Test thread (Submission Guidelines)

[Fuukanou]

Before you can post transliterations and translation on AnimeLyrics, there are a few guidelines you should be aware of. I am aware this is a lot of text, but I ask that you read it carefully before you begin posting.

Who can submit what: There are limitations as to who can submit what

• Users who have not cleared any Japanese test: Can only submit official transliterations/translations (note: YouTube captions do not count for this) of Japanese songs, and transliterations/translations of non-Japanese songs (please only post if you are confident in your knowledge of that language)
• Users who have only cleared the Lv. 1 (romanisation) Japanese test: Can submit transliterations, but not translations of Japanese songs
• Users who have cleared both the Lv. 1 and Lv. 2 (translation) Japanese test: Can submit both transliterations and translation of Japanese songs

What goes where: What category should you pick for each song

• ANIME: Songs from anime and animated movies (so no-live action, put that under the performing artist in J-POP/J-ROCK instead)
  　　　　 We don't accept TV-sized versions of songs, unless there likely won't ever be a full-sized version (e.g. for some dub songs)
• GAME: Songs from Japanese-made or Japanese localised games
• J-POP/J-ROCK: For commercially published songs by real artists. For unofficial or self-published songs [doujin], and songs by not-real performers (e.g. VOCALOID songs), please use the DOUJIN section instead
  For fictional bands (such as μ's or Aqours from Love Live, ZHIEND or How-Low-Hello from Charlotte, or Sheryl Nome or Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier) please only post them under the anime/game they came from
  In the case of solos of band members and collaborations between different artists, the rule is "if it appeared on an single/album by a performer, it can be posted to that performer's page" (e.g. a solo by a band member can be posted to the band's page if it appeared on the band's album, and the same collaboration song can be posted to two different artists if they both released it on a single/album in their name)
  You may cross-post songs from the ANIME and GAME sections to the respective performing artist's page here, provided that it was released on a single/album in their name
• DOUJIN: For unofficial or self-published songs (e.g. VOCALOID songs)

How to fill out the submission form:

If you are submitting a translation for an existing song, please click the [Submit an English translation for this song] at the bottom of the song's page.
If you are posting a song from an existing anime/game/artist, selecting [Submit a song for...] on the respective page is recommended as it fills out a couple of fields for you.

Not all fields accept Japanese/non-Latin text. Please assume a field does not accept it unless indicated otherwise.

• Category: Filled in if you chose [Submit a song for...], else for a new show/game/artist, see the section above for what goes where
• Show: If it isn't already filled, for a new show you should put in the most common name (e.g. for an anime it's the romanised name)
• Show title (Orig): The romanised name of the song. The field doesn't accept kanji so don't put it here
• Show title (English): The translated name for the song. Leave it blank if the original name above is already English
• Collection: Usually used for J-POP/DOUJIN as the album name.
  　　　　　　 For "VOCALOID Original Songs", this is used for the performing VOCALOID only. Any albums can be put in the "Song notes"
  　　　　　　 May be used for the ANIME/GAME section if there are multiple postable songs on an album that's only for that anime/game.
• Track #: Track number for albums. Leave it blank if you haven't filled out the field above
• Song Description: Things like "Opening Theme 1", "Episode 24 Insert Song" or "[insert name here] Character Song". Please keep it short
• Song notes: Split into roles (e.g. performed by..., lyrics by..., composition by..., arrangement by...). You may put in a link to official videos here.
• Comments: Useful for explaining wordplay etc. that doesn't come across in the translation. The field doesn't accept kanji so don't put it here.
  　　　　　　　This is also a useful tool for communicating with admins, e.g. for requests to "cross-post" a submission from the anime section to the
  　　　　　　　respective artist's page in J-POP.

You do not have access to most of these fields if you are submitting a translation to an existing transliteration on the site. In this case you can send @Fuukanou or @EJTranslations a PM to request modification of the fields above if needed.

For the actual lyrics, the purpose of the fields vary by what you're posting so read carefully:

For a Japanese/other non-Latin alphabet (Chinese/Korean/Russian etc.) language song:

• Main/Romaji lyrics: Necessary field. Will have romaji/equivalent. Do not use any non-Latin characters
• English Translation: Optional field. Will have the user-written English translation. Do not use any non-Latin characters
• Kanji Lyrics: Optional field. Will have the original Kanji/equivalent lyrics

For an English only/other Latin alphabet (French, German, Latin etc.) language song:

• Main/Romaji lyrics: Necessary field. Will have the song lyrics in original language. Do not use any non-Latin characters
• English Translation: Optional field. Blank for English songs, translation for other Latin alphabet songs. Do not use any non-Latin characters
• Kanji Lyrics: Blank unless there is an official Japanese translation of the song

