Poetic Translation of Flamenco Letras!

Costs are rising and times are tough.
Please consider a donation to keep this
place going.

Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.

We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.

Poetic Translation of Flamenco Letras!

You are logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >>Discussions >>Resources >>

Page: [1]

Message

<< Newer Topic Older Topic >>

flamencoMAPS

Posts: 8
Joined: May 14 2021

Poetic Translation of Flamenco Letras!

Hi flamenc@s!

Here is a new flamencoMAPS project for people interested in the meaning of the flamenco LETRAS (lyrics):

Translating poetry is never easy. Flamenco letras can be deep, light, funny or tragic, they can take us to the bottom of despair or give us the strength to continue on the road of a sometimes absurd existence. There you will find anecdotes, advice, moral lessons, threats, praise or criticism, daily life episodes, jokes ... it is an unfathomable repertoire that it is important to understand if we really want to enter this fascinating universe.Here is our attempt to transcribe all this richness and subtleties of flamenco lyrics into English.

Here is a playlist of Poetic Translation of Flamenco Letras:

I hope you'll enjoy!
Abrazos!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 14 2021 17:52:41

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Poetic Translation of Flamenco L... (in reply to flamencoMAPS)

Interesting but short. It sounds to me like "All I do is drink" and where did you get "pushes me to the brink" and "stop dissing"?

I lived in Granada for only three years, so it's tough but I can't hear it.

_____________________________

Foro Flamenco founder and Admin

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 14 2021 21:58:47

flamencoMAPS

Posts: 8
Joined: May 14 2021

RE: Poetic Translation of Flamenco L... (in reply to Escribano)

Hi! Thanks for your reply!

It's a choice we made: we don't want to stick to a very literal translation. Many are already available. Some of them are good but the majority usually completely miss the poetic dimension. That's why we called this "Poetic Translation".

Instead of sticking to word-by-word, we prefer keeping:
- the rhymes
- the metric (number of syllables)
- the mood...

It is challenging but very interesting. The idea is to try to generate a powerful poem in English, not a simple translation.

Thanks for the comment!

_____________________________

flamencoMAPS, by Guillermo Guillén
https://flamencomaps.com/
https://guillermoguillen.com/

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 14 2021 22:56:57

Morante

Posts: 2179
Joined: Nov. 21 2010

RE: Poetic Translation of Flamenco L... (in reply to flamencoMAPS)

Flamenco letras are poetry in themselves:

Reloj de arena es tu cuerpo, te abrazo por la cintura, para que detenga el tiempo.

El carrito los muertos
pasó por aquí
como llevaba la manita afuera
yo lo conocí

Si no fuera por mi hermano
Hubiera muerto de hambre
Nunca faltó a mi hermano
Cachito de pan que darme

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 15 2021 13:18:27