[song translation] NEVER LAND - Aoi Tori

[raatkerani]

Yay!! I finally finished another song.
I've been stuck on this one for quite a while, despite grasping the meaning in my mind, but when it comes to English-ize it, it never makes sense. My Japanese (and English) ability is not good enough to translate it in one go. I might also still edit this from time to time.

But enough about my rants. This translations holds the longest footnote so far....

Again, the usual disclaimer...

Japanese sentence, structure and words are sometimes not translatable into English that makes sense, therefore, I tend to cut here and there or even change the whole sentence to get English interpretation that's good structurally. I'm not a native speaker of English nor that I have mastered Japanese, therefore I may have wrongly grasped something or write the incorrect English expression.

Corrections and comments are highly appreciated.

 

青い鳥
Blue Bird
Words/Music: Akihide

 

飛べない青い鳥が鳥籠の中　鳴いている
冷たい部屋の隅でうずくまっては夢を見る
壊れてゆく世界から
飛べない僕らはいつでも青空見上げ

A blue bird that cannot fly is crying inside a cage
Waiting in the cold corner of a room, crouching, dreaming
From the world that continues to break
We who cannot fly are always looking up at the blue sky

 

飛べない青い鳥よ　お前はどこへゆくのだろう？
見果てぬ夢を求め　傷ついた羽そのままに
明日さえも遠いけど
飛べない僕らはそれでも両手を広げてゆくだけ

It’s a blue bird that cannot fly        Where are you going?
Wishing for a dream without end      With those hurt wings
Even if tomorrow is far away
We, who cannot fly, even so, only continue spreading both hands

 

僕らに残された時間は見つけるだろう
飛べない僕らもいつは見つけるだろう
その時　知るのが僕らの無くした日々だったとしても
青い鳥よ　僕らとゆこう

We may discover as the time that is left flows
We, who cannot fly, may also partly discover
At that time, even though we understand, assuming our lost days
Blue bird, let’s go with us.

 

 
 

I have a lot of difficulties while translating this. While I could grasp of what Akihide-san was talking about, finding the English comparison is another thing. I keep on relapsing into weird, long, sentences that are uncommon in normal English sentences. Thus, this translation is just about 60% of the real Japanese meaning.

A little side note is the legend of the blue bird. It is commonly believed that blue bird stands for happiness and any positive aspects in many countries. In Japan and China, a blue bird is also considered a spy from the gods to watch over human. I also read in Wiki that a dead blue bird is a symbol of disillusionment, loss of innocence, and transformation from young to older and wiser.

What does “a blue bird that cannot fly” means?

On the grammatical context, I think I need to make several explanations... 鳴く means bark, purr or making sound as in the sound of an animal. I translated it into “crying” because of two reasons. The first, it's homophone with 泣くwhich means crying as in shed a tear. The second will be, the English word for a bird making voices, will be either sing, chirp, or cry; whereas in this context, cry will make more sense for something that is caged.

Another note is that the word “yuku” is written using hiragana. And there are two meanings of yuku according to my dictionary (and 3 according to my IME). The first one 「行く」 means “go”, as an alternative reading of “iku”, and the other one 「逝く」 means “pass away” or “die”. The third is 「往く」which kanji means “journey” or “chase away”. I don't think he meant it other than "going", but my imagination lead me to think of all the possibilities before settling to how i translated it.