Translation Bake-Off: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS - 2015 Edition
 

Dear Eratosphereans,

¡VIVA LA MÚSICA!

The theme of this year’s Translation Bake-off is SONGS. This will be a double-blind event, judged by the Top Secret Distinguished Guest (TSDG) Yodeler! Participants will be translating songs from other languages or dialects into English. Note that for the main event, the English translation must be singable to the tune of the original words. If the original tune has been lost, as in the cases of Sappho and King David, later musical settings of the original words are acceptable. Also, musical settings of poems not originally composed as songs (e.g., mélodies and lieder) are acceptable.

The Bake-off Staff is reasonably confident that the educational and non-commercial nature of this event falls under the Fair Use provisions of copyright law. We will attempt to make entries invisible to search engines so that the audience is limited to the Eratosphere community. However, please be aware that if you chose to translate a song that is not in the public domain, and you have not secured the permission of the copyright holders (lyricist and composer), there is a possibility that your entry may be removed at their request.


DATES:

Noon (Pacific Daylight Time) on at St. Jerome’s Day—Wednesday, September 30, 2015 noon (PDT) Saturday, October 31—will be the deadline for our main event, and also the beginning of the three secondary events (which will kill time while our TSDG Yodeler deliberates for a week).

The main event finalists, with commentary by the judge, will start being posted the morning of Wednesday, October 7 Saturday, November 7. The number of finalists will not exceed twelve.

The deadline for the three secondary events is noon (Pacific Daylight Time) Tuesday, October 13. Voting for the popular favorites of both the main event and the secondary events will open at noon (Pacific Daylight Time) Wednesday, October 14, and will close at noon (Pacific Daylight Time) Sunday, October 18.

The traditional grumbling over time zones, the tardiness of Bake-off staff, etc., will run throughout the festivities.


PRIZES:

For the main event, one prize per translation will be awarded to the TSDG’s top three picks and to the popular vote’s top three picks. (I.e., even if someone’s translation is in both top threes, that person will win only one prize, not two.)

For each of the three songs in the secondary events, the popular vote’s top translation will win a prize. (If someone is the winner for more than one song, that person will receive a prize for each winning translation.)

Each prize will consist of the winner’s choice of a book from the Able Muse Press catalog, courtesy of Able Muse / Able Muse Press.


THE MAIN EVENT:

Please send ONLY ONE ENTRY AS MANY ENTRIES AS YOU CAN MANAGE for the main event. All of the following components must be sent TOGETHER to the email address http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/images/send2bakeoffs.gif by Wednesday, September 30 noon (PDT) Saturday, October 31:

1. Your name (it will be removed before it is sent on for judging) and the names of the song's lyricist and composer.

2. Your promise not to complain when a singer provided by the Bake-off performs your English translation a cappella, and perhaps somewhat differently than you had in mind. Having all the entries performed by the same singer will help the entries remain anonymous. (A PDF of sheet music of the original would be appreciated, but it is not required.)

3. A very brief note about the original author and/or composer, the context or cultural significance of the song, or any other information you think may be interesting or helpful.


4. The written text of your English translation.

5. The written text of the original.

6. A link to the original in performance. Ideally, it will be the same version of as the provided text; if not, please note any variants.


7. A literal English prose crib, showing the word order and syntax of the original, and providing alternate meanings of ambiguous words or phrases. PLEASE NOTE that presenting someone else’s prose translation instead of your own prose crib is NOT ACCEPTABLE because a.) it is not your work and b.) it will not give non-speakers of the original language—i.e., the vast majority of your readers here—enough information about which word is doing what. PLEASE ALSO NOTE, while you are composing your literal English prose crib, that http://wordreference.com provides excellent dictionaries for multiple languages, and also has online forums in which you can sometimes ask native speakers for help with tricky idioms. Google Translate is unreliable. You have been warned.

