Sound of Music
Ever heard the Japanese version of Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music? I heard it 3 times from different people on different occasions over the last week, and since the Japanese version is now stuck in my head, I thought I’d share the wackiness of the translation. Or rather, lack of translation in favor of localization. It’s a hard one to tackle, I imagine, because the sounds of the scale are related to English words. Well, the Japanese version links the sounds (with one notable difference) to words in Japanese (including English loan words). The result is a completely different song in the same spirit with newer (and funnier…to me…) words. Let’s have a look, shall we? Here’s a YouTube clip of the song we’re discussing for those of you disturbingly sheltered children out there. Afterwards we’ll have the English lyrics translated into Japanese and then the Japanese lyrics translated into English. After reading both and maybe getting the song stuck in your head, you can enjoy the oddity of the mismatch.
The Japanese translation of the English lyrics are not my own translation, but are borrowed from this site (only altered to more closely match the feature film version of the song), which goes into much greater detail about the origins of the song and the Do-Re-Mi scale. Take a look if you’re interested. (Chuck, when you’re back from NYC, feel free to translate that Italian / Latin, too. Curious.) Also catch this site and this site, if you read Japanese and are interested in an alternative translation or the song’s history.
Let’s start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with
A-B-C
When you sing you begin with do-re-mi
Do-re-mi
Do-re-mi
The first three notes just happen to be
Do-re-mi
Do-re-mi
Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti
Oh, let’s see if I can make it easierさあドレミの歌をはじめましょう
文字の読み方はＡＢＣから習うでしょ？
歌い方はドレミから始めるのよ？
ドレミ ドレミ ドレミファソラシ
もっと易しくしてみましょうDoe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow sew
Tea, a drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to do.ドはディアー メスの鹿
レ（レイ）は雫 光り輝く太陽の
ミーは名前 自分を呼ぶ名前
ファーはずっと遠く
ソーは針と糸
ラはソーの次
ティー（シ）は紅茶のお供にジャムとパン
さあドに戻りましょう
Right, that’s the version that I grew up with. I imagine most of you have had the same one inadvertently memorized for years. Well, now let’s take a gander at the Japanese version. Apparently, a Japanese fan of the Broadway production brought the song back to Japan and went about setting it into Japanese. Her name was Becky Hayama, and she attempted at first to pop all food words into the song. She originally had “mikan” (which is a type of mandarin orange for which my prefecture, Ehime, is famous) to represent Mi, and “Fanta” - YES, the soda - to represent Fa. Obviously, those changed out with a few others. The reasoning for swapping the words out so drastically makes a lot of sense. She wasn’t aiming at recreating the musical - she was emulating the notion of teaching a musical scale to kids. Therefore, using words and phrases which are abstract or near-rhymes in a foreign language, translated into Japanese, would make the song useless as a tool to teach. She apparently released a record of it entitled “Do Re Mi Song” in 1961. It was reintroduced in 1974 by NHK, the big TV company, and during the Heisei years it was added to elementary school textbooks. So now we know why so many people know this song in Japan. But enough of that. Let’s get to the lyrics.
ドはドーナツのド レはレモンのレ
ミはみんなのミ ファはファイトのファ
ソは 青い空 ラはラッパのラ
シは幸せよ さあ歌いましょう“Do” is the “do” from the word “donuts”
“Re (le)” is the “le” from the word “lemon”
“Mi” is the “mi” from the word “minna”
(minna = everyone)
“Fa” is the “fa” from the word “fight”
“So” is the “so” from “aoi sora”
(aoi sora = blue sky)
“Ra” is the “ra” from “rappa”
(rappa = trumpet)
“Shi” is the “shi” from “shiawase”
(shiawase = happiness. Ti is pronounced Shi in Japanese, despite the phonetic capability of making the sound Ti. I met a girl from Brazil at English camp who told me that in Portuguese they say Chi instead of Ti. Got me. The scale pronunciation originally comes from Latin roots, as alluded to above. Just thought I’d throw it out there.)
So, let’s sing!どんなときにも 列をくんで
みんな楽しく ファイトを持って
そらをあおいで ランラ
ランランランランラン
しあわせのうた さあ歌いましょうAnytime we line up
Everyone merrily keeping the fight*
(*closer to “spirit” or “backbone” than a physical encounter)
With the sky so blue
La la la la la la la
Let’s sing the song of happiness!
Ok, so this is unrelated to the stuff I’ll be posting in short order, once I get my system reconfigured and stuff installed again. But hey, at least I got my computer back. Stay tuned. May take me a while to get back up and running. 
But, no worries, because ファはファイトのファ！ (Fa is the fa from “fight!”)