'BLUE BIRD' romaji and translation
 

I couldn't catch two parts clearly. But it's a nice summer song just like her -- sunny, bright and sad. If you find any unnatural parts, please inform me.
--------------------------------------------------
Gray na kumo ga nagare tara
Kono sora ga nakiyan dara
Kimi no koe de me o samasu
Chotto nagame no nemuri kara

* Kimi wa sotto mimamotta
Kono se no tsubasa
Tobitatsu kisetsu o matte

"Aoi sora o tomo ni yukou yo
Shiroi sunahama o mioroshi nagara
Muzukashii hanashi wa ira nai
Kimi ga waratte kure reba ii"
Sou itte boku ni warai kaketa

lala lalalala lala

Kotoba wa hitsuyou nakatta
Ibasho wa itsumo koko ni atta

Taiyou ga mabushii to
Tsubuyaki nagara
Urunde ku hitomi o gomakasu

** "Aoi sora o tomo ni yukou yo
Doko e tadoritsuku n da to shite mo
Moshimo kizu o otta sono toki wa
Boku no tsubasa o kimi ni ageru"
Sou itte kimi wa sukoshi naita

* (repeat)

"Aoi sora o tomo ni yukou yo
Shiroi sunahama o mioroshi nagara
Muzukashii hanashi wa ira nai
Kimi ga waratte kure reba ii"

** (repeat)

Korae kire zu ni boku mo naita

lala lalalala lala
lala lalalala lala
lala lalalala lala
lala lalalala lala
--------------------------------------------------
When the gray clouds drift away
And the sky stops crying
I'll wake up to your voice
From my sleep, a little bit long

* You calmly watched
The wings on my back
Waiting for the season to take off

"Let's go together across the blue sky
Looking down on the white sand beach
No need to have a serious talk
I need nothing except your smile"
You said so and smiled to me

lala lalalala lala

Words were not necessary
My place was always here

I murmured
"The sun is too bright"
And camouflaged the tears welling up

** "Let's go together across the blue sky
Wherever we may get to
If you receive a wound
I'll give my wing to you"
You said so and cried a little

* (repeat)

"Let's go together across the blue sky
Looking down on the white sand beach
No need to have a serious talk
I need nothing except your smile"

** (repeat)

And I gave way to tears as well

lala lalalala lala
lala lalalala lala
lala lalalala lala
lala lalalala lala

Thank you masa!!! *-------*

thank you ^__^

thanks for the lyrics and translation! after reading the them, i feel that BLUE SKY is a better title than BLUE BIRD. lol

Now that you mention it I have to agree with you, alternarist :yes

Thanks for the translations, could I ask you to point out the grammatical error and explain it? Thanks.

thank you, masa!

1. Doko e tadoritsuku to shite mo
2. Doko e tadoritsuku da to shite mo
3. Doko e tadoritsuku n da to shite mo
I think 1 is proper but 2 isn't proper. But her intention might be like 3, which is OK. I wait for the official lyrics to come out.

The lyrics are so beautiful! Thanks for translating!

Thank you for explaining. I wonder if she'd make a mistake like that, the current preview version is a bit unclear due to it's quality, or maybe you've heard better versions of it.

I think Fly high is an even better title, xDDDD!

Those are really very lovely lyrics, thanks for the translation~

thanks for agreeing with me immel. and ^ Fly High was used b4! the lyrics is very summer-ish. or perhaps BLUE BEACH? =x

Thanks masa! ^_^

Thank you so much! I really like the lyrics. Much better than fairyland's, I think. ^__^ Good for a summer song!

Thanks for the translation! Sounds sweet.

Yay~ nice lyrics <3

Sort of fairylandish nostalgia~ :] Seems like she combined themes from ANGEL'S SONG and fairyland?? :] :] xD

Kirenaku mo ga nagare tara
...

* Kimi wa sotto mimamotta konosewo tsubasa
...

