Sunday, December 23, 2018

Translation and Pronunciation Key for Japanese Lyrics from “Love Letter to Japan” by The Bird and the Bee




Those of you who have become enthralled by The Bird and The Bee’s song “Love Letter to Japan” from the second album, Ray Guns are Not Just the Future, and its accompanying adorable video (watch it here) may be frustrated by the verse in Japanese. I take pity, fans. I have a real live Japanese person who has helped me with this, and I will now tell you the Japanese lyrics from “Love Letter to Japan”, how to spell and pronounce them, and what they mean.

About two thirds of the way through the song (in the video for “Love Letter to Japan”, this corresponds to the dream sequence of the boy dancing in front of the Buddha statue), the following verse is heard:

Nishi kara higashi heto
Anata no tokoro nitondekitano
Touimishinori o anata no soba ni itakute
Kono omoi o subete
Anata ni sasagemasu

To sing along, here is the pronunciation for the Japanese:

NEE-shee KAH-rah HEE-gah-shee heh-TOH
AH-nah-tah noh TOH-koh-roh nee-TON-deh-kee-TAN-oh
TOH-oh-ee-MEE-shee-noh-ree OH
AH-nah-tah noh SOH-bah nee EE-tah-koo-TEH
KOH-noh OH-moh-ee OH soo-bee-TEH
Ah-nah-TAH nee sah-sah-GEH-mah-soo

(NOTE: This is not exactly how the words would be pronounced in an actual Japanese conversation, as the syllables in this verse are stressed in order to fit the beat of the song. The pronunciation for the individual syllables is correct, but I have followed the accents of the words the way they are heard in the song)

Now for the translation. The literal meaning of the words is as follows:

From the West to the East
I have flown to your place
I have come a long way to be near you
I will give you all my feeling

For anyone who knows the song, this is obviously the translation of the first (and oft-repeated) verse:

From the West to the East
I have flown to be near you
I have come all this way to be close, to be here with you
And now, all my heart I will lay down precisely at your feet

So, mystery solved, kids. Enjoy singing along!

Image from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/en/asia-ceremony-chinese-dress-1822520/