kaigou: this is what I do, darling (soldier on)
[personal profile] kaigou
Awhile back, [livejournal.com profile] penship posted the German version of the GW opening (identical to Japanese but translated into German) and the Arabic version, with a request for translation. A fortunate synchronicity: my fellow-GWfan CF, [livejournal.com profile] habibti, is Lebanese. I managed to d/l and export the youtube version, and played it during a family get-together the day before we left Sydney. CF's step-father ("Dad") and sister-in-law (Carmen) translated the lyrics, with a little help from the rest of the crew ("Mum", and Carmen's husband George).
We won't surrender,
No matter how great the oppressor's* domination**.
We will stand up before tyranny;
We will struggle to enlighten justice,
And to do what is right by humanity.
    oh-h-h-h-h, gundam wing (repeat)

Let's go forward, for justice and peace.
The righteous will always remain the strongest, and tyranny is cowardice.
We seek justice; we kneel before it, and nations will triumph.
A few notes:
  1. The text is the lyrics, at the bottom of the screen (not voice actor or other information, as I'd wondered); the 'backwards-looking g' is a sort of 'he' or 'ho' sound, which would be the rough equivalent to "oh-oh-oh" in English.
  2. There's no hard 'g' in Arabic, so the best equivalent seems to be a 'huh' sound, which makes the name more like 'hunhdam' than 'gundam'.
  3. The lyrics, in Arabic, are both poetic and gorgeously written, and after I described the series as "an anti-war war anime", determined to be "very appropriate" to the series' meaning, if a huge contrast to the Japanese lyrics.
* 'Tyrant' might also work, so I used that and synonyms to alleviate the repetition in English.
** The line, as Dad wrote it, is "no matter how the oppressor goes goes forth with the oppression" -- which, to my English eyeballs, looks both repetitive and awkward (even if it's an accurate translation of the original). Not saying my version is better/worse, but I think it at least gets the gist.

Also: with the right person speaking, it really does change how the language comes across -- from angry/harsh to sibilant/poetic. I've heard rough-fast Arabic (often Palestinian or Saudi dialects) and it can sound almost Teutonic in its choppy-hoarse harshness, but Carmen spoke it and it sounded soft, fluid, almost aspirated. Curiously, it sounds more suited to love poetry than French ever could, to my ears: breathless, almost, while French just rhymes easily and has a lot of the 'long-A' sound that gives it a certain sweetness.

For comparison, I described the original lyrics and opening sequence images as being more focused on love giving one strength, and the connections between people as being what will overcome even the darkest of days... Here's the translation of the Japanese version.
Just wild beat — communication — while being pounded by rain
I want to express this unfading passion with my entire body, tonight!

I held your damp shoulders to warm you.
Your fingers tremble; what are they seeking?
Even if it's in broken speech, I want you to tell me your pain.
Pretending the pain has faded doesn't make you an adult.
I want to protect that look in your eyes
Believe in the love that can change sadness to strength.

Just wild beat — communication — don't be afraid of anything.
Because no one's going to take away our shared feelings of now.

I want to spend the night nestled close to you until the faraway dawn.
We can lose everything else, as long as we don't lose tenderness.
Through kisses more than words, we feel each other's heartbeats,
drawing passion near; momentary, yet eternal...
I want to gaze at you, painfully, intensely.
You're so precious to me it almost brings me to tears.

Just wild beat — communication — don't surrender anything,
because when you have someone who understands you, you can fight on.

Just wild beat — communication — don't let go of love
Unleash all of the complexities of your heart, and show me
your true self, overflowing and passionate, tonight!
Both, really, do fit the anime, though I pointed out that I find it curious that the Japanese (and all other opening segment versions I've seen), emphasize the post-battle scenery and show all five pilots along with Relena, with an almost melancholy element to the characters' expressions. Compare that to the Arabic, where it's almost exclusively Heero and Zechs, with a few shots of Wufei and Treize -- and a huge, huge emphasis on the battles.

"Well," CF said, "this is Arabic. Everything's politics."

Of course, translation is a hard skill to learn, let alone perfect. You think in one language, and a word fits, and in another language, another word might fit, but it takes a real knack for finding when those words fit each other.

Carmen read out the lyrics & confirmed they fit the song, while CF paused the video and Dad wrote down the lyrics (in Arabic, wah, but he pitched the envelope he'd used as scratch paper before I could snag it) -- and then they went over each line to come up with the best version in English.
Dad: "No matter how the..." *silence* Hmm, "no matter how the..."
Carmen: Governer?
Dad: No...
Me: *squinting at Arabic* What is it?
Dad: The one who rules.
Me: President?
Dad: No, no, like... like a ruler who makes bad decisions.
Me: Uh.
Carmen: Conquerer, no...
Me: Authority? Overseer?
Dad: No, like an official, but a bad one.
Carmen: *thinking hard*
Dad: It's like... when your father or brother makes bad choices, that are bad for you.
Me: Uhm.
George: Oppresser?
Dad: That's it! "No matter how the oppressor goes forth..."
George did the obligatory victory symbol at helping us out of that translation bind. ;-)
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kaigou: this is what I do, darling (Default)
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"When you make the finding yourself— even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light— you'll never forget it." —Carl Sagan

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