Lost Word // Rina Chinen
Lyrics: Hiromi Mori
Translation: Donny
You know, even if we crawl outta bed
And all get together in this city
Not a thing will change
Today or tomorrow
Even when we talk, nobody ventures
To tell that truth
The sighs are coming too heavy
Sitting here on the emergency stairway
Pushed along by the throngs of people
But only in my heart
No non! In a city of lost words
Get down! Huddled down, hugging my knees
What should I do?
What can I find?
More than this and that
What I wish for
Isn't the physical things
I couldn't get a full handle on
Love or friendship
Just ridiculing the very idea
Sure, there are things that can be
Conveyed by lying with our hearts atop one another
But there's no way for me to know
Those feelings you don't reflect in your eyes
No non! In a city of lost words
Get down! You can hear the crying voices
What do you wanna do?
What are you thinking?
Say it in your voice...
All right! It's alright to believe, isn't it?
Get back! Get back your strength
What do you wanna do?
What are you seeking?
All right! I don't wanna hide anything
Get back! I wanna try shouting out
What do you wanna do?
What are you thinking?
Love song // Hamasaki Ayumi
Lyrics: ayumi hamasaki
Translation: Donny
*A life without love?
Don't think I've got what it takes to live that way
A life without dreams?
I don't even wanna imagine what that's like
A life without song?
I can't even fathom what that could be
If you don't have feelings you won't compromise
Life is tedious, meaningless
That's not how it's supposed to be
Do you have something you wanna protect?
Are you worried you won't be able to protect it through to the end?
You learn what strength is
When you're hurt and worn-out
Do you have someone you cherish?
Are you really cherishing your beloved
As you might?
Hold on tight, with all your tenderness and might
Before you lose what you have
And so it seems
Things won't go so easily
And even so, if you don't have feelings you won't compromise
Life is tedious, meaningless
I'm not under any impression
That all will go perfectly according to plan
And even so, if you don't have feelings you won't compromise
Life is tedious, meaningless
"I might as well give it all up
And just take it free and easy"
I'm sure there will come a day
When I honestly feel that way
Have you lost something?
Is it something you abandoned on the way?
Do you regret it?
Do you wish you could go back and recover it somehow?
Is there something you long for?
Is it within your reach?
Are you able to be unaffected?
Why won't the tears stop?
I wanna grow up // Tadashi Hirosawa
Lyrics & Music: Tadashi Hirosawa
Translation by Donny
Staring at an insoluble problem,
Wondering whether the day will come
When we'll figure it out
We put on a poker face
Pretending we get it when we haven't a clue
I wanna grow up... I wanna grow up...
Growing up isn't about getting strong
It's about acknowledging your weakness
I thought the types who abandoned their dreams
Along the way lacked conviction
But the truth is they had something
More precious than themselves
I wanna grow up... I wanna grow up...
Growing up isn't about having a dream
It's about giving a dream to someone else, you see
Called out to by ladies of the night
Handed flyers for condos for sale
I guess people around me
See me as a grown-up on some level
But none of it gets through to me
None of it reaches the ideal I held then
I'm just wandering
Where to go?
What to do?
Is this alright?
Should I throw in the towel?
I think I love you after all
Let's give it another try
Something like that
I wanna grow up... I wanna grow up...
Growing up isn't about arriving anywhere
I suppose that's the one thing I feel
I've come to understand
I BELIEVE // Tomomi Kahala
Lyrics & Music: Tetsuya Komuro
The beginnings of this shimmering white love affair
Lie in the faraway distant past
Anytime I believe your smile
No matter what, I was searching for your smile
Anytime believe your love
I've long been watching you
I am sure of it
Give me a Chance! Give me a Jump!
This is a fight for the future!
Give you a Speed! Give you a Power!
USE an impertinent air once in a while!
The city was frozen over
I hated the cold nights
There were days when I honestly
Wanted just a little of your warmth
Instead of talking about love
How much love?
How many dreams?
So many I couldn't contain them all
And shouted to the skies
You soar through the starry nights
And run through the snowy streets
I just wanna believe in you
Anytime I believe your smile
I recall vestiges of your figure
Tracing the phantoms of my feelings
Anytime I believe your love
I was chasing after you
I am sure of it
Give me a Luck! Give me a Start!
Now is the time to put this ambition to the test!
Give me a Pride! Give me a Dream!
