eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
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posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 12:28am on 2004-03-30

I was listening to a cassette in the car earlier, the music competing with road noise and wind, since the weather was nice enough to try to air out the car a bit (there's still some of that cigarette smell to it). The volume was up, but it wasn't the optimal listening environment. Still, I found the following just a little bit startling.

I heard the melody for "Belle Quie Tiens Ma Vie", a familiar song. After a couple of verses as an instrumental, voices joined in -- high voices with those extra-round singer vowels that I find sometimes get in the way of making out the words. I turned up the volume a notch, but the words still didn't make sense. I listened harder, wondering which verse they were singing, but I couldn't place it. Finally, on the word "eyes", I realized why I couldn't figure out which verse it was or make the words intelligible.

The problem was that they were singing in English.

My native language, but not the language in which I know that song. It was definitely a "buttered popcorn flavoured jelly bean"[1] moment, failing to recognize a lyric because it was in my language. (It was, in case anyone's wondering, the first verse.)

Belle qui tiens ma vie
Captive dans tes yeux
Qui ma l'áme ravie
D'un sourir gracieux
Viens tot me secourir
Ou me faudra mourir
Viens tot me secourir
Ou me faudra mourir

I can translate the meaning (and will do so if folks want), but I'll have to go back out to the car and listen to it again to get the exact phrasing of the translation the singers used.

[1] Jelly Belly makes buttered-popcorn jelly beans. These have become the canonical example of cognitive dissonance. They are extremely tasty, and the flavour is very convincing, but the mouth feel, of course, is that of a jelly bean. A delicious mindfuck.

There are 12 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 

Hee

posted by [identity profile] blumindy.livejournal.com at 03:29am on 2004-03-30
No wonder they're (and always have been) my favs.
 
I think I get the gist, but am not positive about some things that may have nuances I don't get offhand. I'm supposed to do other things today. Maybe I'll dig up my fraying pink friend later.

At one point, I could think fairly fluently in either language. Kind of parallel think. But songs and poems in French frequently lose a lot in translation. (something from Clea in Durrell's Alexandria Quartet: "It doesn't English well." I should reread that bunch, too.

If it's not to much trouble, I'd love to see the translation.

Yeah, a definite buttered popcorn jellybean moment.
 
It's a renaissance version of "Pretty Woman", and I'm tempted to say that a modern version is, "You're so hot, you've got me hot and bothered, I'm gonna die if you don't kiss me, come on and kiss me," and in a later verse, "Hey, why do you keep moving away from me?" But that would be both cynical and crass to do to such a beautiful song (it's got to be respectable -- it's old and it's in French), so I'd better not say anything like that.

I'm not sure whether it counts as Middle French, or just Modern French with some old words and spellings (like Shakespeare and the King James Bible are Modern English. My dictionary says MF was 14th-16th C., and this song is late 16th so it should be pretty close to the transition period, I guess.

Beautiful woman who holds my life
Captive in your eyes
Who ravishes my soul with a graceful smile
Kiss me or I must die
Kiss me or I must die
 
posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 07:33am on 2004-03-30
Whoops -- fingers got ahead of eyes. "Give me a kiss" is in a later verse. The last two lines of this one should be:

Come quickly, rescue me, or I must die
Come quickly, rescue me, or I must die
 
I was closer to it than I thought. I only missed "kiss". Heh. Still do.
 
Okay, I'm still getting hang of new browser. It doesn't work like netscape did when Netscape worked. Things don't always appear in a timely fashion. Still arguing with my own notorious learning curve.
 
posted by [identity profile] silmaril.livejournal.com at 05:54am on 2004-03-30
*snicker* The first time I heard Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" it threw me seriously off-whack.

Because we've got a Turkish version that is almost a literal translation that they play as often, that's why.
 
posted by [identity profile] littlebuhnee.livejournal.com at 06:25am on 2004-03-30
I've had this happen to me before. And always feel a bit disassociated from the world for a few seconds after I realize it's happening, yes. Excellent analogy.
 
posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 07:06am on 2004-03-30
*whew* I was kind of hoping to get a Ugol on that.
cellio: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] cellio at 08:35am on 2004-03-30
I know that feeling. A friend was once demonstrating the voice-synthesis program on his computer for me, and he fired it up on part of the Jewish liturgy. I stood there, completely puzzled by what I was hearing, and he had to point out to me that it was English. It just was not parsing as Hebrew, and English never occurred to me as an option. :-)
 
posted by [identity profile] blumindy.livejournal.com at 08:06pm on 2004-03-30
Oh, I've had that same experience with the Jewish liturgical music! The "huh...wha?" moment when you own language doesn't register is so weird!
I get a bit of it at Rock & Roll Shabbat, too. Lots of Beatles and Elvis but liturgical lyrics in a combo of English and Hebrew. Nothing cooler!

[I do have the same weird "huh...wha?" experience with opera in English. Man, does it suck!]
 
posted by [identity profile] wispfox.livejournal.com at 10:35am on 2004-03-31
failing to recognize a lyric because it was in my language.

I _so_ do this. It confuses my head for a while when I realize the problem I'm having is that I'm trying to listen to a song in the wrong language (I know Spanish and English, so can generally understand songs in both).

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