Thursday, June 28, 2012

Songs, Spider-Man, and... Sendai?

See the alliteration there?  Pretty nice, right?

Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that it's nearly impossible to translate a song from English to Japanese and have it retain its original meaning (and I assume the same is true when going from Japanese to English).  An excellent example is the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver (I actually hear the Japanese version of this song every morning that I go to Hashi middle school).  There is actually a well-known anime movie called "Whispers of the Heart" (a Miyazaki film) in which one of the characters tries to come up with a Japanese version of the song (and succeeds).  The Japanese version of the song is called "Country Road" and the most famous version is sung by a woman with a very lovely voice; it's very different from the John Denver version!  Here are the original lyrics, and here is the Japanese version with a translation back into English.  I'd say that the most obvious difference is that there is no mention of West Virginia; I suppose that not many people in Japan know where West Virginia is though...  Still, I'd say that the original version uses very colorful language while the Japanese version is... a bit bland.

When I was visiting Shiroharu Elementary this week I got to listen to the kids sing the Japanese version of the song "Do-Re-Mi" from "the Sound of Music." Here's the original, and here's the Japanese version.  Since this one doesn't have a translation, I'll attempt it below:

"Do" is the "Do" in "Donuts"
"Re" is the "Re" in "Remon"      (Remon = Lemon)
"Mi" is the "Mi" in "minna"         (minna = everyone)
"Fa" is the "Fa" in "Faito"          (Faito = Fight)
"So," the blue "sora"                  (sora = sky)
"Ra" is the "Ra" in "Rappa"       (Rappa = Wrapper)
"Shi," is "shiawase"                   (shiawase = happiness)
Now let's sing!
Ran Ran Ran!                            (sounds like "Ron")

[repeat above]

[sing various combinations of notes]

At any time
Construct a line
Everyone (having) fun
Hold you fighting (spirit)
Look at the sky
Ran Ra Ra Ra…
A song of happiness
Now let's sing!
Do Re Mi Fa So Ra Shi Do So Do!

It's difficult since in Japanese they don't have the "La" and "Ti" sounds...

Anyway, I don't think I mentioned before but I'm really looking forward to seeing "the Avengers" movie that came out in the US last month.  It doesn't come out in Japan until mid-August so I still have a while to wait.  But, maybe to make up for that Marvel decided to release the Amazing Spider-Man (Ameijingu Supaidaaman) movie in Japan first so I saw it on Sunday.  Since I'm probably one of the first Americans to see it (well, maybe in the first 1,000 or something) I decided that I'd give a small review here - don't worry there aren't any spoilers!  In short: it was good.  I liked it better than the one from 10 years ago; the plot made more sense and it wasn't completely random that Peter became Spider-Man.  There was also a bit of a mystery-feel at the beginning which I liked.  The characters seemed realistic and were funny (the aunt and uncle were pretty great).  I was also able to understand why the bad-guy ended up doing what he did.  The scenes with Peter and Gwen (the same actress who played Olive in "Easy A") were cute, slightly awkward, and very well acted; I think the actors are going out in real life so that probably helped.  The subway scene with the shirt was funny as was the scene with Gwen and her father in the hallway (you'll see if you watch it).  I give it 8/10.  I also consider it to be a "two-year movie"; if you have heard about how storms are ranked this might make sense...  You see, if a storm comes through that is the same intensity as storms seen on average once a year then it is a "one-year storm."  A strong storm that you'd see on average once every five years is a "five-year storm," and so on.  For movies, if I want to watch it on average once a year then it's a "one-year movie," if I think it's OK then it might be a "ten-year movie."  When I saw "How to Train Your Dragon" for the first time I got a bit obsessed with it so it was a "once-a-month movie" for a little while, haha.  Of course, like the storms, my system is not 100% accurate; it is possible to have a 100-year storm two years in a row (since it's based on probability) and it is possible that I will watch the Amazing Spider-Man again before two years have passed (since it's based on how I will feel).

In other news, I'll be going to Sendai tomorrow in order to fill out the paperwork at the Driving Center.  I think I'll try to sign up to take the practical test at the end of July...

That's all for today~

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