La notte che ho visto le stelle

Oggi canzone di Chieffo, La notte che ho visto le stelle, tradotta in cinese, ritornello e fine ultima strofa (ultime due righe) nel pomeriggio dell'1/9/20, e poi terminata la sera del 6, con notevoli modifiche a quanto già fatto per fare le rime. 12/9/20 alle 9:57 cambio «我就不再想要睡觉» e «为了明白而为了看到» alle loro forme attuali. Vediamo!

Aspetto che passi la notte
Notte lunga da passare
E sento il mio cuore che batte
E non smette di sognare

Vorrei ritornare bambino
Nella casa di mio padre
Le storie davanti al camino
E la voce di mia madre

Rit.
La notte che ho visto le stelle
Non volevo più dormire
Volevo salire là in alto
Per vedere e per capire

Ascolto il silenzio dei campi
Dove sta dormendo il grano
Il giorno fu pieno di lampi
Ma ora il tuono è gia lontano

Vorrei ritornare bambino
Nella casa di mio padre
Le storie davanti al camino
E la voce di mia madre

Rit.

La luna nasconde i suoi occhi
Come donna innamorata
Il fiume l'aspetta nell'acqua
E una notte l'ha baciata

Vorrei ritornare bambino
E guardare ancora il fuoco
La stora più grande è il destino
Che si svela a poco a poco

Rit.

我正在等着夜间过去 就是慢慢过的夜啊 听到我的心跳继续 感到内心不停梦啊 我愿意再变得孩子啊 回到父亲的房屋里 暖炉前再听到故事啊 也听到我母亲的声音 合唱： 我看到星星的那夜里 我就不再想要睡眠 我当时就想要上天去 为了明白而为了看见 我听到田野那声沉默 那里小麦正在睡眠 今天就有充满闪电哦 如今雷声已经遥远 我愿意再变得孩子啊 回到父亲的房屋里 暖炉前再听到故事啊 也听到我母亲的声音 合唱 天上的月亮正藏眼睛 就像爱上的女人啊 水里有河流等到她呢 有日将她有亲吻啊 我愿意再变得孩子啊 而且热火再次凝视 一点一滴照面的运命 它就是最伟大的故事 合唱

Wǒ zhèngzài děngzhe yèjiān guòqù Jiùshì mànman guò de yè a Tīng dào wǒ de xīntiào jìxù Gǎn dào nèixīn bù tíng mèng a Wǒ yuànyì zài biànde háizi a Huí dào fùqīn de fángwū li Nuǎnlú qián zài tīng dào gùshì a Yě tīng dào wǒ mǔqīn de shēngyīn Héchàng: Wǒ kàn dào xīngxīng de nà yèlǐ Wǒ jiù bù zài xiǎngyào shuìmián Wǒ dāngshí jiù xiǎngyào shàng tiān qù Wèile míngbái ér wéile kànjiàn Wǒ tīng dào tiányě nà shēng chénmò Nàlǐ xiǎomài zhèngzài shuìmián Jīntiān jiù yǒu chōngmǎn shǎndiàn ó Rújīn léishēng yǐjīng yáoyuǎn Wǒ yuànyì zài biànde háizi a Huí dào fùqīn de fángwū li Nuǎnlú qián zài tīng dào gùshì a Yě tīng dào wǒ mǔqīn de shēngyīn Héchàng Tiān shàng de yuèliàng zhèng cáng yǎnjīng Jiùxiàng àishàng de nǚrén a Shuǐ li yǒu héliú děngdào tā ne Yǒu rì jiāng tā yǒu qīnwěn a Wǒ yuànyì zài biànde háizi a Érqiě rèhuǒ zàicì níngshì Yī diǎn yī dī zhàomiàn de yùnmìng Tā jiù shì zuì wěidà de gùshì héchàng

My brothers

And today we close the blog with this beautiful Mandarin song which I kept for last because it seemed like a great goodbye to my followers. It is 我的好兄弟 | Wǒ de hǎo xiōngdì, which I met sometime in Spring 2013, later than April 18, and translated within that year's early June [5/5 in fact, as evidenced by a Facebook note containing the translation that was last edited on that date. There was then a change from «Bitter hearts 'cause you speak to me» to «Pain in their hearts 'cause you tell me» at 15:50 on 28/1/22 and then to «Bitter hearts 'cause you're telling me» at 2:10 that night, in which night «Let me sing a song for you» changed to «Let me for you sing a song» at 3:16]. With this song, the done material is over, so I will stop posting twice a week because I won't have stuff to post. I do have a couple drafts yet unposted, one of them about the heritage of the Romagnol side of my family, one is an Italian edition of Sappho yet to get the fragments rearranged for it, one is this crazy project of turning Sappho into Chinese songs to arouse curiosity, if I ever do that I'll upload the songs to Youku and see what happens, and one yet unmade about the three attempts at constructing a language which I did back in middle to high school, so those will get posted sooner or later, but I'm out of translations, so unless I make new ones (which is entirely possible), all that is left is to finish the Indonesian songs post, the Chinese songs post, the All of Sappho post and the Chinese poetic Sappho post, and do the Japanese songs post which, as of 11/9/18 14:20 as I write this intro, is yet to be started. And on 25/8/19 the situation hasn't changed. I'd like to add that, if I do do new translations, I will stick to posting on Tuesdays and Saturdays, whereas other posts will be posted as soon as they are ready, just like other "OOP" (out of program) posts have been. And on 12/2/20 the situation of the unmade stuff is unchanged, except there's the "crazy project" and the Italian edition that I just added, and a Korean songs post I plan on doing. How, in all that, I completely forgot about the Modern G Sappho edition, I have no clue. In any case, as of finally posting this on 1/9/20, the situation is pretty much the same, save for the Indonesian songs post being, I believe, as finished as I can make it (that song with unfindable lyrics needs outside help). So this is essentially my goodbye. It has been a lot of work to post these translations, and a lot of fun to make them. I wish y'all well. But let's see the song, shall we?