I won't fall into playing dirty
I'll conduct myself with grace
When I unlock the door to my one-room apartment
I am assailed by loneliness
There were nights when I honestly just
Wanted to lean on you instead of
Pushing love onward
The beginnings of this shimmering white love affair
Lie in the faraway distant past
Anytime I believe your smile
No matter what, I was searching for your smile
Anytime believe your love
I've long been watching you
I am sure of it
Moonlight Sweetheart (A Love Before Time Mandarin Version)
Performed by Coco Lee
Lyrics: Yi "Kevin" Jia Yang
Music: Jorge Calandrelli
Translation: Donny
My Japanese was helped along quite a lot by my interest in pop music and song lyrics. Someday, I would also like to become proficient in Mandarin Chinese. Well, the first step is this song, I guess, which was the theme for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," a wuxia film by Ang Lee from 2000. It was sung by Coco Lee in English under the title "A Love before Time." However, the lyrics are totally different, though beautiful in their own way.
This song came to mind today when I was reading through some literature on transformational learning; don't ask why as I don't have the foggiest. Anyway, I came across the original Chinese promotional video (music clip) on YouTube and decided to try translating it. Chinese has a complex system of aspect and prepositional markers, so some of it is probably not in the right aspect, but I think the meaning is accurate.
Have a listen and enjoy the lyrics in English!
大衆音楽や歌詞の英訳を大の趣味として、日本語を独学しました。いつか、中国語も思うように操れるようになりたいと夢見ています。その第一歩として以下の歌詞を英訳してみました。2000年配給のAng Lee監督による「グリーン・デスティニー」の主題歌です。この曲はココ・リー（李玟）が歌手を務め、英語圏でも彼女によるA Love before Timeとして広く知られています。当時のアカデミー賞の舞台で完璧なパフォーマンスを披露し、絶賛を博しています。
I awaken from slumber to find myself
In the moonlight
The waning moon brings you to mind
I don't want to wake up
Who can understand this?
I fear that when my eyes open, you will not be there
This lover's heart, sunken deep into the sea
Take me to where it lies in search of it
Please love me for 10,000 years
Love me from your heart for always
Love is a gift of the moonlight
I await the epistle of the angels,
Telling me you love me
For love's sake,
I would gladly slumber without waking
Eternity... Does such a thing exist?
Blame this heart of mine for being
Unable to let go
Oh, North Star, carry me away
Do not hide away from me
Seek out this love
Oh, I love you
I wait for you every night
Waiting for you
For love's sake, this heart of mine
Would lie in slumber in the moon's ocean
So lonely, whom do I miss?
Who can understand?
I shed tears in the moonlight
It is also in the moonlight I slumber
With no regrets
Waiting for a true-hearted person
To awaken me with a kiss
I lie in dreamy slumber all day
I lie in recollection all year
Say that you love me
For love's sake,
I would gladly slumber without waking
Boys & Girls // hamasaki ayumi
Lyrics: ayumi hamasaki
We've begun to shine
And who can stop us?
Who had the right to stop the boys
Who took off in flight?
I always seem to be saying
I always seem to be dreaming about
We always seem to be talking about
Wanting to be happy
How many times does that make it?
I can't say
Even if you ask me
What I really want
What I'm really unsatisfied with
What I'm really aiming for
I don't have any answers
When you push me on,
Please do not forget the promise
We exchanged just this summer
We've begun to shine
And I am sure that we will find our tomorrow someday
The girls who have taken off in flight
Are sure to find a shining tomorrow
The truth is, I have my expectations
The truth is, I have my doubts
Just like anybody else
You say I'm a "good person"
But it sounds "someone I don't really care about"
The glow of dawn was dazzling
It stung my eyes
I felt a pain in my chest
I was a little uncertain
We've begun to shine
And who can stop us?
Who had the right to stop the boys
Who took off in flight?
I'll try and convey to you
Just how your childlike
Smile is reflected so well
In the hush of winter
We have quieted our breathing
Beneath this streetlight
If this is a tiny universe here
I am sure it belongs to we two
The spell on this neverending world
Is bound to be broken soon, and so...
Oh, branches of amber
Bind together this frayed warmth of ours
Oh, silver stallion
Gallop along my chilled flesh this eve
Gallop on and on
Why is it I weep at sincerity
When I am the one who says, in jest,
I long to be free?
