| Author | Topic: Add: All through the Night | |
| dmcg | Posted - 12 Mar 05 - 11:16 am | |
Deep the silence round us spreading, All through the night; Dark the path that we are treading, All through the night. Still the coming day discerning, By the hope within us burning, To the dawn our footsteps turning, All through the night. Star of Faith the dark adorning All through the night; Leads us fearless t'wards the morning, All through the night. Though our hearts be wrapt in sorrow, From the hope of dawn we borrow Promise of a glad tomorrow, All through the night. Source: Singing Together, Autumn 1969, BBC Publications | ||
| Mary in Kentucky | Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 03:01 am | |
I've always wondered about translations. I guess because in this one I immediately thought of the words I've heard, "Sleep my child and peace attend thee." I wonder what the original Welsh words say...a literal translation...not necessarily rhyming. Any Welsh speakers...Jon? ;-) the original Welsh words (from here) Holl amrantau'r s�ªr ddywedant Ar hyd y nos "Dyma'r ffordd i fro gogoniant;" Ar hyd y nos Golau arall yw tywyllwch, I arddangos gwir brydferthwch, Teulu'r nefoedd mewn tawelwch, Ar hyd y nos. | ||
| masato sakurai | Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 03:19 am | |
Original Welsh and some translations are here. | ||
| Mary in Kentucky | Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 12:11 pm | |
Thanks Masato. I like to see a literal translation. I've noticed in listening to opera arias, the native language is so much prettier, so if I really like a particular aria, I try to learn the Italian words and then the meaning of those words. I'm always surprised at the license taken in so many translations. I guess the translaters try to make the words rhyme. | ||
| Mary in Kentucky | Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 12:16 pm | |
In carefully reading that link - I love the prose translation and the guide to pronunciation! | ||
| stuartlloyd (guest) |
Posted - 14 Sep 11 - 04:25 pm | |
Hi Mary! Glad you also like one of my favourite Welsh Songs! There are so many beautiful Welsh songs that it's easy to see why such a small country became famed the world over and known as the Land of Song! The page where you found the original Welsh lyrics has a pretty good translation of the original Welsh in the middle column.... As a singer and a linguist, I agree that it's best to know a language yourself to best) understand the true meaning of the song! People often come along and say, I like that song, I think I could write better words to it though, and the original meaning becomes lost as a new (sometimes better version of the words finds favour!) Welsh is a truly beautiful language... it is the oldest language in Western Europe still spoken.... a lot of Welsh's beauty comes from the double or treble 'meanings' of some words. There are still many words that are difficult to translate directly into it's nearest neighbour English. Words are often substituted for each other... but the sentiments expressed by the original language seldom do carry across. For this reason, I think, a lot of Welsh songs have failed to 'translate' well into other languages. Indeed some are seldom sung in any other language... which seems a great shame, because Wales does still hold on to some fantastic, magical tunes! Poets and Musicians have struggled to translate their works since time immemorial. The words they chose in their original piece of work have usually been selected for their 'deeper' /hidden meanings. Unfortunately (for a non Welsh speaker) Welsh poems have lots of 'hidden' rhyming: in English it's customary for the last syllable of a line to rhyme.... in Welsh, this is still the case, but Welsh poets chose the WORDS within a sentence to rhyme with other words in the SAME sentence!! (They do this by using a type of rhyming particular to Welsh called 'CYNGHANNEDD'... which dates back to the 9th century at least!) It's fantastically clever, skilled and intricate... that only a precious few can ever achieve any degree of skill, achievement or mastery! Moral of the story: need to learn a language to fully appreciate the meaning of the lyrics in exactly the same way as the author intended! Hope this helps! Stuart | ||
| Mary in Kentucky | Posted - 19 Dec 11 - 03:47 am | |
Thanks Stuart. | ||