So I'm trying to translate this song (full lyrics at https://www5.atwiki.jp/hmiku/pages/35243.html, if anyone's interested), and I came across these lines which I'm not sure about:
恋と飾って 静かな方へ 汚れきった言葉を
Now I think the first phrase would mean "decorate with love," "with" as in, love and another person are decorating together? I couldn't find any other use of と with 飾る besides, "together with", though that doesn't make much sense to me.
As for the second phrase, "Towards quietness" is all I can get out of it, and I would think to translate it, combining it with the last phrase, as "In a rather quiet way, the words had become dirty." But I feel like that leaves a lot out, especially because it doesn't get the へ in there, but I'm lost as to how to include that.
Thank you for your help!
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I'm not sure whether this should be closed as a "translation request". The OP has indicated at least some effort.– Golden CuyCommented Feb 20, 2017 at 8:15
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2Please don't close it down! I don't want a direct translation of anything; all I want is for someone to tell me the usage of と and 方 in this case. I did try to translate it, but I got stuck on those words :/– SmoothieCommented Feb 20, 2017 at 15:00
2 Answers
恋と飾って is literally closer to "decorate something as if it were love." Note that it is not 恋で飾って ("decorate with love"). In this context it perhaps means "(We) pretend as if there was love (although there is actually not)", "(We) disguise ourselves as (being in) love".
静かな方【ほう】へ is "to the more quiet place". This 方 is not "way/method" but it's something you find when you make a comparison in Japanese.
As for 汚れきった言葉を, I doubt it's grammatically related to the previous phrase. The omitted verb is either 聞く or 言う, but probably you can translate it simply as "A dirty word."
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1I knew that the meaning of this was not the with as in で; I used with because I only thing I could think of was "decorating together with love," as in, "meeting with Sally" - that use of と. But here, I guess, と is being used as more of a quoting particle? "Dress it up as 'love'" = "Decorate as if it were love?" Is that the use of と here, or is it a totally different usage? As for 静かな方へ, I thought of that, but I wasn't sure that 方へ could be used in comparisons, since usually you see が after 方. But it does make more sense that way! Thank you for your help!– SmoothieCommented Feb 20, 2017 at 14:51
Translating lyrics or poetry in general is a pretty nontrivial task, especially with a highly context-sensitive language like Japanese. However, I also did it when I was just starting out and while my translations weren't great, in the process I did learn quite a few things, so keep at it.
To translate the line properly, you should take into account the full song or at least the surrounding stanza. Line by line translation rarely works with Japanese lyrics.
Even after reading the whole song I'm not sure about the meaning of the quoted line but here's a few thoughts (which could be completely wrong ;):
To start with, the verb applied to 言葉を is probably 混ざって used later. As for 方へ, the verb seems to be missing completely but usually へ implies movement towards something/someplace so you can try to use a fitting movement verb (go/fly/arrive/etc.). And 方 itself is probably used in the literal meaning of "direction" but you can try to substitute it with things like "place" or "somewhere".
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Are you sure that 混ざって goes with 言葉を? There's a line separating those two phrases, and I thought that 混ざって went with 二人の果て, as in "Mix together the fates of the two people" ="Make our fates intertwined." But maybe I'm wrong with that.– SmoothieCommented Feb 20, 2017 at 14:56
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No, I'm not sure, it just felt this way to me. There's almost never a single "correct" interpretation with lyrics unless you ask the author, and sometimes not even then :) Commented Feb 20, 2017 at 20:03
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Yeah, translating song lyrics is tricky. I wasn't sure if there was some other reason that you thought they went together. Thank you for your help!– SmoothieCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 13:53