"The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." (Maya Angelou)
Wednesday 28 May 2008
Living in a Bilingual World (Andante)
Friday 23 May 2008
Road Songs (Variations) (2nd Part)
Road Songs (Masters Of War)
This is my favourite track from Dylan's 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' album (the one with 'Blowin' in the Wind' in it). Third song in the record is this little jewel that became an anthem for pacifists and anti-war people all over the world. Here we have Pearl Jam's lead singer Eddie belting out a monster of a tune whilst remaining nonchalant but intense. Deep.
Road Songs (Animals - House of the Rising Sun)
Originally sung by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Nina Simone, this is one of those timeless songs that does not get old. This is one of my favourite versions. Stupendous.
Road Songs (Angelique Kidjo - Gimme Shelter feat. Joss Stone)
Road Songs (Variations) brings this week this cover by the amazing Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo alongside the Kent-born British performer Joss Stone. Originally released by the Rolling Stones, this was the opening track in their album 'Let It Bleed' and I think that both the African chanteuse and the daughter of Albion do the song justice. Superb!
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Living in a Bilingual World (Polyphony)
Sunday 18 May 2008
Food, Music, Food, Music, Food, Music, Food, Music, Ad Infinitum...
Thursday 15 May 2008
Road Songs (Variations) (1st Part)
What I can't see myself doing and I am lucky to have a wife who doesn't do it either, is change our vehicle everytime a new model becomes available. I might be a consumerist, but I do have my limits.
Music is pretty much the same. Certain songs have stood the test of time and they remain classics for that reason. However, you always get second-rate musicians or even brilliant ones trying to re-invent the wheel and attempting to add their own input to what is already a masterpiece, only to ruin the original work completely. And please, Annie Lennox and Wyclef Jean, take no umbrage for this tirade. Your respective cover versions of songs penned by Bob Marley and Pink Floyd did not go down very well with yours truly. Neither did they with many folks I know.
So, what follows below is what happens when an artist truly respects the piece they are covering and not only injects their own energy but maintains the original idea. Sinead O' Connor did it with her take on Prince's song 'Nothing Compares to You', to the point where no one believed it was originally by the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Ditto Led Zeppelin and their cover version of 'When the Levee Breaks', originally sung by Memphis Minnie. And as the proud owner of both records (the Zep and Memphies') I can safely vouch for the quality displayed by the British band in that track in their album Led Zeppelin IV (or the one with no title).
So, there you have it, when it comes to cars, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and if it's still going, then, let it go a little bit more. As to music, the same rule appplies, if you're going to rework a classic, please, please, please, make sure that you have what it takes to make it work. The second part of this post will appear next week.
Copyright 2008
Road Songs (Elis Regina - Atras da Porta by Chico Buarque)
Sorry, Chico, I am a fan of your music. Always been. Since I heard 'Cálice' for the first time when I was younger I have never looked back. 'Samba de Orly', 'Flor da Pele'; all these are songs are embedded in my psyche. But this live version of your very own 'Atras da Porta' is unmatchable. Elis lives her songs (watch her performance of 'Aguas de Março' with Tom Jobim) with vim and vigour and those feelings come out in bucketloads in this tune. Unforgetabble.
Road Songs (Joni Mitchell-Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye)
Take someone as demure as Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell to cover one of the classics from soul era and you are asking for trouble. Then, why is it that I feel so drawn to this video? She even sashays around the stage and does the 'I know some places/And I see some faces/I've got the connections/I dig my directions/What people say, that's okay/They don't bother me, oh yeah/I'm ready to make it/Don't care what the weather/Don't care 'bout no trouble/Got myself together/I feel the kind of/protection/That's all around me' perfectly. It is a fantastic rendition and one I am proud to upload onto the blog this week. Funky.
Road Songs (Chucho and Bebo Valdez, Father and Son playing 'La Comparsa' by Ernesto Lecuona)
I have already uploaded this song on a couple of occasions and I will probably upload it a hundred more times. It is a piece intimately linked to my childhood as my Dad used to play it first thing in the morning. And it is the best example of how art can bridge peoples, sowing the seeds of unity where politics fails. At 4:28 watch Bebo's hands as they skip and hop around like a child playing in the park blithely. Majestic.
Road Songs (Ana Belén and Joan Manuel Serrat-Mediterráneo)
Anyone who sings: 'si un día para mi mal viene a buscarme la parca/Empujad al mar mi barca con un levante otoñal/y dejad que el temporal desguace sus alas blancas' has my utmost respect. This one plays in the car over and over and over and over and over... Grand.
Road Songs (Joan Manuel Serrat - Mediterráneo-año 1974 1/11)
Sorry, I just could not resist uploading the original. He even says something in catalán at the end. Any translators on line? Heartfelt.
Monday 12 May 2008
Living in a Bilingual World (Cantata)
Muggle or muguel? Quaffle or cuafel? Bludger or...? Oh, well, I owe you that one.
For the last couple of months I have been reading the Spanish translation of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' (Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal) with Son and the experience has been both rewarding and bonding.
However, the linguistic pedant that dwells inside me has noticed how certain words have been allowed to remain unchanged from the original text in English. And this conundrum has caused a nice debate between Wife and me.
I am of the opinion that when converting the words and phrases of a particular language into another one, one must observe the golden rule of translation: 'Translate ideas, not words'. And although it's close to two decades now since I first came across it, I have tried to follow that maxim to the letter. Yet, this rule does not explain what to do when one encounters made-up words in the language we translate from. Shall we leave them the way they are? Or shall we at least attempt to bring them into our own language spelling them in a way suggesting that that was the way the author would have done it had he/she written in our language?
