//beconfused

I won’t be posting Japanese music lyric translations for a while. I sort of ended my run too. I planned to post 10 of these. I post every Friday until the there are 10. The feedback has been quite positive so far, but last week, I posted number 10.

So this week, there’s nothing. I decide to post some credits instead.

I listen to some Japanese songs, some of which have rather strange lyrics, so I posted them. I never did translations, I do not understand Japanese. I took lyric translations from fan pages etc. Sometimes, the web fails me and I ended up typing the lyrics out by copying the subtitles from the video clip.

The songs come from different sources, I shan’t talk much about it, lol. Some came from video clips. I use m&g Software’s AVI to WAV extractor 3.5 to extract out the sound from the video. [The software is free by the way.]

For song cropping, normalizing of volumes and fading in and out, I use either Ahead Nero Wave Editor or Sonic Foundry Sound Forge. Both are good programs, I use the latter more though.

Songs are encoded in Windows Media Audio 9 for smaller downloads at a quality loss. I use Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9 Series to encode all my music. [This is a free software too.] Windows Media Audio sounds best at lower bit rates as compared to other formats.

Some posts include still image captures, these are captured by Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 Series. [This is another free software.] Images are later cropped or edited by Macromedia Fireworks. [Photoshop committed suicide, great..]

These are the past postings [Most of the music are removed already, sorry.]

# music//ichi [Ayumi Hamasaki - Real Me]
# music//ni [Yukino Satsuki - Densetsu no Onsen GAME (Legendary Hot-Springs Turtle)]
# music//san [NICEGUYJIN - Hai, Irasshai! (Hello, Welcome!)]
# music//shi [Funta - Wake Up Angel ~ Negaimashite wa Mugen Nari ~ (Wake Up Angel ~ Wishing for this is unlimited ~)]
# music//go [Aoi Tada - Wo Qui Non Coin]
# music//roku [Yuuichirou Sakuraba - Hitoribocchi no Haburashi (Lonely Toothbrush)]
# music//shichi [Gackt - To build a fire (To feel a fire)]
# music//hachi [Judy and Mary - Kujira 12 gou (Whale #12)]
# music//ku [Maki Goto - Genshoku GAL Hadeni Ikube! (An Authentic GAL Should Be Bold)]
# music//ju [MiniMoni - Okashi Tsukutte Okassui (Making Sweets: Strange)]

I enjoyed posting these. I’ll do these weekly posting thingy in future too.

Yesterday, I posted a quote that has been posted a day before. I forgotten to change it to a new one in my template. Opps.

Every time I post something, I always want to put a title for my post. Most of the time, the title is determined before I start typing. However, there are exceptional cases. Either way, it works. A title is given just to identify the post. Obviously, it should do well suggesting the content of the post.

The same thing for songs I guess. A title well chosen is just as important as producing a good track. Judy and Mary released their 11th single in 1997 titled “Kujira 12 Gou” which means “Whale #12″. It’s a nice song, with a strange title. I read the translated lyrics and still have no idea why’s it called “Whale #12″. In fact, “kujira” (whale) is only mentioned twice. There’s no mention of the number 12 too.
Well, at least there’s mention of dolphins. I can’t say it’s positive though.

Now to think of it, Judy and Mary is a name of a band that has 3 guys and a girl.

I have encoded 1min 40sec sample in WMA file proprietary (Windows Media Audio 9; 20 kbps, 16 kHz, stereo 2-pass CBR) for you people.

Download the sample from here (260 KB). [In Internet Explorer, right click on the link and choose the option "Save Target As...". Download it quick, as I'll remove it on February 09.]

Kujira 12 gou
[Whale #12]
kurakkaa to chiizu to wain de furu kaiten no sukuryuu wa guu
[crackers, cheese, and wine, the full revolution propeller screams]
suraidaa de jippaa wa hazumu hai bakkari no sora wo mite iru
[sliding undoes my zipper, and I see only ash in the sky]
kondo koso te ni iretai koboresou na yoru ga sameteku
[I have to really try this time, the falling night is coming]
imiteeshon no daiya de uso bakkari no koi ga shitari wa
[an imitation diamond of lies is the love I want]
koibito ga sarawarete akuma no shiro kara tasukedasou
[I'll save my lover who was abducted to the demon's castle]
dakishimete te ni iretai kirameku hoshi no aitemu wo
[hold me while I try to touch the twinkling stars]

ougon iro no tabibito ga matteru
[a golden traveler is waiting]
monogatari e isogou
[I'll hurry into the adventure]

taiyou ga mezametara ano fune de yukou
[when the sun opens its eyes we'll go by the ship]
yorisotte yukidoke wo oyogu kujira mitai na
[drawing close and swimming in the melted snow like a whale]
mada daremo shiranai ano sora no hate wa
[to the edge of that sky that no one knows]
kitto mabushisugiru garasu no tobira
[a dazzling door of glass]

dorufin kikku de shibirete mitai na
[I want to kick like a dolphin until I'm numb]

Source: Natsuki of Sweetusagi.com
I only include a portion of the lyrics, minor amendments have been made too.

I do not see the link in the lyrics. One moment it says “I’ll save my lover who was abducted to the demon’s castle”, then it’s followed by “hold(ing) me while I try to touch the twinkling stars”.

My favorite part of the lyrics – I want to kick like a dolphin until I’m numb. At first glance, I thought it’s “I want to kick a dolphin until I’m numb”, which is rather amusing.

This is a feel good song, I listened to it, I felt good. A peep at the translations once again verify the fact that a good song doesn’t need smart lyrics. Doesn’t need smart song titles too.