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Originally Posted by Zaqarbal
Yes, I liked it. And it also reminded me of this Mürfila's music video, with that kitten... (btw, she looks hotter than Bonanza's coffee pot  ). |
Hotter than Bonanza's coffee pot!
Nice analogy, Zaqarbal, especially considering the kitchen scenes in the video, where the kitten was a very cute addition. I missed the kitten at the end when the bodies writhing in sexual ecstasy (or torture at its absence) took center stage. Do you know any love songs for cats?
I like how the song/video transitions from memory to real time until the separation between the two seems to disappear.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaqarbal
Thank you very much! I'm glad someone appreciates my work. If you knew how difficult to translate a song is!! Sometimes it's like a mental torture, really. I know that a "lost in translation" result is almost inevitable (Italians say: traduttore, traditore, which means "translator, traitor"), but I always get neurotically involved when translating a song. I lose my mind trying to find the most accurate words, consulting bilingual dictionaries, synonyms dictionaries, etc. It's about to convey meanings, ideas, feelings, emotions... not just words. And that's really, really, very difficult. Besides, the rhyme cannot be "translated". For instance, apart from its superb music, Sidonie (one of my fave bands) is notable for its rhyming lyrics.
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Yes, I can see the careful attention you put into your translations! "Traduttore, traditore" -- I like that. My guess is you aren't much of a traitor.
Translating emotion, meaning, and the feel of the words *is* a challenge. I have only tried to translate a few poems or songs from German to English, one poem being my own that I wrote when a teenager. I tried to maintain the meaning *and* the rhyme. That was difficult but fun.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaqarbal
That's the kind of thing that I always wanted to say to all my platonic loves (if possible, during some summer holidays in the French Riviera). But with the rhyme it sounds even better! Sadly, as I said, rhyme cannot be "translated". That's why I use to post the original lyrics together with their translation.
Well, here you are, one of the best Sidonie's love songs, made under a blessed musical influence from The Beatles. Costa Azul (" French Riviera", 2007):
Aunque de un vaso roto, ................................ Although from a broken glass,[/I]
mi boca bebió ................................ my mouth drank
la sombra del otoño ................................ the autumn's shadow
y el último adiós. ................................ and the last farewell.
Todos los mares ................................ I will put all the seas
los pondré en un jarrón, ................................ into a vase,
y nuestro verano ................................ and our summer,
enmarcado en mi salón. ................................ framed at my lounge.
En la Costa Azul, ................................ In the French Riviera,
una foto nuestra a contraluz, ................................ a photo of us taken against the light,
un beso para siempre, ................................ a kiss forever,
fundidos en cuerpos siameses. ................................ fused as siamese bodies." ♫ [/CENTER]
Lyrics' general meaning is good, but it's the whole (music + lyrics + rhyme...) that makes this love-song a Sidonie's masterpiece, in my opinion. |
A love song about nostalgia for platonic love! I like that. I wish "Costa Azul" translated as "azure coast" because I feel that is much nicer than "French Riviera." "Azure" is one of my favorite words.
There aren't many love songs about platonic love, are there? And yet platonic love is so powerful and often so lasting that one would think it would be the subject of more songs...especially since, in my opinion, platonic love is the basis of any love. Can you think of many more love songs about deep platonic love?
I especially like the lines you translated about putting the seas in a vase and the summer framed as a picture. Those lyrics remind me of all the little bits and pieces of shells and sticks and leaves I saved when I was a child because they became my treasures connecting me with other places and times...with memory. My little treasures are bittersweet, since they can't replace the reality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaqarbal
Well, you know, music-video directors are strongly influenced by Cinema. And since Bonnie and Clyde, that kind of couples are very popular too: Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw in The Getaway, Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette in True Romance, etc. Nevertheless, I think there's a beautiful "poetic connection" between song and video:
Song, through a female voice (Mürfila), says: "without you, / people ask me / what day I died. / And I answer: / since you decided to go away from here". At videoclip, the boy dies and the girl decides to go away, which apparently is the opposite thing. But if you see it as a metaphor, it's not. It's the same thing: Sometimes, a person is no longer the same, when the beloved disappears from his/her life (for several possible reasons). So, in a way, we could say that he/she dies as a certain personality. And the association between death and leaving is a classic topic in Western literature (and art in general). At a popular level too. In fact, dead people are called "the departed".
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You're right...that video does work on a metaphorical level rather than just a melodramatic one, and I overlooked that. Thanks for pointing out the connection between the lyrics and the video action.
You make the good point that death in the video *can* simply represent someone changing. I hear from divorced people that when a spouse changes and leaves you, it is worse than death, for if that person's feelings toward you *change* then you can't even really treasure the memories of when that person loved you as you wished.
Your posted nostalgic song about platonic love along the seaside made me think of two love songs about nostalgia and the sea that I like:
First, a nostaglic song about romantic (failed) love along the seaside:
Don Henley - "Boys of Summer"
Second, the ol' famous "Seasons in the Sun" song about all sorts of love...of friends, family, lover (?), children, nature...of
life. When I was a child I really loved "Seasons in the Sun."
Ah, love!
Terry Jacks - "Seasons in the Sun"
Is Michelle a child, do you think? Who is Michelle?