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Translation: To get along very well.

Arabian proverbs
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When you are Old

Sonnet XXXII

Should you survive the number of my days,
Attest to buried bones and grounded hope,
Nervous, by chance, perhaps this book you'll ope,
Grave hand re-reading, when fast passed my ways.
Tender friend recall our comet blaze,
Openly with instinct's gyroscope
Mark, nurture, sight and sound, bright chromascope,
Able to distill implicit ph[r]ase.
Methinks fond thoughts might share this paraphrase:
“As rainbow bridge strips off coarse envelope
Underdeveloped were poor poet’s plays -
Death forced him far too early to elope.
E’er since he died, have other poets flourished.
Competent their works, I’ll read his, who love nourished.”

[c] Jonathan Robin

Shakespeare Sonnet XXXII
(cf Ronsard: When you are old and grey)

If thou survive my well-contented day,
When that churl death my bones with dust shall cover,
And shall by fortune once more re-survey
These poor rude lines of thy deceasèd lover,
Compare them with the bettering of the time,
And though they be outstripp’d by every pen,
Reserve them for my love, not for their rime,
Exceeded by the heights of happier men.
O! then vouchsafe me but this loving thought:
'Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing age,
A dearer birth than this his love had brought,
To march in ranks of better equipage:
But since he died, and poets better prove,
Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love.'?

Quand vous serez bien vieille

Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir, à la chandelle,
Assise auprès du feu, dévidant et filant,
Direz, chantant mes vers, en vous émerveillant:
'Ronsard me célébrait du temps que j'étais belle.'

[...] Read more

poem by Jonathan Robin
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Gravity Of Love

(michael.cretu)
.
Latin
O fortuna
Velut luna
(translation
O fortune
Like the moon )
Turn around and smell what you dont see
Close your eyes ... it is so clear
Heres the mirror, behind there is a screen
On both ways you can get in
Dont think twice before you listen to your heart
Follow the trace for a new start
What you need and everything youll feel
Is just a question of the deal
In the eye of storm youll see a lonely dove
The experience of survival is the key
To the gravity of love
Latin
O fortuna
Velut luna
(translation
O fortune
Like the moon)
--------whispers---------
Woman :
The path of excess leads to
The tower of wisdom
Man :
The path of excess leads to
The tower of wisdom
---------whispers----------
Try to think about it ...
Thats the chance to live your life and discover
What it is, whats the gravity of love
Latin
O fortuna
Velut luna
(translation
O fortune
Like the moon )
Look around just people, can you hear their voice
Find the one wholl guide you to the limits of your choice
But if youre in the eye of storm
Just think of the lonely dove
The experience of survival is the key
To the gravity of love.
Latin
O fortuna

[...] Read more

song performed by Enigma
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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 Kraftwerk
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This is my silence with the taste of ‘never’

A single plunge from the tip of the tongue
Into the clouds anxiety sponges
Burdened with water and wells too mute
Of elements void of translation

A single flame from the tip of the fingers
That once touched the hard locked heart
Within the heights all skies to burn
In elements void of translation

A single stone cast into a cradle
Rocks an embryo crying for a womb
Like a childless lap still eager to fly
In elements void of translation

A single breath signed by an ocean wind
That namelessly carves the gates of open cages
Wrestling with the forbidden language
In elements void of translation

This is my silence with the taste of ‘never’
I give it solely unto you

Ovo je moja tišina sa ukusom 'nikad'

Jedno poniranje sa vrha jezika
U oblake sundere tjeskobe
Pod teretom vode i bunara suviše nijemih
Pod elementima lišenim prevoda

Jedan plamen sa vrhova prstiju
Što jednom je dotakao teško zakljucano srce
U visini da spali sva neba
U elementima lišenim prevoda

Jedan kamen bacen u kolijevku
Ljulja embrion što place za utrobom
Kao krilo bez djeteta što ipak žudi za letom
U elemntima lišenim prevoda

Jedan dah potpisanim okeanskim vjetrom
Što bezimeno urezuje kapije otvorenih kaveza
Rvajuci se sa zabranjenim jezikom
U elemntima lišenim prevoda

