{"id":4879,"date":"2014-01-18T20:26:05","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T20:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=4879"},"modified":"2017-11-15T14:20:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T14:20:48","slug":"world-premiere-the-first-episode-of-ubersetzgesungen-april-sie-kommt-herbei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/world-premiere-the-first-episode-of-ubersetzgesungen-april-sie-kommt-herbei\/","title":{"rendered":"World Premiere! The First Episode of \u00dcBERSETZGESUNGEN &#8211; &#8220;April, sie kommt herbei&#8221; by Simon &amp; Garfunkel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>I am so very excited to share with you today the world premiere of the newest web series to rock the world of\u00a0melodolingutainment. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you&#8230;\u00a0<strong><em>\u00dcbersetzgesungen<\/em><\/strong>! As what I hope will become a regular feature in my blogging here at Transparent,\u00a0<em>\u00dcbersetzgesungen<\/em> is the first show of its kind to interactively answer the question, &#8220;what would that song sound like in German?&#8221; So please, sit back and enjoy my humble rendition of a Simon &amp; Garfunkel classic,\u00a0<em>auf Deutsch<\/em>. Once you&#8217;ve finished, scroll down for a detailed look at the translation. Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u00dcbersetzgesungen: Episode 1 - &quot;April, sie kommt herbei&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5KGRhNciC9c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t know the stunning original, click <a title=\"april come she will\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PYD-DIggB2k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a> to listen to it!<\/p>\n<p>Depending on your German level, you may have noticed a few lyrical inconsistencies between my interpretation and the original (to say nothing of the musical inconsistencies you may have noticed between my performance and that of Simon &amp; Garfunkel). Anyway, those lyrical inconsistencies are exactly what this show is all about! Nothing can be translated perfectly between languages,\u00a0<em>especially art<\/em>. And I&#8217;m sure there are better translations that could be made of this song than what I offer here. But for now I&#8217;d like to discuss my translation, as sung in the video.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>&#8220;April, come she will&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>April, sie kommt herbei&#8221;<\/em><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I began with a simple rough literal translation of the English lyrics, but certain obstacles quickly became apparent. First of all, &#8220;April, come she will&#8221; is a pretty strange thing to say to begin with. My first inclination was to translate the first line as <i>&#8220;April, kommen sie wird&#8221;<\/i>, but that somehow just sounds clumsy. So instead I had to take a step back from the strict structure of the original, and instead more flexibly approach how the song personifies the months as a woman. So that gives us the line &#8220;<em>April, sie kommt herbei&#8221;, or, &#8220;<\/em>April, she comes around&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;When streams are ripe and swelled with rain&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>Wenn reife Fl\u00fc\u00dfchen mit dem Regen schwellen&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The second line didn&#8217;t need to change much, &#8220;<em>Wenn reife Fl\u00fc\u00dfchen mit dem Regen schwellen&#8221;<\/em> aside from rearranging the grammar a bit to yield, &#8220;when ripe streams swell with rain&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;May, she will stay&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>Mai, da wird sie bleiben&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The word &#8220;<em>da&#8221;<\/em> ended up being a lifesaver in this translation. It&#8217;s something of a flexible word that sort of bridges the metaphor of the month to the girl the song is about. &#8220;<em>Mai<\/em>,<em> da wird sie bleiben&#8221;,\u00a0<\/em>or, &#8220;May, there she&#8217;ll stay&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;Resting in my arms again&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>Und wieder in meinen Armen liegen&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Resting in my arms again&#8221; wound up being one of the most difficult lines to translate. I learned that there&#8217;s no real equivalent word for &#8220;resting&#8221;, at least in the way it&#8217;s used here, in German. One could say, &#8220;<em>entspannen<\/em>&#8220;, but that has more to do with &#8220;relaxing&#8221; and less with that connotation of security and comfort implied by the song. &#8220;<em>Ruhen&#8221; or &#8220;ausruhen&#8221;<\/em> could be used, but <em>&#8220;ruhen&#8221;<\/em> is a little dead-sounding, like how a person rests when they die. And <i>&#8220;ausruhen&#8221; <\/i>is somehow not permanent\u00a0<em>enough<\/em>.\u00a0When I hear this song, I think of the subject returning to the narrator and\u00a0<em>resting<\/em>. Resting in a peaceful, loving sense. Comforted by the narrator&#8217;s arms.\u00a0And so when I asked a German friend (to whose input <em>\u00dcbersetzgesungen<\/em> is\u00a0greatly indebted) what would be most appropriate, she said that when it comes to verbs that happen in arms (<i>&#8220;in meinen Armen&#8221;<\/i>), &#8220;<em>liegen&#8221; <\/em>is the only way to go.\u00a0And so we have &#8220;<em>Und wieder in meinen Armen liegen&#8221;,\u00a0<\/em>or, &#8220;And once again lie in my arms&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;June, she&#8217;ll change her tune&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>Juni \u00e4ndert sie&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The next line is the most significant departure from the original song, but I quite like it. There isn&#8217;t any idiom in German that I&#8217;m aware of that matches with &#8220;to change one&#8217;s tune&#8221;. And so in order to keep with the rhyme and rhythm, I went with &#8220;<em>Juni \u00e4ndert sie&#8221;<\/em>, or, &#8220;June changes her&#8221;. I feel it makes sense with the following lyric. If anything, it&#8217;s a bit redundant considering that this person seems so changeable by all of the months. But this change is especially apparent, in contrast with her previous peaceful state.