Typesetting Lyrics of Japanese/Chinese Songs With LuaTeX

• Tue, Aug 2, 2016
• 2-minute read

I was asked by my wife to typeset a Japanese song together with the Chinese translations. Then I picked up $\TeX$ again. Previously, I used to employ XeTeX and cTeX for documents written in Chinese. But it was reported that this combination performed poorly for Japanese typesetting. I was also told a better choice could be the LuaTeX. Then I tried it yesterday evening. Basically I didn’t feel any pain in using it. All the syntax I needed wass totally same as normal $\LaTeX$. Here I show an example of writing Japanese and Chinese in one document with LuaTeX.

I used three packages for Japanese (and Chinese):

• luatexja: the basic package for ja supports;
• luatexja-fontspec: the package that enables specific font settings (also works for Chinese language);
• pxrubrica: the package that provides the function to add furigana (ふりがな) above to kanji (漢字).

In this document I tried to translate a Japanese song “ラブ・ストーリーは突然に” into Chinese. This song was used as the theme song for the famous drama “Tokyo Love Story” (東京ラブストーリー).

\documentclass[a4paper, 11pt]{article}

\usepackage[top=1in, bottom=1.1in, left=1.2in, right=1.2in, a4paper]{geometry}
\usepackage{pxrubrica}
\usepackage{luatexja}
\usepackage{luatexja-fontspec}
\usepackage{setspace}
\setmainjfont{Kaiti SC}

\title{\vspace{-2em}東京ラブストーリー  \\  ラブ  \cdot ストーリーは突然に}
\date{ \vspace{-1.5em}}
\author{詞曲：小田和正 \\   翻譯：谭丞 \quad noinil@gmail.com}

\begin{document}

\onehalfspacing
\maketitle
\doublespacing

\begin{tabular}{rl}
    \jruby{何}{なん} から  \jruby{伝}{つた} えればいいのか & 不知该从何说起  \\
    \jruby{分}{わ} からないまま  \jruby{時}{とき} は  \jruby{流}{なが} れて & 时间消逝无声息  \\
    \jruby{浮}{う} かんでは  \jruby{消}{き} えてゆく & 脑中光影来又去  \\
    ありふれた  \jruby{言葉}{こと|ば} だけ  & 心头言语总难题 \\
    \jruby{君}{きみ} があんまり  \jruby{素敵}{す|てき} だから & 你这样美丽动人  \\
    ただ  \jruby{素直}{す|なお} に \  \jruby{好}{す} きと  \jruby{言}{い} えないで & 我不敢表明心意  \\
    \jruby{多分}{た|ぶん} もうすぐ  & 一切不须再多言 \\
    \jruby{雨}{あめ} も \jruby{止}{や} んで  \jruby{二人}{ふた|り} たそがれ & 黄昏将近雨淋漓  \\[1em]
\end{tabular}
\ldots

\end{document}

Here is the pdf output: