This page is meant to serve as a sort of general ‘contact’ page – so please comment here if you have any comments that don’t fit on any of the dedicated pages! I used to accept donations, but I decided to stop accepting them since I have a full-time job now. If you’d like to support me, though, feel free to download or buy one of my albums from Bandcamp!
Hello, Releska.
I requested ソラゴト by ASU before but I just found someone already translated the lyrics. I would like to change my request If you don’t mind
Title : 乙女的サイコパシー
Artist : VALIS & Kanzaki Iori
MV : https://youtu.be/0M5Xz46gaqk
Lyrics :https://www.lyrical-nonsense.com/lyrics/valis/otometeki-psycopathy/
Thank you so much!
That’s okay! I’ve swapped your request around on my list.
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Hello! I just made a sub video with your translation of Protective Tree by Kikuo. Unfortunately, I just realized that I actually did end up changing the translation a bit by moving a few words around for better timing in the subs. I mentioned this in my description and also mentioned that they are translyrics of your translation, but I just wanted to ask if it’s alright with you? I can remake the video if it’s a problem!
The link: https://youtu.be/3Xb6LosSvPw
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Hi! Thanks for getting in contact (^_^) It sounds like you’ve taken a great approach and I have no objections. Thanks again and take care!
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Hey, I have no more school for Christmas vacation! [yay :)] but I wanted to see your opinion on what Masa is doing to his old songs. Long story short, someone used one of his old songs and claimed it was his and was profiting from it. Masa got mad and started striking almost every re-uploaded video of his old songs. And as a result, multiple accounts that were re-uploading their videos to keep his old songs on the web got permanently banned. He went on Twitter and explained why you shouldn’t do this and that, and he posted vent art that was soon removed. That’s why I want to know your opinion, and as of right now, the situation is still ongoing. I missed a lot of details, but I condensed it to a fair amount of information. Thanks a lot! (‘O’) And have you recovered from COVID-19?
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Hi! That’s awesome news, I hope you enjoy your vacation. As for me, I made a full recovery from COVID-19 but I’m doing all I can to not get it again (^_^);
It sounds like a complicated situation with Masa, and I’m reluctant to weigh in too heavily on it. I might make some general observations though:
I acknowledge and respect the need to preserve digital content, especially when so much of it is fleeting and easily lost. This is particularly the case with Vocaloid music – while I only took an active interest in it a few years ago, I’ve seen it grow from the very start and it’s a legitimate art form with an increasingly long history. If you think about it from the perspective of musicologists and music historians researching this period in 50 or 100 years, preservation is a worthy goal.
At the same time, I think artists also have the right to determine how they publicly present their content. After all, people change over time and they may decide that their earlier works no longer represent who they are as a person or as an artist. At a personal level, the first two albums I released were really rough: I drew the cover art myself, and the recording quality was poor. A few years later, I released updated versions with better sound quality and I commissioned cover art consistent with the vibe of my other albums. Ideally, I’d like the updated versions to be the ‘official’ versions, so I took the old versions down. Would it be worth keeping the old versions from a preservation standpoint? Of course, but at the same time I don’t think those old versions reflect who I am now.
I can’t speak for Masa but I think, at the end of the day, artists are within their rights to try and control the distribution of the art. It’s just hard to balance that with the need to preserve content in the digital age…
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I see that. I can justify Masa taking down the person who claimed one of the songs as his, as that is wrong, and Masa made the right decision. But him taking down almost everything related to his old works, I can see your point, but once you post something on the internet, it stays there forever. And I think Masa doesn’t understand that, no matter what, someone will be out there, preserving his old songs, even if it is against what he wants. He is rightfully mad, and I can understand what Masa is feeling, but it doesn’t matter. In my opinion, he has to accept the internet as how it is. To be embarrassed about something you did years ago is okay, but taking down videos of fans who appreciate your work, screams “not okay”. I would have just taken down the person who claimed my work as his and I would have ended it there. If I were in Masa’s shoes, I would
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Hey Releska, I hope you are feeling better! Anyway, about this paragraph,
“Requests are closed. Thank you for your support in 2022! Requests will reopen in 2023 once I clear my list of 2022 requests.” Do you mean that you will clear ALL of your 2022 requests or are you going to clear MOST of them? Anyway, it’s crazy how close we are to 2023, my experience in high school has been rough, but it’s been getting better, how are you Releska? That’s all, thank you!
Hello! (^_^) Thanks for checking in, I took the time to rest so I’m feeling much better now and I went back to work on Monday. I’ve also been playing a lot of Pokemon Violet and despite the technical issues it’s been so much fun!
I’d like to clear all the requests first before I start taking on any in 2023, which might mean that I wait until late March/early April before opening them again. I’ll have a better idea at the end of January and I’ll try to make an update then!