在你辉煌的时刻 让我为你唱首歌 我的好兄弟 心里有苦你对我说 前方的路一起走 哪怕是河也一起过 苦点累点 又能算什么 在你需要我的时候 我来陪你一起度过 我的好兄弟 心里有苦你对我说 人生难得起起落落 还是要坚强的生活 哭过笑过 至少你还有我 ＊朋友的情谊呀 比天还高比地还辽阔 那些岁月我们一定会记得 朋友的情谊呀 我们今生最大的难得 像一杯酒      像一首老歌 所有从开始，然后＊ 像一杯酒 像一首老歌

Zài nǐ huīhuáng de shíkè Ràng wǒ wèi nǐ chàng shǒu gē Wǒ de hǎo xiōngdì Xīn li yǒu kǔ nǐ duì wǒ shuō Qiánfāng de lù yīqǐ zǒu Nǎpà shì hé yě yīqǐ guò Kǔ diǎn lèi diǎn Yòu néng suàn shénme Zài nǐ xūyào wǒ de shíhou Wǒ lái péi nǐ yīqǐ dùguò Wǒ de hǎo xiōngdì Xīn li yǒu kǔ nǐ duì wǒ shuō Rénshēng nán de qǐqǐ-luòluò Háishì yào jiānqiáng de shēnghuó Kūguò xiàoguò Zhìshǎo nǐ hái yǒu wǒ Péngyǒu de qíngyì ya Bǐ tiān hái gāo bǐ dì hái liáokuò Nà xiē suìyuè wǒmen yīdìng huì jìde Péngyǒu de qíngyì ya Wǒmen jīnshēng zuì dà de nándé Xiàng yī bēi jiǔ      xiàng yī shǒu lǎo gē Suǒyǒu cóng kāishǐ, ránhòu * Xiàng yī bēi jiǔ Xiàng yī shǒu lǎo gē

In your moments of splendour
Let me for you sing a song
My dear brothers feel
Bitter hearts 'cause you're telling me:
Let's together walk any road
Even rivers together cross
Pain and tiredness,
Can they matter now?

In the times when you will need me
I will spend my time with you
My dear brothers feel
Bitter hearts 'cause you're telling me:
Do you want changing difficulties
Or do you want to strongly live?
Laughing, crying,
At least you'll still have me

* Because friendship's
Higher than the Heavens, vaster than the Earth
We will certainly remember those few years
Because friendship is
The greatest rarity in our whole lives
Like a full glass      like an old old song

All from the start, then from *

Like a full glass
like an old old song

Your heart

Today we have another song with no ties to the surrounding posts. It's a Hakka song, it's undatable number 4, it comes from a video that I downloaded and was since removed from Youtube, it's titled 若你（的）个的心 | Nyia kài sim, and it gives this post its title. On 4/10/19 around 18:20 I finally picked it up and started an English translation, and by 18:26 I was done, except for correcting "Can face all things carefully" at 18:53. I don't think I'll produce a column filler for this one. I basically translated it just as an excuse to put it back on Youtube for the Chinese songs post. Here it comes!

每一次倒转回到 单侪独自孤单中坚强 每一次就算心恁很够 也无不噭哭出来 涯我也知汝你一直 有一只心就能够 带涯我去离开阿里这里 无没想着到佢兜他们 总有恁很靓美丽个的爱情 涯我看着到每日个的日头太阳 也会爱要落山 涯我也知汝你一直 有一只心就能够 带涯我去分让涯我欢喜 涯我终于看着到 所有理想个的结果 试着知道吾我（的）个的心 能够爱下去 涯我终于真真 用心用意来面对 下辈会有汝你 就行走着到远里

Mui yit tshìi tò-cón Tan-sâ ku-tan cung kien-khiông Mui yit tshìi tshìu-sòn sim án kèu Ya mô kiàu chut-lôi Ngâi ya ti nyî yit-chıt Yìu yit cak sim tshìu nên-kèu Tài ngâi hì lî-khoi a-lî Mô sióng tó kî-teu Tsúng yìu án tsiang kài òi-tshîn Ngâi khòn tó mui nyit kài nyit-thêu Ya vòi òi lȯk-san Ngâi ya ti nyî yit-chıt Yìu yit cak sim tshìu nên-kèu Tài ngâi hì pun ngâi fon-hí Ngâi cung-yi khòn tó Só-yìu li-sióng kài kiet-kwó Chì-tó nga kài sim Nên-kèu òi hà-hì Ngâi cung-yi cin-cin Yùng-sim yùng-yì lôi mièn-tùi Hà-pùi vòi yìu nyî Tshìu hâng tó yén lî

Every time I go
Back to being strong alone,
Every time, my heart's had enough,
But I still do not cry.
I do know that, if you have a heart,
You always can
Brīng me away from here.

