Music is one of the best art forms, for it manages to touch deeply upon our hearts and souls with little to no effort. Either it’s a tragic melody that can make you cry, no matter what language you speak, or it’s a powerful lyric, music can affect us strongly. The same song performed in different languages can even have different, unique effects on different audiences. That’s why everyone involved in song making, including song translators, can be considered to be very creative and artful people.

The Art of Song Translation

Why would a translated song feel differently to different people? Well, that’s easy. If the original song makes a certain emotional impact on people who listen to it, then its interpretations in different languages should do the same. That’s rather simple logic. But there’s one catch. Translating songs and poetry isn’t that simple. It’s a process somewhat more complex than any other kind of translation, and even some of the best translation services USA can work on it for longer periods of time. And here are some of the reasons why. They make song translation a unique process that stands out among nearly every other kind of translation.

• Song translation requires some cultural knowledge or background. Obviously, if you want to impress an audience that speaks a different language with your song, you should know what affects it. What metaphors can be considered powerful, what kind of phrasing sound formal or informal, and how would people treat certain events or things described in a song. That’s quite a lot of research for just one translation, so not many translators do it. Most of them, in fact, specialize in music translation in the first place.
• It requires a deep knowledge of the literary language. It’s not only about being familiar with the vocabularies of the language pair selected for translation. Like in any other literary work, lyrics often contain a massive number of literary devices that cannot be translated directly. In such cases, the lyrics can only be adapted. So, only the best online human translation services can handle that. This makes song translation even more scarce.
• It requires some music knowledge. Another difficulty with lyrics is that they are not just poetry. They are poetry that interacts with music. That’s why it’s important to pick words carefully so that they flow along with the vocal melody. On top of that, lyrics can also underline the rhythm and essentially any other musical element of the song. So, being aware of how music works is a must for the song translator.
• The final result should be singable. This largely underlines the point above. To make the song heard, the translator must make sure it can be sung by the target audience. So, it’s important not just to translate the lyrics, but also to make sure they don’t sound awkward in any way. Added to that is the need to make lyrics memorable so that they sounded not only in people’s car radios but also in their heads.
• It may sometimes be better to rewrite the lyrics. Finally, perhaps, nearly every song translator experienced a moment when it was better to simply redo the whole thing and bring out only the very general essence of the song to the listener. The idea of the song might remain the same but the way it is developed and given to the listener might be radically different from the original. Which is, of course, not easy at all.

Yes, It Should

So, answering the main question of this article, yes, song translation should be considered a separate kind of translation, and the experts in this area should be treated accordingly. If only good songs were translated into more languages, the world could be a much better place to live. The modern translation market does not demand too many song translators yet, however, this might change with time. Music today is more available than ever, so decent translations should be just as available too.

BIO:

Barbara Fielder is not just an author, she likes to think of herself as an explorer. Being creative in nature, she cannot just sit in one place and watch as life goes by. Barbara often needs action, and when she cannot get it, she makes sure it is denoted in the most interesting and vivid manner.