I am pretty sure that opinions on the matter are divided. However, occasionally I lean towards the latter case. And 'Harry Potter...' is a good case to illustrate my point.
Since the book takes place in London and we all know that English is the official language spoken by the denizens of the British capital, it would be really silly to try to translate street names and main characters' monikers (I am sure some of them could do with a Spanish translation, but let's not get too pedantic, shall we?). The issue is when we enter the realm of fantasy. A muggle (a person with no magical powers) could well be a muguel in Spanish. The spelling is similar and the word's semantics would not suffer. Likewise, the quaffle (the ball used to play quidditch with), could perfectly become a cuafel. Even the pronunciation is similar, let alone the spelling. So, why not?
I reckon that one of the reasons why this approach is not taken into account is reverence towards success. If the Harry Potter series had not become the financially rewarding franchise it has turned out to be, it would have been far easier (or less difficult, for it's never easy for a translator to stick their hands in the fire without getting burned) for Alicia Dellepiane, the person credited with bringing the British hero to Spanish-speaking peoples, to 'improvise' with elements of her own volition. But because the series has done remarkably well, there's a sense of genuflection towards and awe of both the author and the novels that probably (I am speculating here) deters translators from 'mucking about' too much with the original text.
The second reason derives from the first one in that Harry Potter, like many other franchises before it, creates a universal language that both children and teenagers (and adults!) default to. And whether you speak French, German or Portuguese, you will know what a bludger is (yes, I haven't forgotten, I still owe you that one!). And who wants to break up this harmony? Moi?
The third reason is our 'beloved' Royal Academy of the Spanish Language. Note the quotation marks, please. With close to 320 million Spanish speakers worldwide, is it not time to do away with such an archaic institution? English, my second language and the one I majored in at university, owes much of its international domination to a fluid and modern system. Namely the absence of a central body dictating all the different Anglophone nations how to use their lexicon. It is not surprise that the two languages that have suffered the most since the end of the World War II have been French and Spanish. The former through the loss of its colonies and the demise of its empire, the latter through holding to an ancient system that requires proof of use for new words to be accepted officially. The truth of the matter is that many of these words have been used for years, if not decades, or sometimes even centuries. The most vivid example I have is with 'fortísimo' (strongest), the 'correct' way according to the Academy and 'fuertísimo', more widely used since it comes from 'fuerte' (strong). It took centuries for the latter to be accepted into the mainstream, but surprise, surprise! The mainstream, i.e., the people who speak the language, had already been using it. True, not on television, radio or any other type of official media, but it was out there and it made sense. So, why deny it?
And that's probably why many translators leave certain terms the way they are in the original language, rather than trying to convert them into a version that resembles more the words in the language being translated to. Wife insisted that this was important to maintain a sense of continuity and not destroy the intention of the original text. But my point is that it doesn't destroy it, it enriches it. Besides, I very much doubt that the same reader who digests the Harry Potter books in English will be doing the same in German, French or Arabic. So, no harm done. Wife's other argument is that certain names should not be changed at all, ever. I knew what she meant because on some occasions she has brought my attention to the fact that I say Támesis instead of Thames . But that's the same for English-speakers who say Havana instead of Habana. And since we're there, why the 'j' sound in the English version? 'J' as in 'jugo'? The Spanish 'h' has not sound, a phenomenon I remarked upon in a recent column and for which I used Hamlet's soliloquy (talk about globalised world, this is globalised theatre and language). In the end we both agreed that neither was I going to change Alicia's mind (the title's translation suggests that the stone is the philosopher and not that the philosopher owns the stone, rather different meanings, I would say), nor would my way of calling the famous river that divides London into north and south change.
As for Harry Potter and the translation of certain words from English to Spanish, maybe I should not beat myself up about it too much. Given the current legal climate in the JK Rowling's camp, hush-hush is a better policy than trying to come up with alternatives for the words she has already made up. A lawsuit is the last thing I need, believe me.
However I cannot resist imagining what bladyer would read and sound like au lieu de 'bludger'. Just don't tell anyone at the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, please.
Copyright 2008
Sunday 11 May 2008
More Than a Thousand Splendid Words (Lamento Gitano)
Thursday 8 May 2008
Road Songs (Presto)
Road Songs (Chambao - Mi Primo Juan - Live)
A few years ago somebody put in my hands the debut album by this Spanish band and little by little they have grown on me. As they say in Spain, Chambao es 'de puta madre'. Intense.
Road Songs (Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication)
How can I leave the Chillies out from any music compilation to be played on a summer day? They are like good wine, they get better as they age. Now, all together: 'Dream of Californication! Dream of Californication!'
Funky.
Road Songs - Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata
I admit that I have not got this on CD, and yet so many good memories come from listening to this record and watching Miriam Makeba sing this famous song. Perfect.
Road Songs Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
This is as raw as rock'n'roll is supposed to be. I can never tire of watching this video and my son has started bobbing his head up and down as I play this tune in the car. If my window is rolled down, passers-by throw me the odd glance. What???!!! Yeah, I am a black man and playing Nirvana, man, so what, get a life, will you! Delicious.
Road Songs - Los Van Van - Sandunguera (Live in Miami)
I dare anyone to name me a more successful and revolutionary (in the broad sense of the word) band from Cuba in the last 40 years than this music explosion. As chameleon-like as Madonna and with a sound that has come to define many generations of Cubans. This gets my vote everytime summertime is here in dear ol' Blighty. In fact I have got the 'Ay Dios Amparame' CD ready to be played in the car tomorrow. Magnificent.