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YoungCloud
04-10-2009, 12:47 PM
Here's something that has been driving me crazy for a while. There's a part in the song "CLOSER", fourth opening theme of Naruto: Shippuuden, that MAY have been mistranslated all along. I study Japanese, but of course I have many doubts too, so, this is just a theory:

When the singer says:

キレイ事を言えるほど
何も出来ちゃいないけど

(Kireigoto wo ieru hodo
Nani mo dekicha inai kedo)

It is generally translated as:

"But the more time you spend talking big
The less you get done with life"

However, for you guys who also study or already know Japanese, doesn't this sound a little ambiguous? For me, initially, it sounded more like:

"I'm so unable to do anything
That I end up giving excuses"

What do you guys think? I really don't know which of the two the singer actually wanted to transmit.

Datenshi
04-11-2009, 05:00 AM
I agree, that definitely is a mistake. The problem is that the translation is misreading the 「ほど」 in the first line.

ほど generally has two usages; ほど as in "the more you do - " (e.g. 「やればやるほど」), and ほど as in "degree" or "extent" (e.g. 「ほどほどに」 ="with moderation", 「身のほどを知れ」="know your limits", etc.).

The translation takes ほど in the former sense, where the line actually employs it in the latter, so it should correctly be;

-> "I haven't done enough [to the degree]
To be able to talk big"

YoungCloud
04-11-2009, 04:55 PM
"I haven't done enough
To be able to talk big"

Wow, that's a perfect translation to those verses, Datenshi-sama (may I call you this? Hehe)!

That fits prefectly with the song, I think that's what Inoue Joe really wanted to transmit, especially when you think about that part of the anime involving Shikamaru and all.