The Linguist

@CIOL_Linguists SUMMER 2024 The Linguist 13 FEATURES new lyrics. They bear little resemblance to the original lyrics, but carry the same sense of a relationship ending and similar emotions of loss, confusion and sadness. My English version of the Mandarin song 但願人長久 ('Prelude to Water Melody') composed by Vincent Liang has singable lyrics in English. I paid attention not only to rhyme and vowel sounds, but also to musical elements, including song structure and poeticity, to improve singability. For instance, I adjusted the word order from 唯恐瓊樓玉宇, 高處不勝寒 (lit. 'But fear that the crystalline mansions are so high and too cold there') to 'But fear it is too cold up there/ Crystalline mansions are so high' (see image, above). In this way, the lyrics are adapted to the music. In verse 1, I adapted the number of syllables to the music. For instance, I omitted '[I] do not know that' from the lyric 不知天上宮闕, 今夕 是何年 (lit. '[I] do not know that in the celestial palace, which year it is on this day?'), 9 because audiences can understand it is a question without that phrase. I also ensured the lines rhyme: 'In the celestial palace up so high/ What day tonight goes by?' Previous poetic translations did not aim at singability, though they preserved the meaning and main idea of the original poem. 10 Singability, understandability and listenability should be assessed through assessment criteria that help to identify and categorise target lyrics. This will help a translator, songwriter or singer better understand approaches to song translation and select appropriate methods. Thus, to produce singable songs in a language other than the one in which the source was produced, it is important to take musical analysis and performing arts into account. Notes 1 Hsu, G (2024) 'Music and Translation – A Study of "Singability" of Chinese Versions of the English Song "Do You Hear the People Sing" in the Musical "Les Misérables"'; and 'Interpreting and Translating Music from Classical Chinese Poetry into Modern English Song – A Study Case of SU Shih's "Prelude to Water Melody"'. Unpublished research papers 2 Desblache, L (2018) 'Music Translation'. In Washbourne, K and Van Wyke, B, The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translation, Routledge 3 Desblache, L (2018) 'Translation of Music'. In Chan, S, An Encyclopedia of Practical Translation and Interpreting, Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 297-324 4 Low, P (2013) 'When Songs Cross Language Borders'. In The Translator, 19,2, 229-44 5 Franzon, J (2008) 'Choices in Song Translation'. In The Translator, 14,2, 373-99 6 Low, P (2008) 'Translating Songs That Rhyme'. In Perspectives, 16,1-2, 1-20 7 Franzon, J (2015) 'Three Dimensions of Singability. An approach to subtitled and sung translations'. In Proto, T, Canettieri, P and Valenti, G, Text and Tune. On the association of music and lyrics in sung verse, Bern: Peter Lang, 333-46 8 林さん(2017) '流れ星 - 荒木毬菜'; jpmarumaru.com/tw/JPSongPlay-6484.html 9 何年 literally means 'which year', but because Chinese is paratactic, it is generic and could also mean 'which festival/day/moment/night'. 10 Xie, K (2016) '四位英文大師翻譯蘇軾的"水調 歌頭.明月幾時有'; https://cutt.ly/Nee6e4KI GETTING LYRICAL Above (clockwise from l): Creating singable lyrics in the target language may include song writing techniques; Eddie Redmayne sings 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' in the 2012 film Les Misérables; TV subtitles, such as for Glee, tend to use literal translations of songs; while a performer needs a target-language song text they can sing; and singability is usually ignored in libretti for operas Left: Sheet music for Gene Hsu's English translation of 'Prelude to Water Melody' © UNSPLASH

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