The last of the songs prepped for the “Subtitles for Newbies” panels, and a bit of an experiment for me as far as typesetting goes. Instead of typesetting this myself on stage, I asked for a brave volunteer from the audience to give it a five-minute go (sidenote: not nearly enough time for refining and tweaking, just for allowing someone to practice picking a font, a color, and setting it to a line). Given that this song has a lot of personality to it, I decided when making my own typesetting scheme to mess around with some of the more interesting transformations possible in the Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle format: real karaoke timing on English lyrics, a couple fades, one or two things that move. My wonderful beta, Sumeria, verified that I did not go overboard, so rest assured — it’s not a pinwheeling carnival of unreadable text. That would be a crime against J-Rock.
So, please enjoy a video from the man who may well have the best voice of all the J-Rock and J-Pop acts I follow.
| “Redemption” by Gackt [for FF7: Dirge of Cerberus] |
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| Downloads from MediaFire and MegaUpload Split Files may be joined with HJSplit |
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| AVI (Xvid) 109.62 MB |
MF: 001/002 MU: Full |
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| WMV 52.72 MB |
MF: Full MU: Full |
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| MP4 (H264) 41.12 MB |
MF: Full MU: Full |
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| MP4 (PSP) 22.52 MB |
MF: Full MU: Full |
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| As always, please support the artist: [CD] [DVD] |
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LYRICS
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“Redemption”
静かに宙に還る貴方の姿を
what else can I do besides avenge you?
涙が枯れるまでずっとみつめていた
shizuka ni sora ni kaeru anata no sugata wo
what else can I do besides avenge you?
namida ga kareru made zutto mitsumeteita
As you returned so peacefully into the skies,
what else can I do besides avenge you?
I kept searching for your trace until my tears ran dry.
溢れる哀しみは消せない傷跡に
忘れはしないと誓った
afureru kanashimi ha kesenai kizuato ni
wasure ha shinai to chikatta
The flood of my grief became an unfading scar.
I swore then that I would never forget.
折れた翼を羽ばたかせすべてを消してみせよう
いつの日か終わりを迎える最後の鐘が鳴り止むまで
oreta tsubasa wo habatakase
subete wo keshitemiseyou
itsu no hi ka owari wo mukaeru
saigo no kane ga nariyamu made
Let me soar upon these broken wings
And watch as I strike all this down
Whenever it may come, I’ll march toward my end
Until the last bell’s song fades away
you told me
live as if you were to die tomorrow
feel as if you were to be reborn now
face as if you were to live forever
震える指で紅い涙をなぞった
I had nothing to lose, nothing truth
儚い思い出が闇に堕ちてゆく
furueru yubi de akai namida wo nazotta
I had nothing to lose, nothing truth
hakanai omoide ga yami ni ochiteyuku
I wiped away crimson tears with trembling fingers
I had nothing to lose, nothing truth
My fleeting memories fall into the darkness
最後の微笑が浮かんでは消える
温もりだけを残して
saigo no hohoemi ga ukande ha kieru
nukumori dake wo nokoshite
As one last smile rises up, it disappears
All that remains is your warmth
優しいだけの言葉ならいまの僕は癒せない
果てしなく続く戦いにこの身をすべて捧げるだけ
yasashii dake no kotoba nara
ima no boku ha iyasenai
hateshinaku tsuzuku tatakai ni
kono mi wo subete sasageru dake
Words of pure kindness uttered now cannot heal me as I am.
I can only offer all of myself to this neverending fight.
いつかはこの宙に誰もが還るから
別れの言葉はいらない
make it up
itsuka ha kono sora ni daremo ga kaeru kara
wakare no kotoba ha iranai
make it up
Everyone will return to this sky in time.
There is no need for us to say farewell.
make it up
折れた翼を羽ばたかせすべてを消してみせよう
いつの日か終わりを迎える最後の鐘が鳴り止むまで
oreta tsubasa wo habatakase
subete wo keshitemiseyou
itsu no hi ka owari wo mukaeru
saigo no kane ga nariyamu made
Let me soar upon these broken wings
And watch as I strike all this down
Whenever it may come, I’ll march toward my end
Until the last bell’s song fades away
優しいだけの言葉ならいまの僕は癒せない
果てしなく続く戦いにこの身をすべて捧げるだけ
yasashii dake no kotoba nara
ima no boku ha iyasenai
hateshinaku tsuzuku tatakai ni
kono mi wo subete sasageru dake
Words of pure kindness uttered now cannot heal me as I am.
I can only offer all of myself to this neverending fight.
REDEMPTION
[Original Japanese lyrics, music, and performance by Gackt (Crown Records). English translation and Japanese romanization made for educational purposes without authorization or approval by Skinner in association with Impetuosity Productions.]
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TRANSLATION NOTE
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1) The lyrics above represent exactly what was written in the liner notes for the “Red” DVD collection. I made two alterations for the video: the last line, “REDEMPTION”, is repeated, and the line, “live as if you were to die tomorrow” is clearly proceeded by the word “to”. I’ve added that to the subtitles, but left it out here. Both Sumeria and several sources on the internet have suggested that, likewise, “nothing to lose, nothing truth” should be “nothing to lose, nothing to lose”; however, the text “nothing truth” appears on the screen at that point (freeze-frame is awesome), and I only would have contradicted that if I were absolutely certain it was wrong. After listening to the song about a hundred times in close succession while typesetting, I am now absolutely certain that “truth” is not wrong. There’s a subtle but noticeable difference in pronunciation between what he says there and when he says “to lose” a moment before.
2) With regard to the following:
溢れる哀しみは消せない傷跡に
忘れはしないと誓ったafureru kanashimi ha kesenai kizuato ni
wasure ha shinai to chikattaThe flood of my grief became an unfading scar.
I swore then that I would never forget.
My first impression of these two lines was that they sounded like separate statements, musically. However, there’s no punctuation, and they do make a coherent single sentence when taken together: “I swore upon that unfading scar that I would not forget my overflowing grief.” After much deliberation, I decided to maintain the lyrical interpretation of my first impressions, since mood and one’s experience of listening should not be divorced from the text in a musical translation. I added the word “then” to the second line as a way of linking the oath back to the previous line, with the scar as its focus.
3) The second refrain:
優しいだけの言葉ならいまの僕は癒せない
果てしなく続く戦いにこの身をすべて捧げるだけyasashii dake no kotoba nara
ima no boku ha iyasenai
hateshinaku tsuzuku tatakai ni
kono mi wo subete sasageru dakeWords of pure kindness uttered now cannot heal me as I am.
I can only offer all of myself to this neverending fight.
I believe the implication of the second line (hateshinaku [...] dake) is that sacrificing himself completely is the only possible means to heal. I was never quite satisfied with any of the formulations of this line I came up with in terms of expressing that point.
4) Now, a technical note. As mentioned above, this was the video I used in the “Subtitles for Newbies” panel to give an audience member a chance to try typesetting a video. If you’d like to see the results, I saved a few seconds as a sample video: [MF/MU]. This was also the video that caused the inexplicable VirtualDubMod crash on stage, where the program froze up completely and would only close by stepping in with Task Manager to end the process. In making the sample file above, I was able to determine that the reason for the crash was that Avery Lee’s “subtitler” filter for VirtualDub doesn’t like to process the Wingdings font my brave volunteer chose. The “TextSub” filter (VSFilter) by Gabest does this just fine, if you ever have a need to use Wingdings on your video.
Thank you for watching!!
