Tag: linguistic

  • Miss You as if You Were in Front of Me

    [audio:https://personal.amy-wong.com/mp3_player/sound_files/chuan-qi-legend-xiao-xiang-yu.mp3]

    Miss you as if you were far away,
    Miss you as if you were in front of me.
    Miss you as if you were in my mind,
    Miss you as if you were in my heart.

    Capture from here.

  • BiBi Zhou – The Imperial Dragon’s Glorious Nine Days

    So~~~ Bibi’s got a brand new Chinese epic song that she’s done for some video game, and her voice sounds perfect. xD And since the lyrics of the song are tiny (just a few lines), I decided to give them a go.

    Written by: Jam You Music Studio (积木鱼音乐团队) / Ju Weiwei (鞠维维)
    Composed by: Jam You Music Studio
    Produced by: Ronald Ng (伍樂城)… and Yang Ying (杨颖) [Angelababy???]

    So here’s the song: Video is out~
    Well, I wasn’t too far off the mark ;P

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  • Gianmarco – A Tiempo Lyrics Translation

    Hey, guys.

    I’m back on the Spanish song translating business. xD I hope someone find these translations helpful. I have a feeling that the lyrics on this album are going to be slightly more difficult to translate than the ones on Entre la Arena y la Luna. We’ll have to see about that~~~

    For other translations, just hit the translation tag ;O

    1. Se me Olvido
    2. Al Otro Lado de la Luna
    3. Su Encanto en Mi
    4. Te Mentiria
    5. Por Ti
    6. Lamento
    7. Simplemente Espiritual
    8. No Logro Entender
    9. Retrato
    10. Mujer
    11. Ave Maria
    12. Volvere
    13. Sentirme Vivo

    Here we go~
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  • Diego Torres’ Recuerda Lyric Translation

    Well, this one is an “oldie” alright.

    I remember in 1999, I was obsessed with this song — at least, it was one of the many songs I obsessed over in those years. It has nothing to do with the video, even though I probably taped the video a million times over on VHS. Hey! We didn’t have YouTube back then!

    The video is… very 90s Latin America. Floating face hovering on top of the movie — because Recuerda was the main theme song for an Argentinean movie called La Venganza. You would notice the use of Mistral in one of those scenes. It’s hilarious to watch the video now.

    The song is pretty simple in lyrics. Diego Torres is an apt vocalist and songwriter at times, but nothing too extraordinary, so his songs tend to be easier to translate. He’s got some pretty good singles, though.
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  • Juanes’ Trilingual Hoy Me Voy Lyric Translation

    Juanes said that he dreams in Spanish, so that’s why he usually doesn’t sing in another language, even though he’s collaborated with artists that don’t necessarily sing in Spanish. So when he did his song Hoy Me Voy [YouTube] — included in his 2007 album La Vida Es un Ratico — and did a Spanglish version with Colbie Caillat, it was interesting.

    For the most part, the Spanglish version does a good job at translating the Spanish — “Devuélveme ese corazón que tú no supiste valorar lo que te daba yo de verdad.” to a pretty close “So give me back this heart of mine ’cause you didn’t feel the love that I would give to you every day and night.”

    A literal translation would be “Give me back this heart that you didn’t value what I really gave to you.”

    You know there’s a problem when you add the words “every day and night,” as well as the cringe-worthy random “baby.” xD Which they use in the chorus (nonetheless!!!) — “Tengo miedo de no olvidarte y por eso de ti me despido” with the line “I am scared baby, I won’t forget you and that’s why i need to let you go, so-”

    The literal translation for that would be “I’m scared of not forgetting you, and that’s why I’m saying goodbye.” Compared to that, the Portuguese/Spanish version (Spanguese? Portugish?) goes the dramatic way with the line “Tive medo, fui covarde, é por isso que de ti me despeço” which translates literally to “I was scared, I was a coward, and that’s why I’m saying goodbye.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4K7zySqNas

    Obviously, the mixing of Spanish and Portuguese is way more natural than with English. However, it’s super interesting that the changed lyrics in Portguese are even more dramatic than in Spanish… which usually have dramatic lyrics.

    Anyway, I prefer the arrangements for this version with Paula Fernandes because it gives it a super serious and more devastating tone. The original version of just Juanes in Spanish is a little too peppy, and the version with Colbie Caillat is just… too soft.
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  • Gianmarco – Entre la Arena y la Luna Lyrics Translation

    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!

    1. No Puedo Amarte
    2. Gorrión
    3. Quédate
    4. Dónde Estarás [added May 13]
    5. La Noche en mi Sangre [added May 13]
    6. Parte de Este Juego [added May 13]
    7. Cuando Quiero Amarte [added May 14]
    8. Corazón de Cartón [added May 14]
    9. Tómate el Tiempo que Quieras [added May 14]
    10. Ya Tienes Dueño [added May 14]

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  • Marc Anthony vs. Marc Anthony – FIGHT!

    “You’d be crazy, Amy. How can Marc Anthony FIGHT! with himself?”

    Of course, he can! He’s got exact versions of his songs in different languages! So which ones are better? Obviously, Marc Anthony flies that Spanish/English barrier easily, but his Spanish discography, let’s just say, it’s more prolific and slightly more meaningful.

    It’s almost too much of a shame to find the VEVO version of his song I Need You, when the better version — equally corny, but much more meaningful Spanish lyrics — of Te Amare [MV] has only been uploaded by a fan.

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  • Los Nosequien y los Nosecuantos – Las Torres

    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~

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  • The Song of the Seven Sons – Aomen

    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!

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  • First Mandarin lyric translation: Of course it’s BiBi’s Just to Meet You!

    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.

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