submissions
| Rammstein – Haifisch (English) Lyrics
| 6 years ago
|
@[damacles:30247] It isn't clear why "hold harmless" seems a bad fit to translate "Schadlos halten" in this song but your footnote made me wonder if you knew the phrase "hold harmless" is also a legal term in English, used just the same way as its German counterpart. That makes it exactly the right fit in an English version of the song, especially as it restores a "halten/hold" word repeated in the song, otherwise lost as you discuss in your first footnote.
Lemme know if I'm way off base on this, please. You've done a nice job with a song whose deceptively "simple" phrasing is really a subtle and complex bit of poetry ... and not at all easy to translate. |
submissions
| Zucchero – È Un Peccato Morir Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
I hate to think that an artist who creates such amazing works as Zucchero does, wouldn't forbid open discussion of the lyrics to his song for any reason and certainly not for *copyright* reasons!
It's especially distasteful with a song like this one with such beautiful, but intriguingly enigmatic lyrics. |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – The Hula Hula Boys Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
The phrase is apparently taken from the world of traditional Hawaiian songs where it shows up frequently, so it's meaning isn't really written by Warren Zevon although its presence might be essential.
From an artilce in the Honolulu Advertiser about interpreting Hawaiian hula:
"Ha'ina (ha-ee-na): Hundreds of mele, both older and modern, end with a phrase beginning with the word "ha'ina,, which means a saying, declaration or statement but has come to indicate a song's final two verses, which restate the song's subject or purpose. "Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana." "Tell the story in the refrain." There are at least a half-dozen forms of ha'ina lines, variously translated as "tell the refrain," "the tale is told," "this is the end of my song.""
That explains how so many different explanations here can be right at the same time! |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
Thanks for all the info! One small thing, though is your interpretation of the "bought it" comment, which I think I take even more literally than you do. I always thought she "heard the burst" and was so impressed by the Thompson sub-machine gun she got one for herself. This is a pretty straightforward song and, given that he restricts his comments on the motivations and ethics of mercenaries to "they fought to earn their living / and to help out the Congolese" it doesn't seem likely he'd devote the last line to an opinion about Patty Hearst's political thinking.
it just seems like a throwaway line he stuck in there because it was in the news at the time. He did stuff like that in his songs in the live performances I've heard. You could be right, though, I'm not trying to squabble or anything. |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.
