アルカディアの継ぎびと || The Heritors of Arcadia

アルカディアの継ぎびと
arukadia no tsugibito
The Heritors of Arcadia

Vocals: Janis Crunch
Lyrics: 草木原俊行 (Toshiyuki Kusakihara)
Composed by: 金﨑猛 (Takeru Kanazaki)
Album: Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia OST

Requested by: Tempera

I don’t think the Japanese lyrics were actually written down anywhere officially, but the lyrics I received matched the song incredibly closely, so I stuck with it. If the official lyrics /do/ surface anywhere, please let me know! Like all ‘licensed’ music (e.g. video game music) I’ve only posted my unofficial English translation, and not the Japanese lyrics. It’s intended to be used as a point of comparison, and to demonstrate just how good the official translation is!

The official English lyrics were written by Brian Gray, and I am in awe of what he did with them. The trouble with making singable lyrics to this song in particular is how many syllables there are in the Japanese lyrics. You’ve got to be creative, and the translator was absolutely creative and I love his lyrics.

非公式の英訳/Unofficial translation

Pure wings cross over the sea of stars in the sky,
This is the future that the wounded step towards.
The passing seasons make sadness grow dim
and tenderly envelop those with eyes cast down.

A blue lion races through the wasteland. It is the guiding light.
This is the promised land of the awakened ones.
Though my corpse may rot away and scatter in the wind,
I want to witness the end of this cycle of death and rebirth.

This is our dream, one we exchanged beneath the same sky
at the end of the path we struggled down.

Though I count the passing seasons to infinity… (1)
Though I may lose my life and wander in the dark…

Though my corpse may rot away and scatter in the wind,
I want to witness the end of this cycle of death and rebirth.

Translator’s note

(1) 那由多 (nayuta) is a Buddhist/Sanskrit term used to refer to an incredibly large number. Here, it has been rounded up to infinity.

Posted

26 November 2018

英訳だけ, Other, Translations

Releska

Tags:

Fire Emblem Echoes Shadows Of Valentia

Comments

3 responses to “アルカディアの継ぎびと || The Heritors of Arcadia”

Tempera

27 November 2018

The Japanese version feels shorter to me, but as you said, the English version has more lines to make up for all the syllables. I like how the official translator kept some of the original phrases (“sea of stars”/”ocean of stars”, “promised land”, “guiding light”/”first light”) or even turned them into something new (the lines about the seasons). I’m a little curious about the change from blue lion to jasper lion as the pictures of jasper I looked up seem to generally be red. The atmospheres of each song seem a bit different, even if they both are from Mila’s perspective. The Mila in the English version sounds a lot more active/hands on (“I am the Earth, I will make you strong”), whereas Mila in Japanese sounds more passive/hands off (“I want to witness the end of this cycle of death and rebirth”).
Thank you for your translation!

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1. releska
  
  27 November 2018
  
  You’re welcome! Looking back over it now, I think that there might be an error in the lyrics – for the Jasper part, the lyrics I was referring to had 碧き. Literally, that means ‘blue/green/immature’. However! I looked up ‘Jasper’, and that’s written 碧玉 (hekigyoku). Both use the same first character, so there’s definitely a link. Hopefully Nintendo releases the official lyrics one day…
  
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  1. Tempera
    
    28 November 2018
    
    That’s really clever! Translation really is an interesting process!
    
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