Some transliterators/translators use colour coding in their posts. You will have to use the following code:

<font color="COLOUR GOES HERE">LYRICS GO HERE</font>

where the colour can be "red", "blue" etc. A list of colour names can be found here: just make sure you use the words in the left hand column

Rules for transliteration and translation:

On AL, there are a few things that are completely left up to the submitter and as a result cannot be a target for corrections. The one thing I ask, however, is that these are consistent in a single transcription/translation for readability:

• Romanisation: A transliterator is free to use whatever form of romanisation that they feel fit. This includes both which romanisation style they use (e.g. ha/wa for particulate は, he/e for particulate へ, and wo/o for particulate を) and the choice of using overbars to represent long vowels (e.g. kyō/kyou for 今日). In addition, what counts as a word (i.e. for auxiliary verbs and particles) is left up to the transliterator (e.g. 走っていく may be romanised either as hashitte iku or hashitteiku, and 何度も may be romanised as nando mo or nandomo)

• Capitalisation of katakana: When romanising, often capital letters are used for representing katakana. A transliterator is free to use or not use capital letters for katakana in whatever circumstances they feel fit (e.g. when used for loanwords like メロディー or when used for emphasis like キミ)

• Flaunted kana readings: Japanese singers take liberties with the lyrics when singing. It isn't uncommon for a word to be written in kana in the lyrics that's sung differently (frequently happens with -ていく in the lyrics being sung as -てゆく). A transliterator is free to romanise either what is sung (-te iku) or what is written (-te yuku) in the case that is kana; in the case that this is kanji -て行く, the appropriate sung reading is expected. Note that with kanji with non-standard readings (e.g. 宇宙 being sung as そら), the sung non-standard reading (sora) must be transcribed; in this case, it is up to the transliterator whether or not to include the normal reading (uchuu) in brackets etc. along with the sung reading, but this often makes the transcription/translation messy and so is not recommended.

• Omitted lines: Sometimes, songs have backing vocals that aren't in the kanji. A transliterator is free to include or ignore these at their discretion. Keep in mind that these will have to be written by-ear and are thus more likely to contain mistakes.

• Multiple spacing: Japanese songs often contain spaces (　) in lines for pacing purposes, grammatical purposes or sometimes seemingly at random. A transliterator is free to represent (or not include) these spaces in the kanji with multiple spaces (often called double spacing). Unfortunately the forums do not allow me to show double spaces so please see this pastebin for examples. The only rules here is that you cannot use JIS-encoded spaces (　) in the romaji. If I were to recommend a form, it would be double spacing, as it is closest to the JIS-encoded space and occasionally you run into songs with long lines with a lot of spaces which can get very long if you have triple spacing.

• Literal/liberal translations: A translator is free to have a translation that is literal (using as many words from the original song as possible), or is reasonably liberal (often by substituting words and adding in additional words), as long as the meaning of the original line is conveyed. While this is at the translator's discretion, if the translation is seen to be so literal or liberal as to not properly convey the meaning of the line, it is open for corrections.

• Commonwealth/US spelling: A translator is free to use any valid spelling scheme (e.g. colour/color) and use the Oxford comma at their discretion.

• Not allowed characters: There are a couple of characters which aren't allowed in the titles, transcriptions, translations and comments. These include but are not limited to:

• Any kanji/kana at all. I suggest you romanise it.
• JIS-encoded spaces (　). Instead use normal spaces ( )
• Smart quotes (“ ” or ‘ ’). Instead use normal quotes (" " or ' ')
• Ellipsis characters (… or ⋯ or Japanese equivalents). Instead use three periods (...)

• Splitting/merging lines: Splitting or merging lines is frowned upon on this site. What this means is that each romanised line must correlate exactly with the corresponding kanji line, and there are the same number of romaji lines in each verse as there are kanji lines. One reason for this rule is, in the case that a translator has done the translation without looking at your transcription, the number of lines of the transcription/translation will not match, and the AL website struggles to display songs where the number of lines for the romaji is not equal to the number of lines for the translation. In this case, either the transcription or translation will have to have lines split/merged to fit. Alternatively, blank lines can be put in as padding but this results in an overall more messy page, so is avoided wherever possible.
Having said this, there are songs with extremely long and extremely short lines, neither of which would be conducive to translations: too short lines could result in a very bitty translation, and too long lines risk the transcription and the translation not fitting on your screen when you visit the page. In this case, lines can be merged/split in order to make it more readable.