Saturday, 25 January 2020

Leads to Him

Today we have another religious song. This time it's Leads to Him, the opening to the fifth season of an Italian TV series, "Che Dio ci aiuti". The video in the link has a somewhat different version, though it's still as the soundtrack of the opening. Anyway, I translated it to Chinese in the afternoon of 16/1/20. The lyrics are transcribed by me, so if someone could cross-check on the TV series on Raiplay (the link has slightly different lyrics, most notably with "see a way" instead of "find a way") it would be great. I also realized that I mistranslated "trust" as "use" out of mismemorization. Fixing at 23:07 on 16/1/20: 请用眼睛->相信眼睛. And at 23:15 I fix the mistranslated lead from 达 to 带.
Then on 9/3/23 I hear the song again and realize I mishear the last line. The current version is «It would be a Sunday sooner, man!», but now I'm implementing the correct «It would be a Sunday soon again!», and correspondingly the Chinese «更早变星期天,哎哟!» became «很早便星期天哎哟» at 11:52 on 10/3/23 and «早早便星期天,哎哟!» at 12, passing through «早在变星期天,哎哟!» at 11:53.
Much later, 17/6/24 22:46 (that's the email's timestamp, the comment could be as far back as 22:34:48), Lin Zhuo comments on my video and proposes some corrections. Let me just quote my metabolization of the corrections and then go implement them.
  • 带到他 -> 带到他身边: if we drop the repetition of "leads", then this can be taken as is; but maybe 带,带到他那儿?
  • 每思维 -> 每一个思绪 and similar: why change 思维 -> 思绪? As for adding (一)个, I definitely can't add two syllables there, at most I can do 每个 every time, but does not adding anything sound like something you'd hear in a song but not in regular speech, or just not good?
  • 滑离开 -> 溜走了: I think my original was to have the rhyme kāi-biāopái, but then again, the original doesn't really have rhymes, so I can just keep the bànfǎ-pà rhyme and be content;
  • 更好变星期天,哎哟! -> 星期天更快到来了,哎哟!: definitely too long, and as I said before the lyrics are mistranscribed; maybe 星期天更快再来/回来,哎哟!(no need for the biàn-xīngqītiān rhyme)?
Note that «18/6/24 10:13, 1 is 10:02 idea, 4 is 10:12/13 idea». Also, I then went back to classifiers, and commented again at 10:38: «Coming back to the classifiers, here are some other ideas: / - 每条想, 每到想, 每起想, 每次想, 每点想, 每回想; / - 每首祈祷, 每则祈祷, 每句祈祷». It is now 12:44 on 23/6/24, I had no further comments, so I'll implement what I like best. And at 12:49, after fixing everything, I realize item 4 still translates the old version of the last line, so let it be 快快回来, not 更快回来.
Let's see this!



Ev'ry thought, ev'ry prayer,
Ev'ry smile we can share
Leads, leads to Him.
What you crave slips away…
If you look, you'll find a way.
Trust your eyes: what's to fear?
Ev'ry time you spot a sign,
It leads it leads to Him,
It leads it leads to Him,
It leads to Him.
It leads it leads to Him,
It leads it leads to Him,
It would be a Sunday soon again!
每思维,每祈祷,
分享的每微笑
带,带到祂。
你渴望的都滑离开……
你看看就找到办法。
相信眼睛:你为何怕?
你每次看到个标牌,
都带都带到祂,
都带都带到祂,
都带到祂。
都带都带到祂,
都带都带到祂:
早早变星期天,哎哟!
Měi sīwéi, měi qídǎo,
Fēnxiǎng de měi wéixiào
Dài, dài dào Tā.
Nǐ kěwàng de dōu huá líkāi……
Nǐ kàn kàn jiù zhǎodào bànfǎ.
Xiāngxìn yǎnjīng: nǐ wèihé pà?
Nǐ měi cì kàn dào gè biāopái,
Dōu dài dōu dài dào Tā,
Dōu dài dōu dài dào Tā,
Dōu dài dào Tā.
Dōu dài dōu dài dào Tā,
Dōu dài dōu dài dào Tā:
Zǎozǎo biàn xīngqítiān, āiyō!
每点想,每句祈祷,
分享的每个微笑
带,带到祂那儿。
你渴望的都滑走了……
你看看就找到办法。
相信眼睛:你为何怕?
你每次看到个标牌,
都带都带到祂,
都带都带到祂,
都带到祂。
都带都带到祂,
都带都带到祂:
星期天快快回来,哎哟!
Měi diǎn xiǎng, měi jù qídǎo,
Fēnxiǎng de měi gè wéixiào
Dài, dài dào Tā nàr.
Nǐ kěwàng de dōu huá zǒuliǎo……
Nǐ kàn kàn jiù zhǎodào bànfǎ.
Xiāngxìn yǎnjīng: nǐ wèihé pà?
Nǐ měi cì kàn dào gè biāopái,
Dōu dài dōu dài dào Tā,
Dōu dài dōu dài dào Tā,
Dōu dài dào Tā.
Dōu dài dōu dài dào Tā,
Dōu dài dōu dài dào Tā:
Xīngqítiān kuàikuài huílái, āiyō!

1 comment:

  1. Hello Michele! The writer and singer of Leads To Him (Eleonora Binacci) has answered to a comment on a YouTube video of the opening title sequence to CDCA 7 regarding the final line. She states that the lyrics are "It will be someday soon, I know" instead of "It would be a Sunday soon again".

    Here's the link to the video with her answer to the commenter named "christinedaum9610": https://youtu.be/UYA65Sl4IBc?si=L-8XW5gyP7GyAWnq

    As a native English speaker, I can hear that the 7th line is "Every time, spot the sign".

    I would add that it's much more common to use "every" instead of "ev'ry", but I'm going to go on the assumption that it was deliberate choice to not only preserve the religious nature of the song as it's very common in hymns, but also to ensure that non-native English speakers don't mispronounce the lyrics.

    I hope this helps!

    ReplyDelete