Ovo je moja tišina sa ukusom 'nikad'

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poem by Miroslava Odalovic
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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 Enigma
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Hotwax

It takes a backwash man to sing a backwash song
Like a frying pan when the fire's gone
Driving my pig while the bear's taking pictures in the grass
In my radio smashed
And I like pianos in the evening sun
Dragging my heals 'til my day is done
Saturday night in the Captain's clothes
Tin horns blowing with my jury 'phros

Yo soy un disco cabrado
Yo tengo chicle en cerabo
Translation: "I'm a broken record I have bubblegum in my brain"
BR> I can't believe my way back when
My Cadillac pants going much too fast
Karaoke weekend at the suicide shack
Community service and I'm still the mack

Shocked my finger spicing my hand
I been spreading disease all across the land
Beautiful air-conditioned sitting in the kitchen
Wishing I was living like a hit man

Face down in the guarantees
Jaundiced marshalls getting busy with ease
Because I get down I get down
I get down all the way

Yo soy un disco cabrado
Yo tengo chicle en cerabo
Translation: "I'm a broken record I have bubblegum in my brain"

Sawdust songs of the plaid bartenders
Western Unions of the country westerns
Silver foxes looking for romance
In the chain smoke Kansas flashdance ass pants

And you got the hotwax residues
You never lose in your razor blade shoes
Stealing pesos out of my brain
Hazard signs down the Alamo lanes
Radar systems using the souls
You never get caught with the wax so rotten
All my days I got the grizzly worms
Hijacked flavors that I'm flipping like birds

Yo soy un disco cabrado
Yo tengo chicle en cerabo
Translation: "I'm a broken record I have bubblegum in my brain"

"Who are you?"

[...] Read more

song performed by Beck from Odelay
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The Calm Before The Flood

Mabool (The Flood)
...???? ???? ?? ????? ??? ?? ????,
???? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?????,
?? ??? ???? ?????...
?????? ?? ?? ????? ??? ????? ??? ??? ?????
Translation:
And, behold, I, do bring a flood of waters upon
the land, to destroy all flesh,
wherein is the breath fo life,
from under heaven, and every thing that is in the
land shall dieand I shall wipe away
the world I created upon the land.
May the lord eternal save his troubled child
As he passes through rain and storm
Behind the walls of this hallowed ark of wood
Our prophets found a revelation, which they have understood
Onto the lands of fearful heaven comes a flood erasing all
Landing as if a ruthless bird of pray to crush all human souls
The lightning colors the sky with flames of light
Hell shines above us and fires bright
Erasing the worksof the common man, all we hold dear is set alight
???? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ???? ???
??????? ????? ?????...
??? ????? ??? ?? ????
Translation: In the seventh day of the month, the same day were all the fountains
of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven had opened
And the waters of the flood, were upon the land
Shattered glass reflects this shattered world, barren is the landscape here
Thunder roars as a lion caged, heat that comes like waves of fear
Oceans rise and rage as we watch the world powers fall
Redeeming their sinful ways with their souls
May the truth fill their hearts, let them see the light, when they embrace their gods
???? ???? ??? ?????...
???? ?? ????? ???? ??? ????
Translation: and the face of the land was dead
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.
Seas cover the works of timeless art
That once brought joy to human hearts
In halls of infamy this day shall live
Like the burning of Rome and betrayal of Eve
Like the fire raised at the witches' stakes
Return all earthly possessions
As ashes you return to earth, child of God, to face the divine lord who sits upon the throne eyes sad
Go in peace and find thy faith
Evolve thy self and lose all hate
So a heaven you may creat
In this world of sorrowful ways
None shall live to see the light of day
Some may survive to tell this tale
If their belife shall conquer this gale

[...] Read more

song performed by Orphaned Land
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Guantanamo

