Page 1 of 1

Poems?

PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 12:56 am
by Silent Warrior
Breath of life, ya?

So, the poems. The ones that were submitted by community members for some contest way back in the day. Should we translate those as well, or just leave them in the original English?

Re: Poems?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 8:46 pm
by OHB
Hey look at me replying in a timely manner!

If you can translate them, go for it. Translating poetry might take a bit more finesse, so use your best judgement. If they need to stay in English (perhaps because reading them in another language isn't as poetry-esque) then that's fine.

Re: Poems?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 9:24 pm
by Silent Warrior
E-mail notification FTW! I'll just take the opportunity to say that I read your comment, for the record-like, and go have another look.

Re: Poems?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 10:33 pm
by Floydman
I had this problem while translating Catherine's poem into Portuguese. This is what I came up with:

A boca que um beijo faz,
mentiras tem; vai suspirar.
O ventre que gritou com dor,
a mágoa tem; vai expirar.


This literally translates to:

The mouth that makes a kiss,
has lies; will sigh.
The womb that screamed with pain,
has hurt [as in pain]; will die.


The meter is the same as the original, as are the rhyming spots. Compare with the original:

The lips from which the kiss is wrought,
has fallen words; will fall cold breath.
The womb from which the cry released,
has suffered hurt; will suffer death.


I think poems and songs must be the hardest things to translate. Is there any way for us to get special approval from Cyan on our poem translations?

Re: Poems?

PostPosted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 12:42 am
by Silent Warrior
Good point, about getting a go-ahead from Cyan, but I'd rather ask the original authors, myself...

I don't speak half a word of Portuguese, but that looks like a really great translation - good going!

Re: Poems?

PostPosted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:25 pm
by OHB
I think perhaps Poetry should be left to those who are Native or VERY Fluent speakers of a language. And for those looking for inspiration, I'd suggest looking to materials that have already been translated. What comes to mind is Disney movies. Their international versions have a reputation for being top-notch. And with all the songs, that's kinda poetry-esque.

In an ideal world, I would love to get approval from Cyan for the translations. However, given the current state of things, I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon.

That's one of the reasons that I built the ULP with a peer-review system: no translation is marked as complete until three people agree on it.

Silent Warrior: you're an absolute BEAST. Do you know how many translations you've entered? 3,384! Uber thanks. Hopefully we can get some other Swedish speakers to review your stuff. Got friends that can help you out? :)

Floydman: I see that you've done some Brazilian Portuguese translations in the ULP. Your continued help is greatly appreciated! :)

Re: Poems?

PostPosted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 11:34 pm
by Silent Warrior
Wow, that many?? Might be time for me to get out of the house once in a while... (Anyway, I think several of those are straight copy+paste from US to UK English.)
I can't think of anyone who I could turn to of the people I've met directly, but maybe I can drop a note in the Linux translating community.

Re: Poems?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:34 am
by OHB
Silent Warrior wrote:...but maybe I can drop a note in the Linux translating community.


Well, one of the requirements is familiarity with URU.