Lyric Translation ... another source to spur creativity

[GregB]

Hi.  I hope this is in the right section of the site.

 

The attached article is one I wrote for the lyrics magazine "Write Away" to explain the PROCESS I used to work out the English lyric translation for a German songwriter.  While he has an excellent grasp of English, he was never confident to do so himself.

 

I would add that it was a fabulous challenge to take a foreign-language song and imbue it in English with a similar emotion, and also find relevant and pleasing words that match the musical rhythm.  We native English speakers are so lucky ... we have been immersed in a language that has probably the widest and richest array of words and metaphors, and a grammar/syntax that allows for sentence restructuring without losing its fundamental meaning.  (Note: I found it impossible to do a direct translation ... you need to be flexible/creative in your approach.)

 

If you'd like a crack, just find any foreign language song and message the songwriter. You won't regret the mental exercise needed.

 

Any questions ... please ask.

Nächster Schritt - Translation article for Writeaway.pdf

[Peggy]

Hi Greg, 

 

What a fun and interesting project! I've given lyric translation a half attempt before ..never completed it..other things came up. But definitely challenging in a language that isn't a native language. Very cool that Stefan liked the results, which is a big deal ....oh my, language change or not "rewriting" someone elses lyrics is not always pleasant .. sometimes just changing a word is too much.. 😏    

 

I hadn't heard of the magazine "Write Away".  Got to check it out.  Thanks for sharing and really enjoyed reading your article.  

 

Peggy

[LittleSongFirst]

Really interesting post for me.

Spanish native interested in writing in English as well.

This is the biggest challenge for me.

[jhanover]

On 1/31/2023 at 2:12 AM, LittleSongFirst said:

Really interesting post for me.

Spanish native interested in writing in English as well.

This is the biggest challenge for me.

Have been playing with Duck Duck Go browser’s translator. My lyrics for “ Flamingo “ worked in Swahili, but not Spanish. There are two kinds of English. English English, and American English. An example UK “ We went to hospital “ USA “ We went to the hospital “. Without getting into specifics of regional accents, the spelling, pronunciation, and structure are slightly different. What works in UK could work in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand but not as well in the USA and vice versa. Slang is funny and so different from each other so that’s a factor too. Good luck with the writing.

[jhanover]

Have used DuckDuckGo translator and have found some languages are really close. Polish, Swahili, and French were closest. Latvian, and Spanish were interesting takes on certain words and phrasing.

[Reid Gibson]

I hear ya; then there is southern English and northern English, and other dialects that butcher the language in wholly different ways. Like it is the most common in lyrics to say "ain't", "she ain't ......"  because there ain't no good substitutes.

It's fun to mess with other languages as well, I do stuff in Spanish on occasion, but usually run it by my friends wife who is Spanish. The online (Google, etc) translators are usually right on or very close.

[jhanover]

9 hours ago, Reid Gibson said:

I hear ya; then there is southern English and northern English, and other dialects that butcher the language in wholly different ways. Like it is the most common in lyrics to say "ain't", "she ain't ......"  because there ain't no good substitutes.

It's fun to mess with other languages as well, I do stuff in Spanish on occasion, but usually run it by my friends wife who is Spanish. The online (Google, etc) translators are usually right on or very close.

There’s differences between Northern Minnesota where I’m from and Southern Minnesota where the Twin Cities are. Accents are really subtle out here in Colorado, apart from all it’s newest inhabitants from other states.