Refraction

Okay, one more. I can’t help it; I just heard this song on TV and it’s simply charming.
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Still procrastinating, thesis write up this time. I’ve translated all the easy songs off IT, I think, except this one.

(And even this one’s not that easy: how to fully express the meaning of “watershed” both as the geological feature and the idiomatic meaning of “turning point”? I don’t think I can.)
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I love the word “antebellum”, although I was always thrown by how the “-bellum” part made it about war, instead of beauty; we have so few other words with that root (“belligerent” is the only one that springs to mind) that it’s actually quite striking.

(As an aside: I love “antediluvian” too. Is there an “ante-” word for before the Fall of Adam and Eve? I seem to remember running across it once.)

I also think this is my favourite song off the new album.
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Got another one for you. I think this song from IT sounds the most like Vienna’s old stuff.
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Vienna’s new album was released in Europe last week. Here’s a quick translation of a song (“the emo sad song”) off it.

(And in other news: I miss my translation class terribly. I think the prof who taught it has retired now; he’s no longer listed on the department website anywhere, nor do I see his name on the French faculty list posted in BuTo. Pity. He was quick and witty and cutting, equally at ease in English and French, and made me want to do well. Not that I ever don’t want to do well. But I’m not as motivated in some classes.)

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One of those (rare) cases where an English word is so much prettier than a French word:
“harbour” >>> “port (m.)”

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Okay, I’m doing it again. Here’s “Gravity”.

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Translating into your native language is easy. Translating out of it generally presents more of a problem. That being said, it can be a good way to increase vocabulary… or just to procrastinate. What follows is a translation of one of my favourite Vienna Teng songs into French.

It’s clumsy, and literal, and in no way captures the beauty of the English lyrics. But it was still fun.

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Comme mes études universitaires sont en voie d’achèvement, je me suis mise à songer à l’école secondaire. Mes amis, je ne sais pas si vous vous souviendrez de cette chanson, je crois que le prof nous l’a fait jouer.
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