#lyric translation
The second song that Mafuyu brings to life with lyrics in Given is Yoru ga Akeru, and in the movie, is a crucial part of the plot.
I have only seen the movie with English subtitles once, and I have largely avoided looking at subtitles on videos on YouTube, but in that one time with English subtitles, it bothered me enough to try my own hand at translating this song.
Lyrics are much harder than other types of translations, much like poetry.
This song in particular is hard, because it has to apply equally to Mafuyu, Ugetsu, Akihiko, and Haruki. It’s hard because in Japanese, the title 夜が明ける is only ever stated one way, (literal translation: “the night will become light”); but in English, there are so many different ways to say this, and none fit the Japanese exactly. “Dawn will break” is the obvious one, with some wording variation, but to have the verb be “break” instead of “become light” is, I think, quite an atmosphere change.
That said, because “dawn will break” is such a common phrase in English, it is also unnatural to not use that phrase at all.
In summary, I fiddled around and have a translation that I’m not really happy with but I’ll never be happy with it and @magicpotatoobsession expressed that she would like it if I shared it anyway, so here it is.
Right from the get-go, I refuse to translate the title.
When I translate lyrics, I do tend to try to make them fit to the music, to an extent. And that is what I’ve done here. In a world where this is actually sung, though, I wouldn’t translate the crucial Yoru ga Akeru portion at all, at least in certain parts. (It’s repeated enough throughout the song that it could be bilingual in a lot of cases, once in English and once in Japanese or vice versa.)
Anyway, on to the horribly inadequate translation.
Yoru ga Akeru
Even sleepless nights end with the dawn
The darkness turns to light that holds my gaze
The stubborn, unchanging white wall of my room
Is dyed in morning light; the clock ticks time onward
Step by step, I’m being carried away from that dear season
That I shared with you; and I can’t tell which of us is left behind
I’d much rather stay drifting right here
In darkness
Even sleepless nights end with the dawn
The darkness turns to light that holds my gaze
There are things that change
There are things that end
There are things beginning
I can live on, even though you’re gone
And listen, that’s the saddest part to me
But see, night’s about to end in dawn
Dawn’s about to break
The blooming of the spring;
The withering of autumn;
Yet there will always be new seeds ready to sprout and grow again
Don’t focus on what was, focus on what will be
I know, I do
Even sleepless nights end with the dawn
Every hand we hold we must eventually let go
I can lose my way; can cry my soul to bits;
But one day the tears will end
I can live on, even though you’re gone but I
Am desperate to see you, even though your love is gone
Look at the sky, the dawn will end the night,
Dawn is almost here
Wishes we carry that no one can say yet whether they will come true—
These are what we have named “Hope”.
Even though you’re gone, the night will end in dawn
Our hands have let go, but there will be another to hold
It’s at the end of a long night that we come to know the light
That keeps me living through this terrible fear
The sun will rise, and I’ll walk on from here.
Look at the sky, the dawn will end the night,
And it’ll be okay
Look at the sky
It’s almost here
The night will end in dawn
