Grex Language Conference

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Grex Language Item 60: Platz fur die Jets!
Entered by md on Thu Mar 31 14:02:26 UTC 1994:

In the booklet from the "all star" recording of West Side Story that 
Leonard Bernstein made for DGG in the mid 1980s, the lyrics appear in the 
original English and in German and French translations.  The philosphies 
of the two translators are wildly different from each other.  Here's a 
brief sample:

ALL                         ALLE                      TOUS
Here come the Jets          Platz fur die Jets!       Voici venir les Jets
Like a bat out of hell      Reagierst du nicht gross, Comme une chauve-souris
                                                       sortie de l'enfer.
Someone gets in our way,    Kreigst du eine Lektion   Quelqu'un qui se met en
                                                       travers de notre
                                                       chemin,
Someone don't feel so well. Und die Holle geht los!   C'est quelqu'un qui
                                                       risque de ne pas
                                                       sentir si bien.
Here come the Jets:         Platz fur die Jets!       Voici venir les Jets:
Little world, step aside!   Kleine Welt, mach         Allez, petit monde,
                             Spalier -                 degage!
Better go underground,      Oder such ein Versteck!   Vaut mieux que tu
                                                       rentres sous terre,
Better run, better hide.    Ver regiert, das sind     Vaut mieux que tu
                             wir!                      courres, vaut mieux
                                                       que tu te caches.
We're drawin' the line,     Ihr Hunde, begreift:      Nous tracons une
                                                       ligne-frontiere,
So keep your noses hidden!  Haut ab von unsern        Alors planquez bien
                             Strassen!                 le bout de notre
                                                       nez!
We're hangin' a sign,       Und wenn ihr nicht        Nous accrochons un
                             kneift,                   panneau,
Says "Visitors Forbidden"   Dann werdet ihr erfassen, Qui dit: "Visiteurs
                                                       interdits"
And we ain't kiddin'!       Dass wir nicht spassen!   Et nous ne 
                                                       plaisantons pas!
Here come the Jets,         Platz fur die Jets!       Voici venir les Jets,
Yeah! An' we're gonna beat  Yeah! Die Strasse ist     Ouais! Et nous allons
                             eng!                      battre
Ev'ry last buggin' gang     Wenig Raum hat sein       Jusqu'a la derniere
                             Reich,                    de ces foutues
                                                       bandes
On the whole buggin'        Doch ein Jet in der Gang  De toute cette foutue
 street!                                               rue!
On the whole ever-mother-   Ist in dem Wenig einem    De cette foutue de
 lovin' street!              Konig gleich!             salete de rue!

6 responses total.

#1 of 6 by md on Thu Mar 31 14:32:55 1994:

The German translation replicates the meter and the rhyme-scheme of 
the original, but has to abandon the meaning in order to do so.  
You could actually perform the German version, although it would be 
a different set of lyrics entirely.  It's hard to say how good the 
German translator's English is, but he or she sure writes a snappy 
line.  

The French translation takes just the opposite approach.  It tries 
to get at the sense as literally as possible, but has to abandon 
the meter and rhymes.  The French translator seems to know English 
well enough to know what the word "line" means in "We're drawin' a 
line," and what "buggin'" is a euphemism for; and he or she makes a 
brave attempt to get at the literal meaning of "Someone gets in our 
way, someone don't feel so well."  But the *feel* of Sondheim's 
lines is completely lost.

#2 of 6 by rcurl on Thu Mar 31 15:53:24 1994:

(I see I roiled md's water with my opinion in movie.) This is the
most interesting aspect of WSS that I have ever seen. I might not
have walked out if they had sung it in three languages simultaneously.

#3 of 6 by md on Thu Mar 31 16:28:25 1994:

[chuckle]  Yep, you got me thinkin'.  The more I looked at the
translations in the booklet, the stranger it seemed that the
producers hadn't tried to find translators who were at least 
a *little* in synch with each other.  The only thing stranger
about the recording was hearing the role of Tony sung with a
Spanish accent.

#4 of 6 by md on Thu Mar 31 16:30:00 1994:

[by Jose Carreras, I mean.  Maria was Kiri Te Kanawa.]

#5 of 6 by carson on Thu Mar 31 20:12:33 1994:

are there Spanish lyrics as well? (it would seem appropriate).

#6 of 6 by jdg on Sat Apr 2 03:06:00 1994:

I remember a film documentary on the making of this recording.  The
funniest thing was watching Carreras trying, over and over, to
enunciate and emphasize the English lyric, while L.B., who was conducting,
got madder and madder at Carreras as they went over the same phrases, 
over and over and over.

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