Haven't thought that they
Always had such a great love.
I see that the sun of each day’s
Always bound to set.
I do know that, if you have a heart,
You always can
Bring me away and make me happy.

I now finally
Look at all my ideal outcomes,
I know my heart
Can keep on with its love.
I now finally
Can face things with all my heart,
In the next life
You'll sure go far away!

Dammi un pochino di cielo

Oggi ennesima canzone greca (dovrebbe essere l'ultima, ma non si sa mai), Δώσε μου λιγάκι ουρανό | Dṓse moy ligáki oyranó, lo stesso titolo di questo post. L'ho tradotta in italiano, dopo mesi che stava tra i "plan", il 9/8/20 tra le 15:46 e le 16:04 – rapido rapido, eh già. Vediamola!

Τώρα που φεύγεις Από μένα και σε χάνω Ένα σου λέω, Μην αλλάξεις ουρανό Σημάδια άφηνε Στα σύννεφα απάνω, Γιατί δεν πρέπει να Χαθούμε εμείς οι δυο. Σημάδια άφηνε Στα σύννεφα απάνω, Γιατί δεν πρέπει να Χαθούμε εμείς οι δυο. *Δώσε μου λιγάκι ουρανό, Πάρε με μαζί στο πέταγμά σου, Μάθε με κι εμένα να πετώ, Να μην έχω ανάγκη τα φτερά σου. Κι αν κάτι άλλο Την καρδιά σου έχει πάρει, Ένα σου λέω Μην αλλάξεις ουρανό θα 'ρχονται νύχτες Που θα ψάχνεις το φεγγάρι, Και το δικό μου Τελευταίο σ’ αγαπώ. θα 'ρχονται νύχτες Που θα ψάχνεις το φεγγάρι, Και το δικό μου Τελευταίο σ’ αγαπώ. Όλοι! * (και μένα) * (και μένα) Ora che fuggi Da me e ti perdo, Una [cosa] ti dico, Non cambiare cielo Lascia segni Sulle nuvole in alto Perché non è necessario che Ci perdiamo noi due. Lascia segni Sulle nuvole in alto Perché non è necessario che Ci perdiamo noi due. *Dammi un pochino di cielo, Prendimi con te nel tuo volo, Insegnami anche a me a volare, Perché non abbia bisogno delle tue ali. E se qualcos'altro Il tuo cuore ha preso, Una [cosa] ti dico, Non cambiare cielo Verranno notti Che cercherai la luna, E nel mio stesso Ultimo [momento] ti amo. Verranno notti Che cercherai la luna, E nel mio stesso Ultimo [momento] ti amo. Tutti! * *

Tṓra poy fév̆gës Apó ména kä se khánō Éna soy léō, Mi̱n alláxës oyranó Si̱mádia áfi̱ne Sta sýnnefa apánō, Giatí den prépë na Khathoýme emë́s ö dyo. Si̱mádia áfi̱ne Sta sýnnefa apánō, Giatí den prépë na Khathoýme emë́s ö dyo. *Dṓse moy ligáki oyranó, Páre me mazí sto pétagmá soy, Máthe me ki eména na petṓ, Na mi̱n ékhō anágki̱ ta fterá soy. Ki an káti állo Ti̱n kardiá soy ékhë párë, Éna soy léō, Mi̱n alláxës oyranó Tha 'rkhontä nýkhtes Poy tha psákhnës to feggári, Kä to dikó moy Telef̆tä́o s' agapṓ. Tha 'rkhontä nýkhtes Poy tha psákhnës to feggári, Kä to dikó moy Telef̆tä́o s' agapṓ. Ólö! * (kä ména) * (kä ména) Or che ti perdo E da me lontano fuggi, Ti dico solo: Il tuo cielo non cambiar. Lascia dei segni là, Su in alto, sulle nubi, Perderci entrambi, Noi non lo dobbiamo far. Lascia dei segni là, Su in alto, sulle nubi, Perderci entrambi, Noi non lo dobbiamo far. *Un pochin di cielo donami, Portami con te, voliamo insieme, Anche a me a volare insegnami Perché non mi servan le ali tüe. Se qualcos’altro T’ha saputo il cuor via portare, Ti dico solo: Il tuo cielo non cambiar. Verranno notti che La luna avrai a cercare Fino al mio ultimo Respir io t’ho ad amar. Verranno notti che La luna avrai a cercare Fino al mio ultimo Respir io t’ho ad amar. Tutti! * *

The cranes

Russian song today like last time, Журавли | Žuravlĵí is the title, and the same as this post's. The text I give is my mashup of three versions, there will probably be a post on Deciphering unknown languages with Michele Gorini about this song. Where there are options, the left one is for female singer to male addressee, the right one is the opposite. I doubt any other pair would have been conceivable when it was written. I translated it first to Italian, on 10/8/20 between 11:01 and 13:46 save for the last two lines of verse 1 done at 14:26, and then to English, hence the post's language, between 12:20 and 12:35 the following day, save for the second half of verse 2 done around 15:50. The Italian had original/alternate versions «Nel mattino il richiamo triste sento delle gru» and «Presto presto» instead of «Molto presto». Let's see it!

