Neil Faulkner schrieb, regarding Judith's filked Ode to Joy:
Very nice, but it ought to be in the proper language. Unfortunately I seem to have mislaid my English-Deutsch dictionary, and my memory's not really up to the task.
Au contraire. Let me say that, as a German, I am deeply impressed. Just a few tiny adjustments...
Neil
Liberator, Wunderraumschiff Zu die Sterne Freiheit bringt.
that should be "zu den Sternen"
Immer leben Blake und Avon, Vila stehlt und Dayna singt!
and it's "stiehlt", not "stehlt". I'd also suggest "Ewig leben", but "Immer" absolutely fine, grammmar-wise.
Inspired by this example, I'll try my hand on a German version of Judith's filk:
When I sit and watch my telly,
Wenn ich vor der Glotze sitze,
Pictures pass before my eyes,
tauchen Bilder in mir auf
Little dinky spaceships flying,
kleine schräge Jäger flitzen
Through those alien backdrop skies.
in dem Weltraum runter, rauf.
CHORUS:
Liberator live for ever! Take the best and leave the worse, All we wish can truly happen, In another universe.
Here I bow before the Master and will take Neil's chorus.
Curly hair styles, men with sideburns,
Lockenköpfe, Backenbärte,
High-heeled boots and leather gear,
Stöckelschuh und Lederkluft,
Evening gowns observed in quarries,
Kleidung, die sich stets vermehrte,
These are to my heart so dear.
und nach der mein Herz so ruft.
(BTW, the last but one line isn't a translation, but something which makes sense in the context. Rhythm and rhyme demanded it.)
Orac, little lights a-blinking,
Orac mit den Weihnachtslichtern,
Walls that wobble just a bit,
Wände, die man wackeln sieht,
Lots of smoke and big explosions,
stets viel Rauch in Steinbruchtrichtern,
On a BBC budget.
wo die BBC hinzieht.
Characters we know and love,
Charaktere, die wir lieben,
In a fight to set men free,
in dem Kampf um Freiheit ziehen,
In the future bleak and hopeless,
in der Zukunft, wo sich mischen
Humour blends with tragedy.
Humor und Tragödien.
Okay, okay, Schiller would have been horrified...
Tanja