As an exercise I decided to try to transcribe Yozak’s song about the island from episode 6 of Kyou Kara Maou. I searched Google for バンダービーア and saw that Japanese blogs are calling it ヴァンダービーア instead, so I’m going with that spelling. This indicates that the island should be spelled Vandarbia in English, instead of Bandarbia, as the fansubbers have spelled it. (To their credit, it sounds like Bandarbia…)
I’m including the fansubbers’ translation of the song, because I based my Japanese transcription on it. (They may be wrong about who is crossing or not crossing the ocean and seeing the moon, but who knows. Japanese, the language of no pronouns.) I have no idea what “akorya” means. The fansubbers’ translation indicates it’s like saying “Oh”, so…I just wrote it in hiragana. *shrug*
If anyone out there speaks/is studying Japanese and see an error, let me know!
ヴァンダービーア (今日からマ王)
島の乙女に恋をすりゃ
ヴァンダー火山の大噴火
共に海は渡れねど
見上げる空に同じ月
あこりゃヴァン、ヴァン、ヴァンダービーア
夢の島
一度来たなら
忘られぬ
Vandarbia (Kyou Kara Maou)
shima no otome ni koi wo surya
vandaa kazan no dai funka
tomo ni umi wa watarenedo
miageru sora ni onaji tsuki
akorya Van, Van, Vandarbia
yume no shima
ichido kita nara
wasurarenu
Bandarbia (Kyou Kara Maou, translation by AonE)
If you fall in love with the girl on the island,
There will be a great eruption of the Bandar Volcano.
We won’t be able to cross the ocean together,
But when we look up at the sky, we see the same moon.
Oh Ban, Ban, Bandarbia, the dream island.
Once you come, you will never forget it.
Download the song, complete with background noise from the episode!
Update 2005/08/02 10:45 am: I was reading the information for Geneon’s Kyo Kara Maoh Volume 2 yesterday (then, I bought it!), and I discovered that they apparently named the island “Van Da Via”. Geneon’s research into the odd names in this series has been mostly good, in my opinion, so this may in fact be accurate. (Somewhat related note: Volume 3 and Volume 4 are available for pre-order! I will own them!!! Also…thanks to this series, Amazon keeps recommending me a lot of yaoi…)
Another Update 2005/08/02 11:59 pm: I am really looking forward to seeing how Geneon translates the song. I am not sure about AonE’s translation. “忘られる” seems to me to be saying “you will be able to forget” or “it will be possible to forget”, although it could, possibly, be meant as an inquiry, such as “will it be possible to forget?” Also, AJ remarked to me that it’s very possible there is an element of double entendre to this song. (His words: “Fall in love with the girl on the island. A volcano erupts. :> And then, Once you come, you will never forget it. ;D”) Given the nature of the series, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Perhaps further evaluation is in order. At this point, I don’t think I can venture my own translation.
Yet Another (Late) Update 2005/12/08 4:54 pm: Here are the translations Geneon used in DVD 2:
Van Da Via (Kyo Kara Maoh, translation by Geneon, sub version)
If you fall in love with an island girl…
Mount Van Da will erupt.
You may not be able to cross the ocean together…
but you’ll see the same moon up high.
Ah, this is Van, Van, Van Da Via…
island of dreams.
Come once and you’ll never forget it.
Van Da Via (Kyo Kara Maoh, translation by Geneon, dub version)
If you fall in love with an island girl
Mount Van Da will erupt
You may not be able to cross the ocean together
But you’ll see the same moon up high
Ah, this is Van Van Van Da Via, island of dreams
Come once and you’ll never forget us
So, they only changed one thing between the sub and dub versions: the last word. Why? The world may never know.
In any case, AonE and Geneon seem to be in agreement about what the song means.
Amazingly, Another Update 2006/09/10 4:42 pm: I’ve made some changes to my transcriptions based on corrections in the comments. Thanks, bananam00n!