[Intro:]
El sol calienta alla en lo alto
Y la palma real nos alumbra
Orgullo de mi tierra cubana
Aqui no hay canto en vano
[Translation:]
The sun heats above
And the royal palm enlights us
With the pride of my Cuban soil
Here it can't be found
A song in vain
[Chorus]
Mi casa y su casa - Guantanamo
The grass is greener on my side - eh eh eh
And I got all my moros here - Guantanamo
Just me y my familia - eh eh eh
[Rapverse1 (Isam)]
Ey chico!
Just idle the car while I run in to the super Mercado
Cop the Cuban bootleg compay Segundo
Gon' barbeque, ya know ill kebab
Only this time, no blues brotha
The vibe is Cuba
Give twenties and couple of wise words to the kids
I'm an example to them, stay in school learn buiss'
Tell'em; respect the whole nine
Respect them old folks
Take my dinner with the Don
Couscous with parmesan
The sun is about to set
Hawaiian shirts, Havana cigars
Red sky, hot breeze, ladies like the guitars
And I can assure ya ass my pueblo is ghetto
Veteran cars ain't no flat tire, just hold on
Or we can lounge in Tangier
Not the one in Vegas, naah the one in Maroc
Cruise the Atlantic, from yours to my block
Mo' hot sauce, mo' sipping, mo' palmas, mo' bailar
[Chorus]
[Rapverse2 (Lenny)]
El son de mi cuba
Me da los buenos dias
Desayuno y al salir
Todo el mundo ya esta arriba
Oye chico subele el volumen
Me encanta ese bolero
Y esta cola para el pan
Le da la vuelta al mundo entero
Ahora ya en La Habana
Viejas calles con aire colonial

[...] Read more

song performed by Outlandish
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Rainbow Children

Just like the sun, the Rainbow Children rise,
Flying upon the wings of the New Translation
See them fly, fly
The covenant will b kept this time
Just like the sun, the Rainbow Children rise
Rainbow children, it's time 2 rise!
Rainbow children, it's time 2 rise!
As prophesied, the Wise One and his woman were tempted by the Resistor. He,
knowing full well the Wise One's love 4 God, assimilated the woman first and
only. Quite naturally, chaos ensued and she and 5 others were banished from
the rainbow.4ever.
Just like the sun, the Rainbow Children rise
Flying upon the wings of the New Translation
See them fly, fly
The covenant will b kept this time
Just like the sun, the Rainbow Children rise
Just like the sun, the Rainbow Children rise
Flying upon the wings of the New Translation
See them fly, fly
The covenant will b kept this time
Just like the sun, the Rainbow Children rise
Who is ur real father?
The everlasting one
The one who came from nothing
And yet from this one, everything comes
The one who commands ur momma
With the simple phrase "I am"
And every time that she obeys
She gives birth 2 the Son of Man
Who is this?
Reproduction of the new breed leader/Stand up and organize!
Reproduction of the new breed leader/Stand up and organize!
The Agreement-
With every birth, we keep it so/Never changing one piece of it
In fear of what would unfold/The scales would then become unbalanced
And thus would begin the fall/The sin of one would become
The sin of one and all
Rise, rise, rise.
Rise, Rainbow Children, rise
Rise, Rainbow Children, rise
The Wise One who understood the law that was handed down from God long ago,
held fast in his belief that the Lord would bring him another one who loved him so.

song performed by Prince
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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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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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Visit Of The Queen Of Sheba

As gifts to Solomon the Sheban Queen
brought lavish presents, Cushite gold
and precious stones and incense, clearly keen
to prove that she would not withhold
her treasures from a monarch who had built
his reputation on his wis-
dom, and a temple expiating guilt,
thus offering herself as his,
not sacrifice upon a temple altar,
but partner in his bed.
We see the gospel writer subtly alter
the story when he writes instead
of three wise Zoroastrian priests who bring
gold, frankincense and lots of myrrh,
with which they please the child who would be king,
mere infant to whom they defer
as if he’d been anointed over all
the Jews, like Solomon or royal
David, from whom we recall,
the infant to whom they are loyal
may be related. I can, with my sage eye
see a difference. Solomon
loved queens, and had no need for Magi,
because without them he had won
worldwide acclaim for wisdom. Though the child
whom the three Magi honored may
have been as wise, he never was beguiled
by women like the King. They say
he even turned away from God,
to have their love, less strange, more human
than that child in the manger who, most odd,
some have conflated with the numen.

