Ψεύτρα κοινωνία 1977 - Λαύκας; translated by Halitsky

Ψεύτρα κοινωνία 1977
Στίχοι: Σπύρος Χαλκιόπουλος
Μουσική: Γιώργος Λαύκας
http://www.stixoi.info/stixoi.php?in...&song_id=39712
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blXV7c5eAdk

See translation notes at end of post.

Ψεύτρα κοινωνία
Lies on the Street

Ποια αμαρτία έχω κάνει και πονώ
και η ψυχή μου δεν μπορεί να βρει γαλήνη,
άδικα ψάχνω στη ζωή μου για να βρω
μία καρδιά με καλοσύνη.

What sin of mine keeps me in pain,
with a soul that's never at peace?
I can rummage through my entire life
and not find even one kind heart.

Ψεύτρα κοινωνία πέτα τη μάσκα στη φωτιά
και μη καταδικάζεις τα πιο καλά παιδιά.

Throw your masks onto the fire,
you liars on the street, and don't
condemn the nicest of guys!

Ποια αμαρτία έχω κάνει και πονώ
και διαρκώς με κυνηγάει η αδικία
αφού σαν άνθρωπος καλά έχω φερθεί
γιατί να βρίσκω αχαριστία.

What sin of mine keeps me in pain,
with injustice always at my heels? (//"at my heels" is idiomatic English for "chasing me")
I have behaved like a man, but recevied
nothing but ingratitude in return.

Ψεύτρα κοινωνία πέτα τη μάσκα στη φωτιά
και μη καταδικάζεις τα πιο καλά παιδιά.

Throw your masks onto the fire,
you liars on the street, and don't
condemn the nicest of guys!

Notes:

The phrase "Ψεύτρα κοινωνία" is used in another rebetiko from 1951:

http://bloggingmoderngreek.blogspot.com/2009/12/every-night-im-sad-1950.html

and in this translation, "Ψεύτρα κοινωνία" is translated as "lies on the street".

I like that phrase very much because it's perfect idiomatic English, but I'm not sure it fits this song here. I'll have to think about it ... maybe in this song "liars on the street" might work (instead of "lies on the street") ...

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Also, another thing that I have found out is that the phrase "Πέτα τη μάσκα" should be translated as "throw your mask".

For this correct translation of the phrase, see the translation of the song Πέτα τη μάσκα at www.stixoi:

Πέτα τη μάσκα - 2005
http://www.stixoi.info/stixoi.php?in...s&song_id=8182

To get the English, Google πέτα τη μάσκα stixoi, and then click on "translate the page" in this return from Google:

stixoi.info: Πέτα τη μάσκα
www.stixoi.info/stixoi.php?info=Lyrics&act... Translate this page

So one part of the translation here might be:

Throw your masks onto the fire,
you liars on the street!

************************
Also, I have found something else out about the phrase άδικα ψάχνω.

Although άδικα literally means "unfairly" or "unjustly", it should be translated here as "unsuccessfully".

See the entry here for the German verb "suchen" ("seek" or "search"):

https://books.google.com/books?id=W9...%CF%89&f=false

You can see that the German phrase "da kannst du lange suchen" (you can search for a long time) translates into Greek άδικα ψάχνεις

So the translation here should be something like:

I can rummage through my entire life
and not find even one kind heart.

******************

Also, I think that the phrase τα πιο καλά παιδιά should be translated as the English

"the nicest of guys"

English specifically allows for use of the preposition "of" in cases like this, as in the common phrase "the best of the best".

By using this construction, the translation will make clear that the singer is referring to HIMSELF - not to any bunch of nice guys in general. In other words, HE (the singer) is the "nicest of guys" and shouldn't be condemned by society.

Originally Posted by David Halitsky

So one part of the translation here might be:

Throw your masks onto the fire,
you liars on the street!

Throw your masks onto the fire,
society you are Liar (That's the meaning and nothing else)

"Throw your masks onto the fire,
society you are Liar"

More idiomatic this way:

Throw your masks onto the fire,
Society! You all are liars!

Yes, I know - "society" is singular and "liars" is plural, but "society" is a "collective" noun, like "group", so it's OK and actually more natural to use "liars" instead of "liar".

Also, note that I've made "Society" a "vocative" noun ("vocative" is the term in Classical Greek for when you explicitly name whoever you are directly addressing, for example: "O Athena - grant me this one request!". In Classical Greek the vocative ending was usually the same as the nominative ending for the noun, but sometimes it wasn't. )

Another thought just occurred to me:

Throw your masks onto the fire,
you lying members of "Society"!

This might actually be the best approach, because "members of society" is the correct idiomatic way in English to refer to the individual persons who together comprise a society.