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;In restless walks she&#8217;ll prowl the night&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>Im unruhigen Gang streicht sie durch die Nacht&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I did not know the word for &#8220;prowl&#8221;, so I looked it up and found the word\u00a0<em>herumstreichen<\/em>. That&#8217;s a good word, don&#8217;t you think? However, after consulting with my friend, I settled on its cousin,\u00a0<em>durchstreichen<\/em>, which means &#8220;roam&#8221;. That gives us &#8220;<em>Im unruhigen Gang streicht sie durch die Nacht&#8221;,\u00a0<\/em>or, &#8220;Restlessly she roams the night&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;July, she will fly&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>Im Juli wird sie fliegen&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The next line is so far the closest to a working literal translation that I have in the song, &#8220;<em>Im Juli wird sie fliegen&#8221;,\u00a0<\/em>or, &#8220;In July she will fly&#8221;. You&#8217;ll notice that I had to have that &#8220;<em>Im<\/em>\/In&#8221; in there. Paul Simon has a license for that kind of artistic omission. I just don&#8217;t feel I could pull off singing &#8220;<em>Juli wird sie fliegen&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>&#8230; yet.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;And give no warning to her flight&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>Ohne Warnung vor ihrem Flug&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This line comes quite close as well: &#8220;<em>Ohne Warnung vor ihrem Flug&#8221;,\u00a0<\/em>or, &#8220;Without warning before her flight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;August, die she must&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>August, da musst sie sterben&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I really wanted to keep that internal rhyme in the next line. &#8220;August, die she must&#8221; sounds so good. \u00a0I pushed hard for &#8220;<em>August, sterben sie musst<\/em>&#8220;, but test audiences assured me that it just does not work. And so we have &#8220;<em>August<\/em>,<em> da musst sie sterben&#8221;,\u00a0<\/em>or, &#8220;August, then she must die&#8221; (which to me sounds much more grim somehow).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;The autumn winds blow chilly and cold&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>Im Herbst wehen die Winde k\u00fchl und kalt&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think a few chilly breezes ever killed anybody, but apparently<em>\u00a0&#8220;Im Herbst wehen die Winde k\u00fchl und kalt&#8221;<\/em>, or, &#8220;In Autumn the winds blow cool and cold&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;September, I&#8217;ll remember&#8221; &#8211;\u00a0<em>&#8220;September, ich erinner'&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It took me a while to realize that sweet September\/remember rhyme could be preserved with the cunning use of apostrophes, as in, &#8220;<em>September<\/em>,<em> ich erinner'&#8221;<\/em>, or &#8220;September, I remember&#8221;. Huzzah! An actual direct word-for-word translation of a lyric! Thank you, little apostrophe! Normally the first person singular conjugation would give us the quadrisyllabic\u00a0<em>erinner<strong>e<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em>Oh wait. Nevermind. In the original he sings &#8220;September,\u00a0<em><strong>I&#8217;ll<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0remember&#8221;. There&#8217;s no way I could cram a\u00a0<em>werde<\/em> into that phrase.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;A love once new has now grown old&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<em>Mich an eine Liebe einst neu und nun schon alt&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>&#8230;<\/em>which brings us to the last line, which flows much better than I would have expected. In German, the word for &#8220;remember&#8221; is, as I just mentioned, <em>erinnern<\/em>. But unfortunately it doesn&#8217;t end there. You can&#8217;t just &#8220;remember&#8221; something in German. It&#8217;s a reflexive verb, and it also comes with a preposition every single time. So if I&#8217;m remembering something, I have to not only remember\u00a0<em><strong>mich<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0that something, I have to remember mich\u00a0<strong><em>an<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0that something. And so to conclude this sorrowful meditation on love found and lost, we have the somewhat graceless mid-sentence return to&#8230; &#8220;<em>Mich an eine Liebe, einst neu und nun schon alt&#8221;,\u00a0<\/em>or, &#8220;a love once new, now old&#8221;. What is &#8220;<em>nun schon&#8221;<\/em>, you might ask?\u00a0<em>Nun<\/em> is one of those filler words that kind of don&#8217;t mean anything, but rather finesse a sentence into making sense. It also can modify other words, in this case transforming\u00a0<em>schon,<\/em> which usually means &#8220;already&#8221;, into &#8220;by now&#8221; or &#8220;in the meantime&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>I think I&#8217;m\u00a0<em>nun schon alt<\/em> after writing so much about one song. I hope you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun learning the song and piecing together a suitable translation. My understanding of the song changed in this process, again reminding me of the power foreign language has to give new perspective to life. Personally, I feel the song takes on more of a human quality when thought about in German. The original felt to me as obviously reminiscent of a romance, but also as an ode to the changing seasons. This version seems to tell a more personal story. What do you think? Do you feel the song changes in any unexpected ways when sung in German? Would you translate any lines differently?<\/p>\n<p>If you have any ideas for other songs that could work well on a future episode of\u00a0<em>\u00dcbersetzgesungen<\/em>, let me know. This song was an unusually good candidate, being very short in length and fairly simple in language. But I&#8217;m always up for a challenge, too!<\/p>\n<p>Ich hoffe, ihr habt ein sch\u00f6nes Wochenende. Auf wieder singen!<\/p>\n<p>Peace,<\/p>\n<p>Mickey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"237\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/01\/Photo-237x350.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/01\/Photo-237x350.jpg 237w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/01\/Photo-768x1132.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/01\/Photo-695x1024.jpg 695w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/01\/Photo.jpg 795w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 237px) 100vw, 237px\" \/><p>I am so very excited to share with you today the world premiere of the newest web series to rock the world of\u00a0melodolingutainment. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you&#8230;\u00a0\u00dcbersetzgesungen! As what I hope will become a regular feature in my blogging here at Transparent,\u00a0\u00dcbersetzgesungen is the first show of its kind to interactively answer&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/world-premiere-the-first-episode-of-ubersetzgesungen-april-sie-kommt-herbei\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":4880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4879","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4879"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9048,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879\/revisions\/9048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}