For the version of this CD released in Japan, a translation of the English lyrics is included, but there are lots of places where meanings are lost in the process of translation.
quote by Utada Hikaru
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
The Japanese version comes with a translation, but that's different from the lyrics, so people could look things up and find a translation of their own if they're interested.
quote by Utada Hikaru
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Poets Lost In Translation
several differing translations
of some masterpiece poems
written by immortal poets
timeless especially esteemed
written in foreign languages
stresses how much poetry
suffers lost in translation
it is the hardest literary
medium to translate due
to the multiple meanings
of some words choice chosen
in the original mother language
the wonderful poetic effects
linking such words achieves
resonates in receptive souls
Is a good translation only
achieved when the translator
is a poet with a mother tongue
knowledge of both languages
in use vibrating admiration?
Is an intimate knowledge
a unique empathic sensitivity
for chosen poet in translation
a prime necessity in translating
feelings emotions ideals writ?
poem by Terence George Craddock
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The Eyes Of Truth
(curly m.c.)
.
The eyes of truth
Are always watching you.
Mongolian chant translation
Alsyn gazryn zeregleenn
Aduu shig mal shig torolzonoo khuoo
(translation:
In the distance the mirage stands out like
Horses and cattle.
Very glad to see my beloved son.
--- sandras whispers ---
Je me regarde
Je me sens
Je vois des enfants
Je suis enfant !
(translation:
I look at myself
I feel myself
I see the children
I am a child! )
song performed by by Enigma
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Kometenmelodie
[Lyrics are an excerpt of "The Heaven Prolog" from Faust - Wolfgang von Goethe. In this masterpiece, these lines are said by Raphael archangel]
Die sonne toent nach alter weise
In brudersphaeren wettgesang
Und ihre vorgeschriebene reise
vollendet sie mit donnergang
[Translation 1:]
The sun sounds out in an old manner
In a fraternal vocal competition
And its prescribed course
Reaches a conclusion with a thunder
[Translation 2:]
The sun intones its ancient song
Mid rival chant of brother spheres
Its predestined course it speeds along
In thund?rous march throughout the years
[Translation 3:]
The sun intones, in ancient tourney
With brother-spheres, a rival song
Fulfilling its predestined journey
With march of thunder moves along
[Translation 4:]
The sun is chanting his ancient song
In contest with the brother spheres
Rolling with thunder steps along
Down the predestined course of years
song performed by by Kraftwerk
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A translation is no translation, he said, unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it.
quote by John Millington Synge
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The best thing on translation was said by Cervantes: translation is the other side of a tapestry.
quote by Leonardo Sciascia
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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While The Earth Sleeps
Peter Gabriel Deep Forest---While The Earth Sleeps
Original lyrics in Macedonian:
Dali znaesh mila majko
shto sum ne srekjna
Cel den doma sama sedam
Nadvor ne smejam
English translation:
Do you know, mother,
How unlucky I am?
All day I sit at home,
I am not allowed outside
song performed by by Peter Gabriel
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Poet's Fate
by Mohan Rana
Were this light even whiter
you and I would be invisible
we each would live our invisible pain
never knowing
the absence of joy
Stunned by that void
into which shadows vanish
forms dissolve
falling, we would imagine flying
without a sky
Only sounds
reach the surviving memory
no need for introductions
The poet's fate
poetry's fate
together
just a breath
[The literal translation of this poem was made by Lucy Rosenstein
The final translated version of the poem is by The Poetry Translation Workshop]
poem by Mohan Rana
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And after I started working for the Bureau, most of my translation duties included translations of documents and investigations that actually started way before 9/11.
quote by Sibel Edmonds
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Love lost?
Tender love, lost,
lost in time,
lost in translation,
lost with little hope
of ever being recovered.
Memories, all that remains
of what was and could have been...
Age, fading these memories
as the sands of time
fall through our brittle fingers.
Hatred, pain and loathing,
Hatred for letting ourselves get hurt,
Pain from the searing depression
That fills us like a box or razors,
loathing for not trying harder.
Hope, hoping that she finds happiness,
hoping she thinks about you fondly,
hoping that your dreams don't fade,
hope that your tender love,
your love lost in time, in translation,
isn't completely hopelessly lost.
-James Bateman
poem by James Bateman
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And I always read the English translation and always have conversations with my translator, for example about the names. I always have to approve it.
quote by Cornelia Funke
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Language of Translation
What could be a better language than the language of translation
A white curtain on which
All our handiwork stands apart like dirt
All crimes are perpetrated in mother tongues
Which always contain a discourse on innocence
There are times
When translation is the only place that has a remnant of sorts
The sound of tyranny in the native tongue
Is killing sympathy!