Thank you masa :)

Thanks masa~!
The lyrics is AMAZING!!! It's a very very nice summer song... But, I dun think it's similar to fairyland... They're just different... But both fairyland and BLUE BIRD are VERY good...^^

fairyland:
We ran through the road to the sea
Screaming with laughter innocently
In the far away summer days

BLUE BIRD:
"Let's go together across the blue sky
Looking down on the white sand beach
No need to have a serious talk
I need nothing except your smile"
You said so and smiled to me

Kinda similar.. ish. XDDD~ Except replace the sea with the sky :p

Thanks masa. I like them a lot. =)

Ayu likes to make references to "wings" a lot, don't you think? This sort of reminded me of Depend on you's lyrics.

^ Good point.

Reading Blue Bird's lyrics reminded me more of Greatful Days...and it sounds similar too.

Not too similar to any of the others I think :P But yeah, all those songs are definately VERY summery/similarly themed.

I belive if we made a summary of all the songs people think sound like BLUE BIRD we'd end up with all her happy up-beat tunes. =o

Thankx massa!!

I love the lyrics very much. Especially the first part...

"When the clouds drift away
The sky will stop crying"

Maybe it was just me? after knowing the lyrics, i feel that i like the song more!

I like the lyrics, and the song feels kinda deeper now

Is there a way to make the last line clearer?

'And I gave way to tears, too'

Just wondering if it could be worded differently or something since it doesn't feel like it fits the end~

Maybe it's tears of happiness?

Good question, I didn't think about it when I read the lyrics the first time.

I couldn't refrain from tears and I cried, too

This is the direct translation. Do you think this is better? Or do you have any other ideas?

"I was unable to hold my tears back, so I cried as well"

Something... but it sounds so long.. :[ Agh! Lyrical translation must be hard ;_;

"unable to refrain, I cried, too."

haha... not very good. It's hard to know which words are the main ones of the sentence.

Thank you masa for the translations!

thanks for da translation! the lyrics sort of reminds me of endless sorrow.

>> Yume na kumo ga nagare tara
* I think she made her own creative word... very strange...

>> Kimi wa sotto mimamotta kono (sei) se no tsubasa
* sei /se : 背 - the back

I'm not sure I'm right, but this is all I heard. I will try more.

Thank you for a beautiful translation ^.^

We will see when the first live comes out! <3

Yay masa! <3

Thank you!

I think Masa's translation of that line was pretty accurate. The only grammatical mistake is there would be no comma between tears and too. Perhaps this flows a bit better: "And I gave way to tears as well."

Ah~ :p

Maybe it was that comma.. /strokes fake mustache

Thank you for the beautiful lyrics!

Thanks. I think I like the song more now.

I LOVE the lyrics to this song!

heya
wow thank you for the lyrics masa & honey
the song is gettin better and better

ced

Am I the only one who thinks the lyrics are really similar to "fairyland"'s, and kinda...really redundant? Maybe it's just me, but lately, her lyrics have been lacking...these lyrics just don't hit me like her others I guess. Usually there's a line that just strikes me like "OMGZ!!;D" and I'm not getting that in this song lol.

Words were not necessary
My place was always here

Murmuring about the dazzling sunlight
I camouflaged the tears welling in my eyes

"Let's go together across the blue sky
Wherever we may get to
If you receive a wound
I'll give my wing to you"
You said so and cried a little

I think this section is one of the wow sections of the song <3 Because it talks of how her friend will always be there to help her <3 No matter where they go.. and perhaps the 'tears' are the tears from hurting so much from the wound or whatever..

Aie analyzation is needed. >[

I won't try to read too much out from it before the lyrics are officially released >_>.

thankyou very much masa!

These lyrics are a cross of Endless Sorrow, Heaven, and Dearest.

T_T I'm crying, reading the lyrics. They're reminding me of when I have to leave home for college!!

These are so B-E-A-UTIFUL!!! Thank you so much for sharing.

nice lyrics...i wonder how the song goes... (give me a break i've been gone for like almost a month and no internet where i was at...)

as always
wonderful lyrics from ayu
and wonderful interpretation by masa

thank you so much!

Thank you masa! I think the lyrics are great, as always ^.^

cool. thank you.

