That thing I said about shirking my responsibilities in my 4 hour loop video of this song-surprise, it happened! As usual with my translations, I took some liberties to make the meaning easier for the English-speaking brain. Please be aware, and happy new year! It's been a year since I first tried translating a Yibo song. 🥺
Also as usual, here is the gdoc of the lyrics with the Chinese, pinyin, and English: docs.google.com/document/d/1Z...
English-only plus my annotations are below:
A single comet hurtling across the sky
Can a lone breeze [catch what he’s saying as he passes]*?
As long as there’s a glimmer of hope, I’ll also help him spread the word
* I'm making the phrase 听得懂 do a lot of work here; it means "understand by way of listening" or to catch one's meaning. Simply "understand" or "catch" would normally work, but because of the following line about 传颂 (which is like a eulogy, spreading praise) and the speaker's entering the scene to help convey something, I went with an interpretation focusing more on what the comet is "saying" (so to speak), because in the end, I interpret this song to be about finding your special someone or a community, a family, and letting others know that you can and do belong, so keep the fires burning, don't give up hope, because you aren't alone, you're never alone. hic
One whole hearted yearning to light the fire again
(yet) Time and again, there’s nothing but ashes before me
A whole body covered in wounds, searching for a way out
Inch by inch, an invisible rope tightens
Two empty hands, too weak to break free
How the wind howls just three feet above
[Alone and helpless, beset from all sides, yet a song rises up]*
* This line confounds me in some ways, because the first and last two actually combine to make a phrase 四面楚歌 (surrounded by enemies, besieged on all sides, alone) but there's an entire phrase in the middle about this song bursting forth. The latter two characters, 楚歌, are a song of sorrow, but saying a dirge comes out has a mournful vibe in English, so I chose to focus on the rising up of the chorus.
CHORUS:
A million times (stand up)
To the skies (stand up)
To the finish line (stand up)
To a limitless future (stand up)
Push on without fear (stand up)
[For a new dawn (stand up)
Toward its warmth]* (stand up)
And also for the [everyday on earth]** (stand up)
* This first line is literally "for the horizon" which feels a little weak in English, so taking the cue from the rest of the song, I chose to interpret the horizon as a new dawn, a dawning day, that the speaker is striving for. And the second line, literally "for warmth" feels even weaker in English, so I related it back to the warmth of the sun that the speaker is heading toward without fear.
** 人间 can mean world or society, but it's also the Buddhist way of referring to the realm of mortals (as opposed to the realm of gods, hungry ghosts, animals, etc.) so I interpret this "world" as encompassing its relationships between people, not "the planet" or the like, but it's hard to get that across with any accuracy. I choose to believe this refers to mundane but precious life that makes us human.
Before a raging storm passes by
A shaft of light pierces through the long night
In an instant, he’s no longer alone
A single shared journey, uninhibited and free, sharing the same chase
Two eyes gleaming the entire way
Three thousand lights mirror the starry sky
[Touching the four corners of the world, and finding home together you]*
* Unsurprisingly, I took liberties here as there's not hardly any explicit action/verbs in the original; this line is literally "the four seas [that surround China; i.e. the world] and together with you, coming home." So the longer interpretation of this that I like (for the English) is about the subject, now no longer alone, traveling the world with someone or someones who share their same journey, chasing the same ideals, and finding home next to them, right at their side. I think there's a lot of beauty and togetherness in the ideas that this stanza draws on, or at least inspires in me. My original line for this was more like "The distance of the whole world, to come home and stand by you" which I think might be a little more literal and a little less poetic. I think the way I have it now is appropriately ambiguous in referring to "home" as its more mundane meanings or the more romantic meaning of "home is being at your side."
CHORUS
Ooh ooh ooh x5
Stand up
[Join us (a hundred voices answering a single cry)]* (stand up)
One bright thought to last a lifetime
* I choose to interpret this as "join us" but it's literally an idiom/chengyu about a hundred calls to answer a single cry. I wanted to use "rise up" but this couplet is delivered so softly and gently. To me, it's closer to "you can join us," reassuring and kind.
CHORUS
Ooh ooh ooh x8
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