When working on a translation – be it a poem, opera, book, or otherwise – it is easy to overlook the challenges that occur within the process of translating. From genre to age of the text to cultural considerations, there are many factors that come into play when understanding one language from another. Translating songs have all of these factors to consider. They also have the unique problem of rhyme scheme, meaning their translation will be less literal or even sensical. This post will give you a head start on how to make your song translations as accurate, understandable, and enjoyable for your audience as possible.
Know the difference between a poetic translation vs. word-for-word translation (and use it!)
A “poetic” translation is one that is loosely based on the original text, one that seeks to capture the overall form and idea of the poem in language that makes sense. This is in contrast to a “word-for-word” translation, which gives a definition for each and every word, regardless of grammatical accuracy. This translation will not exactly make sense in the language it is translated to.
It is often debated amongst singers, teachers, and language enthusiasts whether or not you should begin with a poetic translation or a word-for-word. Most will start with the word-for-word so your view of the translation is not tainted with biased meaning from the translator. I must advocate, however, for starting with the poetic translation if you have no knowledge of the original language. If you have no understanding of grammar and verbs in the original language, then translating will be a nightmare (WordReference.com will help, as I’ve stated in Operaversity’s free course here). This is why using several poetic translations will help your word-for-word: you’ll have enough information to know the structure and the idea of the poem to make your own literal translation. Keep in mind though that if you start with the poetic translation, you will need to go back to it after your word-for-word.
Use a variety of resources
I am partial to WordReference.com for word-for-word translations for a variety of reasons (which, again, you can see why in the course here). I like to start here and then fill in the blanks with good ‘ol fashioned dictionaries. The biggest downfall of WordReference for song translations, however, is the lack of archaic words that we often encounter in art songs. Paper dictionaries will be able to fill in those blanks much better. Furthermore, multiple dictionaries will give you synonyms for translations that you might not have thought of otherwise, such as the difference between “like” and “love”, “sad” and “sorrowful”, and other subtleties that can make a big difference in meaning (It should be noted here that when working on your word-for-word translation, you should write down all possible translations for your target word. For example, if you have the word “belle” in French, it can be an adjective such as “beautiful”, and “attractive”, or it can be a noun, such as “beauty”, or “sweetheart”).
You will also need to use multiple resources for poetic translations, perhaps even more so than for word-for-word. This is because a poetic translation is rather subjective in nature. Think about it – we all have different emotional and intellectual connections to anything we need. It is a flaw and virtue of language. Therefore, consulting various poetic translations will give you suggestions to the nature of the poem from different translators. Is the poem longing or bitter? Joyful or surprised? These are emotional traits that are similar enough to be interpreted differently by different translators, but can make all the difference in your ultimate performance of a song.
Finally, it should be noted that you should consult resources that will speak the cultural, historical, and colloquial nature of the poem. Certain poems are time-period specific, relate to certain people or historical events, or may be very specific to the original language. Therefore, you should be sure to not only research the text itself but the nature of the text. How can you do this? Research the poet, their inspirations, any proper nouns that appear in the text, the time period it was written, and any other surrounding ideas that are relevant.
Format your translation properly
It sounds like a subtle detail, but formatting can make a big difference in terms of comprehension. Think about the materials you read – how much harder is it to read something when there is no indentation? It is just as hard to read a translation, if not harder, if the translated passage does not line up with the original language. At the end of this post, I will give you further guidance on how you can better format your translations.
Have your translation reviewed before printing
After all of this great work you’ve done, chances are that you will have gone cross-eyed, and your head will hurt for the constant viewing and reviewing of your text (which you should be doing, by the way!). So there is a chance that parts of your translation will only make sense to you. Therefore, you should have others, be it friends, family, or colleagues, review your translations (it is not so important that you have someone read it who understands the original language, although it could be helpful for accuracy purposes). Your goal is for your audience to understand your song when they read it in their program notes.
Sound like a lot? It really is quite simple once you get going. In fact, I’ll make it even easier for you: by clicking here or on the image below, you will receive a free, easy to use translation chart!
How do you write your translations? What resources do you use? Let us know!