The lyrics remind me a lot of the Endless Sorrow lyrics with all the talk of wings and offering wings to people that are hurt. :)

Wings=>
BLUE BIRD, ANGEL'S SONG, endless sorrow.. any other wing-y songs? :p

thanks for the lyrics :)

"Let's go together across the blue sky
Looking down on the white sand beach
No need to have a serious talk
I need nothing except your smile"
You said so and smiled to me

"Let's go together across the blue sky
Wherever we may get to
If you receive a wound
I'll give my wing to you"
You said so and cried a little

Like this 2 verse a lot~

Thanks!! I love the lyrics of BLUE BIRD~ Hope the PV will be a good one as well~

???? kumo ga nagare tara
???? might be "kurenai",it means "red" in Japanese....I guess...

Kimi wa sotto mimamotta ???? tsubasa
???? might be "konoseno",it means "this back" in Japanese....

Yure na kumo ga nagare tara

Does that even make sense? LOL. I need to go learn Japanese. :<

Ah~ I've seen something that says yure is to 'shake' or something.. but can also be used to talk about something 'blowing' like wind in the sky or something..

It's anyone's guess until the lyrics come out, I guess. :[

You are welcome.
And thanks, Sunshineslayer. I take your advice and edit my first post. (Though I don't understand the difference between "too" and "as well" clearly.)

--> And I gave way to tears as well

>???? might be "kurenai",it means "red" in Japanese....I guess...
I think it's perhaps not so. Because if we use this word, it's common to say "kurenai no sora".

>???? might be "konoseno",it means "this back" in Japanese....
It makes sense. It's perhaps so. But I wait for the official lyrics to come out.

I think the songtitle "BLUE BIRD" is appropriate and necessary. Because if it's not so, we don't know that this is the tale of two birds.

Domo Arigato for the translations!!
"Let's go together across the blue sky
Looking down on the white sand beach
No need to have a serious talk
I need nothing except your smile"
You said so and smiled to me ------ i really like this part..i think its better than fairyland..lets hope the PV's better too..

thanks for the translation
the lyrics was really GREAT...i love it

i love this part
Murmuring about the dazzling sunlight
I camouflaged the tears welling in my eyes

nice translation!

Heh... you seem to have actually oversweeted them a bit. I don't know Japanese well, but it's easy to say many translators add their own interpretations to the lyrics, while they're in fact pretty simple.

Here's a translation by ray348 from AHO, which I dare to say is I think more accurate...


Yours are full of bautiful words, but where there such beautiful words in Ayumi's lyrics actually?...

Well, you do know that masa has a site dedicated to many Ayu translations and currently resides in Japan as well as posts at a huge Ayu BBS, right?

http://homepage2.nifty.com/morimasa/e-ayu.html <--his site~ it's even at the top of AHS' page! Under the banner thing..

I'm not sure if a translation can be more accurate than another .. maybe just done differently :/

thanks for the translations!^^

I think ray348 is Japanese actually, so I posted his/hers text. Won't swear to death for it though...

I just noticed it in plenty of translations, on divineayu.com as well. They all have a lot of beautiful words, that sometimes confuse me, as I'm not a native English speaker. Sometimes they seem really oversweet to me, that's why I am asking if it's really how Ayumi's writing, or is it just they way they say - not translate - Ayumi's phrases.

Well, if anyone translated Japanese/Chinese/any language literally, then it'd be all boring.. especially since words can mean a lot of things O_O~

I think that a lot of the masa translations are really true to the 'actual' translations aka what is really trying to be gotten across. Anyone can translate, but to put into a poetic way.. :]

Agh. I lose myself. I wonder if masa will come and explain xD

>Yours are full of bautiful words, but where there such beautiful words in Ayumi's lyrics actually?

In which part of my translation did you feel so, for example? Please point out the part. And I'm ready to explain closely. By the way, what is AHO?

