Imran Ajmain - Seribu Tahun English Translation

Imran Ajmain - Seribu Tahun English Translation

Songs by: Imran Ajmain and Taufik Batisah

Seribu Tahun / A thousand years

I’m willing to wait for you

A thousand years longer

But would my life be able to last that long?

Even if the north and south change places

I won’t lose hope

I’m staying loyal

I’m willing to chase after you

A thousand miles farther

But would my feet be able to last that far?

Even if the birds stop singing

And the ocean waves become still

I’ll still be loyal

Are you convinced this is love?

Are you sure

This is for eternity

I’m willing to wait for you

A thousand years longer

But would my life be able to last that long?

Even if the north and south change places

I won’t lose hope

I’m staying loyal

Don’t lose hope

Stay loyal.


Original Malay lyrics

Rela ku menunggumu

Seribu tahun lama lagi

Tapi benarkah hidup aku kan selama ini?

Biar berputar utara selatan

Ku tak putus harapan

Sedia setia

Rela ku mengejarmu

Seribu batu jauh lagi

Tapi benarkah kakiku kan tahan sepanjang jalan ini?

Biar membisu burung bersiulan

Tenanglah gelombang lautan

Ku masih setia

Adakah engkau yakin ini cinta?

Adakah engkau pasti

Ini untuk selama-lamanya

Rela ku menunggumu

Seribu tahun lama lagi

Tapi benarkah hidup aku akan selama ini?

Biar berputar utara selatan

Ku tak putus harapan

Sedia setia

Jangan putus harapan

Sedia setia.

Imran Ajmain - Seribu Tahun video with original Malay lyrics
-credits to the video owner

My 2 cent thoughts while translating the song...

For this song, I’m not exactly sure who is the composer and who is the lyricist so in the end, I decided to just put both of them haha. This song is one of the OST for a TV drama titled Kerana Cintaku Saerah aired quite a long time ago. And if I’m not wrong, this song is also the one that brings the singer’s name up to fame for the first time. I thought that Imran Ajmain’s voice suits the song very well and at the same time, this song also enables him to showcase his vocal skills. I really like the song as the song gives off a very emotional atmosphere paired with its melancholic lyrics of an everlasting love. Well, to me it feels melancholic. Because it seems like the one he loves is going to make him wait and to chase after her. Hmm, am I wrong? Haha. 

He is actually singing a vow, isn’t it? That he’s willing to wait for her no matter how long it takes. (Well, he did say for a thousand years only though..) But at the same time he doubts whether it is even possible for him to live that long. I thought that was a rare instance of realism in this type of songs. Usually, when you (well the romanticist, that is) vow to wait for a thousand years for your loved ones, you wouldn’t include how absurd you think it was to wait that long. The same also goes to the lines in the second verse when he questions his own ability to chase after her that far. And because of these lines of doubt, it makes me feel like the bridge of the song is a conversation he had with himself. Asking himself whether he is sure that “this is love” and whether this love is “for eternity.” I might be wrong though. These are just questions that popped up in my mind while translating this song.

It actually took me some time to translate the line “sedia setia” though. It literally means “I’m prepared/ready to be loyal” but to me, it translates better as “I’m staying loyal” because throughout those thousand years he’s waiting for her, he is already being loyal and so even after that, he is ready to be loyal, still. For the last line of the song, I translated “sedia setia” as “stay loyal”. Like an imperative. Even though the words are the same in the first verse where I translated it as “I’m staying loyal”, I translated it differently in the last verse because of the line before it. The line “Don’t lose hope” is imperative so I assumed that the imperative quality of it would still remain in the next line. That’s why I translated it like that. Of course, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong haha. I’m still new at this song translating thing.