Heh. I found the Starlight Express album floating around on the uni network recently – so, naturally, I ‘borrowed’ it. Bizarrely, someone in Castle also has the German version – Starlight Express is very big in Germany, apparently.
So, I thought it would be fun (in a weird Dafyd sort of way) to compare a song from the two musicals, and see how the translation works. Sound good? I think so. I picked the song U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D, mainly because I really enjoyed it when I saw it in Sunderland (ooh – going to see Miss Saigon there on Thursday… should be good!). I have uploaded an MP3 of the song in English (about 5MB) to here – but I’ll remove it in a couple of weeks.
So, in English:
I’ve been U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D
I can’t bring myself to say it. No siree
I’m a carriage with no marriage
I’m a van without a man
I’ve been U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D
Was I corroded or overloaded
Maybe I shamed him
Who could have blamed him
If he thought me second-class
Went in search of chrome and brass
Went to find some other fool like me
And I’m just U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D
I can’t seem to stop C.R.Y.I.N.G
People look and me and think,
“There she goes the missing link
She’s been U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D”
And I’m just U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D
But I’ll get my R.E.V.E.N.G.E
He’ll come crawling back one day
And I’ll turn to him and say
“Go away, you B.A.S.T.A.R.D”
Und auf Deutsch:
Bin nicht G.E.K.U.P.P.E.L.T.
So was kann ich doch nicht sagen, ihr versteht
Kann nicht reisen auf den Gleisen
Diese Bahn hat keinen Mann
Bin nicht G.E.K.U.P.P.E.L.T.
Hab ich ‘nen Schaden? Zuviel geladen?
Hab zuviel Masse, bin zweiter Klasse
Vielleicht hat ihn das gestört
Weil er mehr auf Chrom abfaehrt
Deshalb bin ich jetzt fuer ihn passé
Ich bin nicht G.E.K.U.P.P.E.L.T.
Darum bin ich T.R.A.U.R.I.G.
Jeder guckt mich an und denkt
„Greaseball hat sie abgehaengt
Sie ist nicht G.E.K.U.P.P.E.L.T.”
Ich bin nicht G.E.K.U.P.P.E.L.T.
Und ich will R.E.V.A.N.C.H.E.
Wenn er angekrochen kommt
Dann sage ich ihm prompt
„Hau bloß ab, du B.A.S.T.A.R.D.!”
Quite an impressive feat of translation, I think you’ll agree – even if you don’t really understand the German… Sabine Grohmann and Wolfgang Adenberg – who translated Richard Stilgoe’s original lyrics – managed to keep essentially the entire meaning, but succeeded in making the German fit the tune quite naturally. Not bad!
I think the science is pretty dodgy, but here in Durham I can’t argue that the atmosphere is generally pretty depressing. I was going to take a photo to demonstrate what I meant, but from Mary’s, where I was standing (there’s another story there – get to that in a bit) you actually couldn’t see the Cathedral – the sleet was that bad. It was, to say the least, fairly ucky.