'Bratja' ("Brother") Lyrics

[sunflame]

Enjoy!

Note: In FMA ost booklet there are errors in cyrillic text.
I'm Russian, so my text of lyrics is 100% correct.
So you can sing now freely if you want!



Translit:

"Brat'ya"

Prosti menya, mladshiy brat!
Ya tak pred toboy vinovat.
Pyitatsya vernut' nyelzya
Togo, chto vzyala zyemlya.

Kto znayet zakon Byitiya,
Pomog byi mne nayti otvet.
Zhestoko oshibsya ya;
Ot smerti lekarstva nyet.

Milaya mama! Nyezhnaya!
Myi tak lyubili tebya.
No vse nashi silyi
Potrachenyi byili zrya.

Tebya soblaznil ya
Prekrasnoy nadezhdoy
Vernut' nash semeynyiy ochag.
Moy brat, ya vo vsem vinovat.


Nye plach', nye pechal'sya, starshiy brat!
Nye tyi odin vinovat.
Doroga u nas odna,
Iskupim vinu do dna.

Mnye nye v chem tebya upreknut'.
I ya nye obihen nichut'.
Tyazhek, nash gryekh
Khotet' byit' silneye vsekh.

Milaya mama! Nyezhnaya!
Myi tak lyubili tebya.
No vse nashi silyi
Potrachenyi byili zrya.

Ya sam soblaznilsya
Prekprasnoy nadezhdoy
Vernut' nash semeinyiy ochag.
Ya sam vo vsem vinovat.

No chto zhe nam delat', kak byit'?
Kak vse ispravit', zyabyit'?
Pyitat'sya vernut' nyel'zhya,
Togo, chto vzyala zyemlya.

Tranlit notes:
1) Generally words prononced as they were written
2) "u" prononced as "oo"
3) "yi" is special letter and sound in Russian, it's more like "i" in English word "tip", but a little bit different. I chose "yi" 'cause it fits better than other cases.
4) "e" and "ye" is almost the same sound.
5) "'" means "soft sign" (special letter again). If it's present you must speak letter before it softer.
6) "i" is like "i" in English word "tip"
7) 'kh' prononced as "h" in English "hat".
8) If "e" is the last letter in the word it prononced as "e" in English word "pet"

In Russian words are spoken not exactly the same as they were written.
For example if writing is "zemlya"(земля) , prononciation may be "zemlya" or "zimlya". It depend on which dialect you use.
But correct writing must be "zemlya" only.

Cyrillic corrected lyrics:

"Братья"

Прости меня, младший брат!
Я так пред тобой виноват.
Пытаться вернуть нельзя
Того, что взяла земля.

Кто знает закон Бытия,
Помог бы и мне найти ответ.
Жестоко ошибся я:
От смерти лекарства нет.

Милая мама! Нежная!
Мы так любили тебя.
Но все наши силы
Потрачены были зря.

Тебя соблазнил я
Прекрасной надеждой
Вернуть наш семейный очаг.
Мой брат, я во всем виноват.

Не плачь, не печалься, старший брат!
Не ты один виноват.
Дорога у нас одна,
Искупим вину до дна.

Мне не в чем тебя упрекнуть,
И я не обижен ничуть.
Тяжек, наш грех
Хотеть быть сильнее всех.

Милая мама! Нежная!
Мы так любили тебя.
Но все наши силы
Потрачены были зря.

Я сам соблазнился
Прекрасной надеждой
Вернуть наш семейный очаг.
Я сам во всем виноват.

Но что же нам делать, как быть?
Как все исправить, забыть?
Пытаться вернуть нельзя,
Того, что взяла земля.


These translit and cyrillic versions are typed by Hinata-sama (hyuganeji@rambler.ru)
If you say "Thank you!" I'll be happy!
If you are going to post these versions somewhere, feel free to do so, just mention my name.

Translation in English coming soon. I'm busy now.

[Fighter Volk]

Thank you! Now I can sing along! ^^

Actually, I can't read Cyrillic but I am completely fluent in Polish, so I could actually understand most of the song from the sounds of the words alone, but having it transliterated is even better! Russian is a great language. Whenever I hear someone speaking in Russian, I think it's Polish, but when I listen to it more closely, I can only understand half the conversation

Anyway, this is great. Thanks!

[Yebyosh]

Thank you very much for the lyrics, I'll be eagerly waiting for your English translation.

[sunflame]

I added some notes and corrected some type-mistakes.
Thank you for your replies!

[Riese]

Spasibo/Спасибо.

