translating the golden vanity

Subject: translating the golden vanity
From: Roberto
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 02:28 PM

I'd like to get ideas and suggestions on how to render the expressions about "the lowland sea" and "the lowlands low" that are in many versions of The Golden Vanity in languages different than English. Take for instance this first verse of the version that is in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs:

It's I've got a ship in the north country,
Down in the Lowlands low
An' I fear she may be took by the Spanish enemy,
As she sails on the Lowland sea,
As she sails in the Lowlands low.

I think in English there is a beautiful blend between the maybe original references to the Netherlands with images of the vast and deep lowlands of the sea. But I can't find ways to keep this in another language, Italian in my case. Any ideas? Thanks. R

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Bernard
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 02:57 PM

Why translate? Treat them as place names, and translate the rest...

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Roberto
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 03:18 PM

Not a good solution, Bernard. It would seem they are just places. R

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 03:24 PM

Onderaan in de lage Laaglanden

Vers le bas dans les terres en contre-bas basses

Unten in den Tiefländern niedrig

Κάτω από στα πεδινά χαμηλά

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 03:51 PM

The versions in Child speak of the ship belonging to Sir Walter Raleigh, and having been built in the Netherlands. What's the Italian word for the Netherlands?

Are there early versions of this song in other languages? Can they be posted here? I didn't see any non-English versions mentioned in Child.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:37 PM

Wouldn't "Paesi Bassi" do the trick?

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: GUEST,EBarnacle
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 10:17 PM

The old joke persists:
What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages? Trilingual
What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages? Bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks 1 language? American

Try just doing it in English and seeing how your audience responds.

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Roberto
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 03:27 AM

EBarnacle: I don't want to translate the song to sing it, just to translate it. If I sing it, by myself and not in front of any audience (I'm not a performer), I sing it in English, of course.

McGrath of Harlow: yes, it is the solution I'm working on, but it conveys the idea of land and not of water.

Joe Offer: in Italian, we name the Netherlands both Olanda (Holland) and Paesi Bassi (literary: Lowlands).

Thanks. R

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 01:28 PM

But "lowlands" does that in English too.

How about "Paesi profondo"?

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: bubblyrat
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 06:31 PM

There was a little ship,
And she sailed upon the sea,
And she went by the name of "The Golden Vanity,

And she sailed upon that low,and lonesome ocean,
And she sailed upon that lonesome sea.

Lonnie Donegan song,I think.

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: bubblyrat
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 06:35 PM

The thing is, we talk about the High Seas, so why not the Low Seas ?
In the case of ,say, the Wadden Sea off the Northern Netherlands, I would always take "Low " to mean "shallow ".

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Tradewind
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 04:14 PM

Hi --
New to the thread, and the Cafe. Pardon any breach of protocol in jumping in.

I bought a CD of folks songs popular at the time of the Revolutionary War recently, and the narrative on the CD said that Sir Walter was not will liked ("hated") by his crew, and they nearly mutinied more than once. It goes on to say that the actions of this Captain, perportedly him, were consistent with what Raleigh would have done.

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 08:31 PM

Tradewind, as a new 'Catter you should know that "jumping in" is protocol!

Welcome, and thanx for a good post.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 09:05 PM

Latin and Spanish its sister are easier for translation of poetry from English.

WHY? The nouns and the endings for tense...make for easy end-sounds

It is EASY to render the imagry of Spanish poetry into English..."my tears fell in the sea and the moon cried back to me."

With the release of the film "Beowolf" the masses (who are asses) ... will miss... nuances of Nordic music....the alliteration is central... "Low, Lands, Low....

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Disertations deliver doctorates on such drivel.