202
Some song lyrics in the official lyric book that accompanies the CD is sung as
another word. Usually, the way it is sung is given as a furigana on the kanji:

> Written: 君が希望に変わってゆく  
>  ![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wjP7X.png)  
>  (pardon the quality I took it using iPhone)  
>  Sung: きみがゆめにかわってゆく  
>  (ひとりじゃない by DEEN)
>
> Written: 未来を今描こう  
>  Sung: あすをいまえがこう  
>  (Pray by Every Little Thing)

I wonder why write the word "希望" in the first place. Why not just print word
"ゆめ" since you won’t hear the word "きぼう" in the song anyway? Is there a
cultural/artistic reason for it?

**EDIT by Scratch---Cat** : A really significant example in an extremely well-
known song (senbonzakura)

> きっと終幕｛さいご｝は大団円
CC BY-SA 4.0
2011-06-01T02:07:27.837
198
2023-07-25T15:54:51.330
2021-07-28T03:31:56.307
112
112
question
kanji song-lyrics furigana creative-furigana
Why are some lyrics' words written in kanji whose usual reading is not how it is sung?
Songs are poetry; poets work hard to get _exactly_ the feeling they want from
the reader/hearer. Since kanji have semantic values to them, with readings
that fluctuate anyway, this happens pretty often. I guess here it gives the
feeling of a dream which is a hope, not just a vision seen while sleeping.
You'll find videogame/anime/manga stuff that has an English katakana above a
kanji quite frequently, too - such as [瞬間移動]{テレポート}.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2011-06-01T02:14:34.180
199
2023-07-25T15:54:51.330
2023-07-25T15:54:51.330
627
24
198
answer
This shows up even in regular writing (i.e. not lyrics to a song). There's no
cultural reason for it, it's more just a way for the writer to express two
different things at the same time.

The author might have a string of kanji written out but the furigana might end
up being some foreign word in katakana or even in the Latin alphabet. For
example, I've seen 駄目's furigana be "NG" ("No Good" or "Not Good") instead of
"だめ" before.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-06-01T02:16:56.887
200
2011-06-01T02:16:56.887
18
198
answer
You will often find this in songs as well as many Japanese manga's. If you
watched ef (the anime), you will see this technique used exclusively.

It is done for artistic purposes just like you said. It is also to give reader
a deeper meaning behind the word that it is used on. In your case the sentence
is meant to be pronounced 君がゆめに変わってゆく but the presence of 希望 gives ゆめ another
special meaning.

More often or not they two words can be synonyms but they don't have to be.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-06-01T02:17:01.287
201
2011-06-01T02:17:01.287
23
198
answer
Writing the lyrics this way allows the artist to convey an extra bit of the
ulterior meaning. To use the first example, where 希望 is sung as ゆめ, we can
assume that ゆめ was chosen because it fit well with the surrounding syllables.
But ゆめ by itself isn't specific: it could be an abstract dream of what one
wants to do or accomplish, or it could be the sort of dream one sees while
asleep. To show that the former is meant, the lyrics sheet has a synonym, 希望.
Reading 未来 as あす is explained the same way: does あす mean the day after
~~tomorrow~~ today, or more figuratively, the time after today? Providing 未来
in the lyrics sheet lets you know the artist means the latter.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-06-01T02:17:17.843
202
2011-06-03T15:20:02.223
2011-06-03T15:20:02.223
94
94
198
answer
It's quite common on Japanese Songs, because they want to express the meaning
more precisely at lyrics.

  * 未来 - future (which mean - will forever ...)
  * あす - tomorrow (using "future" when singing will be overact or over.. something, so they pronounce it as あす)

also same for 希望 (hope, for long ), ゆめ (a dream - a short timed)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-06-01T02:17:39.273
203
2011-06-01T02:17:39.273
100
198
answer
As you can see from the high number of answers this is part of the fun of
learning Japanese. I'd like to add _pride_ and _belonging_ to the list of
reasons. Every kanji has several sounds, every sound has many kanji. Most of
the official kanji are simplifications or replacements of older forms. After a
few years in Japan, even I _felt_ the kanji used on the labels of rare,
handcrafted sake. Many Japanese couldn't read some of them - I was part of a
select group. The kanji system also opens up the written language to new kinds
of puns unknown to English readers.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-30T19:18:25.853
6334
2012-07-30T19:18:25.853
1345
198
answer