This song is already a year old but recently I’ve really started to like it. I asked my friend to translate it to Japanese for English practice. That took a lot of time, so I thought it was a shame not to share it with anyone, so I decided to post it here.

I hope it is of use to someone out there! It really is a good song…

Song

• Acoustic “Unplugged” Version
  (same as above)
• Original Version
• Breakfast Remix

Translated Lyrics

Thanks to Shoko.

Day and night divided
Two worlds torn apart
I’m standing in your shadow
I wonder where you are
This is my confession
This is my heart burning down
Giving out and taking me over

日と夜が分けられた二つの世界に苦しんでいる
あなたの影に立って
あなたがどこにいるかと考えてて
これは私の告白
私の心は焼け落ちて
（心が）衰えて、（この気持ちしか考えられない）

So far away
I don’t know where I am
So hard to take
You slipped right thru my hands
With so much left unspoken
Unopened
I’m broken
I’ll be waiting here for you…

遠く離れた所
どこにいるかわからない
すごく認めにくい
あなたが私の手からからスルリと逃げた
話してないことまだ沢山…
私は壊れて
ここであなたを待っています

There’s nothing here to cling to
Nothing more to prove
I’m walking on a wire
With nothing left to lose
If this is where you want me
This is where I’ll be
Holding out ’til you come back to me

執着するものはない
しょうめいすることのはない
ワイヤーを歩く
失うものはもうない
あなたが私に帰ってくるまで
ここで我慢して待ってる

So far away
I don’t know where I am
So hard to take
Knowing I’ve done all I can
Trapped inside a moment
I’m frozen
Torn open

遠いところ
私はどこにいるかわからない
我慢しにくい
出来るだけ頑張ったのに…
瞬間に閉じこまれて
動けない
（体が）破れた

Cuz I’m falling, I’m falling, I’m calling out
I need you near me now
Keeping me safe
You can break it or fake it or take it in
I wanna start again
Take me away
Come and take me away…

ボロボロだ～～
呼んでいる
私にはあなたが近くにいることが必要。
守って欲しい
壊れるかごまかすか全てを理解する
もう一度はじめたい
私を連れていって
来て連れてって

I’ll be waiting here for you..

これからここであなたを待っています。

切ない感じ…

Yesterday my friend forwarded me this post about the dangers of relying on machine translation.

Apparently some poor Chinese translator typed the Chinese characters for “restaurants” into an online translation tool and mistook the error message of the translation server being temporarily unavailable to be the translation of what he input! And this translation made it to a large public sign.

All the more reason to check your important translations with a native speaker, or contact me for help!

I find this sign a bit striking because it is located so close to Tokyo. Usually the more into the countryside one goes, the worse the English becomes, but in this case it’s near Tokyo and Yokohama.

The mistakes here of course are the use of the indefinite article (”a”) instead of the definite article (”the”), the capitalization of “Train”, and the space between “on to” - all admittedly difficult nuances since they don’t exist in Japanese. All the more reason to ask a native speaker such as myself to proofread your important English translation that will be seen by thousands of people!

Shock English: No dash on to a Train
Correct English: Don’t run onto the train; Don’t dash onto the train

Shock English: We reinforce railway security.
Correct English: Reinforcement of railway security:

Shock English: Other rules when you see unattended item. Don’t touch! Don’t smell! Don’t move!
Correct English: When you see a suspicious item: Don’t touch it! Don’t smell it! Don’t move it!

Shock English: advance pay the price
Correct English: Please pay in advance

Here’s another common sight in Japan: emergency help buttons, especially next to toilets, which is without doubt a good idea. The pictures above show a toilet in a public subway station that no doubt it used by many foreigners. The text in Japanese says “Please press in an emergency” on top and “Emergency button” taped on the bottom. The placement of the emergency button is such that it could be easily confused for the flush button by some people. How hard would it be to put a simple English translation on it? No doubt the button has been pressed by mistake by some foreigners; I’m sure originally it didn’t have the protective tape over it at the beginning.

When I was a student studying in Japan during college, our Japanese reading skills were really awful. Many
apartments also have emergency buttons in the bathrooms. I still remember going to one of my friend’s apartments with another friend, who accidentally pushed the emergency button instead of flush, as again it didn’t have any English translation! This created quite a stir… I can somewhat understand the buttons in private homes being only in Japanese, but in public places it seems the benefit of avoiding unnecessary false alarms would outweigh the difficulty of writing “Emergency Button” in English. Yet I have still not seen a button with an English translation. I will keep looking…

Suggested English: Emergency Help Button

But just what are the causes for those delays? Some lazy translator working for JR decided to translate most of the reasons as “accident.” You’d think they’d want to promote themselves as having fewer accidents, not more!

At least some of the translations are reasonable, like the one for crowding (see picture), which I could never imagine happening in America.

So many people see this information every day and the translations are so sloppy and easy to fix that it boggles my mind. Delays due to car inspection and signal trouble seem quite common, but English speaking riders will only see these as accidents. Why don’t we fix these mistakes? (Note: There are more reasons than those in the list below.)

Shock English: Logined
Correct English: Logged In