Random translation fun

[Fredrik]

A while ago me and llama translated the International to gothic. But 
we only came to the first vers plus chorus. I began with second vers 
this summer but aint finnished yet. It would be nice if you would 
like to complete it or give some ideas to it.

/Fredrik

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michael Erwin <merwin at ...> wrote:
>
> I mentioned before my efforts to translate labor-movement songs 
into  
> Gothic - however anachronistic they may be. I paraphrase-
translated  
> the first verse and chorus of Ralph Chaplin's "Commonwealth of 
Toil"  
> tonight. I'm not very good at this but practice makes ... better.
> 
> Commonwealth of Toil
> 
> by Ralph Chaplin
> 
> In the gloom of mighty cities
> mid the roar of whirling wheels
> we are toiling on like chattel slaves of old.
> And our masters ever seek
> to keep us thus beneath their feet
> and to coin our very life-blood into gold.
> 
> In sa skadus baurgim mikilaim
> miþ *hjulam *ƕirandam
> arbaidjam samana skalkos aiwe sineiga.
> Jah unsar reikos lustand
> du haban uns atbrukjanda
> jah du *maunetan unsar bloþ du gulda.
> 
> Chorus:
> But we have a glowing dream
> of how fair the world will seem
> when we each can live our lives secure and free -
> when the earth is owned by labor
> and there's joy and peace for all
> in the commonwealth of toil that is to be.
> 
> Þan habam *glaujand draum af
> ƕaiwa haila airþai wairþiþ
> ƕan ains jah alls skulum libam in friþau -
> ƕan gawaurstwans aigun airþa
> miþ leikainai jah freihala
> in þizos gamainons botos gawaurtswane.
> 
> (remaining verses not yet translated)
> 
> Okay, the first verse is much more literal than the chorus. I  
> couldn't find any suitable common-Germanic root for either roar or  
> whirl - the former is only attested in West-Germanic and the 
latter  
> is first attested in North-Germanic - but decided that they were  
> better than nothing (I ultimately chose WG "howl" over WG "roar").  
> The other biggies were "coin," "glow," and, of 
course, "commonwealth."
> 
> (I wanted to avoid trying the ones with lines like "with one big  
> industrial union" for the time being).
> 
> To make the meter more-or-less hang together (the syllable count  
> should work but the rhythm won't), I subbed "in friþau" 
for "secure  
> and free" - and subbed "freihala" for "peace" two lines later. 
Also  
> dropped "that is to be."
> 
> Mike
>


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