Babeled do re me

Translating lyrics is an art. It requires skill well beyond any other form of translation since it also involves respecting time, rhyme and sometimes even lip movements. Most songs are not translated as the actual meaning of the words is not as important as the sound.  By contrast, the audience demands to know what the message is. For example,  Disney  translates its songs and does a fine job at it.  Another interesting example where lyric translation was required was the well-known tune from The Sound of Music, do re me. It was necessary since the words connecting the sound must make sense in the language of the listener. The specific choices of word connections to the sound are rather interesting. I have chosen the lyrics from five languages I understand. 

Do

The original English referenced a doe, a female dear, not exactly a standard English vocabulary element. The French used dos, a back in English. Russian referred to дом [dom], a house. Hebrew took the word דוב [dov], a bear. Finally, Italian used the first-person singular form of the verb dare, to give.

Re

Both the original and French version connected the sound to the sun. The Russian lyricist strangely chose регби [regbi], rugby in English. The Hebrew version uses a more standard word ריח [re’ach], meaning smell. Italian uses the word re, meaning a king in English.

Mi

English and Italian took the first-person pronoun route, i.e. me. The French went half way, referring to mi, meaning half. The Russian referenced миска [miska], a bowl (for the cat). Hebrew took its meaning for the sound mi, which means who or whoever.

Fa

This note was very localized. The original English version adds the letter R at the end and turns it into far. French stretches the fa to facile, easy in meaning, literally. Likewise, the Russian translator used фазан [fazan], a pheasant. By contrast, the Hebrew adds the sound sa to the beginning and gets שפה [safa], meaning language. The Italian writer must have been tired as all s/he wrote was la nota dopo il Mi, the note after mi! I am almost sure that there is some Italian word with the sound fa.

Sol

For this sound, the two dominant techniques were homonyms and adding letters The English plays with the homonym sew, French with sol, ground, and Hebrew with סול [sol], the fish. The Italian version has the word sole, with the pronounced e, meaning sun. The Russian adds the grammatical ending to the sounds and comes up with Соль-ю [sol-yu], salt or spices.

La

Here, Oscar Hammerstein pulled an Italian trick. The original version says “the note to follow So”. The French and Italian lyricists went the direct route since la in both languages means there. The Russian translator added a consonant in the beginning and another syllable at the end and came up with лямка [lyamka], strap (of a bag). The Hebrew writer couldn’t apparently think of any word but was willing to come up with something witty, connecting the sound la to songs without words.

Se

For the last sound, each lyricist went with the sound. English pronounces the sounds as te, which leads to the typical English drink. The Italians say se, which sounds like si, yes.  The Hebrew word שיא [si] is the peak, literally. The Russian and French translator had to add something to the sound to make it work, сироп [sirup], as in the thick liquid, and siffler, to whistle, respectively.

So, while the song may be known worldwide, it is a classic example of localization and a tribute the talent and skill of those who translated it.

P.S. Based on comments, it appears that many languages have multiple translations.  Let me know if so.  I may write a follow up post on the such comparison. 

California Hope

Recently, I have spent time in the hospital with close family members suffering from UTI’s (Urinal Track Infection) in Israel and California. I will relate the differences in the hospital environment as the Japanese treat height differences: the person next to the tall one, i.e. accentuating the positive.

California, with all its problems, often is willing to invest in a vital need even if the budget is tight.  For example, under current California law, a nurse in a regular ward takes care of no more than four patients.  In practice, this meant that the nurses treating my father were attentive and patient. They were able to use their sense of humor to lower high tension situations.  Not only that, the fact that the ward was equipped with electrical IV pumps meant that they did not have constantly check the IV flows of their patient.  This meant that even at the end of their 12 hours shifts, they were pleasant and professional.  As has been said about going to prison, the punishment is being to the hospital; no more is needed.

On the same note, it should be noted in California’s favor that, albeit imposed by the judicial system, the prison system is finally starting to try to treat the sources of problems of its inmates instead of just incarcerate them.  Granted, there is a large disproportion between the amount of available resources and scale of the problem. However, there is no doubt some prisoners are not born criminals but instead people that need help. 

Alas, nothing is perfect. The condition of LA roads continues to shock and distress.  The veins and arteries of Los Angeles are truly clogged by cholesterol of awful surfacing (as well as cars of course).  The state government could clearly do a better job maintaining them.

California is well known for being ahead of its time in terms of seeking solutions. The development for electrical cars began as a mandate from California decades ago when it realized that it could never really “beat” air pollution over the long term. This attitude is clearly preferable, as an example, to that of the government of Venezuela, which has decided to deal with the problem of high inflation (68% annually) by not publishing inflation data. It would be funny if it was not tragic.