Се́рым у́тром крик печа́льный Слы́шу в не́бе журавле́й. Всё проща́ясь улета́ют Ста́ей из родны́х поле́й. По́мнишь их встре́чать весно́ю Вме́сте шли к реке́ с тобо́ю? Как же случи́лось, не зна̇ю, В путь журавле́й провожа́ю Я одна́ / Я оди́н. Ско́ро бе́лой пелено́ю скро́ет снег просто́р поле́й. Но верну́тся к нам весно́ю Сно́ва ста́и журавле́й. Я хочу́, что ты за мно́ю Был/Бы́ла и ле́том и зимо́ю что́бы в любо́е нена́стье мы берегли̇ на́ше сча́стье, ми́лый мой / Ми́лая. Giorno grigio, il richiamo Triste sento delle gru Salutando volan via Dai campi natìi nel ciel lassù In primavera al ruscello – Ricordi? – A incontrarle corremmo. Non so come sia capitato, Con lor nessuno è restato Se non io Molto presto un bianco manto Di neve i campi coprirà In primavera torneranno Gli stormi di gru di nuovo qua Voglio che con me in eterno Tu resti, in estate e in inverno E in qualsiasi tempo ci troviamo Noi la nostra gioia proteggiamo, Caro mio / Cara mia

Sĵérym útrom krik pĵećál'nyj Slýšu v nĵébĵe žuravlĵéj. Vsĵo prośáĵas' ulĵetáĵut Stáĵej iz rodnýkh polĵéj. Pómniš' ikh vstrĵéćat' vĵesnóĵu Vmĵéstĵe šli k rĵekĵé s tobóĵu? Kak že slućílos', nĵe znáĵu, V put' žuravlĵéj provožáĵu Ĵa odná / Ĵa odín. Skóro bĵéloj pĵelĵenóĵu Skróĵet snĵeg prostór polĵéj. No vĵernútsĵa k nam vĵesnóĵu Snóva stái žuravlĵéj. Ĵa khoćú, čto ty za mnóĵu Byl/Býla i lĵétom i zimóĵu Čtóby v lĵubóĵe nĵenást'ĵe My bĵerĵeglí našĵe sćást'ĵe, Mílyj moj / Mílaĵa. This grey morning the sad calling Of the cranes in the sky I hear They bid goodbye as they fly off From their native fields so dear In springtime – do you recall? – we Went to the creek to them all meet Don't know how this came into being But on their way I now see ‘em On my own Soon a mantle of white snowflakes Will on all the fields be lain And in springtime there will come back The flocks of cranes to us again I wish you'll be at my side here Through winter and summer, oh my dear, So that through any bad weather We'll guard our joy together, Me and you.

Il pero

*Oh-oh. Non ho la bozza. Vabbeh, posto dopo. Oh mamma, pure l'Hard Disk saturo? Vabbeh, attaccherò la bozza a mezzogiorno :).* Oggi altra canzone russa, грушица | grúšitsa, "perino/peretto/perello/peruccio" o il diminutivo/vezzeggiativo che preferite, o anche "piccolo pero". O magari "Il pero". COmunque l'ho tradotta in Italiano il 13/8/20 tra le 18:09 e le 18:16 – rapido rapido eh :)? Bon, vediamola! Certo che 'sta storia che i testi online mi dànno зорька ясная "camion luminoso" quando зорка è "stella" mi fa alquanto strano…

Гру́шица кудря́вая. Ой, ты кучеря́вая. Ты стои́шь зелёная, Велича́вая. Все тобо́й любу́ются — Ре́ченька широ́кая, Зо́рка я́сная и я, Одино́кая. Да́леко уе́хал мой Синегла́зый дорого́й. Се́рдце ско́рой встре́чи ждёт И о нём поёт. Где ты, милый, где ты мой, Синегла́зый дорого́й? Гру́шица в саду́ цветёт, На́шей встре́чи ждёт. Pero rigoglioso, Oh, tu dai rami riccioluti, Tu sorgi, verde, Maestoso. Tutti ti ammirano – Il fiumicello largo, La stella brillante, e io, La sola. Lontano è andato il mio Caro dagli occhi blu. Il [mio] cuore aspetta di vederlo presto, E di lui canta: Deve sei tu, dove sei, mio Caro dagli occhi blu? Il pero è in fiore nel giardino, Il nostro incontro attende.