THE SECONDARY EVENTS:

Three songs will be provided by the TSDG Yodeler for translation the morning of Wednesday, September 30. Each is considered a separate event, and participants may choose to enter all, some, or none of them. Entrants may enter each event as many times as they wish, so long as each of their entries is substantively different.

A thread for each song will be posted to the Distinguished Guest board, providing the original text, literal English prose crib provided by the Bake-off staff, links to the original in performance, and contextual notes.

Each secondary event may have its own unique rules; for example, one of the songs must be translated in such a way that the English translation fits the tune of a DIFFERENT song than that of the original.

Entrants will add their singable English language translations of each song to its own thread. An extra point will be awarded to each secondary event translation for which the entrant provides a link to that English text in sung performance, regardless of the musical merit of said performance.

Entries may be edited and re-edited until the threads are locked on at noon (Pacific Daylight Time) on Tuesday, October 13.

Enter one, enter all!

Cheers,
...Alex

Alex,

This sounds like a beautiful idea. And I don't want to be a killjoy. But I'm not sure the meaning and implications of "singability" are fully explained above.

Those who understand and love classical art songs (such as the many composed by Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven, and Mozart) know that the music was generally, if not always, written based on the poem, and not the other way around. This has always had certain implications for the singability of any translation.

The above composers apparently had a good understanding of the various vocal ranges, the locations at which each range shifts most naturally from one register to another, and what this implies for placement (in pitch) of the various vowels.

In other words, those composers wanted to make it possible for a singer not only to get the words out but also to produce a beautiful tone. And the composers knew and understood the science of this.

So, if the goal of this bake-off is actually to create singable songs, I hope this will include the question of whether a given translation's inevitable changes in (especially) vowels will allow or prevent its being sung as beautifully and clearly as the original lyrics.

It's unlikely that any translation will work quite as well as the original poem, but at the very least it should be singable in the fullest sense of the word.

Claudia

Claudia--That was the thinking behind having a singer perform the finalists, so that everyone can take these important aspects into account. Some poem translations that fit the original meter on the page may not work well in sung performance, because they place unimportant words on high, emphatic notes, or disregard the importance of the caesura (so that the singer can breathe) in French alexandrine sonnets, for example.

...Alex

What about songs from non-western musical traditions, such as Arab, Chinese, Indian or Persian? Can the performer handle the intervals present in those scales? How much adaptation should we expect?

Thank you, Alex!

So, if I understand it correctly, English translations of classical art songs would be ineligible for the bake-off, since most of them (that I know of) such as Lieder and mélodies, were based on poems in the first place.

:(

Cathy,
no, I do not think that is the intention. The translation should be singable to whatever music the original is being sung--Schubert, Schumann lieder, etc. are specifically meant to be included.

AZ,
great question--I am not a singer, so I will leave it to others to answer.

Martin

Thanks, Martin. That opens it up considerably, what with Baudelaire, Verlaine, Hugo, Lamartine, Gauthier, etc. etc. :)

For your amusement, let me point out that not all "original" settings have particularly fortuitous phrasing--in Handel's Messiah, it sounds very much as if we sheep-lovers have gone astray: https://youtu.be/LmeyG5LlFWU or https://youtu.be/ixmNZQH0NjU for a slightly faster version with nice pictures :)

AZ--100% accuracy can't be guaranteed where microtonal intervals are concerned. Expect the tendency common to most Westeners of rounding off at least some of the microtones in such pieces to the nearest half tone. But if you can provide a good audio or video version of the song, every effort will be made to duplicate whatever tones are heard.

...Alex

Should we expect an acknowledgement/reply when we submit?

Alex,

Somehow I am confused by this statement:

"Also, musical settings of poems not originally composed as songs (e.g., mélodies and lieder) are acceptable."

Is this a way of saying that, for example, popular, folk, and rock songs are acceptable? Or did you intend something else?

Thank you,

Claudia

Ah. I was assuming it meant that a translation of a poem that has later been set to music, will be accepted so long as it, too, is singable to the same music.

If I've got that wrong, tell me, quick.