Also yes, I cannot believe how close 2023 is! It feels even more sudden for me since it’s still pretty cold where I am and summer’s supposed to be starting in a few days (^_^); I’m glad to hear your high school experience is getting better. I hope it keeps improving but, above all, take care and look after yourself in 2023!
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That’s great to hear, but don’t overwork yourself too much when you start to do requests! And I thought I might have had appendicitis, but I’m 95% sure I’m wrong. I stayed at home, I don’t ‘think’ I have it, and my symptoms are improving, so yeah, a bit of a shocker, anyway, glad to hear you’re fine, can’t wait to see what is ahead in 2023, hopefully something better! \(^_^)/
You have a new avatar! Is it a seal figurine or something?
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Wow, I really love your translations, but I’ve always noticed this in one of your translations, the “私ハ二人ノオ祝イニ” or “I upon the Pair’s Celebration”.
In the second line, “watashi o kaeshite to namida o nagashita” you had put “shed tears: “Return me!” I found that a bit strange as everything else seems fine grammatically, I’m no translator or stuff, but I think the line “I shed (my) tears” is more correct as there is “私” but I could be entirely wrong. I don’t know things, but just wanted to point that out, no offense to you of course, I’ll be glad to hear back to you! 🙂
Hello! Thank you for your support – and thanks for your comment too. I always appreciate this sort of stuff since I’m just a guy with a laptop and no editor (^_^); Your comment gave me a chance to go back over this, which I appreciate. Thank you!
As for the line you raised: I think this is a continuation of the first line. Because of this, I think “watashi o kaeshite” (“Return me!”) is a quote by the Hannya and the flower in the first line. The ‘to’ afterwards indicates that it’s a quote said while they’re doing something: ‘namida o nagashita’ (shed tears). So, even though you see ‘watashi’, I think the ‘watashi’ is linked to the Hannya and the flower (marked by ‘wa’ at the end of the first line’) and not ‘I’.
I hope that clears it up, and thanks for giving me the chance to revisit this! I appreciate it.
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Oh, now I see, thanks for clearing that up! I really appreciate that!
And now I’ll be waiting for Request deadline for my submission! (^_^) Thanks alot!
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Hello, what’s up? How’s your month been? (:
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Hello! My month is going well, I’m watching a lot of tennis at the moment. How are you?
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I didn’t know you were into sports! I’m alright, just moved here to Brisbane from Indonesia to study here just a couple of months ago. It’s great and unexpectedly really cold here!
If I’m not mistaken, I heard that you’re Australian yourself, I wanna ask you; is the weather normally like this? Call me weak, but I’ll never get out of bed when the temperature outside is below 20° Celcius xD what can I say, my home city never goes below 28° Celcius lol
Great to see you doing well! I’d like to say thank you so much for keeping this website strong for so many years. This website really gives people hope in understanding the meaning of their favorite songs when there is no place to do so, and we appreciate you helping us. I hope for the best for u ^^
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Yes, that’s right! I’m Australian, mostly spending time in Canberra and Melbourne. I won’t judge you at all, we’ve had such a cold and wet year! A year or two ago it was the complete opposite, with swelteringly hot summers. I feel like the cold will continue for a bit longer, but hang in there – it’ll get better!
And yeah – the planets aligned in such a way that I’m incredibly into tennis and no other sports, lol.
Thanks for your kind words too! I’m glad to be reaching people around the world and helping out through translations, it just feels nice to have my own little space on the web. It’s all thanks to people like you who keep reading, and it means so much to me (^_^) All the best with your studies up in Brisbane!
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hey! i was going through the song zoetrope by hachiya nanashi, and came across the lyric “理屈ばっかコネ回し繰り返して生きなさいコネ”.
notably, it stuck out to me that “コネ” is in katakana, which seems to be wasei-eigo for “connection”, but the translated lyric makes no mention of it. i don’t know much japanese so i’m curious on your thoughts!
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Hi! Thanks for reaching out to check this. When I was translating the song, I didn’t originally think of コネ as being the wasei-eigo for connection.
I instead linked it to the next word and got コネ回し (konemawashi, also written as 捏ね回し). That means ‘to knead’ or ‘to make things more complicated.’
You raise a good point, though – I’m not sure why the ‘kone’ part is written in katakana. Maybe it’s a type of wordplay? Something like… ‘complicating the connections in your theories’?
Hello Releska! I saw an earlier comment asking to use lyrics for CC, but can we use your lyrics for ジャガーノート || Juggernaut for the CC of a YouTube Chorus Battle? All appropriate credits and links will be properly added.
