(I've seen a couple of attempts to translate this recently---a friend emailed me the video because he thought I'd like the tune (he was right, I'm fascinated by it)---but, to someone who speaks [American] English fluently it comes out rather strangely ungrammatical in several places....fwiw. But then again, these amateur translators (friends of mine) are far from fluent in English so that might explain it?)
Liber - Viţa de vie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfnaARu5Ra0
I:
Sunt liber sau aşa ceva,
Nu fii tristă dacă voi pleca
Ştii bine că mulţi fac aşa.
Cine oare a decis aşa?
Fiecare are calea sa
In dimneaţa sa.
Refren:
Mai trec pe la voi
Poate marţi, poate joi
Poate peste un an, sau poate doi.
II:
Multe vise dacă aş avea
Le-aş pune in valiza mea,
Aş lua şi cheia dacă m-ai lăsa.
Sunt scrise şi ramon aşa,
Fiecare are calea sa
In dimneaţa sa.
Refren:
Mai trec pe la voi
Poate marţi, poate joi
Poate peste un an, sau poate doi.
E moale pielea ta, ca de catifea
Insă nu e bună, nu-i pentru haina mea
Tags:
None
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Liber - Viţa de vie
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FREE
Sunt liber sau aşa ceva,
I AM FREE OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT
Nu fii tristă dacă voi pleca
DON'T BE SAID IF I WILL BE LEAVING
Ştii bine că mulţi fac aşa.
YOU KNOW THAT MANY MAN DO THE SAME
Cine oare a decis aşa?
I WONDER WHO HAS DECIDED THIS?
Fiecare are calea sa
EVERY MAN HAS HIS OWN WAY
In dimneaţa sa.
IN HIS OWN MORNING.
Refren:
Mai trec pe la voi
I'LL STOP BY AGAIN
Poate marţi, poate joi
MAYBE TUESDAY, MAYBE THURSDAY
Poate peste un an, sau poate doi.
MAYBE ONE YEAR FROM NOW, MAYBE TWO YEARS FROM NOW
II:
Multe vise dacă aş avea
IF I HAD MANY DREAMS
Le-aş pune in valiza mea,
I WOULD PUT THEM IN MY SUITCASE
Aş lua şi cheia dacă m-ai lăsa.
I WOULD ALSO TAKE THE KEY IF YOU LET ME
Sunt scrise şi raman aşa,
THEY ARE WRITTEN AND THEY STAY THAT WAY
Fiecare are calea sa
EVERY MAN HAS HIS OWN WAY
In dimneaţa sa.
IN HIS OWN MORNING
Refren:
Mai trec pe la voi
I'LL STOP BY AGAIN
Poate marţi, poate joi
MAYBE TUESDAY, MAYBE THURSDAY
Poate peste un an, sau poate doi.
MAYBE ONE YEAR FROM NOW, MAYBE TWO YEARS FROM NOW
E moale pielea ta, ca de catifea
YOUR SKIN IS SOFT, LIKE VELVET
Insă nu e bună, nu-i pentru haina mea
BUT IT'S NOT GOOD, IT'S NOT MADE FOR MY COAT. -
You've made some definite improvements in phrases---and more importantly, context---whose meaning has completely eluded me before now (especially those two closing lines, which make some sense to me now in terms of the rest of the song).
Fascinating, fascinating stuff.
Verse 2: Is he trying to tell her that he would leave her some of his dreams if he had enough of them (besides those he must keep)?
I'm still not sure what is going on with the key...
I hope you understand, Lady A, that I'm not being unappreciative, but quite the opposite?
I think you may have the key to this...but perhaps it's a tricky lock?
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Lady A is doing a fantastic work around here, but sometimes musical lyrics are not necesarily explicit or have a hidden meaning. In these cases, the translation is a word-by-word one and you just have interpret the lyrics as they are. Not to mention that many times lyrics indeed make no sense being written like that just for the sake of rime. "Sky is blue, I love you" seems to be an international recipe for writing lyrics.
For this particular song and your questions, I can only say what I understand from that verse, but somebody else may come up with a different interpretation and in the end, it all comes down to how you want to understand the words.
Multe vise dacă aş avea
IF I HAD MANY DREAMS
Le-aş pune in valiza mea,
I WOULD PUT THEM IN MY SUITCASE
Aş lua şi cheia dacă m-ai lăsa.
I WOULD ALSO TAKE THE KEY IF YOU LET ME
Sunt scrise şi raman aşa,
THEY ARE WRITTEN AND THEY STAY THAT WAY
The key he mentions could be the key of the suitcase, meaning he would put his dreams in a suitcase, lock them in there and take the key so that no one can have acces to them. Apparently this depends on her disponibility to let him do so.