Snow drifts to pile up deep in the valley
Oh, amber snow
The passing time paints the snow crystals
But even these are overtaken by rapid melting
Let's run away together
The feathers of the low-flying owl
Bear your feelings with a tiny snowy breeze
As you embrace me tightly and do not let go
Oh, star of amber
Encircle this fragile speed of ours
Oh, slumbering fairies
Awake, awake beneath the frost
I'm afraid to stand alone,
So why must you...?
The valley becomes deeply transparent
Oh, trees of amber
When the spring comes,
And it's still a long way off,
This will be but a cold dream of us
Yes, a tender dream of ours, yours and mine
Oh, branches of amber
Bind together this frayed warmth of ours
Oh, silver stallion
Gallop along my chilled flesh this eve
Gallop on and on
Why is it I weep at sincerity
When I am the one who says, in jest,
I long to be free?
Snow drifts to pile up deep in the valley
Oh, amber snow
On this long, long night
I search for the light of dawn
I search for you
Don't blame yourself so
Everyone has lonely nights
In this city where
Even our sighs
Are drowned out in the noise
Every time you get hurt
You're sure to become more gentle
I believe because I have resolute dreams
I'll meet Love & Friends on this path
It won't always be like this
It's my life
Wipe away your tears
[1] Yes! Carry on my way
Carry On my dreams
Tomorrow, the sky's gonna clear up
Yes Yes Let's start again Woo
Let's move again
Come on, let's reach out for it and go Woo
It doesn't matter if the tears won't stop coming
So long as we keep on living without losing
Our true identity
So Carry On
Even at times when it feels like we're failing
Rushing through this life
In this country where we can't even see a future
Don't lose your soul to someone in this city
You have to treasure your one and only self
Setting off on the journey is always lonely, bye my love
But I can't possibly stay here without you
It can't end like this--I know It's My Life
Let's get going
[2] Yes! Carry On my way
Carry On my dreams
We can do it over
Yes! Yes! Let's start again Woo
Let's move again
Now then, let's show some pride Woo...
Off to that place where that faint ray of hope shines
We just need to start again today
So Carry On
Repeat [1]
Repeat [2]
Carry On Carry On Carry On my way
Yes! Yes! Carry On Carry On
Let's move again...
a theme of a-nation '03 // hamasaki ayumi
Lyrics: ayumi hamasaki
Music: CREA (nom de plume of Ayumi Hamasaki)
I remember yet
Those summer festivals of yesteryear
We used to attend so often
I held fast to your hand
So as not to get separated
In the throngs of people
Everything glittered brilliantly
I wasn't afraid of anything
In those days when we just chased after
Our beautiful dreams
The breeze that flows through
Is far too gentle to me
Overcome with emotion,
Tears stream down my cheeks
We feel nostalgic for those times
Because they have come and gone now
No matter how sad things are now,
Someday, I'll be able to talk about it
With a smile on my face
We grew up, losing things on the way
But now there is someone here with me
Whom I wouldn't trade for anyone else
In the whole world
The breeze that blew by was somehow
Too gentle to me
I'll be loving you still
At this time tomorrow
Treasure it well
So as not to have regrets later
For moments are irreplaceable
Do not forget: Pray as we might,
The present moment
Will never come home to us again
There's really no such thing as forever
I wonder just when I realized that
And yet I am prouder than anyone that
Our days together were genuine
The length of time we have lived
Is slightly different, you and me
But just having met
Just having loved you
Even if we cannot feel the same way
About each other
la la la-i
I won't forget
It's funny:
Why there's no one else I want but you
No one else I want to stay by my side
Even though it hurts so bad
And yet I have come to the point where
I can feel so good about even the little
Trifling things that don't seem so important
Even the tritest of phrases take on meaning
When they pass our lips between we two
But just having met
Just having loved you
The fact we could feel the same way
For one another
Now and forever
I won't turn my eyes away
From reality, from truth
I see it as proof that I have lived my life
just having met
Just having loved you
Even if we should never meet again
la la la-i
I won't forget
The trek was a long one
Freezing, I closed my eyes
WOW WOW WOW...
WOW WOW WOW....
How many thoughts of you must I gather together
What words must I put down together
In order for these feelings to get through?
I'm sure nobody can say
But please tell him this for me:
I have the strength to trust you unwaveringly
The trek was a long one
Freezing, I closed my eyes
The season I was so looking forward to
Passes by without anyone's noticing
WOW WOW WOW...
WOW WOW WOW....
