置き去りの愛しさ
- Thread starter Sammo
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Hi, I'm not entirely sure that "love" works well as a translation of 愛しさ. The former is a feeling while the latter is, unless I'm mistaken, a property possessed by the target of that feeling. That said, I can't think of a good translation that keeps the brevity of the original right now. Maybe the distinction isn't even that important in the first place as far as translating those lyrics goes.
Well, a lot of emotive words in Japanese are indistinguishable for an emotion and its cause (so much so that beginning students of English in Japan have a hard time making distinctions between exciting and excited). 愛しさ can be the feeling that someone experiences or an external cause that makes the experiencer feel the emotion.
I am not really fond of Japanese pop music lyrics, but the theme of this song seems to be a boy's anguish after being ditched by his girlfriend. In this context, what is left behind is better understood as his feeling towards her.
I am not really fond of Japanese pop music lyrics, but the theme of this song seems to be a boy's anguish after being ditched by his girlfriend. In this context, what is left behind is better understood as his feeling towards her.
I don't know how much it matters here but just for the sake of being accurate, this isn't a pop song. It's a hard rock ballad. 🙂 So the perspective isn't from a boy but from a man. Hence the talk about when he's being drunk earlier in the lyrics.
Is that to say that you think that "The love left behind" is a good translation for this line? Or is there a better way to translate it?
The translation of lyrics and poetry is often more about style than grammar, so there are many ways to translate this, but since 置き去り refers to the idea of abandoning something or leaving it behind, having read the other lyrics, I might translate it as "love left for dead." 愛しさ (いとしさ) is hard to translate. It's not the same as 愛, but I can't think of any nouns that would sound as good as "love" here.
I agree with this interpretation.
I feel that she is not necessarily dead. She might have disappeared from him. She might get falling in love with another guy and ditched him. Of course, she might be dead of disease, accident, or suicide.
In this context, I think 愛しさ is almost equal to "love" because the theme of this song is his "lost love."
I think 置き去りの愛しさ is something like "my love that is now aiming at nowhere."
Therefore, technically speaking it means "my useless love" but it ruins the atmosphere of the lyrics of the love song.
I wonder if "my love for nothing" may work here.
My suggestion doesn't imply that anyone is actually dead. It means that she has abandoned the love they used to share.
Also, "to leave X for dead" doesn't mean that X is dead; on the contrary, it usually means that X is alive, but was left by someone who thought X was dead.
It does not matter, but thanks for letting me know.