Marlene's German lyrics closely follow the very simple English ones. Test your German familiarity. I do like one distinction, however:
Wann wird man je verstehen, [When will they ever learn,]
Wann wird man je verstehen? [When will they ever learn?]
The original phrase "when will they ever learn" grates on me because it blames others for the human condition. In the context of the original song, it was very much an "us vs. them" mentality. According to Pete Seeger and a very eager postwar generation, war was what other people did. Nowadays, war is what the US does; "others" are freedom fighters. The German version is one step closer to the truth and Google is a full measure closer to the truth:
Not "when will they ever learn"; not "when will one ever learn"; but rather -- when will we ever learn? It's the pronoun, you see.
Pete Seeger is credited with writing most of the song, but a lesser-known songwriter named Joe Hickerson (who is still alive?) nearly perfected it by turning the song into a circle. Another example of such a circular song is Zager and Evans' "In The Year 2525." Can anyone think of others?
The song is also an example of a now rare artistic device called Ubi Sunt.
13 comments:
The Christian Bible is an example of a "circular" piece of work in that its beginning is its end and vice versa.
I'm trying to think a feature film that has deployed this technique. "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" a famous short film which uses the device artfully. I suppose that Ambrose Bierce's short story did as well.
Today a woman tried to engage me in a political discussion, along the lines of "Trump will require something something something" it was a mishmash of hatred, paranoia and fear, bordering on hysteria. I really didn't want to know what she was driving at, but there is no upside to discussing such things with kooks.
What cracks me up is that she is from East Germany. Yeah, a Stasi chick lecturing me on loss of civil rights. I could only walk away ere I said something that I might regret. The words Commie Nazi were right on the tip of my tongue, but I left them unsaid. People have no idea how fed up some of us are with statists.
@edutcher: I share your opinion of Pete Seeger. However, the song was a big hit (The Kingston Trio were first to record it) and it will remain so. I'd rather exam that than the man behind it.
1960 was a long time ago (I remember it all too well), how big a hit it was, I can't say, but I know it became an anthem for the Lefties.
Any number of vehicles use the device; Hamlet, in its own way (the play's the thing wherein we'll catch the conscience of the king). Also Tom Jones' song "The Green, Green Grass Of Home".
Sixty Grit said...
Today a woman tried to engage me in a political discussion, along the lines of "Trump will require something something something" it was a mishmash of hatred, paranoia and fear, bordering on hysteria. I really didn't want to know what she was driving at, but there is no upside to discussing such things with kooks.
What cracks me up is that she is from East Germany. Yeah, a Stasi chick lecturing me on loss of civil rights.
Keep in mind people who have come over from the Dark Side are very wary of perceived moves against freedom. It may have been a case of crossed signals.
I had the pleasure of working with several Russian emigres who were very pro-American (much to the chagrin of a certain ponytail-and-sandals Lefty) who were also always a little suspicious of the machinations of American politics. I also had the honor of working with a Polish and a Rumanian lady who felt much the same.
Just for fun, I see Trump wants a big venue for his acceptance speech in Cleveland. As Progressive field is one of the options, I just wish Peter B Lewis was alive to see it happen in his stadium.
Just for fun, I see Trump wants a big venue for his acceptance speech in Cleveland.
Critics will say he wants his own Luitspoldarena.
I do hope that it's a bowl shaped place -- those flat venues suck for the average attendee. It must have sucked for the average Nazi at the Nuremberg rallies.
The great thing about Lefties like Seeger is how "flexible" they are. When it looks like a war against the commies, they'll sing peace songs. When its a war the Left approves, then the 'peace songs' go into the closet.
Good ol' Pete was writing songs in favor the Spanish Civil war, then became a peacenik from Sept 1939-June 22, 1941, then was a kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out type until May 1945, and then went back into peacenik mode.
I'm not sure how Good Ol' Pete felt about the Gulf war in 1991. IRC, he wasn't writing any peace songs.
I have known Russians, Romanians, Cubans, and Poles who, having lived through communism, were strongly opposed to it. One Romanian couple I worked with walked to freedom, knowing they could have been killed at any point in their journey. The appreciated what America, in those days, offered.
Now, not so much. The fact that that woman wants to recreate East Germany over here is very annoying to me. But I try not to goose step in front of her.
Music does the circular thing with Leitmotifs. I'm looking for movies that do it. "Citizen Kane" sort of did it.
The thing about Seeger is that he so totally looked the part of a noble hippie commie. Right out of central casting.
Leitmotifs. Jaws, LOTR, Dark Knight joker theme, Good Bad and Ugly, M, Inglorious Bastards.
Will trump have classical columns holding up a ... holding up a ... I dunno, a frame for his imperial self, or will he just manage the best deals possible for righteous inaugural background?
Will Trump's election cause the oceans to reverse their (until now) ineluctable rise of doom, or will Trump just manage the best deal possible with the ocean for the United States. Will Trump make the U.S. stop being the ocean's biggest chump?
Will Trump stop anthropomorphic global climate change or will Trump just make the best deal for the U.S. with atmospheric carbon dioxide?
The future, Kay Sarah, Kay Sarah, the future is ours to see, Kay Sarah Sarah.
Well I don't know the answer to any of these puzzling and troubling questions and STOP calling me Kay Sarah.
Anti-war songs have a particular poignance when sung in German.........The dogs that don't bark. The Vietnamese people paid a heavy price to install a government than managed to combine crony capitalism, ethnic cleansing, and socialism in one big, ugly ball of shit that they keep rolling up and down the hill. Where are the protest songs?
Google translate searches its foreign books for the phrases and then whether there's any translation of the book and if so gives you the translator's translation; otherwise it wings it.
Reportedly. It's big data, not machine intelligence.
Post a Comment