Lodoss tv op: Kiseki no Umi

Every once in a great while, you hear a song so beautiful that you cannot breathe.   For me, Kiseki no Umi was one of them.  I loved it so much that I decided to translate it--which was not such a great idea!  This song is an ideal example of breaking standard grammatical rules and the word- omission that is so loved by the Japanese.  In other words, a very tough choice to begin my translation record!  This is in fact my second version of this song.  After completeing the translations of two other anime songs, I took a look at my first attempt and had to laugh.  *^^*  In one day, I redid the entire song, and I know this version is muchmuch of an improvement.

As with my first version, this translation is entirely original. I have not recently seen another person's romanization or tranlsation of this song, nor have I ever watched commercially released Lodoss tv. I have seen a few episodes fansubed, but that was well over a year and a half ago, and the one line I could vaugely remember turned out to be entirely incorrect.  Oops!

The dashes: -- in the romaji were added to preserve the spaces visible in each line of hiragana and kanji. 

The first version of this translation was created by me with an immeasurable amount of help from my translation expert, Sean.  This second version was created with no new imput from him, but his influence is still there.  ^^  My biggest thanks for aid must go to my friend, Crying Sailor-chan, with whom I translated the Wedding Peach tv op2.   Working with her showed me the infinite possibilities to be found in those vauge Japanese lyrics, and that there's more to a song than what you see, line-by-line.  Doumo arigatou gozaimasu, CS-chan!!!!  *deep bow*

And remember, I am not a professional at song translation, and these lyrics--while much improved over the first version--are still an amatuer attempt.  The only correct lyrics to a song are the ones in original Japanese.  ^^  And if you would like to see the scan from my CD book, please click here.  Liner notes to explain interesting tidbits of my translation are at the end of this page.

Kiseki no Umi (Ocean of Miracles) composed by Kanno Yoko, sung by Sakamoto Maaya.   Translation by Sailor Two Moons.

Japanese kanji and kana, retyped from scan	lyrics in romaji	English translation
	Kiseki no Umi	Ocean of Miracles
	Yami no yozora ga-- futari wakatsu no wa	Two people apart--the dark night sky
	Yobiau kokoro-- hadaka ni suru tame	Calls for their hearts to bare themselves
	Kazari nugisute-- subete na kusu toki	And abandon their facade. When all frivolties are cast away,
	Nanika ga mieru	Then, something can be seen.
	Kaze yo-- watashi wa tachi mukau	The wind-- I stand and face it.
	Yukou-- kurushimi no umi e to	Towards sorrow's ocean I will go,
	Kizuna-- kono mune ni kizande	For the ties carved into my heart
	Kudakeru-- nami wa hatenaku tomo	Can be destroyed by the unending waves.
	Nani wo motomete-- daremo arasou no?	What do I desire--for what do we all compete?
	Nagashita chi shio-- hana o sakaseru no?	Can a tide of spilled blood make flowers bloom?
	Toutoki ashita-- kono te ni suru made	Until the precious tomorrow is within our grasp,
	Deaeru hi made	Until that day we meet,
	Kaze yo watashi wa tachi mukau	I stand and face the wind.
	Yukou-- kagayaki o me sashite	I will go and seek to shine,
	Inori-- kono mune ni dakishime	With a prayer held close to my heart,
	Samayou-- yami no youna mirai	As I drift through my obscure future.
	Kaze yo-- watashi wa osorenai	The wind--I am no longer afraid,
	Ai koso mitsukedashita kiseki yo	For love is the miracle I have found.
	Kimi wo-- shinjiteru yorokobi	In you, beloved, I joyfully believe
	Arashi wa-- ai ni kitsuku tame ni suiteru	For the creation of love is why this storm's winds blow.

Notes:

/   Yobiau kokoro-- hadaka ni suru tame  /  Calls for their hearts to bare themselves

"Hadaka" literally means "naked".  However, this is one of the few instances where the figurative meaning of a word in Japanese and its English counterpart actually match!  In other words, in both languages "naked" can literally mean "devoid of clothing", but it can also mean "reveal, make bare, be uncovered" in a figurative sense.  Chosing which English translation to use was fun; I opted for one that retains the "naked" context.  ^^

/   Kazari nugisute-- subete na kusu toki  /  And abandon their facade. When all are cast away,

"Kusu" is a kanji-switch.  The pronunciation sung by Maaya-sama is from a kanji with the same meaning as "kusu", to lose.  The printed kanji's pronunciations are "SHITSU, shis(suru), ushina(u), and u(seru)."  Maaya-sama must have decided "kusu" sounded better.  ^^   If you would like to look them up to see for yourself, the two kanji's reference numbers in my Tuttle kanji dictionary are: 4d8.8 for the sung version, and 0a5.28 for the printed one.  If you would like a little more info about a kanji-switch, please see the explanation on the Wedding Peach tv op2 lyrics page.

  /   Nagashita chi shio-- hana o sakaseru no?  /  Can a tide of spilled blood make flowers bloom?

I admit, this line seems as if it has nothing to do with the rest of this song, and it has bothered me every time I read over my first translation.  Yet as I translated for a second time, I thought and thought about its oddness and clash with the song's message, and I believe I have found a possible answer.  ^^  It lies in the three lines above this one.  They are:

For the ties carved into my heart
Can be destroyed by the unending waves.
What do I desire--for what do we all compete?
Can a tide of spilled blood make flowers bloom?

The line strikes me as a symbolic question.  The "ties carved into my heart" are the injuries and fetters holding down the singer's heart.  They are full of pain, pain that the ocean can wash away.  We all have ties carved into our hearts and selves, all from different sources, and from struggling for the things we all desire, but the question is: can love--flowers--come from such pain--spilled blood?  Then, the next two lines:

Until the precious tomorrow is within our grasp,
Until that day we meet,

If the precious tomorrow is the day that the waves have healed the ties upon the singer's heart, then she would finally be ready to meet her beloved.  Ohhhh....kimochiiiiii!!!!  *^^*

  /   Samayou-- yami no youna mirai  /  As I drift through my obscure future.

This line is tricky to properly render into English.  The "youna" construct is used in comparisons, similies, and metaphors.  A literal translation of the 2nd half of the line would be "the dark-like future", which sounds quite odd.  Since "youna" is used descriptively, I adapted the comparison into a normal English adjective, "my obscure future", for the sake of personal taste.   Unlike with "hadaka", I am NOT certain if the literal and figurative meanings of "yami" and the English translation, "dark", are present and match in both languages.  "Obscure" was in my thesaurus under "dark", so I decided to take a chance and go with it.  *crosses fingers for good luck*

  /   Kimi wo-- shinjiteru yorokobi  /  In you, beloved, I joyfully believe

Literally, there is no word in the Japanese line equal to "beloved".   The actual translation would read, "In you, I joyfully believe."   However, when you read the line with the one above, "For love is the miracle I have found / In you, I joyfully believe " it can sound as if the "you" is referring to the discovered miracle of love.  The English "you" can refer to both people and something inanimate that is being addressed.  However, the Japanese "kimi" is a prounon specifically used for people only.  To portray that important nuance in English, I added "beloved" into my translation.   

Lodoss tv op lyrics retranslated and reformatted 3-29-01.  A big improvement, ne??   ^^  -s2m