Transatlantic transformation - French and American music in translation

 

[Twins in a wagon*]

The flight from New York to Paris is a few hours long but upon arriving, you feel in a different world whether because of the architecture or the jet lag. The French and Americans, who have had a lengthy love affair since Lafayette and Alexis de Tocqueville, often expressed an appreciation of each other’s music. In some cases, the songs have been imported as is,  such as the songs of Elvis Presley in French and Edith Piaf in English. In other cases, while the music remained the same, the words took on a completely different meaning, even texture, a bit like physically identical twins with different personalities. As a small sampling, I will look at two well-known songs, My Way, Frank Sinatra’s signature song, and the Little Drummer Boy, the classic Christmas classic, known as Comme D’habitude and l’Enfant de Tambour in France.

Claude François and Jacques Revaux wrote a song entitled “Comme D’habitude”, meaning As I always do, in 1967, which was then originally transformed and sang in English by Paul Anka but made famous by Frank Sinatra. While the melodies are identical, the words express entirely different situations and feelings:

Comme D’habitude [link]	My Way [link]
Je me lève	And now the end is here
Et je te bouscule	And so I face that final curtain
Tu ne te réveilles pas	My friend I'll make it clear
Comme d'habitude	I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
Sur toi je remonte le drap	I've lived a life that's full
J'ai peur que tu aies froid	I traveled each and every highway
Comme d'habitude	And more, much more
Ma main caresse tes cheveux	I did it, I did it my way
Presque malgré moi
Comme d'habitude	Regrets, I've had a few
Mais toi tu me tournes le dos	But then again too few to mention
Comme d'habitude	I did what I had to do
Et puis je m'habille très vite	I saw it through without exemption
Je sors de la chambre	I planned each charted course
Comme d'habitude	Each careful step along the byway
Tout seul je bois mon café	And more, much, much more
Je suis en retard	I did it, I did it my way
Comme d'habitude
Sans bruit je quitte la maison	Yes, there were times I'm sure you knew
Tout est gris dehors	When I bit off more than I could chew
Comme d'habitude	But through it all, when there was doubt
J'ai froid, je relève mon col	I ate it up and spit it out…
Comme d'habitude…

 

The French original is a very sad story of a loveless marriage in which everything is done ritually without feeling, even making love. The husband gets up in the morning, pulls up the cover to make sure the wife is warm and caresses her cheek with no reaction besides her turning her back to him. He gets up, drinks his coffee alone and leaves for work. When he returns, she has left for the evening. She returns later after he goes to bed. They have sex. The day begins anew. Yet, he still keeps on functioning “as I always do”. By contrast, the American version is the proud statement and restatement of independence of an older man who takes responsibility for his choices and voices no regrets. He declares that he made his own decisions and willingly paid the price for them. The contrast between the lyrics and emotional feeling they elicit is rather extreme.

In other direction, the American classis Christmas song, The Little Drummer Boy, is credited to Katherine Davis in 1941 but was made famous by the Trapp Singers in 1951. It was transformed into French by Georges Coulonge in 1960 and interpreted by Les Barclay but made famous by Nana Mouskouri. Again, while the melodies are identical, the messages are not the same:

Little Drummer Boy [link]	L’enfant de tambour [link]
Come they told me	Sur la route parapapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Petit tambour s'en va parapapampam
A new born king to see	Il sent son coeur qui bat parapapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Au rythme de ses pas parapapampam
Our finest gifts we bring	Rapapampam rapapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Ô petit enfant parapapampam
To lay before the king	Où vas-tu tarampapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum,	Rapapampam
Rum pum pum pum,	Hier mon père parapapampam
Rum pum pum pum,	A suivi le tambour parapapampam
So to honor him	Le tambour des soldats parapapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Alors je vais au ciel parapapampam
When we come	Rapapampam rapapampam
[chorus]	Là je veux donner pour son retour
Little baby	Mon tambour tarampapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Rapapampam
I am a poor boy too	Tous les anges parapapampam
That's fit to give our king….	Ont pris leur beau tambour parapapampam
	Et ont dit à l'enfant parapapampam
	Ton père est de retour parapapampam
	Rapapampam rapapampam
	Et l'enfant s'éveille parapapampam
	Sur son tambour

 

Again, the original American version is cheery and inspiring, relating the story of the birth of Jesus, a spiritual. By contrast, the French interpretation tells the sad story of a child playing his drum after his father marched off to war and dreaming of going to heaven where the angels tell him that his father is returning. Sadly, the child wakes up contrast from the dream with his head on the drum. The music is the same but the aftertaste is not.

Each of the versions has its own merits. It is objectively impossible to say if the interpretation was better or worse than the original. However, as these examples how, it is clear that the transatlantic voyage, or any voyage for that matter, can transform music.

* Pictures are important for the blind to access the Internet. Picture: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/greyerbaby-2323/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=757404">lisa runnels</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=757404">Pixabay</a>

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. 