AHO is Ayumi Hamasaki.Org~ It is basically a forum like this, but with a different setting~

See it here: http://www.ayumi-hamasaki.org/ayumibb/index.php

They're so pretty...it seems like they're pretty recycled, but it's still pretty nonetheless.

thanks for the translation masa!

i really like these lyrics, but i do feel like they're a combination of several of her older songs, endless sorrow and no more words for example. still, they are nice lyrics. :)

Thanks for the other translation as well (I already thanked masa on Ayunite forum)! ^^

I think translating lyrics is more like art than translating them from word to word. Every translation is appreciated, at least I'll get somehow a more correct image of the lyrics and I can choose the phrase which I like better (sorry my English isn't perfect here, I hope you understand). masa has used some different phrases but it still means the same in my opinion, like masa's "Words were not necessary" and ray348's "We didn't need any words" do have the same meaning even though they are said in two different ways. So for me it doesn't matter if some lyrics are translated in a more beautiful way and the others in a more "original" way, as long as the meaning of the lyrics won't change :)

Thanks for the translation, masa!

exactly! the translation means the exact same thing, just said slightly different. sometimes on phrase may flow better in english than another, but the general idea is still the same.

like for example "Murmuring about the dazzling sunlight I camouflaged the tears welling in my eyes."

has almost the same meaning as >"The sun is bright" I muttered and camouflaged my teary-eye < but it's still not the same words. It just confuses me if she actually used words for "dazzling" or "welling" or rather phrases "bright sun" and "teary eye"...


By reading various translations from Japanese I quickly realised this language is never "literal" and can't be "literaly translated", it rather seem very general when it comes to grammar structures (and sometimes very detailed/complex in meanings when it comes to words) -- hence all the interpretations, as I called it. (Can we maybe say that Japanese can't really be translated, but rather interpreted?...)
English is full of grammar bricks which bound words together, while Japanese seems to have less of those (or they are rather ~hidden~ or ~invisible~), this must be the reason for some differences, but when it comes to words, I'd prefer to know the the closer meaning, rather than a nicer-sounding replacement...

I'm not sure if you will understand what I mean. And I commented on this particular song, becouse it seems the first time I can have any comparison.

I absolutely didn't want to discredit your work...

Both are essentially the same, only worded differently which is what will happen with different translators. I'm not completely fluent in Japanese yet, but I know enough to know that Masa's translation was pretty accurate - there was nothing that stood out like "OMG Ayu didn't say that." If anything it's the other translation that I noticed that in a bit - like I don't see "if" written anywhere in the first paragraph, yet it is in the translation.

Why even bother to criticize the translation anyways? It's not like people have to do these for us; it's strictly on a volunteer basis. And Masa has done soooo many translations - I especially thank him for the 2 lengthy interviews that he translated on his site, without which we would all know a whole lot less about Ayu.

In that instance, Ayu used the word "mabushii" which at it's most simple definition does mean bright. However, the term mabushi is usually used to describe something like, "Wow, that is so bright it's beautiful." It's a word that has positive feelings associated with it and thus it often gets translated as meaning "dazzling." That's how I would have translated it as well.

Basically I try to convey the original Japanese meanings and nuances to English translations as loyally as possible. I think Ayumi is the best lyricist in the field of J pop. Her lyrics in general are very poetic and beautiful in Japanese. So I think it's natural that the translations become poetic and beautiful, too, and that they should be so.

1. "murmur" or "mutter" -- I don't know the clear difference of these two words. But looking up the dictionary, I found "mutter" is often used to tell complaints. So I took "murmur".

2. "dazzling" or "bright" -- I took "dazzling" because I thought "mabushii" corresponds to "dazzling", while "akarui" corresponds to "bright". But I didn't hit upon the idea of using "----" then, and there seems to be a room for improvement.

3. "the tears welling up in my eyes" or "my teary-eyes" -- "Urunde (i)ku" is the progressive form expressing the change. So I took "welling up". I think "urunda hitomi" corresponds to "my teary-eyes". But this line might be OK without "in my eyes". (I'm not quite sure.)

So how about this?

I murmured, "The sun is dazzling"
And camouflaged the tears welling up

I'd like to hear the opinions of English-speaking people on this part.

that actually sounds really good to me. :yes

I thought your translation was fine to begin with. I didn't really see anything wrong with it.

About the whole "dazzling/bright" thing, I think when most English people think of the word "dazzling", they probably think of "amazing/stunning/wowing", as opposed to "bright/shiny/etc" .. If she means "amazing/stunning/wowing" then I think its the appropriate word, however if she means it in the "bright" sense, then I think another word might be better-suiting for the context.

