm not that familiar with pop music in general, so I don't know if these are good lyrics for an English song.
Thanks!
- Blik
...
P.S. I was inspired to do this by the work of JesuOtaku. Google her and check out her "New Lyrics" Project - she's done the opening themes from Spice and Wolf, Midori Days, and all five seasons of Digimon, to name just a few, and it's really Quality!