[Claudia Gary]

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