Grúšitsa kudrĵávaĵa, Oj, ty kućĵerĵávaĵa, Ty stoíš zĵelĵónaĵa, Vĵelićávaĵa. Vsĵe tobój lĵubúĵutsĵa – Rĵéćĵen'ka širókaĵa, Zórka ĵásnaĵa, i ĵa, Odinókaĵa. Dálĵeko uĵékhal moj Sinĵeglázyj dorogój, Sĵérdtsĵe skóroj vstrĵéći ždĵot, I o nĵom poĵót: Gdĵe ty, mílyj, gdĵe ty, moj Sinĵeglázyj dorogój? Grúšitsa v sadú tsvĵetĵót, Nášĵej vstrĵéći ždĵot. Pero pien di riccioli, Che rigoglioso sei così, Verdeggiante sōrgi E maëstoso, sì. Tutti ti ammirano: Cè quel fiume lārgo, C'è questo astro fulgido, E io che sola sto. Il mio amor lontano andò, Lui dall'occhio ceruleo, Incontrarlo brama il mio cuor, Di lui canta ognor: «Dove sei, amāto, Tu d'occhio ceruleo? Il pero in giardino attende, in fior, Di vederti ancor!».

On spelling and transliteration

When you write a blog on translations of songs between languages, spelling and transliteration issues will definitely come to bite. Let me comment on the spelling/transliteration I use for each language I've worked with.

1. Languages with standard orthographies in the Latin alphabet: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Swedish, Indonesian, Xhosa, Zulu, Haitian Creole, Latin, Venetian, Friulian, Occitan, Middle English, Swahili, Finnish, Albanian, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Vietnamese, Turkish, Irish, Romanian, Danish, Hungarian, Lingála; for these, there isn't really much of an issue; just a couple special mentions: for Vietnamese, I decided to link syllables of single words with dashes, whereas the normal orthography is to separate all syllables with spaces (so I write "cô-bé" for "girl" while it's normally written "co bé"), and for Irish I use both the standard and my own creation, which was conceived to be easier for me to crack, but I don't really remember exactly how it was supposed to work; oh, and in Indonesian I try to mark all /e/ as é to distinguish them from schwas, which the standard orthography doesn't do; and I try to mark tones and the e/ɛ and o/ɔ distinctions in Lingála, which isn't always done;
2. Languages spelled with the Latin alphabet for which I either know of no standard, or of multiple competing standards: Romagnolo, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Mende; let's look at these one by one:
   
   1. For Romagnolo, I'm transcribing a specific variety, and I devised my own orthography; there is a standard orthography, but I don't know how it works; judging by a dictionary I consult, I'm really not too far off, the main difference between me and it being it's transcribing a dialect with /e/ and /e:/~/ej distinct, so it uses ē for the long vowel / diphthong and é for the short one, whereas I, not having the short vowel, just use é for the diphthing;
   2. For Sicilian, I know of two ways to spell autoctonous sounds, but I decided to devise my own conventions;
   3. For Neapolitan, there are three conventions regarding the spelling of the schwa sound: Neapolitan proper spells schwas as what they were before vowel reduction; Abruzzese dialects (as well as the San Benedetto del Tronto dialect, and perhaps others as well) use e for the schwa; Facebook illiterate dialect speakers don't write the schwa at all; as for me, I usually stick to whatever convention the dialect I'm working with uses, perhaps marking schwas with some diacritic; I guess it's typically using overdotted non-reduced vowels in Neapolitan proper, and ë or ė for other "nap-code" dialects;
   4. For Mende, there are distinct conventions as regards: vowel lengthe, either using macrons or doubling vowels; and e/ɛ and o/ɔ, where these symbols are used sometimes, the distinction is sometimes ignored, and sometimes you find ẹ/e (or e/ẹ?) and o/ọ (or viceversa), and then there is o̱ which I assumed was I-don't-recall-which of these sounds; I use e/ɛ, o/ɔ, and macrons;
3. Languages with a standard orthography that uses a non-Latin alphabet: Russian, Ukrainian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Modern and Ancient Greek, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Bulgarian, Hebrew; for the native orthography, no issue; for the transliteration, as with any transliteration, I strive for back-transliteratability as well as phonetic transparency; let's discuss each language:
   
   1. My romanization of Russian is a modification of some "standard" systems; here's how I transliterate each Cyrillic letter:
      

      Аа

      Бб

      Вв

      Гг

      Дд

      Ее

      Ёё

      Жж

      Зз

      Ии

      Йй

      Кк

      Лл

      Мм

      Нн

      Оо

      Пп

      Рр

      Сс

      Тт

      Aa

      Bb

      Vv

      Gg

      Dd

      Ĵe ĵe

      Ĵo ĵo

      Žž

      Zz

      Ii

      Jj

      Kk

      Ll

      Mm

      Nn

      Oo

      Pp

      Rr

      Ss

      Tt

      
      
      

      Уу

      Фф

      Хх

      Цц

      Чч

      Шш

      Щщ

      Ъъ

      Ыы

      Ьь

      Ээ

      Юю

      Яя

      Uu

      Ff

      Kh kh

      Ts ts

      Ćć (except when it's pronounced š, in which case it's Čč)

      Šš

      Śś

      `

      Yy

      '

