TAEMIN Under My Skin English Adaptation 태민 テミン 李泰民 SHINee (ENG VER Cover Lyrics Translation FMV MV)

Taemin has come a long way, and his SHINee brothers too.

💝Original lyrics in captions: 日本語原歌詞 original Japanese lyrics, my literal English translation, 我個人原歌中文直譯 Chinese translation. Korean translation: 원곡 가사의 한국어 번역을 위해 중국어 자막을 활용하여 자동으로 한국어로 번역하는 것을 고려해 주십시오.

This project is less a pro adaptation demo, more an effort to communicate Taemin’s truth as vividly as possible.

Under My Skin has gotten some favorable reviews internationally. However, the lack of official translation in the official music video confined Taemin’s meaningful message to a limited sphere and compromised the song’s viral potential. Despite many Shawols’ best efforts, Taemin’s 2018 appeal for compassion got lost in a general dismissal of K-pop idol lyrics.

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UNDER MY SKIN

Lyrics/作詞: Junji Ishiwatari (いしわたり 淳治)
Composer/作曲 Arranger/編曲: Cesar Peralta, Ryan Curtis, Ronnie Marinari

In a nutshell, the song is about
(1) Duties & Expectations: the crushing weight of being Taemin/ SHINee in 2018
(2) Korean-idols-specific loneliness AMPLIFIED: being watched but not seen, being listened to but not heard, having your specific message ignored – even after losing loved ones to that very unique type of loneliness
(3) Taemin thanking those who accept his “weakness” of not being stoic enough

The overall tone leans toward positive:
his heart remains tender despite the cruel ordeals, he has faith in the warm dependable people in his life to carry him through

When given a chance, SHINee members have tried to express their “dark” side – the supposed “incorrect weakness”, through their solo works:
Onew battled Expectations.
Key made the wreck inside look good and Easy.
Minho bravely faced the void of Area.

That void is a lot more than an empty spot on stage, or a hole in the heart, or even sibling survivor guilt. That void they faced, 24/ 7/ 365, was a real, massive, external, global scale collective Void that they tried their human best to fill with every last drop of soul, physical vitality and spiritual faith they could scrap from their inner reservoir.

That “expectation” was far more than the usual tough idol duties – they were saddled with even heavier Expectations – to be even stronger than they have ever been, on demand: to cry on demand, to not cry on demand, to smile or not smile on demand, be good contractors but also good mass healers on demand, cater to millions of conflicting demands on demand.

The Feeling feels so light, because finally, the years of battle are behind them now: they are done, with carrying a Himalayan weight of a Void.

They have come a long, long, long way.

This under-promoted song found me in 2022, I fell in love at first listen, and done my due diligence before starting the long process of writing and rewriting. I publish this video now, because Taemin and SHINee are in a far better place now, and also, those who truly love and support them all these years are having a collective out breath of relief…

Healing is a long journey for most humans, and healing is a luxury for the heroic ones tasked to play mass healers.

Make their sacrifices count. Their specific truth matters. Their lyrics DO matter. May their beauty be truly seen, may their voices be truly heard, any place, any realm💖

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Technical notes

For my writing prompts, I always translate original texts from scratch to capture every possible nuance lost in official English translations.

I will make a video explaining my Hypermatch song adaptation philosophy and the process of translating Korean/ Japanese/ Chinese lyrics to English.

HYPERMATCH adaptation method summary

Hypermatch communicates the essential meaning of the original song just like standard adaptations. The main difference: it conforms to original structure in exact narrative flow phrase by phrase.

My original goal was to create seamless adaptations that can be sung WITH the original – as emotionally true as possible, in a language I speak. The result: adaptations that capture the sonic beauty of the original vocalists (and Korean/ Japanese/ Chinese sounds), sound natural, and are easy to learn – due to the seamless sync of vowels, consonants, meaning, energetic emphasis points and emotional flow.

하이퍼매치는 표준적인 적응과 마찬가지로 원래 노래의 본질적인 의미를 전달합니다. 주요한 차이점은 원래의 구조를 정확하게 구문 흐름별로 따라가는 것입니다.

제 원래 목표는 원곡과 함께 부를 수 있는 매끄러운 적응을 만드는 것이었습니다. 가능한 한 감정적으로 진실되며 제가 구사하는 언어로 구현하기 위함이었습니다. 결과적으로, 원래 가수들의 음성 아름다움(한국어/일본어/중국어 소리)을 잘 담은, 자연스럽고 배울 쉬운 적응이 되었습니다. 이는 모음, 자음, 의미, 에너지 강조 포인트 및 감정적 흐름이 원활하게 조화되어 있기 때문입니다.

For more info see my About Page.

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Metadata
#shinee #taemin #テミン #thefeeling #태민 #샤이니 #minho #민호 #key #키 #onew #온유 #TaeminIsBack #shineeisback #Taeminiscoming #taeminenglish #taeminshinee

NGDA, Never Gonna Dance Again, Taemin, SHINee solo mashup stagemix live concert stage mix mash up fan MV FMV English cover version, The Feeling, HARD, 230623, 230624, 230625
李珍基 Onew Jinki 온유 溫流
金起范 Kim Kibum Key 키 김기범
崔珉豪 Choi Minho 최민호
李泰民 Lee Taemin 이태민 テミン
金钟铉 Kim Jonghyun Jjong 김종현