it's cool seeing the approach the translator, Konnie Aoki, took to writing the English lyrics. like, when I was doing that fan translation of the Bocchi OP I posted yesterday, as well as trying to preserve the rhyming patterns of the original, I was focusing a lot on meter and scansion. that's a big sticking point for me with songwriting and poetry in general – where are the stressed syllables falling, are they at the right places in individual words, are they putting emphasis on natural-feeling words in the verse as a whole? listening to "The Blessing", and reading this interview (in Japanese) with Aoki about translating an earlier song by the same artists, it seems like his main priority is making the English lyrics sound like the Japanese lyrics as much as possible, with similar phonemes in the same places:
ha - ru - ka TO - o - ku NI u - ka - BU ho - shi WO
as you are NO - ow thin - KING of that STAR so re - MOTE
o - mo - I ne - mu - RI ni tsu - KU ki - mi NO
you're do - ZING off to BE slee - ping THROUGH with a THOUGHT
e - ra - bu MI - ra - i GA
and the fu - TURE you de - CIDE
no - zo - MU mi - chi GA
the way YOU want to STRIDE
do - ko e TZU - zu - i - TE i - te MO
wher - e - ver YOU choose to SET off, to GO
to - mo ni I - ki - ru ka - RA
to - ge - ther I'LL be there by YOU
like, the placement of the stresses in the English lyrics would bug me if I were writing this, but damn, he's lining up whole words and phrases to sound alike in clever ways! translation is pretty awesome huh
me IP - pai NO (a - A ) shu - ku - fu - KU o ki - mi NI
may ALL bles - SINGS fi - IND their way to YOU, I'm wish - ing IT