      Ee

      Ĵu ĵu

      Ĵa ĵa

      
      So there is one case where I privileged phonetic transparency over back-transliteratability: the choice not to use c for the ts sound; note that the ĵ has a circumflex, which was placed there specifically to have back-transliteratability; I originally used carons instead, but ě́ and similar didn't render well in the captions for this video (or was it the title?), so I switched; NOTE: I was checking up transliteration explanations when I went «Oh, so I use ` for the tvĵórdyj znak?», so I may have transliterated that differently or not at all in some places;
   2. I honestly haven't put much thought into how I transliterate Ukranian;
   3. For Mandarin, the native orthography is well-standardized, and the transliteration I use is Pinyin; there may be some oscillation on whether I mark "neutered" tones as neuter or as what the character's root tone is, for example 个 is gè, but is often pronounced ge; I suspect I normally mark that because Google does, and I fix Google's Pinyin when I transliterate stuff here rather than transliterating from scratch; spaces are mostly placed according to dictionary words, save for what I do with aspect particles guò le zhe, which I usually stick only to verbs; I use dashes for doubled verbs and adjectives, I think, and perhaps for some other 4-char phrases too;
   4. For Cantonese, the orthography is well-established, and the transliteration is Jyutping with tone numbers and dashes for syllable division within words; when I worked on my first Cantonese song, I was transliterating with Wiktionary which uses Yale, then I discovered CantoDict, a much more complete (at least at the time) dictionary using Jyutping; the switch may have left hybrids in my old file, so some transliterations may still be hybrids;
   5. For Japanese, the orthography is… fuzzy; I probably tend to over-kanji-ize, since I use furigana on every kanji, though this trend may have reduced in recent times; the romanization is Hepburn in any case, «modulo using ou and ei as distinct from ō and ē which are reserved for おお and ええ and not applied to おう and えい; I wonder if I've ever attempted to distinguish ou and ei pronounced ō and ē from those pronounced ou and ei», well that used to be so, but now it works like this: if えい／おう is a long vowel, then ê/ô; if it's two vowels, then ei/ou; ē/ō are reserved for ええ／おお and エー／オー; there was a time where I used ei/ou for the monophthong and eï/oü for the two-vowel sequence, hopefully I got rid of all instances of that;
   6. For Modern and Ancient Greek, the orthography is well-established (except for some Modern words like μαντήλι/μαντίλι, though I believe the rule is now no eta in loanwords? In any case, in the specific example, I used the eta because my lyrics used it); as for transliteration, again, a compromise between back-transliterability and phonetic transparency; I'm too lazy to make another table, so here's the Greek alphabet as transliterated for Modern Greek: a-b-g-d-e-z-i̱-th-i-k-l-m-n-x-o-p-r-s-t-y-f-kh-ps-ō, but then you have αι ει οι υι = ä ë ö ÿ and αυ ευ = ay̆ ey̆ or af̆/av̆ ef̆/ev̆, and that should be all; as for Ancient, a-b-g-d-e-z-ē-th-i-k-l-m-n-x-o-p-r-s-t-y-ph-kh-ps-ō;
   7. For Korean, I use the Wiktionary's Revised transliterations; I don't really take cases of non-phonetic Hangul into account, but I haven't really thought much about this anyway;
   8. For Arabic, the standard transliteration is just outright stupid; I means, are you seriously having us distinguish LEFT AND RIGHT QUOTES? You gotta be kidding me, right? Since ayn sounds kind of like a nonstandard pronunciation of r I've heard in Italy, I decided that ř would be ayn (I mean, řayn), so the apostrophe is definitely 'ālif; for a few more remarks, I'll quote this post:
      
      The transliteration scheme is my own. In particular, I differ from the "standard" transliteration in the following respects: I use ŕ for the left-quote transliterating ŕayn (ع), because using left-quote and right-quote for two different sounds dounds like complete madness to me, and because the sound of ŕayn sounds like a particular kind of "r moscia" (nonstandard pronunciation of the Italian phoneme /r/); I prefer using th and dh to ṯ and ḏ for the dental fricatives (ث and ذ), because it is quicker to type and easier to read; I use gh for ghayn (غ), for similar reasongs to th and dh; I guess I did not have to think about what to do with kha (خ), but either kh or x are fine: x is IPA, kh is just as easy to type and read; standard probably has ḵ, which I doff for the same reasongs as ṯ and ḏ; should ta-ha, dal-ha or kaf-ha ever occur, to avoid confusion with tha, dhal and kha, I'd use t.h, d.h and k.h respectively; I doffed š for šin in favor of sh, with the same solution to sin-ha combinations, for the same reasons.
      And then I promptly forget about everything said above in my other Arabic post Problems, where the romanization is compatible with the following table:
      

      ا

      ب

      ت

      ث

      ج

      ح

      خ

      د

      ذ

      ر

      ز

      س

      ش

      ص

      ض

      ط

      ظ

      ع

      غ

      ف

      ق

      ک

      ل

      م

      ن

      ه

      و

      ی

      '/ā

      b

      t

      ṯ

      j

      ḥ

      x

      d

      ḏ

      r

      z

      s

      š

      ṣ

      ḍ

      ṭ

      ẓ

      `

      ğ

      f

      q

      k

      l

      m

      w/ū

      n

      h

      y/ī

      
      