Now I'm really confused.

As Translation Board Mod, let me assure you that the guidelines were meant to be as inclusive as possible: Specifically popular, folk, and rock songs are acceptable, as are poems that were set to music later. The main constraint is that the translation should match the music ("be singable") independently of whether the music was composed before, simultaneously with, or after the original lyrics were written.

I hope that this clarifies things!
Martin

Hi Claudia and all -- As Martin indicates, the guidelines were intended to be as inclusive as possible. All sorts of music lyrics are welcome!

And yes, submissions will be acknowledged when received.

--Alex

7. A literal English prose crib, showing the word order and syntax of the original, and providing alternate meanings of ambiguous words or phrases.


Alex, I have to point out that this is not always possible without producing gibberish.

Take the following sentence:

xx"Je te connais, mais tu ne me connais pas."

Translated according to rule 7, this would come out as:

xx"I you know, but you not me know."

instead of

xx"I know you, but you don't know me."

Can we assume that you want something resembling the latter rather than the former, even though the word order is not strictly the same?

Brian,
of course, you should make it make sense in English.

(7) really means is that we want more than a loose prose summary, but rather a detailed and useful translation.

Martin

*BUMP*

Too few submissions received ... thus far. Please submit submit one and all -- help keep the Eratosphere Bakeoff tradition alive and toasty!

Cheers,
...Alex

When is the deadline, Alex?

Noon (Pacific Standard Time) on St. Jerome’s Day—Wednesday, September 30, 2015—will be the deadline for our main event, and also the beginning of the three secondary events (which will kill time while our TSDG Yodeler deliberates for a week).

The main event finalists, with commentary by the judge, will start being posted the morning of Wednesday, October 7. The number of finalists will not exceed twelve.

The deadline for the three secondary events is noon (Pacific Standard Time) Tuesday, October 13. Voting for the popular favorites of both the main event and the secondary events will open at noon (Pacific Standard Time) Wednesday, October 14, and will close at noon (Pacific Standard Time) Sunday, October 18.

The traditional grumbling over time zones, the tardiness of Bake-off staff, etc., will run throughout the festivities.

Yes, What Martin said, and somewhat revised as below (note the revised deadline dates especially)--


By popular demand, translators will now have until the end of October, rather than until the end of September, to polish up their main event entries for the 2015 Translation Bake-off.


REVISED MAIN EVENT DATES:

The submission deadline for the main event (the translation of a non-English language song of your choice into English set to the same tune)--is now noon (Pacific Daylight Time) Saturday, October 31, 2015. The main event finalists, with commentary by the judge, will start being posted the morning of Saturday, November 7.


UNREVISED SECONDARY EVENT DATES:

The secondary events will proceed as previously scheduled. To recap, three songs in languages other than English will be provided with literal English-language prose cribs on Wednesday, September 30 (the feast day of St. Jerome, the patron of translators). Enter your English-language verse translations of any or all of those three songs, singable to the original tune, by noon (Pacific Daylight Time) Tuesday, October 13. The popular favorites of the three secondary events will be decided during voting which will open at noon PDT Wednesday, October 14, and will close at noon PDT Sunday, October 18.


RULES, PRIZES, ETC.

Please see the original announcement for full details.

Cheers,
...Alex

I have no information on why the entry is so apparently slow/low but would suggest that it may be because of the very prescriptive format of the Bake-Off. Bolder and more adept spirits may have been delighted to be so challenged. I'm afraid that I recognised immediately that it was not for me.

I don't know what other participants in this board may be motivated by, but a pure pleasure in wrestling with translating is not what energises me. I need to have an interest of my own in the subject/material/author/period and this competition was thus, perhaps solely for me, or perhaps not, too narrowly drawn.

Alex, if there continues to be a low response to this competition, would you consider allowing individuals to submit more than one entry?

I checked with Alex and my anonymous co-organizer, and we think that Marion's idea is great--anyone with more songs to submit, PLEASE DO!.