"They are written and they stay that way"--could mean that the dreams are meant to be like that and will remain the way they are. Like a higher authority decided before time how things would be and, for that reason, they can not be changed, thus staying as they are.
Apparently there's no connection between the "suitcase story" and this last line, but if I am to make a bold guess, I would say that he finds himself in the imposibility of locking his dreams and taking away the key, not necesarily because he doesn't have many dreams or because she wouldn't let him do so, but because the dreams are meant to BE there and they will stay like that regardless personal choice.
And of course, I could be totally wrong, in which case I apologise
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Ah, dya, you're exactly right; I should have made myself clearer.
Originally Posted by dya
I do realize that lyrics often require interpreting and the use of language that goes beyond mere literal translation; what I was clumsily trying to convey is that I just wanted to make sure that that is what was happening in this particular case, as opposed to the difficulty being more explicitly rooted in an infelicitous translation---remember, I've seen several other attempts to translate some of these Romanian beauties and so I am making comparisons with those when I read Lady A's fine work---based on phrases like "or something like that" in the first line...
Everyone so far has used that English phrase, but the phrase has several other possible interpretations in colloquial English and I wonder if it's really the best way to express what the singer is trying to tell us about this specific kind of "free" he is living. To cite one example without taking anything away from your observations or the superlative merits of Lady A's rendering.
And thanks, everyone, for taking the time and making the effort.
This forum rocks! -
Regarding your example with the expression "or something like that": it is, indeed, the best way to translate what the singer means.
He means to say: "I'm free or anyway something close to that notion but I won't bother to much into disecting the idea"
To change the context for an example, it's like someone is asking you: "Are you depressed?" and you'd answer:"No, not depressed. Sad or something like that". You identify the state but you leave room for a broader meaning of your state, without bothering to determin its margins.
That's what he says: I'm free or something like that= I'm free but you could use a different word, close in meaning, to describe my state and you'd still be right. I may not be totally free in the dictionary meaning of the word, but, overall, I'm something like that, like the idea of being free.
Better than this, I don't know if I could explain it
I hope it helps
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It does help, dya, it pins down more freely, lol, the idea that what he means by "free" can't really be pinned down...that, it seems to be based on what I've learned so far, he tends to 'play it by ear,' as we say, to quite an extent.
About that key, since we're getting into the nitty-gritty about the places where translation & interpretation intersect and/or diverge, the 'key' part of the line is when he says "I would also take the key IF YOU LET ME"---see how that seems to qualify, as expressed by the words, the "or something like that" aspect of his ideas about being "free"?
Fascinating stuff...it's a very unusual song, I would suppose this is true in the original as well as in the English version, almost eccentric in the poetic interplay of images & ideas, very striking even before we come to those two closing & almost mysterious, at first glance, lines about her velvet-like skin & how it doesn't really belong with his coat.
Maybe it willl help clarify if I mention the profound affect on my thinking about learning your wonderful language of something someone said in one of the other forums (the Spanish lyrics forum) about a sentence being poorly expressed even before translation because the original speaker had obviously been "thinking in English" rather than Spanish when he constructed the line in question. Ever since I've been giving a lot of thought and effort into trying to learn, and understand, Romanian from the standpoint of "thinking in Romanian"rather than English when trying to express or interpret thoughts in the Romanian limba.
Not easy to do by any means for someone coming so late in life to a language so different from my native one, but I have to believe that keeping this idea in mind every time I study can only help.
I'll be making quite a few posts in the 'Learning Romanian' thread next--probably this weekend--if that also helps shed more light on my approach to understanding these songs & lyrics and the way of life & culture they aim to express; it's not just a hobby for me at this point, I feel a deepening passion---so it's maybe no surprise that a woman friend (prietena?) and a sincere eagerness to communicate with her as fully as possible is what lit this particular fire under me in the beginning; though it's long since taken on a life of its own---about really understanding the inner mechanisms & "between the lines" facets of the music, as well as the craft, of your sweet mother tongue. -
Something like that Originally Posted by wolver99
Kidding...
You're perfectly right! He's free, but not THAT free. Correct Originally Posted by wolver99
That's the hardest thing to do when learning another language: learning how to think in that language. The rest will simply follow. Originally Posted by wolver99
I've neglected that thread lately, so maybe it's time for me to go back there. But I'll be waiting for the questions first. Originally Posted by wolver99
I see. Well...we're here to help Originally Posted by wolver99
