Inhae's blog

The song “愛は花、君はその種子” sung by 都はるみ・みやこはるみ appears at the end of the Ghibli film “Only Yesterday”, directed by Isao Takahata. It is a Japanese cover of “The Rose” by Amanda McBroom.

I don’t know if I would have loved that song so much, hadn’t I seen the film. It’s only the ending film song but it accompanies a very moving scene that retrospectively gives a new dimension to the whole film. The emotion conveyed in this last scene only proves the great quality of Ghibli films that make them so different from any other anime films, in my opinion.

It is very hard, if not impossible, to find the original version (I mean, the version of the film) on YouTube. I have to link to a cover then… If you haven’t seen “Only Yesterday”, I hope you will have a chance to watch it and listen to the ending song!

https://youtu.be/7xXW0EExbys

Lyrics:

• やさしい　means “tender”, “kind”. the “さ” ending nominalize it to “tenderness”
• 押し流す・おしながす　to wash away
• 魂・たましい　soul, spirit
• 切り裂く・きりさく　to cut off, to cut up, to tear to pieces
• とめどない　endless, ceaseless
• 渇き・かわき　thirst
• 生命・いのち　life. It is usually written 命・いのち
• 種子・たね　seed. Again, I think it is usually written 種・たね

• 挫ける・くじける　to be crushed, to be broken
• 恐れる・おそれる　to fear, to be afraid of
• 躍る・おどる　to pound (one’s heart)
• 醒める・さめる　to wake
• 逃す・のがす　to miss (an occasion)
• 奪われる・うばわれる　is the passive form of 奪う・うばう　to snatch away, to dispossess, to steal
• 与える・あたえる　to give

• 来やしない・きやしない　”やしない” is an emphatic negative form used after -masu stem
• ～てごらん　”ごらん” is used after -te form of a verb to say “please, try to…”
• 埋もれる・うもれる　to be buried, to be covered, hidden
• おひさま　the sun
• ひらく　to spread out, to open up (for a flower)

The translation is very close to the original English one… I tend to like this version better but I am sure that I am influenced by the film which is one of my favourite Ghibli films.

About

I’m learning Japanese, Korean and Chinese to read mystery novels and play video games in these languages.

Learning languages has always been one of my favourite hobbies, but I’m not a social person, I don’t like to meet new people and make friends, this is just not me. I keep hearing that languages are meant for communication, that we have to actively use them, talk to people, etc. and for a long time, I thought I was weird to learn languages just for me, just to enjoy media, culture and entertainment in a foreign language, with absolutely zero interest in communicating with natives.

Now I don’t really care what people think, and this blog helped me a lot to stop doubting myself and just do what I enjoy doing.