# まるでエンディングテーマのように



## Death4ngel

And what's まるで？And what's のように？I cant' understand the explaination from the dictionary.
I've been trying to read an article on Ayumi from a Magazine.
The sentence goes like this.
「まるで、壮大なスケールで作られた映画のエンディングテーマのように。」
My interpretation is "It's possible to create a large scale video of the ending theme"

Is there any website that can fully translate Japanese Text? I wanted to check if my translations are correct.


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## Gremrat

If you have the Firefox browser (and you really should!), I highly recommend downloading Rikaichan. Just switch it on, and it translates any Japanese words you hover your mouse over automatically! It's helped me very much.

Now, let's see here...

まるで means quite, entirely, as though, so to speak, etc. のように means "in the way of" - just break it up into の よう に. 

Now for the entire sentence... I'm no expert, but I think it says: 

"So to speak, a movie ending theme could be created on a grand scale."


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## imchongjun

Hi, Death4ngel.
まるで、壮大なスケールで作られた映画のエンディングテーマのように
My translation goes "as if it were an ending theme of a movie created on a grand scale".  This is not a complete sentence, and I guess the entire sentence is something like "in this album Ayumi sings one of her songs as if it were ...".
And thank you, Gremrat, for your precious piece of infomation.  I didn't know there is such a great software.  I hope it is free...


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## Gremrat

Oh, it is free, otherwise I wouldn't have it  And thank-you for your translation, it sounds better than mine.


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## Flaminius

Ladies and gentlemen,  
The software mentioned in this thread is listed in the Japanese forum resources section.  Please feel free to explore there and/or add more Japanese resources!

Cheers
Flam, modo


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## kyn

I'll have a go at this:
I think のように itself means "like ~". If you add まるで, you make more stress on のように, which could be translated as "just like ~"


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## Death4ngel

woah i just installed the rikaichan. Awesome. Makes things easier. Been using Jim Breen's dictionary for a long time to learn my vocab. But what I meant is that a translator which can translate all the forms. those potential form, continuing form. 

Well. it's not that i like to squeeze my questions in one thread. I'm scared that if i ask too many questions on separate threads, I'll get flamed for like spamming? Imagine the first page full of my threads. 

Anyway thanks for all your help. I feel much more confident in my own translations now.


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## Gremrat

I have yet to find a software like that, sadly - I don't think a computer exists yet that can understand language that well. Rikaichan at least points out the forms, though.


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## frecklegirl

Yes, in this case the sentence has a "just like" meaning. 

"It's just like a grand-scale ending theme made for a movie."


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## Flaminius

Japanese relative clauses leave some ambiguity as to what exactly the modified clause and the antecedent (hmmm postocedent?) are but I think 壮大なスケールで作られた modifies 映画; "like an ending theme for a movie made on a grand scale."


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## frecklegirl

I disagree. It's "movie ending theme" as one big thing that is modified, not "movie" by itself. I know that isn't exactly what my translation said, but I wasn't going literally.


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## Flaminius

I realise how to understand an ambiguous sentence depends on personal preference as well as context and punctuation.  *frecklegirl*, perhaps you could tell me what a 壮大なスケールで作られたエンディングテーマ can be?   
To my mind, 壮大なスケールで作られた映画 is much easier to understand, thus providing a readier interpretation for the thread topic.  _Gone with the Wind_ as opposed to _A Love Story_, for example.

If I want 壮大なスケールで作られた to modify 映画のエンディングテーマ, I would place a comma right after the relative clause in order to avoid ambiguity:
まるで、壮大なスケールで作られた、映画のエンディングテーマのように。

This, however, may not prove much of anything since punctuation policy depends hugely on personal preference in Japanese.


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## Gremrat

Frecklegirl, I think you should probably listen to the person whose native language is Japanese >___>


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## frecklegirl

I don't think a native Japanese speaker can automatically create a better translation, and all else should bow before it. Often students of Japanese are better at making English translations than native Japanese speakers are. Not saying that's the case here--maybe it is--but I'm talking in general. Beyond that, I'm an extremely experienced Japanese translator, and know what I'm talking about.


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## Kakeru

I disagree frecklegirl, not saying that you don't know japanese, but I think that japanese native speakers should have a better interpretation. Not about translating, but how the sentence works.

On topic: IMHO the sentence is a bit ambiguous, but I think that it modifies just 映画.


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## NonComposMentis

frecklegirl said:


> I don't think a native Japanese speaker can automatically create a better translation, and all else should bow before it.


 
 I believe we are discussing the parsing of Japanese meaning here, not the creation of an English translation. I agree that the sentence is rather ambiguous. I do not pretend to know which the author was trying to say, but I suspect Flaminius has a better chance of being right than we NNSs do. Perhaps we could poll the NSs opinions?



frecklegirl said:


> Beyond that, I'm an extremely experienced Japanese translator, and know what I'm talking about.



There is no need to argue from authority. In this forum, I have found that all opinions can be discussed intelligently, and yours is as welcome as the next person's. However, if you have accurately stated your age, I have been translating professionally for major clients since before you were born, and I have found Flaminius to be one of the best resources I have come across for explaining Japanese meaning and usage.

Welcome, and I look forward to seeing many good posts from you.

--NCM

Cool was I and logical. Keen, calculating, perspicacious, acute, and astute--I was all of these. My brain was as powerful as a dynamo, as precise as a chemist's scales, as penetrating as a scalpel. And--think of it!--I was only eighteen. (From Love is a Fallacy, by Max Shulman)


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