Inspired by Robert Alter’s critical review in the TNR, December 31,2008, of a biography of his friend, the great Israeli Poet Yehuda Amichai (Nili Scharf Gold, “The Making of Israel’s National Poet”) . Alter cites a poem by Amichai which he translates, following the translation with an explanation that proves that Amichai’s poetry makes rich use of Hebrew wordplay which is impossible to translate and could not possible derive from his familiarity with German, contrary to the claim of Nili Scharf Gold. He writes:
Not only is this extravagant inference wholly undemonstrated, but a close reading of Amichai's brilliant stylistic achievement readily shows, in one instance after another, that he constantly exploited the intrinsic properties of the Hebrew language––its associative richness, its layered past, the play of overlapping sounds it enabled, the distinctive expressive possibilities of its syntax, grammar, and linguistic registers. That is why Amichai is hard to translate, even as his poetry gives the illusion of being altogether accessible in translation. To imagine that all this wonderfully resourceful use of the Hebrew language is 'in some way' ultimately a stand-in for an invisible German original strains credence to the breaking point.
Alter proves his point in an analysis of Amichai’s poem “The Visit of the Queen of Sheba”:
Amichai was often melancholy in his poems, but he was also an extraordinarily playful poet––sometimes even in poems with very somber themes. His humor, his delight in language, his zest for experience: all are significant elements of the distinctive allure of his poetry, and all are conspicuously absent from Gold's book. I will offer just one counter-example to the portrait of soul-wounding displacement and constant disguise that she presents: the fourth poem in a sequence of eight titled 'The Visit of the Queen of Sheba.' Astoundingly, Gold, pursuing the biographical fallacy with a vengeance, takes the prominence of a sea voyage in this cycle of poems as evidence that 'the pain of immigration and the memories of a traumatic voyage underlie all these segments.' It is mystifying how she could discover pain in the carnivalesque joyfulness of this poem, or personal memory in a fantastic narrative set in the time of Solomon.
Here is what the poetry actually sounds like (the translation is mine) .
Fish blew through the sea
and through the long anticipation. Captains
steered by the map of her longing and the rings of her belly.
The nipples of her breasts went before her like spies,
Her hair whispered together like plotters.
In the dark corners between sea and hull
the counting began, silently.
In the constant trill of her blood
a solitary bird sang. Rules fell
from the books of nature. Clouds were torn up like contracts.

[...] Read more

poem by Gershon Hepner
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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Smell Of Desire

(cretu-fairstein)
Je ne dors plus
Je suis folle. je mabandonne
Je ne dors plus
Je suis a toi
(translation:
I cant sleep anymore
I am crazy. I am letting myself go
I cant sleep anymore
Im yours )
In reverse
In nomine christi, amen
In nomine christi, amen
In nomine christi, amen
In nomine christi, amen
In nomine christi, amen
In nomine christi, amen
(translation:
In the name of christ, so be it
In the name of christ, so be it
In the name of christ, so be it
In the name of christ, so be it
In the name of christ, so be it
In the name of christ, so be it )
The eternal flame will always burn
Feel - understand - and learn

song performed by Enigma
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Beyond The Invisible

(michael cretu/david david fairstein)
.
I look into the mirror
See myself, Im over me
I need space for my desires
Have to dive into my fantasies
.
I know as soon as Ill arrive
Everything is possible
Cause no one has to hide
Beyond the invisible
.
Latvian chant
Sajaja bramani totari ta, raitata raitata, radu ridu raitata, rota
(translation
The brave and wise men came together on horse)
Close your eyes
Just feel and realize
It is real and not a dream
Im in you and youre in me
.
It is time
To break the chains of life
If you follow you will see
Whats beyond reality
.
Ne irascaris domine,
Ne ultra memineris iniquitatis:
Ecce civitas sancti facta est deserta:
Sion deserta facta est:
Ierusalem desolata est:
Domus sanctificationis tuae et gloriae tuae
(translation
Do not be angry lord,
Or remember iniquity forever:
Behold the holy city is a desert:
Sion is mad a desert:
Jerusalem is desolate:
The house of your holiness and glory )

song performed by Enigma
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