Like I said in one of my previous posts, it does mean bright, but so bright that it is beautiful or sparkling. Another way to translate mabushii is glaring, but in the context of the song it seems like dazzlying is more appropriate because glaring is to say that it is harsh and unwanted

>I think when most English people think of the word "dazzling", they probably think of "amazing/stunning/wowing

Really? I didn't know that. Then "dazzling" seems to be inappropriate.
"Mabushii" means "I sense so strong lights" and 1. "It's really wonderful" or 2. "I can hardly open my eyes." What she means in this case is 2. So how about this idea?

I murmured, "The sun is too bright"

When I translate it, I see it as "1. it's really wonderful", so much so that it makes her want to cry. Tears aren't welling up because she can't open her eyes, they are welling up because what she is seeing is beautiful. Thus dazzyling is the better choice. "The sun is too bright" is too literal I think and does not really take into account the emotion she was trying to get across in that sentance.

Hm. Here are some words I found in a thesaurus that might be useful..

beautiful, bright, brilliant, heavenly, heroic, honored, illustrious, immortal, magnificent, majestic, marvelous, memorable, noble, notable, noted, pleasurable, preeminent, radiant, remarkable, renowned, resplendent, shining, splendid, sublime, superb, time-honored, triumphant, venerable, well-known, wonderful

I personally like "heavenly", "glistening", "enchanting", MAYBE "blinding", "glorious" etc,etc. I'm not really sure.. it's up to you.

If he is really going to change the word to one of those, glistening is the most appropriate, although I still say dazzlying is the most "correct." Words like Heavenly are going too far in the opposite direction of a literal translation - it is not literal enough. The words mabushii and heavenly or enchanting really don't have anything to do with each other.

yep, you're probably right.. since I don't know much Japanese or anything, it's hard to try and pick the word that REALLY gets the point across.. I'll leave it to you pros =P

Ah, you seem to misunderstand the story a little.
This is the story of Bird A and Bird B (the narrator). Bird A said to Bird B,
"If you receive a wound, I'll give my wing to you"
Bird B was so much impressed with thankfulness and tears were welling up. But Bird B didn't want to show they were the tears out of being impressed, and camouflaged them, saying "Taiyou ga mabushii" as an excuse. In fact, the sun was not so bright nor dazzling.

Actually the line about "I'll give my wing to you" occurs AFTER the "mabushii" line.

But even if Bird B was making an excuse about how bright the sun was, the translation would still be the same I think. She says the sun is so bright and dazzlying to draw attention away from herself.

If she simply wanted to say "bright", then why use the word "mabushii." That's what I don't understand.

We need to make a masa appreciation thread <3 :D

Let's make an entire board dedicated to masa, so that we can discuss his marvellous work :).

The depth of those lyrics...

I think it's sort of like.. just poetic license or whatever you call it. People use words to get a point across, and sometimes they just use certain words for the heck of it. I mean if you write a poem and use 'pretty' instead of "magnificently gorgeous" people would be all like 'Ooo~' at the latter.

It just comes across as a lot more impressive to me.. but then again, none of us are Ayu so we can't say for sure why or how she did anything xD

She might talk about it in some interview in the near future though~:]

What Ayu is trying to say is going to end up getting lost in translation, since the connotation of certain words are different when translating from Japanese to English.

Thanks masa!

I need nothing except your smile. Beautiful lyrics.

Yeah the translation has lots to do with the sky
Anyway, thanks for the lyrics...

Well birds do fly in the sky. :) Often Ayu's titles are not directly related to the lyrical content, but are tangentially related.

Aw, what a cute story-line thing <3

Well, I repeat my explanation, changing a little.
"Mabushii" means "I sense so strong lights" and
1. (when used positively) "It's really wonderful"
2. (when used neutrally or a bit negatively) "It bring me a little trouble", for example, "I can't hardly open my eyes" or "Tears are welling up because of strong light".
This is the case 2. Bird B doesn't want to say the sunlights are wonderful but only want to say that the tears were for physical reason, not for emotional reason. So I think the matter is simple. I'd like to know how English-speaking people say commonly and naturally when tears are welling up simply because of strong light.

Well, there isn't really something that you would say naturally in that instance except for "Ouch!" lol

I'm not sure.. usually I just hear 'My eyes are becoming watery..'

=3