(Translated from Hindi by Bharatbhooshan Tiwari)
poem by Asad Zaidi
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Our Misunderstanding
Rip out the trees and plant your flag
Now I know just where you stand
Nature means nothing to you
Something that you can't control
And we make ourselves miserable
Trying to fill the hole
It's sad that our misunderstanding
Has turned into a war
I don't know you anymore
How was I supposed to know
I was steppin' on your toes
The momentum builds to a fever pitch
Talkin' but I just can't hear
Watchin' our problems multiply
Wishin' they would disappear
It's sad that our misunderstanding
Has turned into a war
I don't know you anymore, anymore
And our love got lost in the translation
And when I see you out
You're a stranger to me now
You're a stranger to me now
I, I wish I could talk to you
I wish I could make you see
How much I care
How much you mean to me
That our misunderstanding
Has turned into a war
I don't know you anymore, anymore
And our love got lost in the translation
And when I see you out
You're a stranger to me now
You're a stranger to me now
song performed by by Fastball
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Poetry is what gets lost in translation.
quote by Robert Frost
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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And also, I think Japan places great value on the lyrics.
quote by Utada Hikaru
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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So that meaning gets an own reality
When words are superfluous,
loose their ability
to express love to you
I leave the translation
to my lips, mouth
and fingers
and when your artery
beats mysteriously against your neck
and I see dreams in your eyes
I suddenly know the meaning
of all the love cards in Cardies
how deep eye contact can bind,
that a person can find somebody special
at a place where you do not expect it,
how people can yearn for each other
when at strange places
they set eyes on each other
for the first time
and if life could be just as simple
words would be able to do miracles
could be equal to a kiss
would not disguise feelings or emotions
and would say the right things without fear.
When words steal meaning,
quenching that which is between us,
I say nothing while you are getting aroused
even less, when we are making love
so that meaning gets an own reality.
[Reference: Vertaling (Translation) by Johan Johl.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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The Bitter Pill
Sometimes I'm lost - And then I'm found
Sometimes I feel - Turned inside out
I'm often silent when I'm screaming inside
Instead of love - We tend to hate
We never quite - Apprecaite
How much the other person cares or tries
CHORUS
Hold me close
Don't ever let me go
I'm confused
Maybe someday I will know why...
Sometimes I'm right as rain
And when it rains it pours
You're such a mystery
Why can't I unlock the door
All that glitters isn't gold
Too much is overkill
Love can be beautiful
Or a bitter pill
And when I'm right - I'm also wrong
We give and take - To get along
There's so much more to this
Than I ever dreamed
And when you smile - I have to laugh
And when you cry - I'm torn in half
So calm and yet so loose at the seams
CHORUS
OPERA
Liebe kahn eine bittere pille sein
Eine bittere pille
Liebe ist eine bittere pille
Liebe kahn eine bittere pille sein
[German to English translation
Love a bitter pill can be
A bitter pill
Love is a bitter pill
A bitter pill]
MAD GERMAN
Ich will ein bier
Ich will be soffen sein
Die ganze welt is dumm
Mir steht es so im hals
Ich sage dir
Die liebe kann nur luge sein
[Sketchy German to English translation:
I want a beer
I want to get drunk
The whole world is stupid
It's a pain in the neck
It's a myth
He who loves exists in lies
CHORUS
Or a bitter pill
song performed by by Warrant
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What is lost in the good or excellent translation is precisely the best.
quote by Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What's Left Behind Of All Our Love
Translation of the song 'Que Reste-t-il De Nos Amours? '
by Charles Trenet
(I was introduced to this song by Walter Hyatt when we were writing together in Nashville. He performed it once on AUSTIN CITY LIMITS and dedicated it to his high school French teacher. I thought that was so cool! On a trip to Paris I worked on a translation so I could sing it first in French, then English. By the end of the first phrase I'm back at a sidewalk cafe in Paris, sipping espresso and soaking in ambience. I dedicate my translation to my college French professors, Waring McCrady, Jacqueline Schaefer and Scott Bates.)
What's left behind of all our love,
Of those good times, what stays with us,
A photograph, faded but true,
The days of our youth.
What's left behind of April days,
Of tender notes and secret ways,
A never ending memory
Which follows me.
Good times together,
Free as a breeze,
Stolen kisses, sweet reveries.
What's left behind of all of these
Tell me please.
A sleepy town, a church bell rings,
The simple joy that each day brings,
And in a cloud passing so fast...
The days of my past.
Paris 2001
(French lyrics)
Que reste-t-il de nos amours,
Que reste-t-il de ces beaux jours,
Une photo, vieille photo de ma jeunesse.
Que reste-t-il des billets doux
Des mois d'Avril, des rendez-vous,
Un souvenir qui me poursuit sans cesse.
Bonheur fané, cheveux au vent
Baisers volés, rêves mouvants
Que reste-t-il de tout cela, dites-le moi?
Un petit village, un vieux clocher
Un paysage si bien caché
Et dans un nuage, le cher visage de mon passé...
poem by Carol Elliott
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If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.
quote by Rene Magritte
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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