I had a few questions on a translation I'm doing. If you could help me, that would be great.

I'm having trouble comprehending this sentence: 君が誰かと楽しそうに話すだけで切ないよ
Here's the context:
"君の笑顔を見てると　胸が苦しくなるんだよ
こんな気持ちなんて何も知らないだろうけど
今日も僕は願ってる　瞳を合わせて笑えるように
君が誰かと楽しそうに話すだけで切ないよ
こんな気持ちは誰にも言えないだろうな
だから僕は想うだけ
君が大好きです"

君が誰かと楽しそうに means something like, "You're happy with someone" right? But then the second part, 話すだけで切ないよ means something like "Just talking is painful"

Thanks for the help!

EDIT: After a bit more research, I discovered that 切ない is a difficult term to translate. It has no English equivalent. The definition is "to feel a constriction in the heart due to 恋 or 哀愁 and be painful (bitter-sweet feeling) (There is no suitable English word.)"
So this makes the translation a bit more difficult, but I'll keep trying. Thanks again for the help.

I would split it up like 君が誰かと楽しそうに話す and だけで切ないよ or 君が誰かと楽しそうに話すだけで and 切ないよ
As in "Just seeing you look happy talking to someone is painful."

Right, it sounds like a just broken up sort of thing. Here's a rough version of that passage.

My heart starts to hurt when I see your smiling face. Nobody knows about any of this, but... my wish today is that you'd smile when our eyes meet. Just seeing you happily talk to someone else is almost unbearable. There's nobody to share these feelings with, and so it is only in my imagination that I get to love you.

Is this from a song? The structure is very loose, and my interpretation here could be wrong on multiple counts. There's a lot of missing grammar, and so my money is on this being a poem or song.

It almost sounds like a weird Japanese version of this song:
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Carole_King:I_Fe...Earth_Move

Though, I wouldn't ever argue plagiarism or anything. Unrequited love is practically its own genre.

I think the sentence as a whole means "Just seeing you talking happily with someone is painful"

It's probably easier to understand if you split it like this:

君が誰かと = you and someone

楽しそうに話す = talking happily

だけで = just this

切ないよ = is painful

Edit: too slow

Thanks so much, guys! I'll definitely be sticking around this forum.

Yep, this is a passage from a song that I'm attempting to translate to challenge myself/learn something new. I understand that songs/poems are written in a very loose/broken form, and are not very helpful for learning more conversational Japanese, but I have benefited form studying poems and lyrics.

The whole passage and that song make a LOT more sense now. Breaking the line up makes it a lot more comprehensible.

So, I'm having trouble with the next stanza now. I have translated it, but I feel that it is pretty inaccurate. Here's what I have:

Original:
"世界中の誰よりも　それからおそらく君よりも
僕は君の事を見つめている気がするよ
気配を感じて振り返る
僕は慌てて目をそらす
動揺を隠す深呼吸はため息まじり"

Translation:
"I know everything about you,
More than anyone in the world, perhaps even more than you
Looking back, I saw a hint
I looked away quickly
I hid how shaken I was with a deep breath"

I switched the order of the first and second lines, because I thought it made more sense.

The words, I can understand (or look up), but the different word forms and particles and transitions-- as well as the way the poem is structured, confuse me.
Some help would be great! Thanks for your time, again

Before you read this I have to make it clear that some of this was quite dificult for me, so it's quite possible I've made a mistake (maybe even two :O). I've tried to make the translations quite literal.

世界中の誰よりも　それからおそらく君よりも = More than anyone in the world, perhaps even more than you. (what you said)

僕は君の事を見つめている気がするよ = I'm not really sure how to translate this. I'm guessing you thought that the 見つめている (looking) wasn't literal because it wouldn't make sense for someone to be looking at temselves all the time (as implied by the first line), which then caused more mistakes later on. The looking does seem to be literal, but it also implies paying attention to, and obviously caring about, whoever is the subject of the song, which does make sense with the first line.
The の事 in 君の事 seems to imply more than just looking at the person, but also a more general watching what they do etc.
The 気がする basically means to have a feeling. In this case it is saying I feel like this is how it is.


気配を感じて振り返る = You feel a/my presence and turn around. ( I'm guessing you were confused by the change of subject here. It may seem confusing, because nothing is specified, but i think if you had properly understood the rest of it it would have been obvious.)

僕は慌てて目をそらす = I panic and look away. (not sure whether you misunderstood 慌てて or not, but you seem to have got the important parts of the sentence)

動揺を隠す深呼吸はため息まじり = The deep breath I took to hide my discomfort was mixed with a sigh. (You got the first half of the sentence)

A very poor translation of the whole thing would be something like.

I feel like I am watching you
more than anyone in the world, probably more than you yourself.
(When) You feel a presence and turn around.
I panic and look away.
The deep breath I took to hide my discomfort was mixed with a sigh.

Edit: Also, the second half is more of a general thing. ie. This is the kind of thing that happens rather than this is what happened on a specific occasion. I added the (when) to show this in the English but it doesn't actually have it in the Japanese. You can tell it's there though because otherwise the third line doesn't seem to follow on from the second. (Just read the English without the when and you'll see it seems like it's written by a 5 year old)

Splatted Wrote:Before you read this I have to make it clear that some of this was quite dificult for me, so it's quite possible I've made a mistake (maybe even two :O). I've tried to make the translations quite literal.

