translating the golden vanity

03 Feb 07 - 02:28 PM (#1956726)
Subject: translating the golden vanity
From: Roberto

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

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03 Feb 07 - 02:57 PM (#1956746)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Bernard

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

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03 Feb 07 - 03:18 PM (#1956752)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Roberto

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

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03 Feb 07 - 03:24 PM (#1956756)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Les in Chorlton

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/

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03 Feb 07 - 03:51 PM (#1956779)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Joe Offer

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-

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03 Feb 07 - 04:37 PM (#1956813)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: McGrath of Harlow

Wouldn't "Paesi Bassi" do the trick?

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03 Feb 07 - 10:17 PM (#1957061)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: GUEST,EBarnacle

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.

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04 Feb 07 - 03:27 AM (#1957189)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Roberto

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

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04 Feb 07 - 01:28 PM (#1957550)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: McGrath of Harlow

But "lowlands" does that in English too.

How about "Paesi profondo"?

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04 Feb 07 - 06:31 PM (#1957815)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: bubblyrat

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.

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04 Feb 07 - 06:35 PM (#1957817)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: bubblyrat

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 ".

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15 Nov 07 - 04:14 PM (#2194715)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Tradewind

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.

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15 Nov 07 - 08:31 PM (#2194952)
Subject: RE: translating the golden vanity
From: Uncle_DaveO

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

Welcome, and thanx for a good post.

Dave Oesterreich

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