User:Janeth/How to sing Memoria de la S^tona

You might be aware of the song in FFXI's opening with lyrics in Esperanto. Since you're the kind of person who's reading a page like this, you might even have noticed that it's the third verse of "Memoria de la Ŝtona," the song from Chains of Promathia. I was always a little disappointed that the song central to the game's story couldn't actually be sung, even in the original Japanese, and I always loved the version in the opening, so over the years I got the idea of corresponding singable Esperanto versions of the other verses, but I didn't yet have the ability to do that idea justice. Ideally it would be done by an experienced Japanese speaker, because the Esperanto lyrics are closer to the Japanese text than the English version is to either, sometimes so much so that it can be seen without knowing all the languages involved:


 * {| width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"

! width="20%"|English ! width="20%"|Japanese ! width="20%"|Esperanto will once more become whole, complete and inseparable for all eternity. もう、放されることはない もう、ほどけることはない Trans la eterno sen lim' Ne dismetiĝos plu Ne disligiĝos plu
 * - style="background:#ffdead;"
 * - style="background:#ffd9d9;"
 * And what was split asunder
 * 永遠を超えてさしのべられた手と手は
 * Mano kaj man' kunpremitaj
 * }

In fact, I was familiar with the Esperanto and English lines above for years without realizing they were translations of the same piece of text! I also thought "what was split asunder" was the mothercrystal, and I'm willing to bet there are other people who got that impression from the English version and none who got that impression from the Japanese version. So, although I hate to be "that guy" complaining about the official translation—it's very pretty, and serves the story fine—this is why I want to work with the Japanese text as much as possible. However, FFXI is gettin' old, I'm not the expert I'd like, and neither is anyone I know who considers this a worthwhile use of their time. Therefore (dramatic voice), at long last, I shall present the results of my endeavors, and anyone who desires to contribute may. I am indebted to the programmer of the Rata Vortaro and whoever produced this early translation of "The Legend of the Crystal Warriors." Most of the "Closer English translation of the Japanese" column is their wording. The Japanese text itself I found here.

The first verse was a pain, but I really like what I ended up with. I think it was actually impossible to make it rhyme without some sort of filler, so I tried to use the most natural, fitting filler I could, and then the whole thing fell into place, although I can't seem to get rid of that extra syllable in the middle. That note can be sung as the "what" in Distant Worlds' "what twist in fate has brought us..." As the music and lyrics imply, "Vana'diel" is sung just like it's sung in the opening, vah-nah-DEEL (not van-a-di-EL as in the spoken English part). The "Memoria de la Ŝtona" tracks can be found on Youtube or using AltanaView, or on the game soundtrack. Quick Esperanto pronunciation guide for English-speakers here.

First Ode: Nocturne of the Gods

 * "Our world, Vana'diel" is also absent from the English recitation in the opening and from A Crystalline Prophecy. Possibly it's part of Ulmia's dialogue mistakenly grouped with the song, or just a one-off weird decision.


 * As far as I can tell, the Japanese implies neither that the age of bliss was ended by the gods falling into slumber nor that it's ongoing and will be ended by the bane.

Discussion of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Odes

 * As it says above, the third verse is already a thing,
 * along with part of the fourth verse set to the tune of the third. The upside of that is that I don't have to translate the part that probably would have been the hardest to translate. The downside is that it doesn't work so well with the tune of the fourth verse. My plan is to remix it, on the grounds that the opening theme and the "Third Ode" track are pretty different. That approach is going well, I just need to make an audio file or an image or something to communicate my idea.
 * The fifth verse presents similar problems, namely that it's supposed to share lines with the first verse and that the music doesn't work well with that—arguably worse problems, since it's the beginning and the end of the verse. I'm putting that one aside for now with the excuse that it's not part of COP.

Postscript about the name of the song
The creator of Esperanto deliberately chose combinations of letters and diacritics (that is, thingies on letters, like all those little hats above, or the é in words like café, or Pokémon) that weren't already in use. In other words, ŝ is solely an Esperanto letter. However, "Memoria de la Ŝtona" is not correct Esperanto. I mean, you could read it as something like "some sort, I vaguely remember, of the made-of-stone," but that's obviously not the intention—characters in COP explicitly translate it as "memory of the stone," and the version in the opening is correctly titled "Memoro de la Ŝtono." I can only assume someone thought "Memoro de la Ŝtono" looked too weird.