2012年8月14日火曜日
Thoughts on Bossa Nova - 3
So, in my other blog, I recently posted the translation for the most famous song, "Garota de Ipanema" or better known as "The Girl from Ipanema". This song would have been the most obvious choice for any attempt to translate a Bossa Nova song lyrics but I intentionally kept this for later. The reason behind this is very simple - because I wanted to display the sins of arranging the lyrics in to English in order to fit the song, losing the whole feeling of "saudade". "The Girl from Ipanema" is only one of many which the beautiful lyrics in which the original meaning have been lost, to me which is regrettable in the sense that many of those listeners of the songs never got to what really the song is about.
My posts in the Malandro En Japao is an attempt to get down to the "sauadade" within the song regardless of what the conventional English lyrics says.
Comparing the Brasilian Portuguese and English lyrics, there appears no girl from Ipanema that is "tall and tanned and young and lovely, that when she passes each one she passes goes, Ah", or no me that "watches her sadly". Rather, the original lyrics is based on how me, as the boy (or an uncle) sitting at the bar ("Veloso", now changed its name to "Garota de Ipanema" in memory of the song on Rua Vinicius de Moraes) sees the girl from the first person's perspective rather than how a third person sees it. This first person's view, or description of his/her feeling holds key to the "saudade" that sits under in Bossa Nova often lost in the translation.
Musically speaking, except those lyrics in which Tom Jobim translated later by himself, the words and verses don't fit in the same rhythm and sounds somewhat un-natural. For example:
My posts in the Malandro En Japao is an attempt to get down to the "sauadade" within the song regardless of what the conventional English lyrics says.
Comparing the Brasilian Portuguese and English lyrics, there appears no girl from Ipanema that is "tall and tanned and young and lovely, that when she passes each one she passes goes, Ah", or no me that "watches her sadly". Rather, the original lyrics is based on how me, as the boy (or an uncle) sitting at the bar ("Veloso", now changed its name to "Garota de Ipanema" in memory of the song on Rua Vinicius de Moraes) sees the girl from the first person's perspective rather than how a third person sees it. This first person's view, or description of his/her feeling holds key to the "saudade" that sits under in Bossa Nova often lost in the translation.
Musically speaking, except those lyrics in which Tom Jobim translated later by himself, the words and verses don't fit in the same rhythm and sounds somewhat un-natural. For example:
"Olha que coisa mais linda, Mais cheia de graca"; and
"Tall and tanned and young and lovely"
Both have different sound sound-breaks - depending on how you count, 18 versus 8. This in my opinion seems to be in the differences in which the sound-breaks mentioned earlier are counted. I get the impression that Brasilian Portuguese are counted better with "moras" as in Japanese composed by sound units ("Olha" would be 2, "o" and "lha") while in English are counted by syllables ("Tall" would be 1). Therefore given such limitations, obviously the literal translation becomes impossible. So what do these translators of the lyrics do? Make lyrics to fit in the measures diluting, or completely changing the meanings.
When Tom Jobim started translating his own lyrics this became a million times better, an example seen in "Anos Dourados" or "It Looks Like December":
"Parece que dizes, Te amo Maria":
"It looks like I'm saying, I love you Maria"
Depending on how the part "Maria", the count may differ literally but when sang, both fits perfectly. A very beautiful song.
Now, going back to "Garota de Iapanema", I think there could have been a way to arrange so that "saudade" of both the girl and boy could be sang, mixing the Brasilian Portuguese and English lyrics.
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