ウィキッド

 

I’ve been on a real Wicked kick recently, so I decided to listen to another song from the Wicked Japanese soundtrack. This time I decided to listen to ‘What is this Feeling’. In the musical, Elphaba and Galinda are forced to be roommates at Shiz University. In this song, these two polar opposite characters discuss their growing “loathing” for one another, which sets up their later arcs in the musical (they learn from each other and become best friends). It’s really interesting to listen to a song in Japanese that I’ve already memorized in English. I got the gist of the Japanese translation without them using the exact same phrasing as the English version. I also find these small translation differences really interesting. In the beginning of the song both Galinda and Elphaba write letters to their parents about their situation. Elphaba uses extremely formal language (as she doesn’t have a good relationship with her father), while Galinda speaks incredibly childlike and “cutely” to her parents. This translates really well into Japanese as the characters use polite and casual speech, respectively. I also find it really funny listening to the part where Galinda sings an incredibly long, but quick, description of Elphaba’s “weirdness,” only for Elphaba to just describe her as an idiot (おばか). This is different from the English translation, however, where Elphaba just calls her “blond” (which is a sly way to call her an airhead). I guess the stereotype of blonds being inherently dumb is just a Western thing, lol.