   9. For Hindi, I use the Devanagari standard orthography as a reference for back-transliteratability; now, Hindi has this perfect system which could be fully phonetic… and then it decides to not use it as such; more specifically, it mutes a bunch of schwas, and virtually regularly turns "aha" into /ɛh(ɛ)/, like in the word पहले, which looks like "pahale" but is actually "peh(e)le", and "ahu" and "uha" into /ɔhɔ/, as in बहुत "bahut", pronounced "bohot"; for back-transliteratability, I use ä for /e/s that are spelled a, å and ů for a and u pronounced o (so "båhůt", "můhåbbat"), and ' to indicate mute schwas, so the word from before is "päh'le"; then it happens that some normally-muted schwas resurface in singing, in which case I use a literal schwa, ǝ; for example, एक looks like eka, but is actually pronounced ek', except in "ekǝ din" found in this video; I use ai and au for ऐ and औ, as is standard; then there is the matter of anusvāra and candrabindu; normally, these are nasalizing diacritics: put one on इ i, and it becomes nasalized; in that case, I use ṅ for the anusvāra and ṃ for the candrabindu; for example, the verb "to be" (honā) conjugates हूँ, है, है, हैं, हो, हैं, a.k.a. hūṃ, hai, hai, haiṅ, ho, haiṅ; then there's words like चांद or संबंध, which look like cāṅd' and saṅbaṅdh', but where the anusvāras are pronounced as nasals that assimilate to the next consonant; I use ń in those cases, so cāńd' and sańbańdh'; I don't know if candrabindus can do that, but if they can and I ever find one that does, I'll definitely use ḿ; I believe that's all; note that this was conceived over a long time, so there may be leftover errors that I missed when correcting posts – especially in the one I haven't corrected yet [as of the last edit to this post, I wonder if by 1/7/21 I had done that…]; this also means that the same word in Hindi or Urdu spelling would be transliterated differently;
   10. Speaking of, let's deal with the ABSOLUTE MESS that the Urdu script is; let's make a table of letters, transliterations, and letter names:
       

       ا

       ب

       پ

       ت

       ٹ

       ث

       ج

       چ

       ح

       خ

       د

       ڈ

       ذ

       ر

       ڑ

       ز

       ژ

       س

       ش

       ص

       ض

       ط

       ظ

       ', â

       b

       p

       t

       ṭ

       s̱

       j

       c

       h

       x

       d

       ḍ

       ẕ

       r

       ṛ

       z

       ž

       s

       š

       ṡ

       ẑ

       ṫ

       ż

       'alif

       bê

       pê

       tê

       ṭê

       s̱ê

       jîm

       cê

       baṛî hê huttî hê

       xê

       dâl

       ḍâl

       ẕâl

       rê

       ṛê

       zê

       žê

       sîn

       šîn

       ṡẃâd

       ẑẃâd

       ṫôê

       żôê

       
       
       

       ع

       غ

       ف

       ق

       ک

       گ

       ل

       م

       ن

       ں

       و

       ه

       ھ

       ی

       ے

       ؤ ,ئ ,إ/أ

       `

       ğ

       f

       q

       k

       g

       l

       m

       n

       ṅ, ṇ

       w, û, ô, ô̱, ŭ

       ḥ, ĥ

       ẖ

       y, î, ě, ě̱, ẹ̌, ĭ?

