Russian translation

[Sentinel76 Astrakhan]

As a translator of songs, I'd say this song is indeed challenging.  The story is not interesting enough to warrant simple retelling, it's all about the feel and the expression, which are fairly untranslatable.  Not to mention the pun "blues" / "blue" only exists in English... unless you employ Grebenschikov's neologism "Skorbets" (and I hope you don't).

Vadim

Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 17:44:03 -0800
From: agregovich at GMAIL.COM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian translation
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU

I did this assignment as an undergrad -- pick a rock song and translate it into Russian.  I think I did REM's "Everybody Hurts".  Frankly, I think it's one where you just do your best and learn from it the impossibilities of translating slang and colloquial stuff into a foreign language.  



My one suggestion is to consider the word "баба" for baby.  If I recall, that problem came up when my class did the assignment!  Obviously you wouldn't say "ребенок" in this sort of instance.

 
-- Andrea Gregovich


On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 5:16 PM, Sarah Hurst <sarahhurst at alaska.net> wrote:














I wouldn't even say that this is slang. It's mainly
Americanisms. Plus I don't think just finding a couple of random slang words in
a dictionary - eg for "blue" - is going to convey the feel of this
song if you don't have a good idea of how to convey these thoughts and feelings
in Russian. 



Sarah Hurst

 

 






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