If I do what I should here and now
And feel the calm overtake me
I should smile
The trek was a long one
Just a little further and
I can bathe in the warm sunlight
Truth is: I just don't want to give in
To stifling my emotions
The trek was a long one
Just a little further and
I can bathe in the warm sunlight
If I say the time I spent apart from you
Wasn't lonely, it's a lie
WOW WOW WOW...
WOW WOW WOW....
But please tell him this for me:
Near or far, I am always right beside you
It was long alright
Just a little farther
I wanna bathe in the warm sunlight
Truth is: I just don't want to give in
To stifling my emotions
It was long alright
Just a little farther
I wanna bathe in the warm sunlight
I didn't realize how lucky I was
When I could smile contently straight from the heart
No matter how nostalgic I might feel about it
I can never go back to that summer
Because I'm the one who let go of your hand
Slender yet strong
I didn't realize because you're so precious to me
And I almost lose sight of you
But, you know, I keep telling myself over and over
"You're one of a kind in all the world."
A wind blows heralding the changing of the seasons
It frightened me to feel you slipping a little further away
Those days when we were still together
We were serious about each other
And cried over it, didn't we?
Our hearts were more delicate but we sure were shining brightly
When I find something I feel like I can believe in, I'll be sure to reach out and try for it
You know, I keep telling myself over and over
"Even though we're apart, we're friends in our hearts."
I gaze up at the blue skies on clear days
And kick at puddles when it's rainy
Over and over, I come to know
The reason I was born
The meaning of being alive
On painful days when I feel I might be overwhelmed with heartache
When I want to run away into the night
hana ("flower") // hamasaki ayumi
lyrics: ayumi hamasaki
Supposing I ran off and vanished
Before your very eyes
Would anybody even search for me?
And could I possibly maintain the notion
That people are kind until I was found?
Which is more painful:
Growing pains or childlike naivety?
Let's stop it with such questions
If you bloom...
What kind of strength do we need
To grow straight and tall?
If we were in the city teeming with people
Would anybody even lend me a listening ear?
Does this relentless cry even reach anybody?
What kind of courage do we need
To grow straight and tall
Beloved and beautiful
All the while knowing that one day we are destined
To wilt away and scatter?
Which is more painful:
Growing pains or childlike naivety?
Let's stop it with such questions
If you bloom...
A Song for XX // hamasaki ayumi
lyrics: ayumi hamasaki
Why are you crying?
Why are you so unsure?
Why have you come to a stand-still?
Come on, tell me
When are you going to grow up?
How long can you stay a child?
Where have you come running from
And just how far do you intend to go on running?
I was so out of place
I didn't fit in, didn't belong
And I had no idea whether there was any
Hope for the future
They all kept telling me I was a strong kid
"Don't cry," they said,
"There's my good little one."
I didn't want a word of that kind of praise,
So I feigned ignorance
Why are you smiling?
Why are you with me?
Why are you leaving?
I just wanna know
What made you stronger?
When did you realize your weakness?
How long must we wait
Until we are able to understand one another?
It's nearly dawn
I've gotta get going
I can't stay in the same place forever
Believing in people means eventually being betrayed
To me, that's no different from being spurned
At the time, I didn't have the fortitude even to try and believe
I'm sure I knew too much about too many things
Born all alone, we live on alone
I believed that to be
The natural course of things
Depend on you // hamasaki ayumi
Lyrics: ayumi hamasaki
Music: Yasuhiko Hoshino
If there should come a day when you set out on a journey
Let's set out together from there
Just when you thought you were going to reach the goal you'd been aiming for
Did you come to realize it was still a long ways off?
Just how far are you gonna go?
What will you do on these days without end?
When you get tired from flying on and on all that time
You can rest your wings, you know
I am here
If there should come a day when you set out on a journey
Let's set out together from there
Will you trust in the ray of light
Or will you fear the darkness?
