Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - View Single Post - "NOTHING FROM NOTHING" translation
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Old 6th February 2003, 12:38 PM
masa masa is offline
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>and follow as god in the sky says which way to go
What god? God as in Christianity or just any kind of god? I wonder what the lyricist had in mind.

This is just the part I had a difficulty in translating. The traditional Japanese religion, Shintou is polytheism, quite different from Christianity, which is monotheism. There are many many gods in the world to Japanese people. So it might be better to translate in this case as "the god in the sky says which way to go".

But, as a matter of fact, it's not a serious phrase but a kind of a word play. When Japanese children choose which way to go or which things to take, they often point right and left in turn, saying "Dochira ni shiyou kana, ten no kamisama no yuu toori." For example, do (R) chi (L) ra (R) ni (L) shi (R) yo (L) u (R) ka (L) na (R) te (L) n (R) no (L) ka (R) mi (L) sa (R) ma (L) no (R) yu (L) u (R) to (L) o (R) ri (L). In this case they would choose to go to the left or take the thing on the left. I've not heard "Ke ke ke no -- ", but I suppose it would be the same kind of word play, that is, ke (R) ke (L) ke (R) no (L) o (R) ma (L) ke(R) tsu (L) ki (R) no (L) ke (R).

Last edited by masa; 6th February 2003 at 12:40 PM.
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