2023, Theatre, Travel, Uncategorized, Words

Wicked in Swedish

24 Comments

Last year our church choir director and her husband sponsored a foreign exchange student from Sweden. She was a lovely girl named Hedwig who fit in very well with the host family and the community. The family has stayed in contact with the girl and her family in Sweden.

Hedwig’s mother is a costumer for a Swedish opera company. Recently, the opera company put on a production of Wicked translated into Swedish. Our director heard a brief recording of the production, and said it was very odd to hear Defying Gravity sung in Swedish. I guess Stephen Schwartz, the composer, even came over make necessary changes in the production.

I can’t imagine how a person could translate lyrics from one language to another if the lyrics had to rhyme. I don’t know if I like hearing productions in their original languages with subtitles. I don’t know if I like translations from the original language. Such a dilemma.

What English theatre or opera production would you like to see translated into a different language? What non-English production would you like to see translated into English? Where would you have wanted to be a foreign exchange student?

24 thoughts on “Wicked in Swedish”

  1. I went to Taiwan in 1982 and spent several years learning Taiwanese (not Mandarin). In 1993 I was thrown in at the deep end to serve as a simultaneous translator for an annual meeting where there would be a handful of foreign guests. I got enough compliments, and the organizers of the meeting few enough complaints, so that my “sub-function” as a translator for the rest of my years there (until I retired and left in 2018). 1993 was the first step for spoken translation. 4 years later I was asked to do translate someone’s article. In 2000 my entire job was shifted so that translation became its main focus. Whether I got good at it or not is immaterial, but I THOUGHT I was good.
    In 2004 I translated a hymn book. Not too hard, because most of it was assembled from existing Taiwanese translations of Western stuff. I just had to find the things that had NEVER been in English (stuff that came from Japan, for instance). Translating for rhyme and “fitting into” the tune was a challenge. I eventually just looked at what was in front of me and rewrote the ideas there into English that “sang”. I imagine that’s what the Swedes did with much of “Wicked”. That is the ONLY way it really can work.

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  3. I think it would be hilarious to see The Sound of Music in French. Les collines sont vivantes…

    My first choice would have been France, with second Norway or Sweden right behind, because of ancestry. Now I think Wales, another part of my genelogy…

    Interesting that I never thought to apply. My sister did a summer in Leeds, in Yorkshire I think…

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    1. A meaningful song in French could be written to that tune and fit well into the film without being a translation. Just use the tune and the sentiment, and write a new one. Whether in French, Norge, Swedish or even Yorkshire dialect. It could be done.

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  4. I go to the opera movies a lot, and most of them are in some other language with subtitles. I wouldn’t know if it mattered or not if I could understand them in the original language. But I supposed the rhythm would be different. The few written and sung in English don’t make any more sense to me than the foreign ones.

    Being an exchange student ANYWHERE would be interesting, don’t you think?

    (Ben if needed)

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    1. I have no facility for learning a second language. Struggled with Spanish in high school and college. Have wondered if immersion would work. I have the ability to understand easily how languages work. I was offered a graduate fellowship in linguistics I did not apply for. You would think the one would turn into the other. Both my children learn second third and fourth languages very easily.
      Americans I suspect think Swedish sounds like the Swedish chef. Maybe some of the old romantic operettas in Japanese would be an interesting cross culture experience. I am wearing my old Barrow Alaska sweat shirt. I was thinking I should try to get one with its new Inupiak name.

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    2. At some point during the pandemic, The Metropolitan Opera streamed lots of different operas. English subtitles were available for most of them. That’s when I discovered that the beauty of the music and the voices are what I love about opera. It’s definitely not the story lines, characters, and lyrics of most operas that appeal to me.

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  5. I really wanted to be an exchange student and I would have gone anywhere. I was incredibly involved in the AFS club in high school to the point where the committee of adults who made the decision about whose name got sent to New York were afraid that if they chose me, it would seem like favoritism. This was told to me about a year after the decision was made. Anyway, of the two young women who were chosen instead of me, one didn’t get cleared by New York, and the other one got cleared, but only for summer travel. That made me feel somewhat better. I did have an AFS brother from France, Pierre. Interesting year, although I am sad to say that my family did eventually lose touch with Pierre. I’ve googled him a few times over the years and I haven’t been able to find him.

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    1. My younger niece traveled to Switzerland and France visiting AFS students who stayed in my sister’s home. I believe she’s still in touch with both of them. Nice connection to have.

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  7. I would never have had the language skills to be a foreign exchange student.

    I’ve also wondered often how people manage to translate lyrics while preserving the rhyme patterns. I’m sure it sometimes results in some strange phrasings.

    Maybe someone can explain to me the odd translation of the Mavericks’ song Ven Hacia Mi. I believe the original version was in Spanish. There is an English version, Come Unto Me, as well. There’s a bridge where, in English, Raul Malo sings:

    For here I am and I will stay
    To love you better, come what may
    To long for you in every way
    To fight for you another day, ayee, ayee, ayee, ay…

    The Spanish version goes like this:

    Aquí estoy y quedaré
    Para ignorarte otra vez
    Y pase lo que pasará
    Para luchar un día más
    Y más y más y más y más
    Más y más
    Más y más…..

    I know just enough Spanish to know the “más y más” is “more and more”. In the English version, it becomes just a repetition of the “day” stretched into multiple syllables, and it sounds natural that way, in fact, it seems, to my ears, an improvement on the Spanish.

    However, if I run the entire thing through Google translate, I get this:

    Here I am and I will remain
    To ignore you again
    And whatever will happen
    To fight one more day
    And more and more and more and more
    More and more
    More and more…

    So… “ignore you again”? Where did that come from? Google translate seems to have done a faceplant on this one.

    For your enjoyment, the youTubes follow.

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  8. Years ago, I saw a Danish production of My Fair Lady. It was brilliant. I was really impressed by the quality of the Danish lyrics; they captured the spirit of the original but were not a literal word for word translation.

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