When you find you can flap your wings no longer
Tuckered out from continuing to fly all that long way
I will be the one to warm
The one you need is certain to be
Standing by your side
Smiling for always
When you get tired from flying on and on all that time
You can rest your wings, you know
I am here
All of us set off on a journey some day
And the day will surely come when we throw all caution to the wind
Our story has only just begun
Filled with anxiety and hope
For my dear // hamasaki ayumi
lyrics: ayumi hamasaki
music: Yasuhiko Hoshino
It may be that I'm singing this song
Because I cannot say the words I wanna say the most
Happiness is best before it's ours
When we are merely dreaming of it
Once we have it in our grasp
We are seized by the fear of losing it
And that's why the human heart is not
So simple to figure out
Everyone is carrying hurts
So there are times when the tenderness of another
Seeps into the wounds
And it touches my heart so much I nearly cry
My loneliness is like an armor keeping people from seeing the real me
I don't wanna end up alone
I wanna fall asleep with the reassurance
That I have you
I may go on singing
With the chance I'll be able to say the words I wanna say the most someday
I may fall in love with someone
Without being able to hear the words I wish to hear most
I never believed in the red thread
I always thought destiny was something to reach out and grab
The world spun around me at such speed
I was exhausted, looking for love and helping hand
Someday, I want to reach the ideal me
Since the moment you found me, I've had this feeling I could be stronger
Because I can be proud of who I am
I don't wanna give up any more
I've bid goodbye to the past that troubled me
You were the first one to teach me what's most important
There have been times when I have been uncertain
Even hesitating to be at your side
I was afraid someone would get hurt
I had learned the wrong definition
Of what real tenderness is
It's time I stop caring only about what others think
I draw in closer to your lips
Though I've never seen eternity
I start getting nearer to your lips
But I can trust in it now that you and me are 'we'
Because I'm no longer alone
Not every romance eventually comes to an end
As the dawn comes to the longest night
I've a feeling I can take a step forward
Trusting in myself
Someday, I want to reach the ideal me
Since the moment you found me, I've had this feeling I could be stronger
Because I can be proud of who I am
I don't wanna give up any more
I've bid goodbye to the past that troubled me
You were the first one to teach me what's most important
YOU // Ayumi Hamasaki
lyrics: ayumi hamasaki
music: Yasuhiko Hoshino
This side of you is so beautiful it hurts (1)
Unable to venture a single word,
My eyes are overflowing with tears
Before I even realize
You were hurting
You were far more exhausted
Than anyone could guess
I'm so sorry I didn't notice
* Wrapped in a spring breeze, we dreamed a far-off dream
A break in the summer clouds vanished as quickly as it appeared
The heartrending skies of autumn
The cold sea in winter
The more drawn into it we became,
The more quickly our time passed by
We've been through a lot
And I am proud of who you are now
In each and every day
Perhaps we all live
We never seem to take the most straightforward path
Tired from taking roundabout ways
But the place we finally reach is...
My wish is to be the one who can heal
Your heart simply by being by your side
poker face // Ayumi Hamasaki
lyrics: ayumi hamasaki
music: Yasuhiko Hoshino
translation: Donny
*Anyone can cry (1); it isn't hard to do (2)
But I wanna smile
Your love is what I want (3)
In the midst of the surging crowd,
Looking for an answer I was unable to come up with
Feeling who I really am inside being obscured (4) little by little
The better I got at making up stories and excuses (5),
The more the emptiness of it all scared me
Repeat *
My tender side is lost (6)
When I put on a poker face (7)
So I wanna be genuine
Your love is what I want
Every person is a lonely creature
And that's why everybody needs somebody
To care and be cared for (8)
Nothing is a sure thing
But I have faith (9)
When I find something I hold dear,
I'll defend it to the end (10)
When I hit a wall that looms too high,
When I get hurt
I need only to stand again (11)
I don't want anything else
I just want one thing
And your love is what I want
Study Notes:
1.Anyone can cry
The original phrasing is tsu datte naku kurai, which literally means, "At any time/whenever... crying." I've taken some artistic liberty here and used the English indefinite pronoun, which does a similar job but leaves the agent/subject of the sentence unspecified rather than the time. The semantic boundaries of English and Japanese are not always one-to-one, something important to keep in mind when learning one or the other and when translating,too.
2. It isn't hard to do = naku kurai kantan (It's simple to do something like cry)
V(dic)+kurai and N+kurai has the meaning of "at very least" or "something so easy/insignificant as..." For instance, say that someone is not much of a chef but (s)he can make toast; (s)he might say:
"料理は上手い方ではないですが、パンぐらいは焼けます。"
Ryouri wa umai hou de wa nai desu ga, pan gurai wa yakemasu.
I may not be such a great cook, but it's not like I can't toast bread."
Notice that the English has been translated with a double negative while the Japanese is a declarative sentence. This is often the case when using qualifiers; the natural-sounding equivalent in English or Japanese will be opposite to the other. In the lyrics, the phrase "It's easy to cry" would not convey "kurai" very well, so I have chosen to negate the sentence and use the word "hard."