So what does it all mean? O_o

[Cagalli]

It must be fun to find things in anime when you're from a country/speak another language not cited too much in Japan. I'm persian, once in a while I can put my native language to use in anime (not too often, though). Yeah off topic.

Thanks so much

[Lexander]

Forgive me, younger brother
I am to be blamed
It is impossible to return
that, which has been taken by earth

One that knows the law
would help me find the answer.
I made a terrible mistake,
there is no cure for death.

Dear Mother! So Soft! (soft as in loving)
We loved you so much.
But all our powers
were spent in vain.

I intrigued you
With the perfect hope
To return our family
My brother, the blame is all mine.

Don't cry, don't despair, older brother
You are not the only one to blame
We both have one road
Lets bury the blame to the depth (meaning lets forget whos fault it was)

I can't blame you for anything,
And I hold no hard feelings. (as in Im not mad at you)
Heavy is our cause
The desire to be stronger than all

Dear Mother! So Soft!
We loved you so much.
But all our powers
were spent in vain.

I was intrigued myself
with the wonderful hope
to return our family.
I am the one to blame.

So what do we do now?
How do we correct and forget?
When you can't return
That, which was been taken by earth.




Alright here's a translation I did. Another russian reader please double check mine! I'm Armenian so my russian isn't perfect! I never realized how hard it is to translate, some phrases simply don't have an exact english counterpart.

[Sonhex]

Thanks Sunflame - I just got the cd from cdjapan and its good to follow what they're singing. Its my favourite track on the album by far...

Sonhex

[Yebyosh]

Wow, thanks Lexander for the English script.

Reading through it, the song exactly reflects what thoughts & emotions the Elrics are holding about each other. Quite poignant.

I wonder though if they just send a concept to a Russian composer or they wrote a Japanese script and sent it to a Japanese-Russian translator and hope for the best...

[Lexander]

Nope ... the lyrics are very clean Russian. A translator would rape it and spit out absolute russian garbage. Btw ... the song is sweeter/sadder in the russian form. There was no way I could translate, to get the full feel of it. As I already said some phrases don't carry their charm with them when translated.

[Sparkie]

Originally Posted by Lexander

Nope ... the lyrics are very clean Russian. A translator would rape it and spit out absolute russian garbage. Btw ... the song is sweeter/sadder in the russian form. There was no way I could translate, to get the full feel of it. As I already said some phrases don't carry their charm with them when translated.

well that's okay, it's already great you have the lyrics so thank you ^^

[Mephista]

Woww... thanks so much! ^_^ I love this song, and sing soprano... russian really is pretty. With this transliteration, maybe i can add it to the list of languages i can sing in, but can't speak to save my life. ^^;; Like french, hebrew, portugese, latin, korean...

[sunflame]

Originally Posted by Yebyosh

Wow, thanks Lexander for the English script.

Reading through it, the song exactly reflects what thoughts & emotions the Elrics are holding about each other. Quite poignant.

I wonder though if they just send a concept to a Russian composer or they wrote a Japanese script and sent it to a Japanese-Russian translator and hope for the best...

The song was especially written for FMA.
The lyrics are highly correct to the grammar. One of the lyrics' writer was Russian woman. The Russian in lyrics is exellent.

[triniti]

Thanks a lot sunflame and Lexander!!!

I can't thank you enough!!!!

It's my favourite song on the serie and it made me almost cry, without knowing the lyrics. Now that I know, it's even more beautifull.

The russian language was very well used.

THANKS THANKS THANKS

[Scrumhalf]

Thanks for the lyrics; now I can sing along.

Oh, and I love Russian brides

[triniti]

Because off the lyrics I finally found out that there are 2 kids singing!

One plays Ed and the other Al.

[Dragoncat]

Originally Posted by Lexander

Alright here's a translation I did. Another russian reader please double check mine! I'm Armenian so my russian isn't perfect! I never realized how hard it is to translate, some phrases simply don't have an exact english counterpart.

Excuse me, but I cannot agree with such translations as “Lets bury the blame to the depth” and “Heavy is our cause”, and hardly with “It is impossible to return” (in the later case the author may have meant it the way you translated, but it actually turned out to be different - see my translation below).
Therefore, here is my variant. (Though I’m not sure anybody has any interest in the topic still.)