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I’ve found that there are some words read/sung in different ways they was written in normal in a few songs I’ve heard for a week
For example : 識らなかったはずの (( 存在 )) を識る
shiranakatta hazu no (( iro )) o shiru
(Aoi kanariya – Mitsuki Nakae)
The word : ” 存在 ” (“sonzai”, “existence”) is read as “iro” (色, “color”)
With many years of translating-Japanese-music experience, can you explain for me? Is “sonzai” related to “iro” meaning in this song?
And, Is this a hidden meaning of the author or not? Can you give me some other example like this?
Hope you will answer for me soon
Hello! Thank you for your comment. What you’ve identified is something that we see a lot in Japanese lyrics – a word is written, but a different word is sung.
The meaning behind this is different for each lyricist. As you suggest, some lyricists use this trope to express hidden meanings. This could include contradictions between what the singer is saying versus what is actually happening. They could sing 愛 (ai – love) when 憎しみ (nikushimi – hatred) is written.
In the example you provided, it’s possible that the ‘colour’ is so significant that it feel like it’s a living thing.
If you follow Touhou music, RD-Sounds is famous for doing this in almost every song. For some examples, see https://releska.com/2020/01/03/dolls-into-pitiful-pretenders/
https://releska.com/2018/01/31/exception/
Another example is Rabbit by John – the English equivalents of some Japanese words are sung. https://releska.com/2019/09/28/rabbit/
Keep an eye out for my translator’s notes – when these appear in a song I point them out when they affect the song’s meaning.
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Thank you for your reply. Besides, I argue that “Only lyricists can comprehend their mental child” so, may be your analysis is for my reference only (sorry if this hurt you :(((().
And, do you know any websites or any books which can translate and explain old Japanese words or ancient Japanese idioms? I’m kind of person who like listening traditional and folk music, but almost of their lyrics was written by old Japanese, it too hard for me to understand what they’re singing, despite listening again and again, especially my knowledge of Japanese is limited (usually use gg trans :))).
Can I request my song here instead of your request, I have been waiting for it for 3 months and I can’t wait anymore. I’m vex when I know that you have postponed the request to April instead of Feb, are you kidding me?
Hello again,
-For classical Japanese vocabulary, I normally use this specialised online Japanese dictionary: https://kobun.weblio.jp/
-Kafka-Fuura has put together a comprehensive guide to classical Japanese grammar, so if you’re interested in learning more I’d recommend visiting his site: https://kafkafuura.wordpress.com/classical-japanese/
I cancelled my first request period for 2022 to prioritise my own wellbeing. Requests will reopen in two weeks, so thank you very much for being patient until then!
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yo! i hope it’s not too late to switch my request since the current song already has a tl! if it isn’t too much trouble, could you translate this song instead?
Song info: 哀爛漫 (夏秋霖)
Lyrics link: https://piapro.jp/t/qQXk
Listening link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_nhj6vcMcE
Hi! It’s definitely not too late. I’ve updated your request on my list and will get started on it soon (^_^)
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hiiiii! i found a very interesting album by tamachang. as i understand it, all the songs are religious lyrics.https://vocadb.net/Al/16321https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mCx-GTKDwkD-gX0go9h3wj8_rs65WMIl4http://tama-music.com/sale/shinbutsu_00.html
more info:http://tama-music.com/pdf/shinbutsu.pdf
i don’t want to take up your time but could you briefly describe the essence of this album? and is there a lyrics in it that you could translate?
Hello! (^_^) I had a quick look at the PDF file, and your understanding is correct. The songs are linked to religious music. It seems like the composer is drawing on this traditional music to make something that is in opposition to Western music.
I don’t think I could translate any of these songs because of the amount of background information and context I would need to go through. It would take too much time to create a translation I’d be happy with.
hi! how are you? (ᵔ◡ᵔ)
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Hi! Not a problem, thanks for checking in. I’m definitely okay with people making translyrics based on my translations – just mention it’s based on or adapted from my translation and leave a link like you suggested (^_^)
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Hi! Thanks for your comment (^_^) Unfortunately I don’t check translations for accuracy. Sorry about that…
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You’re welcome! (^_^) I’m always happy to help out and reading comments like this makes it even more worthwhile!
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RELESKA! tell me the story of your avatar and nickname.
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Hmmm… I kept a bonsai some years ago and when I bought it, I got the panda statue with it! I thought it looked cool and I didn’t want to show my real face so I thought I’d use him as a mascot.
The name has had personal significance since I was young, so I use it to connect myself to who I was back then – it’s kind of like a promise, I guess?
oh, i understand you! i spent my entire childhood with one nickname, but that all changed two years ago. i think, on the contrary, i decided to part with my past self. that nickname was associated with a lot of people with whom i no longer communicate (our forum was closed a few years ago). i decided it would be more appropriate to leave my name with them. and move on.
Releska 
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