More of them? Aaarghhh! I sweated blood over the first. I don't want to sound crotchety, but by the end I was a quavering wreck.

YAY! I think this is fun!

I thought perhaps the slow/low response may have had to do with copyright issues (not only the poet-songwriter but the composer as well). It is also quite a challenge not only to faithfully translate the poem/lyrics but also for the translation to be singable in English to the same tune it had in its original language. This is probably the most challenging and at the same time most interesting bake-off we've had. Best of luck to all :eek:!

I agree that it's the most challenging we've had. It's been my observation that most/much of the time, songs that are translated for international release are not hampered by the need for the same sort of fidelity as we generally demand from poems, perhaps because so much of a song's appeal lies in the melody, and the melody doesn't need to be translated. It is 100% faithful to the original, which perhaps means that the words have a bit more wiggle room since the song, when performed, already preserves intact such a large portion of the original experience. I suppose, though, that this varies depending on the song, since the appeal of some songs is more lyric-centric than others.

I had a go at the first challenge, but the other two strike me as totally impossible to pull off and I fear that I would merely waste hours of my time for nothing if I were to make a serious attempt.

Yes, Roger, Back in the early 70's I remember my reaction to hearing Joe Dassin's French version (Salut les Amoureux) of City of New Orleans. Whaaaat???? Rien à voir. But apparently the melody has been used for quite a number of foreign versions (Dutch, German, Hebrew, Finnish, Norwegian, Latvian and Icelandic).

Perhaps the most famous example is Claude Francois's song 'Comme d'habitude', which became ... 'My way'. The tune is that of the original, but the words have absolutely nothing in common.

I'm afraid I agree with Roger about the 'challenges', including the first one.

Scroll down to the literal prose translation of "'O sole mio" (performed here by Enrico Caruso) and compare that to the lyrics of "It's Now or Never" (performed here by Elvis Presley).

The sentiments of the two versions could not be more opposed: basically, "You are the center of my personal universe" vs. an anthem of instant gratification.

[Edited to say: Unless, of course, you're cynical enough to think that all love songs are about getting into someone's pants, no matter what the words literally say.]

I had the same reaction to the second two challenges. I may try #1, but I doubt I have the time.

Honestly, I had a similar reaction to the whole bake-off this year. Not so much that it seemed particularly impossible, but that it was something that would take more time and effort than I had. In the past, my bake-off entries have been things I worked on for some period of time and completed within the previous year. Maybe if I knew about this year's theme a year ago, I might have started to work on something. But I only saw the announcement a month ago, and there is no way I could finish something new with any seriousness in such a short time.

I look forward to reading the entries though. Should be interesting.

David R.

The thing about song lyrics is that they are so much more forgiving than translations of poetry, since the music does so much to carry the words. In that way I think this is easier and refreshingly different from previous competitions – certainly less restrictive than last year's, IMHO. Anyway, I don't think you should worry so much about the final product; just relax and have fun.

I do agree that #2 and #3 are enormously difficult, and I wish the offerings had been a little more user-friendly.

I give up. I started the ay ay ay ay, my sweet honey, little honey bunny, seven syllables and then five - I stayed up late and rhymed the wrong lines. I would need months to do this, and I am not sure my result would be worth all that energy. I have made up songs to melodies, that is not hard, but these songs are very hard and I am filled with admiration for the accomplished poets who have made amazing english poems to difficult music. The Latin rhythm keeps eluding me, and that is the easiest of the three - I think.
It is an exhausting kind of fun. Thank you organizers Alex and Martin.

Birthe, I think the way to do it is by taking far greater liberties than your literary conscience at first allows you. Just think of everything in the original lyrics as either expendable or replaceable, trying only to keep to the general gist and tone of the original. I'd say this is especially true for "My Wolf," where what's important isn't really the specific, granular details of the chosen words, but the fact that (it seems) it always sounds a bit lewd if you address someone as food that you want to cook (especially if you do so accompanied by a cutely flirtatious melody).