(This post was written by my brother, I’m just posting it here)
A while ago, an acquaintance and I were talking about our hobbies; I mentioned to him that I’ve translated Japanese comics in the past. He recalled a funny video he’d seen, titled “to krasaki tou tsou”, which consisted of misheard Greek lyrics of Kaji Meiko’s “Shura no Hana”. So he said “Dude, why not translate that one then?”. I thought “Challenge accepted!”
My first option, of course, was to take a look at English translations and base my own Greek translation on them. Imagine my surprise, then, when I realised that not only were the translations I found incorrect, even the transcriptions to romaji had mistakes.
With that in mind, I decided to translate it from scratch to both languages. The English version can be found below.
In a dead morning, the snow falls burying everything
All that’s heard is the howls of stray dogs and the creaks of my clogs*.
I walk whilst contemplating the weight of karma
A bull’s-eye-pattern umbrella embraces the darkness
I walk on the way of life, as a woman that has long since thrown her tears away
Atop the river that snakes around, my journey’s light fades away
The frozen crane*² sits still while the wind and rain howl.
The frozen water surface reflects unkempt hair
A bull’s-eye-pattern umbrella hides even my tears
I walk on the way of revenge, as a woman that has long since thrown her heart away
Honour and sentiment, tears and dreams,
yesterday and tomorrow, all empty words.
As a woman that has abandoned her body to the river of revenge,
I’ve long since thrown them all away.
* geta
*² (the bird, not the machine)