3. N+ ga hoshii: Is the Japanese phrase of the English equivalent of "I want."
However, as you may notice, the word "欲しい, hoshii" is an i-adjective. So, what is really going on here in the Japanese?
We use "I want..." for sake of sounding natural when these are two different patterns. The English is:
I want your love
sub + verb + direct object
The Japanese is:
あなたの愛 が 欲しい よ
Sub + sub marker + adj + emotive particle
A more direct translation would be "is desirable." However, no one is going to get anywhere in love by telling the object of their affection, "Your love is desirable."
Your love is what I want.
ga also has an emphatic quality, so rather than putting the agent as the subject (I, the singer), it is closer to the Japanese to put the patient (I think that's right... semantics people, a little help?) in the leftmost position.
4. ぼやける is an intransitive verb meaning "become blurry." While it would be correct to translate this as "become blurred" or something like this, I felt the verb phrase "be obscured," which is technically passive voice, would be more elegant than the former.
5. jouzu ni naru hodo means "The better (more skilled/adept) I become..." and is a similar construction to the -ba... V(dic) hodo one.
Uso ya iiwake ga jouzu ni nareba naru hodo... The more skilled I become at lying/making excuses, the more...
うそ simply means "lie," but I thought that "making up stories" paired better with excuses here. By the way, the Japanese idiom for "tell a lie" is "嘘を吐く, uso wo tsuku." You can also say "uso wo iu," but I would say the former is much more common, with the latter being used most often in the imperative negative sentence "嘘を言うな uso wo iu na" (Don't lie).
6. In the original, the i-adjective is rendered a noun by removing the -i and replacing with -sa. So, we get "優しさ yasashisa (gentleness)." However, I thought the English would probably use the concept of one side of someone rather than merely using the -ness suffix. What say you? Also, the original uses the word "忘れる wasureru," which literally means "to forget." Again, looking for the most native-like English, I didn't think it would be very helpful to the non-Japanese speaker to read a translation saying, "I forget gentleness." Not very helpful in conjuring up an image that you can relate to your daily life or (un)luckiness in love.
7. Ah, the word "強がる tsuyogaru." If you recall your lesson on the word "欲しい hoshii" or "たい -tai" for "want to," you will remember that psychological adjectives in Japanese are limited to the first person or second person and cannot typically be used with the third person. There are exceptions, small Japanese children make errors in this construction, and Japanese is not the only language to have such a limit, interestingly enough. You will recall, too, that the auxiliary "-garu"is added to mean "seem, appear, look like..." This can also be appended to other adjectives. Common ones would be "悲しい kanashii →悲しがる kanashigaru" and "恥ずかしい hazukashii → 恥ずかしがる hazukashigaru" to mean "sad -> appear sad" and "bashful -> appear bashful," respectively. For tsuyoi, we get tsuyogaru, which has the connotation of "feigning strength." In this case, it would appear Hamasaki used this word to derive the title of the song, "poker face," so I chose to translate this one as "put on a poker face."
8. 支えられたくて支えていたくて means "want to be supported and want to support," but this means moral support, so the most likely suspect in English would be "be cared for and care for" or something like this. We would most likely use the active before the passive, too, so I have switched the order. I don't have the time to run this through a corpus to check my hypothesis; just trusting my gut on this one.
9. Faith is the translation of 信じてる心がある. This means, literally "a believing heart." This is a perfectly fine translation but a little clunky, so I switched it out for faith. A similar construction is v(dic)+心. For instance, "愛する心," which means, literally, "a mind (heart) to love." I would translate this as, "the will to love."
10. v(stem)+通すtoosu means to do something to the end. The auxiliary originally means to pass something through another, like running a string through a tube or something. Here, Hamasaki says she will protect her love to the very end. Besides 'protect,' other words often used with toosu include 引く (主張を引き通す) 吹く (息・風を吹き通す) and 貫く (我を貫き通す). Linguistics students love to write papers comparing 通す with 抜く, which has a similar meaning and function.
11. -ba ii is a toughy. I translated it here as "need only..." which I think is a great phrase in English. The literal translation is "is good if..." but that is about as clunky as all get out. I could have written "It's good if I stand up again," but that is about as helpful as running this through Google Translate (Sorry, Google-sensei!). Another good translation would be, "should just..." but it depends on the context in which -ba ii appears. Hamasaki has another song, from her second album and which I will translate later, that uses the same construction, where I would translate it as "should just."
And that's it, folks. Hope this is helpful to those who enjoy learning language through music!
