Kishida Kyoudan & the Akeboshi Rockets - vivid snow

I'm translating this song (full lyrics here: http://www.kasi-time.com/item-81156.html) and there's one stanza that I just can't figure out:

愚痴みたいなものだけどさ
答え合わせるようなテンプレートどおりのアレどうかしてるって
flatでいようなんて斜に構えちゃって同一化
おなじ靴を履いているんだ

The middle two lines are what's stumping me (I have the first as "This sounds like a complaint, but" and the last as "I'm wearing the same shoes"). I understand the words/expressions individually, but I just can't parse the lines or figure out how the stanza forms a cohesive whole. (Assuming it does). I assume the "flatでいようなんて斜に構えちゃって" part relates back to the line "そんな平坦を望んだんじゃない" earlier in the song, but what's 同一化 doing there? And how does the previous line fit together? There's something about answer-checking and something about "according to the template" and something about the speaker being not herself/out of her mind, but I just can't connect the dots.

Thanks!

Hey, just wondering, did you ever figure this out? I have some ideas but I'm not sure if they're still needed :V

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Originally Posted by bambooXZX

Hey, just wondering, did you ever figure this out? I have some ideas but I'm not sure if they're still needed :V

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I never did, so I'd love to hear what your ideas are!

>答え合わせるようなテンプレートどおりのアレどうかしてるって
I think アレ refers to the general state of interaction (the 平坦 mentioned earlier etc), so she's highlighting how she feels there's something wrong with it (アレ [が] どうかしてる って) and then the preceding phrases are description. (答え合わせるような and テンプレートどおりの probably both point to アレ?) I don't think I've encountered 答え合わせる in the wild before, so I'm not sure what the best way would be to handle that yet, but 'according to template' seems pretty clear.

>flatでいようなんて斜に構えちゃって同一化
I think this line and the next form a single statement, as elaboration on what the idea of 「flatでいよう」 amounts to in the speaker's mind, so 同一化 would be a part of that description chain. Not sure if your issue was with the grammar or the meaning - if it was the meaning, I'm not actually familiar with this term, and quick research seems to lead me on some psychology rabbit trails so I doubt there's much I can add from there. (I wasn't familiar with 斜に構える either, actually, but I think I got a good enough idea from the dictionary.)

If you don't mind another opinion, I'll drop my thoughts in as well. Mind you, this is with only ready the paragraph that you provided, and not the remainder of the lyrics.

Line 1 > Much as you said : Something like "Seems like somewhat of a complaint, but"

Line 2 > I read it as meaning "It's as though you're formulating responses based on a generic template". Or the beginning can be more of a suggestion, such as "Isn't it like..."
I could be misunderstanding this line, but also remember that Japanese tends to go a little weird when they use English words in place of their own.
You might want to switch "template" to something that sounds less technical like "system", "scheme" or "make-up". I know, I'm bad at examples.
Liberties like these needs to be taken sometimes, even if it's an obvious edit to others when looking at the romaji alone.
Hopefully you can think of something based on my convoluted attempt at the line to better word your own.

Line 3 > This line really does get me a bit. I understand what you mean about understanding the phrases individually, but not as a whole.
To cut down a lot of what it's actually saying, it feels kind of like (don't word it like this) "I don't want to be that way", if you can understand where I'm coming from. Some kind of conflicting feeling, in spite of something.
The subject is somewhat unclear to me though, so I can't really provide an accurate summation.
And all assuming that "flat" really does relate to "平坦".

Line 4 > Again, as you say.


Gods, I suck at answering coherently.

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Originally Posted by bambooXZX

>flatでいようなんて斜に構えちゃって同一化
I think this line and the next form a single statement, as elaboration on what the idea of 「flatでいよう」 amounts to in the speaker's mind, so 同一化 would be a part of that description chain. Not sure if your issue was with the grammar or the meaning - if it was the meaning, I'm not actually familiar with this term, and quick research seems to lead me on some psychology rabbit trails so I doubt there's much I can add from there. (I wasn't familiar with 斜に構える either, actually, but I think I got a good enough idea from the dictionary.)

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I guess it was sort of the meaning of 同一化 that I was having problems with, in that the meaning I got when I looked it up didn't seem to fit in with the context of the song or the specific line, so I don't know if there's another definition that would fit better? Because with the definition I've found, you've got something like "Deciding to be flat/in order to be flat, I adopt a cynical attitude, identify/empathize (with you? with people in general?), and wear the same shoes," and that just doesn't add up to me.

---------- Post added at 12:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------

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Originally Posted by Hikarin

Line 2 > I read it as meaning "It's as though you're formulating responses based on a generic template". Or the beginning can be more of a suggestion, such as "Isn't it like..."
I could be misunderstanding this line, but also remember that Japanese tends to go a little weird when they use English words in place of their own.
You might want to switch "template" to something that sounds less technical like "system", "scheme" or "make-up". I know, I'm bad at examples.
Liberties like these needs to be taken sometimes, even if it's an obvious edit to others when looking at the romaji alone.
Hopefully you can think of something based on my convoluted attempt at the line to better word your own.

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I know loan words often aren't used the way that the word would be used in English and I have no problem translating them as a different English word in that case, but I don't see what's wrong with "template"? Templates don't have to be a very technical thing, there's like e-mail templates for this situation or that situation and stuff. I figure that's the kind of thing the singer means--"it seems like, rather than actually communicating, you just have a set of pre-written stock responses that you slot situation-specific words into as needed," or something along those lines. If that is in fact the case, then I think "template" does actually work better than something like "scheme" or "system." I guess I could say something like "it seems like you're just giving form responses"?

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Originally Posted by bluepenguin

I know loan words often aren't used the way that the word would be used in English and I have no problem translating them as a different English word in that case, but I don't see what's wrong with "template"? Templates don't have to be a very technical thing, there's like e-mail templates for this situation or that situation and stuff. I figure that's the kind of thing the singer means--"it seems like, rather than actually communicating, you just have a set of pre-written stock responses that you slot situation-specific words into as needed," or something along those lines. If that is in fact the case, then I think "template" does actually work better than something like "scheme" or "system." I guess I could say something like "it seems like you're just giving form responses"?

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For sure.
As I said, I only really read what you supplied of the lyrics, so I knew that the feedback I would be providing would be weak at best. I wanted to provide alternate options in the case that the line didn't fit.
Given the last line was something about "wearing the same shoes", I considered something defining a difference in the singer's make-up to the one she is addressing to also be a suitable response.
That's not to say that keeping it as "template" also isn't perfectly fine, I was just wanting to come in with a broad mind to it. =3

Doesn't "同一" just mean "identical" or "equal" and with "化" that comes to mean "identification" or "equalisation"? Or perhaps you are just referring to the way in which you would fit those into the sentence.

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Originally Posted by Hikarin

For sure.
As I said, I only really read what you supplied of the lyrics, so I knew that the feedback I would be providing would be weak at best. I wanted to provide alternate options in the case that the line didn't fit.
Given the last line was something about "wearing the same shoes", I considered something defining a difference in the singer's make-up to the one she is addressing to also be a suitable response.
That's not to say that keeping it as "template" also isn't perfectly fine, I was just wanting to come in with a broad mind to it.

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Of course, that's totally fair. If it helps to explain my perspective at all, the song in general is about a romantic relationship that's become kind of routine and passionless, to the singer's frustration.

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Originally Posted by Hikarin

Doesn't "同一" just mean "identical" or "equal" and with "化" that comes to mean "identification" or "equalisation"? Or perhaps you are just referring to the way in which you would fit those into the sentence.

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Yes, it means "identification" but the issue is that I can't see how it fits into the line.