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IESU AISHIMASU イエス　あいします in English, Japanese and Chinese – Version 5

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IESU AISHIMASU イエス　あいします in English, Japanese and Chinese – Version 5

This famous Japanese Christian song has been translated into Chinese on YouTube, but we could not tell at the time if it had been translated into English. (Now we know it had been by City Harvest Church.) However, at the time, we made a special rendition of it in English. It is published here. First the sounds: It is a mimic of the Asian sounds at their musically stressed points, but I hope the English progression is seamless and on theme enough so as to not distract or detract from it. Different language groups can sing along and worship together in unison easily due to the similar sounds in words throughout the song. Mandarin sounds offer an amazing opportunity for English; many of the sounds are similar to English. Japanese somewhat, too. This adaptation of “Jesus, I Love You” has more words in English than the Japanese song has. That is a general feature of the Japanese language; much that is said is compact, implicit and succinct. It presents a little problem in translation: It becomes a choice between idea adaptation into more details or simple word repetition. We chose the former. We added Mary’s (not the mother of Jesus’) viewpoint with one’s love of Jesus to the song to get the lyrics up to the correct length. We think her anointing of Jesus’ feet was the ideal example of the adore of Jesus in the Gospels. That is why we added the phrase, “Washing thy feet” as an organizing theme about love. The original Japanese lyrics are all about love and the adore of the Lord Jesus, so we thought adding Mary Magdalene’s perspective was fitting given the fact that we had to double the words in English or else sound tediously repetitious. The tune is far too valuable for that prospect. We also had to switch between “You” and “Thee” for rhyming purposes, including both in one song. We hope that Japanese, Chinese, and English native speakers can sing along simultaneously and enjoy a truly unique lyrical experience: Simultaneous Rhyme in Translation!