       ê, ê̱

       '', ŷ, ŵ

       `ě̱n

       ğě̱n

       fê

       qâf

       kâf

       gâf

       lâm

       mîm

       nûn

       nûn ğunnaĥ

       wâŵo

       gôl ḥê cḫôṭî ḥê

       dô cašmî ḥê

       cḫôṭî yê

       baṛî yê

       'alif hamzaĥ, yê hamzaĥ, wâŵo hamzaĥ

       
       If you're going «What the heck?!», that's exactly what I thought; a few remarks:
       • First of all, ẃ is probably ONLY in the names ṡẃâd and ẑẃâd, because there is a w in the pronunciation, but it is not written; and I thought the consonants were the strong point of Urdu…;
       • Next up, yes, s̱ê and sîn and ṡẃâd, as well as zê and ẕâl and ẑẃâd and żôê, as well as tê and ṫôê, are pronounced exactly the same; they are purely etymological distinction for Arabic terms;
       • ḫ just indicates the aspiration of the previous consonant;
       • As for baṛî hê and cḫôṭî ḥê, they are pronounced the same, except when the latter is silent, in which case I write ĥ;
       • Nûn ğunnaĥ was apparently created to nasalize vowels, hence my ṅ, the same as for the anusvār' in Hindi; they even created ڻ for the retroflex nasal ṇ, it would seem; and then I find दर्पण darpaṇ' spelled with a nûn ğunnaĥ; like WTF? So I guess they ditched the specific character, and used nûn ğunnaĥ for ṇ too, hence my double transliteration; also, I think medial and initial forms of nûn ğunnaĥ and of plain nûn coincide?
       • For `ě̱n, I always make it a silent `; some argue it represents vowels in some places, but I bet it's only ever found in (ultimately) Arabic loans, where it was an actual /ʕ/, hence my `;
       • And speaking of vowels, they are a complete mess; so, 'alif is used either as etymological, in which case I use ', or to represent a long a (the आ ā of Hindi), in which case I use â; I haven't developed a convention for 'alif madda (whatever that is spelled like), i.e. آ, but I guess it would have to be 'â;
       • Wâŵo is either w, its root sound, or used to represent the sounds ओ o and औ au and उ u and ऊ ū of Hindi, which I render respectively as ô, ô̱ (note the underline), ŭ, and û; because not writing short vowels was bad enough, now we hacve some of them written and some not, and I think there are also some unwritten ऊ ū, and am pretty sure some ओ o and औ au aren't written either;
       • Yê is the biggest mess of all; well, *"the yê's are"; so, yê is of couirse used for y, and for long ई ī, which I render y and î respectively; all good there; then you have ए e and ऐ ai in Hindustani, right? What do you do for those? Apparently they created baṛî yê ad hoc… and then restricted it to word end; yes, you heard that right; they create a glyph for two sounds, and then restrict it to the end of words, and use, guess what, yê (I mean cḫôṭî yê) for those same sounds in other positions; like, seriously? Anyway, when ě = ए e spelled with cḫôṭî yê, ê = ए e spelled with baṛî yê, ě̱ = ऐ ai spelled with cḫôṭî yê, ê̱ = ऐ ai spelled with baṛî yê, and then since I'm crazy I decided I would specify when something is an ezafe (you know that Persian grammar construct which Urdu borrowed? Yeah, that one), and went with ẹ̌; that is AFAIK pronounced as Hindi ए e, never ऐ ai, and that is a blessing because I couldn't render such a difference, that would be too many diacritics; finally, as with w, I suppose y could also happen to write short इ i at times, which is why I have "ĭ?";
       • Then we have the hamza carriers, which are their consonant representations with a circumflex, except for 'alif hamzaĥ where apostrophe-circumflex '̂ would look terrible, so I just gave up some degree of back-transliteratability – or did I? You judge if '' can be mistaken for double 'alif; actually, I think that's disallowed, and the madda ˜ was invented in Arabic just to avoid that combo; btw, WTH is up with the keyboard layout that doesn't have any of these except for ŷ, which it has on layer 1? I don't think a lone hamzaĥ is allowed in Urdu, so that is not a problem luckily;
       • I may have to come back to this because apparently ezafe can also be written with heh (see Persian below), but I haven't seen that yet in Urdu.
   11. For Persian, I don't exactly remember what conventions I developed; looking at this video, it seems I used ë for /e/ "written as heh" (including ezafes, transliterated -e when unwritten), separated plural marker hâ with a dash, used ř for ayn, č for če, ǧ for qaf, ' for alif (except for when I used ʔ instead, as in ʔAgë), š for shin, â for "long a", x for kh, ẃ for the mute w in bexẃâd which is pronounced bexâd, ṣ for ṣad (as opposed to s for sin), presumably underdots for all unmentioned emphatics, and ḥ for ḥe, and marked all written vowels with macrons (except of course for â);
       That was my original comment; I have since decided to actually develop a scheme to apply to posts and translations from after 1/7/21; this will transliterate the letters as follows:
       

       ا

       ب

       پ

       ت

       ٹ

       ج

       چ

       ح

       خ

       د

       ذ

       ر

       ز

       ژ

       س

       ش

       ص

       ض

       ط

       ظ

       ع

       غ

       ف

       ق

       ک

       گ

       ل

       م

       ن

       و

       ھ

       ی

       '/â

       b

       p

       t

       s̱

       j

       č

       h/ë

       x

       d

       ẕ

       r

       z

       ž

       s

       š

       ṣ

       ẑ

       ṭ

       ẓ

       `

       ğ

       f

       q

       k

       g

       l

       m

       n

       w/û/ô

       ẖ

       y/î/ê

       
       
       When I use ë, it means "vowel e spelled with he"; note that ezafes, progressive(?) mî's, and possessives are separated with dashes, so mî-konî, beh-et, etc;
   12. For Bulgarian, I didn't put much thought into it, I probably followed Wiktionary; look at this post and infer what you can;
   13. For Hebrew, I have two systems: one fully back-transliteratable, and one less cluttered and more readable; let's see a table of the transliterations of letters in the first system, make a couple remarks, and then see what changes in the second system:
       

       א

       ב

       ג

       ד

       ה

       ו

       ז

       ח

       ט

       י

       כך

       ל

       מם

       נן

       ס

       ע

       פף

       צץ

       ק

       ר

       ש

       ת

       '

       v/b

       g

       d

       ḥ

       v/ų/ǫ

       z

       ħ

       ṭ

       j/į/ę

       kh/k

       l

       m

       n

       ṣ

       `

       f/p

       tz

       q

       r

       s/sh

       t

       If dageshes were used more often, most pairs of transliterations would be no dagesh / dagesh, the exception being s/sh whcih depends on the also-omitted top dot; yod and vav are often used to mark vowels, hence the multiple transliterations, the ogonek showing the vowel in question is marked; I also separate articles from nouns and conjunctions and prepositions from whatever follows them with dashes, so you see things like l-i for "in me", shel-i for "of me" (=my, mine), and ḥa-kavód for "the respect"; the transcription was made a bit carelessly at times, but it should drop the ogoneks (ǫ ų į ę), the ḥ (meaning ḥeḥ is effectively not transliterated in the transcription), and the ' and ` (so 'alef and `ayn are also untransliterated); I will make sure that is all the differences;
4. Languages without a standard orthography or a standard script: Min Nan, Hakka, Teochew; I've covered all of these in this post.