Saturday 10 October 2015

Why are some lyrics' words written in kanji whose usual reading is not how it is sung?



Some song lyrics in the official lyric book that accompanies the CD is sung as another word. Usually, the way it is sung is given as a furigana on the kanji:



Written: 君が希望に変わってゆく
    enter image description here
    (pardon the quality I took it using iPhone)
Sung: きみがゆめにかわってゆく
(ひとりじゃない by DEEN)


Written: 未来を今描こう
Sung: あすをいまえがこう
(Pray by Every Little Thing)




I wonder why write the word "希望" in the first place. Why not just print word "ゆめ" since you won’t hear the word "きぼう" in the song anyway? Is there a cultural/artistic reason for it?



Answer



Writing the lyrics this way allows the artist to convey an extra bit of the ulterior meaning. To use the first example, where 希望 is sung as ゆめ, we can assume that ゆめ was chosen because it fit well with the surrounding syllables. But ゆめ by itself isn't specific: it could be an abstract dream of what one wants to do or accomplish, or it could be the sort of dream one sees while asleep. To show that the former is meant, the lyrics sheet has a synonym, 希望. Reading 未来 as あす is explained the same way: does あす mean the day after tomorrow today, or more figuratively, the time after today? Providing 未来 in the lyrics sheet lets you know the artist means the latter.


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