Monthly Archives: April 2016

Meta Taro (BABYMETAL Song) — My Translation

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This song is probably the easiest BABYMETAL song I’ve translated so far. It has a simple narrative, which is easy to follow, so there are no aspects of it that I am majorly unsure about. Well, there is one, actually: The line “We will be reborn” I initially had as “You will be reborn“. I changed it because I decided the song is not about Meta Taro as such, but rather the inspiration he brings out in others.

Just as a matter of interest, I only realized today that the first verse (which begins with Long ago) is obviously inspired by the opening text of the Star Wars movies. If you’ve seen BABYMETAL’s LIVE IN LONDON concerts, you’ll be aware that BABYMETAL have drawn inspiration from Star Wars before. Even the idea of having METAL RESISTANCE episodes (with Roman numerals, no less) comes from Star Wars, I think.

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YAVA! (BABYMETAL Song) — My Translation

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Overall, the lyrics in YAVA! are a pretty straightforward, but they do appear to change point of view at certain times. The song starts off with the point of view of a confused individual (“They’re all the same”), but then it switches to someone who denies something is wrong (“It’s wrong! It’s wrong!” That’s not true). The chorus then goes back to the first point of view.

Oh, something important to note: in Japanese YAVA!  is written as ヤバッ！,  which is a truncated form of やばい and signifies trouble or danger. But since the title of the song is YAVA!, I didn’t change that part;  instead, I just added *Oh-oh* after every YAVA! that appears. Also, as far as I know, the Pa-rira parts don’t have any meaning, but the Pippopappo parts could represent a siren.

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Tales of The Destinies (BABYMETAL Song) — My Translation

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I’ve said it before, but BABYMETAL’s songs always have a tricky part in them. In Tales of The Destinies, if you simply read the first verse from top to bottom, it seems very confusing. But this confusion arises because of the way this song is structured. You see, the vocals are evenly split between YUIMETAL and MOAMETAL’s lines on the one hand and SU-METAL’s lines on the other. YUIMETAL and MOAMETAL start the song off and they mostly sing the interjections ( I have no luck! etc.), while SU-METAL sings the main lines (The answer is always…). Therefore, if you look at the first verse as two sets of overlapping lyrics, things become a lot clearer. For example, on their own SU-METAL’s lines read: “The answer is always… Not n-not n-not here! Where’s the answer… Not n-not n-not n-not here!”. Makes sense, right?

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Awadama Fever (BABYMETAL Song) — My Translation

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BABYMETAL’s songs always seem like they’ll be pretty easy to translate, but something always pops up that makes you think, “Hmmm… Now what does that mean?”. Awadama Fever is no different. The tricky part is in the title itself: the word awadama. Literally, awadama means “foam bubble”. But it is also a brand of candy in Japan, produced by a company called Pine and Since the song mentions other types of candy, this must be what it refers to. So how to translate it? Well, if there was an equivalent candy in the West, I would have transposed awadama with it, but I don’t think one exists. Therefore, I’ve left awadama as is. It seems unusual to have a brand name in a song, but I suppose in Japan it might be now be simply a generic term for a particular type of candy.

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No Rain, No Rainbow (BABYMETAL Song) — My Translation

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I’ve had a go at translating another BABYMETAL song, this time the one titled No Rain, No Rainbow, which is track 10 from METAL RESISTANCE. Like before, I’ve tried to capture the spirit of the song. This was actually quite challenging this time, because the words in No Rain, No Rainbow are quite minimal and simple and this makes the meaning of the song harder to grasp. However, in the end I think I came up with a reasonably faithful interpretation of the lyrics.

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