Скачать или смотреть [Subs+Lyrics] Sepia [Hatsune Miku]

"The person you saw me as, is that really me?"

Translated by: Cysote

The Japanese Lyrics, Romaji, and Translation w/Notes can be found here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?i...

Original Nico Broadcast: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13269029

Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku
Music, Movie: Kyotin mylist/21081155 user/12425988
Lyrics: KouKou (煌々) http://piapro.jp/content/owxjvyg393ih...
Illust: Yuugure Akane (夕暮茜) http://piapro.jp/tcwn_a　
Guest guitar: Kamitome (髪留め) mylist/20791794

NOTES

My translation is most likely inaccurate.

(1) 0:55 The words in question here are 照り返すコンクリート(terikaesu konkuriito). On first look, it would literally translate like, 'reflecting concrete', but concrete does not reflect anything, so I figured it more meant that the reflection of the pain felt like concrete upon its reacknowledgment

(2) 1:04 Literally "The afterimage of those clear times repeat". This line seems to more talk about the 'afterimage' or 'visual-leftover image' of the person the singer lost, but that's kinda weird to say in English no matter how you word it. Since someone's image is so closely tied to your memory, and how you would remember it, I just went with the word memory instead

(3) 1:13 There is no way to translate this correctly. HaraHara (はらはら) is onomatopoeia for nervousness, or an unsettling feeling one experiences, mainly due to the uncertainty of the outcome of some event (e.g. anxiety over a test). Onomatopoeia just are not really used in English outside of comics, so I had to more describe the subject of this sentence instead of directly translating

(4) 1:31 It's worded a little weird, but I'm pretty sure this line means how I translated it. The Direct Object particle を(o) is used after Nanimokamo (何もかも, all the things) and watashi (私, I) and both appear right next to each other, so it doesn't make too much sense to a non-native Japanese like myself. The original way I translated this line was "These tears dismantle me AND everything else", but if both "myself" and "everything else" are being represented as two different ideas, it would most likely have been sung as 何もかもと私を(Nanimokamo to watashi o) since と(to) is the conjunctive particle

(5)1:40 The interesting word here is 撒く(maku, to sow/plant). The の(no) afterward means that it is the noun-version (nominalized version) of "to sow", which isn't really an idea used in English very much and so was a little tricky to represent. The word 毒(Doku) means "poison" and so the phrase 毒を撒くの(Doku o maku no) would mean something like 'the sown/planted poison'. When something is already sown though, it has 'taken root' where it has been sown, hence my word choice of "rooted"

(6)1:57 A very important note here is about how 触れる(fureru, to touch/feel/experience) is used in this line. As you can probably tell from how Miku sings this word, it is a very strong and emphatic 触れてよ(furete yo). The way Miku sings it, along with the addition of よ(yo, emphasis marker), makes this line extremely emphasize 触れる(fureru). I could not find a way to make this strong emotion translate as well in English and still have the line be acceptably accurate to the original meaning. Just know that the the singer is extremely distressed about not being able to experience being with their former lover anymore

(7) 2:25 These two lines word-for-word say "World without roads, landmarks are strangers // Time again, step again, compare to these people". This idea makes plenty sense in Japanese when using such little words. To keep the same meaning in English however I was forced to add in a lot of extra words

(8) 3:18 These two lines create a metaphor using a road or path that one would walk down. It compares the journey that one takes through life to that of the road, and alludes to the other person being so far down it (either from going that far themselves, or the singer simply stopped advancing) that the singer can no longer see or catch up to. It's poetic and a great metaphor, but not something used often enough in English to allow a direct translation to be something that people would understand the first time they read it

(9) 3:27 Literally "A painful path/journey to follow because cannot reach you"

(10) 3:54 Translates word-for-word to "The reflection in your eyes, am I myself?" It was a hard line to understand, as it seems to talk about two different ideas

(11) 4:11 Sepia, for those who don't know, is a color scheme of mainly dark brown colors. Very old and/or dated photographs tend to fade very much over time and have a Sepia hue to them. This has led to the color scheme of Sepia representing such vintage and old ideas or memories, which is where this metaphor comes from. The singer compares her painful memories to the Sepia scheme as if they are an old and ancient part of herself that she will never break away from