[Please] forgive me, [my] junior brother,
I’m so guilty towards you {with the meaning “I’m so sorry”}
One shouldn’t try to regain
What was taken by the earth

[The one] who knows the law of Being
Would [be able to] help me to find the answer
I was grossly mistaken:
There’s no medicine against death

Dear mother! Affectionate [one]!
We loved you so much
But all our efforts {*}
Were spent in vain

I lured you
With the beautiful hope
To regain our familial hearth
My brother, it’s all my fault

[Please] don’t cry, don’t be sad, [my] senior brother
You’re not the only one to blame
We’re along the same road
We’ll {or “Let’s”} fully expiate our guilt {**}

I have nothing to reproach you with
And I bear no grudge at all
Grievous is our sin
To desire to be stronger than anybody

Dear mother! Affectionate [one]!
We loved you so much
But all our efforts {*}
Were spent in vain

I was lured myself
With the beautiful hope
To regain our familial hearth
It’s all my own fault

So what should we do, how should [we] act?
How shall we correct everything, forget [everything] ?
One shouldn’t try to regain
What was taken by the earth


Comments.
I was trying to keep as close to the original as possible, that is to translate literally (provided it was possible at all). Still, I had to make 2 major exceptions, suggesting the translations not of the actual meaning of the original, but of what I guess the author wanted to say. Here are my explanations.

{*} Literally, “all our strength was spent in vain”, as if they had some amount of strength and ran out of it, had no more strength left, but that was all in vain. It sounds more or less OK in Russian, but (I suppose) pretty oddly in English. However, in Russian it sounds rather close to “all our efforts were spent in vain / were wasted”, moreover, for Russian language the expression “all the efforts were in vain” reminds itself in that situation. That’s why I decided to translate it “But all our efforts” instead of “But all our strength”, although “efforts” in Russian is “usiliya”, and “silyi” means “strength, forces, powers”. After all, what Elric brothers wasted was not their strength or powers, but their efforts, right?

{**} Literally, “We’ll/Let’s expiate our guilt to the bottom”. Sounds somewhat strange even in Russian and definitely reminds of the Russian expression “to drink to the bottom” (“pit’/vyipit’/ispit’ do dna”) which has the English equivalent “to drink to the dregs”. So I decided to translate it the way it was obviously meant: “We’ll /let’s fully expiate our guilt” - for it was impossible to translate it literally anyway.
(It is interesting to note though, that if you change “do dna” to “spolna”, it sounds somewhat better and has exactly the meaning I suggested in my translation, while even keeping the rhyme intact.)

As for the Russian language of the original, I’d say it’s not perfect, but generally decent (even better than the language of some contemporary Russian pop-songs) and the lyrics were definitely written by some Russian-speaking person (unlike Origa’s nonsense which is hard to believe to have been written by a person whose mother tongue is Russian).

I am not very good in English, so my translation may have some defects too. Once again, I’ve just tried to keep as close to the original as possible, though I realize the result may sound little bit oddly in English.


As for the translit, it also contains some mistakes.
First of all, I should note that in the majority of cases one should write “ye” instead of “e”, according to the logic presented. (“Y” is not needed after “h” though.) Russian “ye” palatalizes the preceding consonant the same way as Russian (and Japanese) “ya”, “yu”, “yo”. By the way, Russian “i” also palatalizes the preceding consonant. However, when I see words like “syemyeinyiy” written using the Latin alphabet, I think to myself: how can one pronounce such a thing without hurting his/her tongue? The trick is, most of those “y”’s are not pronounced after consonants at all. They just mark the palatalization. If you know how all these “sya” and “rya” are pronounced in Japanese, it is better to keep in mind that Russian “sya” and “rya” sound almost the same as Japanese ones.
In case of “ye”, if it confuses you too much, just throw “y” away and write simply “e”. Even if you pronounce it as in English word “pet”, one still understands you.

Besides, I’ve noticed some mistypings in the translit:
should be “nye obizhen” instead of “nye obihen”,
should be “pryekrasnoy nadyezhdoy” instead of “prekprasnoy nadezhdoy”,
should be “zabyit’” instead of “zyabyit’”,
should be “nyel’zya” instead of “nyel’zhya”.


And one more thing, people. Please don’t complain that I am lagged. I’ve just run across this forum the other day.

[sarcasteak]

Originally Posted by Dragoncat

Though I’m not sure anybody has any interest in the topic still

Not at all; thanks for sharing your translation and going into depths to explain the errors in the translit. The discussion of Bratja's lyrics didn't occur immediately after the OST was released so I'm sure people won't lose interest in this beautiful song even now. It is never too late to learn though I must admit I have absolutely no prior background in Russian to appreciate your work fully.

[Yebyosh]

Originally Posted by Dragoncat

And one more thing, people. Please don’t complain that I am lagged. I’ve just run across this forum the other day.

No complaints here Thank you for giving us another take on the lyrics.

[DominusDeus]

I must say, after reading the lyrics to this song, I love it that much more. By far, my favorite song from the FMA OST.