Pokemon - Kaze to Isshoni

[ArtemisA]

Being a Pokemon song, this one's pretty easy. I'm just stuck on one little section:

誕生日祝う　ローソクふえたけど
たったひとつの　ふるさと　旅立った

Though I blew out my birthday candles
### ???

How to phrase the second line?

[Rizuchan]

I disagree about Pokemon songs being entirely easy, the older ones are a pain because they're almost entirely in hiragana and I just can't think well that way. :wacko:

I think this stanza makes a bit more sense if the subject is "you" rather than "I". It'll still make sense with "I", though. I haven't really taken a close look at the rest of the song to tell (But isn't this part sung by the older woman? I suppose I was always under the impression that she was addressing the younger girl in this song, like in "Pocket ni Fantasy")

誕生日祝う ローソクふえたけど
たったひとつの ふるさと 旅立った

Though you blew out your birthday candles
You set off to your one and only hometown

I think its really awkwardly phrased, but the meaning I'm getting out of it is "Though we celebrated your birthday [here], you left to go back home" I hope that's of some help, rather than making your "it doesn't make any sense!" problem worse. ><

[ArtemisA]

Yeah, that probably makes sense. I haven't listened to the song in a while, so I don't remember who's singing it, but that's probably it.

And yeah, the hiragana fun. I just did "Manatsu no Daisakusen," and that was all hiragana. I had to just think of it like spoken speech and decipher it that way. I do think they're at least structurally easier, because they're meant for children (which does bring up the issue of slang/colloquial speech, but at least the grammar's fairly simple).

But anyways, I'll listen to the song and figure out how to fit this in the context. Thanks!

[EJTranslations]

Heh, I started translating this song once, quite a while ago, but for some reason I sort of wandered off in the middle and never finished it.

ふえる　is "to increase", not "to blow (out)," by the way. I had taken the lines to mean that although the number of birthday candles has increased (i.e. years have passed), the child to whom the singer is singing set off on a journey away from his/her hometown (and hasn't been back since). Looking at it again, the lack of particles means it could just as easily be a journey to his/her hometown, but to me that makes less sense with the whole "Pokemon journey" idea of the song.

I hope that helps, at least a little.

[Rizuchan]

That does seem to make a bit more sense, bluepenguin. I didn't know the meaning of ふえる so I just trusted that Artemis was right. ^-^;

On the other hand, that けど really bothers me. In "Though the birthday candles have increased, you set off from your home town" though/けど doesn't seem to fit. In Pokemon or in life, aren't you sort of expected to leave home when you get older? That's why I can't help but wonder if it should be "set off to your home town" like "Even though you're getting older, you're beginning to realize that there's no place like home" sort of thing.

Wow, who knew there could be such a deep discussion about a Pokemon song? :laugh:

[EJTranslations]

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that -- you have a point there. I can't think of a better way to account for that けど.

[ArtemisA]

It's a little frustrating, since the rest of the song is fairly straightforward... I guess that's just like Pokemon itself then... Simple little kids' show, but every once in a while it'll have it's thoughtful points...