Ahhh, one for the memories~
I remember that I had bought Alejandro Sanz’ Mas (More) album back when it was released, so it’s one of the first albums that I bought when I was a teen xD
I might try a couple few more other translations for Alejandro Sanz, but in the meantime, here’s a translation for Amiga Mia (Friend of Mine).
Continue Reading…
I thought that I would practice my Spanish to English translation skills by translating some songs — I’ve recently done partial translations of Marc Anthony [1], as well as Shakira and Gianmarco when I talked about What Were Good Lyrics. I’ve also done full translations for Polvos Azules: A Cinephile’s Paradise, and random songs of Los Nosequien y los Nosecuantos [1][2].
So I thought I would pick an oldie, the 1995 Gianmarco release — some say it’s a 1994 release, but my copy has a 1995 print — of Entre la Arena y la Luna (Between the Sand and the Moon). Obviously, I can’t post ALL lyrics on one go, so I’ll probably add them as I work on them. Gianmarco’s lyrics weren’t as complicated then — and they’re pretty short — so they should be fairly easy to translate.
– edit May 14 –
Lyrics are done!
Baby, you’re so skinny! You need to take care of yourself better… and if that’s not the case, the post-production team should really get off the air-brush when they treat your pictures.
You look better when you put on a few more pounds… you look more adorable.
Well, if that’s not ENOUGH blunt – then I don’t know the meaning of blunt.
Any Peruvian of my generation has to have grown up with, at least, one Los Nosequien y los Nosecuantos song. Maybe not Cuando tu Me Pegas [1], but certainly Magdalena [1], Los Patos y Las Patas [MV] — and obviously Las Torres.
Part political satire, part serious social commentary, part anthem, part pop hit, part party flare and full Peruvian rock — Las Torres, meaning The Towers (as in transmission towers), was a huge hit in its time and its the musical staple of the… maybe not defunct but definitely stale Los NSQ y Los NSC (for short).
Long gone are the days of the constant nights without lights due to the blowing up of transmission towers, the curfews, being a kid then was… not the bomb. Cable, internet were non-existent and any form of entertainment was limited to just the couple of channels… and you were lucky to have a working TV.
Have we ever asked ourselves what good were computers without internet?? LOL
Anyway, I digress — the wordplay in Las Torres is an obvious play on the famous Un Elefante se Balanceaba (An Elephant Swinging) [here’s a clip] which I guess you don’t have in English version of… but a close version would be the Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall song? In the Elephant Song, you would sing that “an elephant is swinging on top of a spider’s web, seeing as it lasted, it calls one elephant more” which makes the song endless.
So here goes my translation~
I don’t remember when I first watched this clip, but I remember I saw just a bit of it — the first two lines — on CCTV. Maybe it was during the 10th anniversary of the Macao Handover, but I remember the little girl singing.. it was just that, and then they cut away. At that time, I spoke no word of Mandarin (or Cantonese, or any dialect),my mother was watching with me as she listened to it and translated. She turned and told me “you know my name is not Macau, that is not my name.” — A sudden rush of emotions came over me.
I have no idea why that line was so powerful to me, I literally had to go to my room because I felt a little dust bugging me and my tears forming.
There’s another version here, just in case. And the audio on 1ting.com
That was then. I have no idea what got me tonight — must be The Flowers of War business, I always get like this when I read a lot of negative press against China since the Olympics LOL. Anyway, I went on a hunt for that song because I didn’t know what it was called, and my mother didn’t grow up in China singing it so she had no idea it was a popular children’s song.
Called the Song of the Seven Sons – Aomen (七子之歌-澳门)… apparently there’s a Taiwan version as well, but it’s not as hip [1]. I thought there might be 7 versions of the song for different regions that were part of China or something xD
Anyway, a really GOOD translation of the lyrics is hard to find, but I managed to find a good one without doing any translating work (because I’m so lazy like that) but a lot of googling. Chinese, pinyin and translations after the break!
I love it when I listen to songs that I find translations easily. xD
It’s good to sing along to too! So I have the pinyin with who sings what to sing along to easily xD
Does this mean that Blind Spot is going to become a single? Because that was one of my favorite songs in the album, which you would know if you had already read my review of Black.Choice.White — which obviously wasn’t my choice of English translation but Gold Typhoon’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv48FKZgmZg
I think Black.Choice.White seems too simplistic as a translation — I mean… there’s the black with the Hei, and then they choose white even though Ming can’t be really translated to that. My chosen translation was Dark.Select.Clear which I suppose was playing with the Good/Bad concept with the Dark part being the bad, and Clear as a way of dissipation of the dark. It’s not fully bright, you see? xD
But then again, I’ve been called delusional before.
I gotta admit. I got a little choked up with this music video, and I’m totally pumped for Sodagreen’s upcoming new album… also titled What is Troubling You (你在煩惱什麼) — which, I have to admit~~~ comes at a bad time when Bibi is coming up with her new album and the Brown Eyed Girls are coming up with her nifty-licious repackaged Sixth Sense.
Did I tell you? I pre-ordered Sixth Sense and I ate it up like a sucker.
What makes me even more of a sucker, however, is that I had just pre-ordered the repackaged version too. Alongside Bibi’s new album.
Anyway, this new wonderfully sad and strangely uplifting music video comes from the brilliant mind of Muh Chen Yi Ren, from GrassJelly Studio — who also worked on my favorite Sodagreen MV… Incomparable Beauty [MV]. When these two get together, they make magic.
The lyrics seem… simple. I mean there’s not much lyrics… but I’m having issues with the double negative hahaha. I guess this is going to be my next Chinese class then!
Pinyin will do until then!
Yu has updated her blog — I think she does it twice a year, ha! Apparently, she’s shooting the live-action Rurouni Kenshin project [1], which no one has shown interest in. Fans of Rurouni Kenshin who aren’t thrilled for a live-action project, and fans of some of the people that are working in the project like Yu-chan, Yosuke Eguchi and Teruyuki Kagawa aren’t happy because it’s Rurouni Kenshin xD
Time to practice Japanese!
I don’t want to say that I didn’t like the lyrics, but you gotta admit that there’s a certain beauty when the music and a voice can speak to you more than whatever the song can be about.
Besides, being at very basic Mandarin level, this is probably the only level of lyrics that I can try to attempt to work with anyway… so I guess there’s nothing wrong with it. xD
If you want the pinyin lyrics, head over here.
