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あなたの夢見るほど強く

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tarokun
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あなたの夢見るほど強く

Postby tarokun » June 7th, 2006 10:04 am

"あなたの夢見るほど強く" is a sentence where I understand every words of it but still couldn't put them all together.

I know the words means
あなた = You
の = possessive
夢 = dream
見る = see
ほど = to the extend of
強く= strong

So, my best guess is "I'm strong to the extend of seeing your dream."

But does that make sense at all?

PS: that line comes from the song Misia's Everything.
かなりの偏食なのでいろいろありすぎ。

JockZon
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Postby JockZon » June 7th, 2006 2:03 pm

I think it is "I see your dream quite good (quite strong)"

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Satsujin
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Postby Satsujin » June 7th, 2006 2:19 pm

I think it could mean: "the more I see your dream the stronger I become"

Or "I am stronger than your dreams"

Since it is a song the meaning is probably obscure on purpose and you would need to know the context to understand the real meaning. In Japanese it is perfectly ok to have a sentence without a subject. In this case the subject is omitted and so is the verb that the adverb tsuyoku (strongly) is modifing. All we can do is guess the meaning.

metablue
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Postby metablue » June 7th, 2006 3:15 pm

ほど makes me think of なるほど - "I see" or "I get it" - "to become(reach?) the limit(full extent?)".

Someone was telling me that adding a く creates an adverb. So 強くis "strongly". (Ah, Satsujin wrote strongly above).

I agree with JockZon.
"I strongly see the full extent of your dream."
or
"I completely understand your dream."

metablue
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Postby metablue » June 7th, 2006 3:21 pm

Argh! I did a search and this is how it's been translated elsewhere:
"I'm strong enough to dream of you"

http://www.megchan.com/lyrics/translati ... thing.html

tarokun
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Postby tarokun » June 7th, 2006 5:01 pm

Ah, thanks everyone for the help.

Wow, thanks to metablue for finding the fully translated lyrics!

However, I still puzzle me on how does the grammar work in arriving to the translation "I'm strong enough to dream of you," particularly that last part "of you."
かなりの偏食なのでいろいろありすぎ。

metablue
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Postby metablue » June 7th, 2006 6:21 pm

tarokun wrote:However, I still puzzle me on how does the grammar work in arriving to the translation "I'm strong enough to dream of you," particularly that last part "of you."


That must be the weird reversed type of "no" that means that A is an attribute of B. For example in the Gatchaman theme song is the line:

"shiroi tsubasa no Gatchaman"
Which looks to me like "the white wings' Gatchaman", but is translated as the opposite: "the white wings of Gatchaman".

It makes sense if you think of it as "Gatchaman of the white wings".

Or "Nausica of the Valley of the Wind" is "Valley of the Wind no Nausica" or "The Valley of the Wind's Nausica".

So I think this is the same.
anata no yume
a dream of you

This is the kind of thing that really amazes me. "no" and "of" not only have the same standard meaning, they can also be used in the same weird reversed way in both languages.

Satsujin
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Postby Satsujin » June 7th, 2006 7:00 pm

So in this case "anata no yume" isn't "your dream" but " a dream about you".

I am strong enough to dream of you....sounds right but still weird. Oh well no worse than STYX...domo arigatou mr. roboto.

Bueller_007
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Postby Bueller_007 » June 9th, 2006 12:10 pm

metablue wrote:Argh! I did a search and this is how it's been translated elsewhere:
"I'm strong enough to dream of you"

http://www.megchan.com/lyrics/translati ... thing.html

I'm pretty sure the translation is wrong.

Since the subject of the sentence isn't specified in「あなたの夢見るほど強く」, there's no reason to assume translate it as "I'm strong enough to dream of you." It literally just translates as "strong enough to dream of you". Since the next sentence is about "power to love" ("Now let's change the power to love"), it seems more reasonable to assume that the LOVE is strong, NOT the person.

So I would say a better translation is:
"[My love for you] is so strong that I dream about you."
or more naturally:
"I love you so much that I dream about you."

Also, the translator has assumed that the singer has dropped the を particle between 夢 and 見る, which is quite possible. But 夢見る is also, in itself, one word. And because の can replace が in subordinate clauses, the sentence could also be translated as:
"I love you as much as you [could ever] dream."

Personally, I'd say that this is the correct translation.

tarokun
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Postby tarokun » June 10th, 2006 9:37 am

Bueller_007, your translation and analysis make the most sense.

Wish Peter and his JPod101 crew could give a definitive response here.
かなりの偏食なのでいろいろありすぎ。

Bueller_007
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Postby Bueller_007 » June 10th, 2006 10:38 am

tarokun wrote:Bueller_007, your translation and analysis make the most sense.

Wish Peter and his JPod101 crew could give a definitive response here.

あなたの夢を見る means "to dream of you", but I think it's unlikely that the singer would drop the を and change it into あなたの夢見る[ほど], which, if you assume it is grammatically correct (and why wouldn't you), carries quite a different meaning. Because dropping the particle leads to ambuguity, it's likely that it would stay in.

I guess it's possible that the を particle was dropped to fit the rhythm of the song, but if this were the case, the singer could just as easily have said あなた夢見るほど強く, which would have kept the "to dream of you" meaning, has the same rhythm, and would have kept things clear.

We don't really have any reason to think that the を particle was dropped, so personally, I'm inclined to choose the translation that assumes grammatical correctness in the Japanese version: "I love you as much as you [could ever] dream." I wouldn't even have thought of translating it otherwise until I saw the English version that was posted on that website.

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