世界中の誰よりも　それからおそらく君よりも = More than anyone in the world, perhaps even more than you. (what you said)

僕は君の事を見つめている気がするよ = I'm not really sure how to translate this. I'm guessing you thought that the 見つめている (looking) wasn't literal because it wouldn't make sense for someone to be looking at temselves all the time (as implied by the first line), which then caused more mistakes later on. The looking does seem to be literal, but it also implies paying attention to, and obviously caring about, whoever is the subject of the song, which does make sense with the first line.
The の事 in 君の事 seems to imply more than just looking at the person, but also a more general watching what they do etc.
The 気がする basically means to have a feeling. In this case it is saying I feel like this is how it is.


気配を感じて振り返る = You feel a/my presence and turn around. ( I'm guessing you were confused by the change of subject here. It may seem confusing, because nothing is specified, but i think if you had properly understood the rest of it it would have been obvious.)

僕は慌てて目をそらす = I panic and look away. (not sure whether you misunderstood 慌てて or not, but you seem to have got the important parts of the sentence)

動揺を隠す深呼吸はため息まじり = The deep breath I took to hide my discomfort was mixed with a sigh. (You got the first half of the sentence)

A very poor translation of the whole thing would be something like.

I feel like I am watching you
more than anyone in the world, probably more than you yourself.
You feel a presence and turn around.
I panic and look away.
The deep breath I took to hide my discomfort was mixed with a sigh.

Thanks for the help
I'm glad I got one line right, haha.

Could the literal "looking" have a more symbolic or metaphorical meaning, which could be used for a more accurate or fluent translation? Such as caring about or paying attention to? Something like I feel that I care about you more than anyone, perhaps even more then yourself?
In trying to create an accurate translation, I read somewhere that 君の事 can mean "about you." Could this be a more accurate translation then "your things" (or the things you do)?

Yes, that part did confuse me . I took 慌てて to mean hurried or rushed, but panicked makes a lot more sense, thanks.

Thanks so much for your help! I've gotten a bit rusty on my Japanese and need to be brushing up and then begin learning more.

I edited my first post with something I forgot to mention, so read that too. (Though you might have worked it out anyway.)

Justice Wrote:Could the literal "looking" have a more symbolic or metaphorical meaning, which could be used for a more accurate or fluent translation? Such as caring about or paying attention to? Something like I feel that I care about you more than anyone, perhaps even more then yourself?

Yep, thats kind of what I was trying to say. I'm not really sure why I didn't just put that in the translation. Just a stupid moment I guess.

Justice Wrote:In trying to create an accurate translation, I read somewhere that 君の事 can mean "about you." Could this be a more accurate translation then "your things" (or the things you do)?

The things you do was meant to be just one example of the things covered by 君の事.
There are times when it could refer to a specific thing, but in this case it's just a general "things relating to you". "About you" works in the sense of "I pay attention to things about you".

Justice Wrote:Thanks so much for your help! I've gotten a bit rusty on my Japanese and need to be brushing up and then begin learning more.

You're welcome. I find it's quite useful to force myself to explain why things mean what they do, so this isn't entirely selfless.

Splatted Wrote:I edited my first post with something I forgot to mention, so read that too. (Though you might have worked it out anyway.)

Justice Wrote:Could the literal "looking" have a more symbolic or metaphorical meaning, which could be used for a more accurate or fluent translation? Such as caring about or paying attention to? Something like I feel that I care about you more than anyone, perhaps even more then yourself?

Yep, thats kind of what I was trying to say. I'm not really sure why I didn't just put that in the translation. Just a stupid moment I guess.

Justice Wrote:In trying to create an accurate translation, I read somewhere that 君の事 can mean "about you." Could this be a more accurate translation then "your things" (or the things you do)?

The things you do was meant to be just one example of the things covered by 君の事.
There are times when it could refer to a specific thing, but in this case it's just a general "things relating to you". "About you" works in the sense of "I pay attention to things about you".

Justice Wrote:Thanks so much for your help! I've gotten a bit rusty on my Japanese and need to be brushing up and then begin learning more.

You're welcome. I find it's quite useful to force myself to explain why things mean what they do, so this isn't entirely selfless.

Thanks That clarifies a lot!

Having trouble with the next stanza, too :/

So, here's the orignial:
いつも後ろ向きだったこの僕が　君と出逢えたあの時から
何かを変えようと　明日の事ばっか考えてるよ

Here's my translation, so far (still a work in progress):
"I have always been behind you,
Since the time we first met.
To change something,
I think tomorrow just happened."

But that doesn't quite make sense...

後ろ means behind, and 向き means something like orientation- so "I've always been behind you", right?
And then, not sure what 出逢 means, but 出 is out, or to go out, and 逢 has something to do with meeting someone. For example, 恋人と逢う means to meet with a lover. So, I take the whole line to mean, "I have always been behind you, since the time we first met."

Now the second line, I find much more difficult. 変えよう is to change. So, 何かを変えよう is To change something/anything, right? But then, I don't even know what to make of 明日の事ばっか考えてるよ. I have found two meanings for ばっか. One is "incessant." Another is a slang form of the grammatical term ~ばかり (http://dev.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=timeaction2). I do not know which to use. 明日の事 means something like "things of tomorrow" or "tomorrow's things/actions"? And of course, 考えてる is I think I... .

向き means facing in a direction, so this is facing backwards.

出逢う 【であう】 (v5u) to meet by chance, to come across, to happen to encounter, to hold a rendezvous, to have a date

変えよう is not "to change", it's the volitional form of 変える. The entire two lines is one sentence, but it's hard to translate it as one sentence in English. I would say "I had always looked backwards, but since the time I was able to meet you, I have thought only of tomorrow, wanting to change something."