Musical normalcy

It is hard to unlearn a mistake.  Whether first learning how to play an instrument or having heard a song sung in a certain way, once it gets into your brain, the error become a norm and refuses to leave.  For example, those that first read National Lampoon’s Bored of the Rings will eternally think that Frito and Pepsi are the actual names of the lead characters. In my cases, I can recall the lyrics to several songs from youth but not exactly those that would be found in the Wikipedia entry.

 

For example, there is the famous Disney classic from the movie “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, whose lyrics are as follows:

Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to school we go

With switchblade knives and forty fives, heigh, heigh ho

Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to school we go

With handgranades and razor blades, heigh heigh, heigh ho.

It should be noted, in all fairness, the movie version does not describe the manner of their return at all. So, we merely added details.

See: https://youtu.be/HI0x0KYChq4

Regarding that same love of school, being forced to go to Hebrew school, some of us used to chant:

Why do we have to rush, rush, rush? why do we have to rush, rush, rush? Why do we have to rush, rush, rush, to go to Hebrew school.

I just asked my wife what the real words are:

Hava narisha, rash, rash, rash, repeat, vaharishim.

It is actually a Purim song, rather joyful: https://youtu.be/HNxMmJPBgtg

Another song that we (collective responsibility) massacred is the classic “David Melech Israel, chai , chai vekiam”, which came out as follows:

Coca Cola, ginger ale, hi fi, pizza pie

Slightly different, I admit, but sweeter in a certain way and much more modern.  The original (as sung by more innocent children):https://youtu.be/u4dvFDLRPro

Of course, popular songs did not escape our damage.  One of the most important influences of my youth, MAD magazine, thoughtfully provided the lyrics to a leading single of the time, Downtown by Petula Clark:

Here is just a sample:

When you're at home and life is getting so hungry,
There's a meat you know,
Ground round.

You're in a hurry, but there's no need to scurry
It will help to know
Ground round.

Just mix it with some mac and cheese and you will look so witty
Add some Campbell's beef stock and your eatin' really nifty 
"How can you lose?"

There is no way you can err.
Some of the recipes double, and go in the fridge, cook slow

Cook brown
All meals taste great for sure
Ground round.
Use any place that your
Ground's sound
Won't taste like leather of shoe

For the full Mad lyrics, see http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/petulaclark8.shtml

And the original https://youtu.be/Zx06XNfDvk0, not bad in their own right.

Nobody was safe from our mischief. Even the Beatles had their famous submarine dirtied:

We all live in the yellow submarine.

It used to be green but we couldn’t keep it clean.

Actually, our version showed much more creativity than the original, which merely repeated the words “Yellow submarine” as you can hear yourself:

https://youtu.be/m2uTFF_3MaA

So, this small sample shows how normal is how normal was learned, for better or worse, the latter in the case of my piano playing.  I am sure everybody has a catalog of songs in the brains whose lyrics do not match the youtube version.  As they say, variety is the spice of life.

Loving Mates

English is a practical language, but not ideal for people that like rules, such as non-native English learners.  One example is the masculine and feminine form of animals.  Distinct words describe the male and female of the species for barnyard and forest (hunted) creatures.  Examples include bull and cow, rooster and hen, ram and ewe, and buck and doe.  Please note that there is no pattern whatsoever in the manner the male/female pattern is formed.  As English teachers say about spelling, you just have to memorize it, what fun!

By contrast, Hebrew is ideal for those who like some sense of order.  Regarding the same issue, the Yosi Banai song, מרוב אהבה [merov ahava], meaning Because of Love, admirably shows the Hebrew manner of gender differentiation.  In this song, a male suffering from the inability to communicate with his loved one compares his poor communication skills to that of others, non-human, noting how each of them expresses its love.  The interesting part of the song, linguistically of course, is the choice of the standards of comparison:

ענן  / עננה  [onan] / onana] – Cloud – feminine form adding an [a];

זבוב  / זבובית  [zvuv] / zvuvit] – Fly – feminine form adding an [it];

פיל  /  פילה [pil / pila] – Elephant – feminine form adding an [a];

מלאך  /מלאכית  [malach / malachite] – Angel - feminine form adding an [it]

פסיק / נקודה [psik / neduda] – comma/period – well, 100% doesn’t exist in languages, right?

Any Hebrew speaker would instantly recognize the gender pair if s/he had never thought of flies or clouds for that way.  The forms follow an established rule for gendering that makes instant recognition easy.

Translating this song into English is almost impossible in terms of the sound aspect because the lyricist is forced to use the clumsy words such as male cloud and female cloud.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, a French translator could merely change the article from le to la to make that difference, but, while grammatically correct, it would lose the overall whimsical sound effect.

 If you are interested in hearing the song, here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP4AVOiJtao.

In the meantime, like the tongue-tied lover in the song, I will shut up.