LOTR in Other Languages

[Shadowfax]

Yes, read it in English; you will like it very much!

[congressmn]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
Yes, read it in English; you will like it very much!

Read in English and chill.

Translations are never 100% true to the original. I am sure the Swedish translator got it quite wrong, or maybe not its just the direct translations by Jonathan that is so hilarious.

maybe he shud try to translate the entire Swedish version. LoL that would be quite something.

I can imagine somthing like this :
"from the ashes a light shall be woke"
"A fire fron the shadows shall spring"

ok not funny. lets wait for jonathan's translation. Would u do us the honor Jonathan?

[Baby-K]

I can't say that we have LotR in any other languages besides English here - which is probably a good thing since it would be a helluva task trying to translate it to the 10 other official languages in SA. Perhaps we should translate it to funnagalo (can't spell that).

[Falagar]

Read LotR in both English and Norwegian, and of course english is best.

[Earniel]

to add to the confusion: The Dutch translation.

Drie Ringen voor de Elfenkoningen op aard'
Zeven voor de Dwergenvorsten in hun zalen schoon,
Negen voor de Mensen, die de dood niet spaart,
Eén voor de Zwarte Heerser op zijn zwarte troon
In Mordor, waar de schimmen zijn
Eén Ring om allen te regeren, Eén Ring om hen te vinden,
Eén Ring die hen brengen zal en in de duisternis binden,
In Mordor, waar de schimmen zijn.

The 'direct' English translation.

Three Rings for the Elvenkings on earth,
Seven for the Dwarvenmonarchs in their halls fair,
Nine for the Men who death doesn't spare,
One for the Black Ruler in his black throne
In Mordor, where the shadows are
One Ring to rule all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring that shall bring them and in the darkness bind,
In Mordor, where the schadows are.

Well, direct translation is perhaps a little off, since I had to change the sytaxis in the translation to make a more or less normal English sentence. In the Dutch translation, the verb is put sometimes at the end of the sentence, especially in the last sentences.

The Dutch word 'heerser' could also signify 'lord' but 'ruler is a more closer translation. The same thing goes for 'vorst' which could also be translated as 'king' or 'lord' but leans closer to the meaning of 'sovereign' of 'monarch'.

And by now I bet everone has already fallen asleep.

[Coney]

This thread reminds me of the Chef character in the Muppets (no offence intended).

Still I shouldn't draw comparisons.......I have trouble with my native language, never mind any others

[Artanis]

Eärniel, it's amazing how written Dutch resembles Norwegian. I think I could have guessed most of the meaning of that verse, if I hadn't known it before.

Now if you had spoken the verse in Dutch, it would have been another story

Baby-K, forgive my ignorance, but is English your native language?

[FrodoFriend]

Ooh, I'd better find a Hungarian copy and see what the verse is like...

[Jonathan]

Originally posted by congressmn
maybe he shud try to translate the entire Swedish version. LoL that would be quite something.

NO, I will not post a direct translation of the entire Swedish version, do you have any idea of how much time that kind of work would consume?
Did you know that if you say "I know you" in Sweden and translates the sentence word by word into English, you get this: "I feel again you"?

Eärniel, I really liked the Dutch version. I was almost able to read it in Dutch

Coney, The Chef of the Muppets is Swedish, right?
Something just came to my mind; Just as every mad scientist you can see on TV talks with a German accent, the Reaper (Death) talks with a Swedish accent (Thanks to the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's film "The Seventh Seal")

[Shadowfax]

Okay, here's the French version:

Trois anneaux pour les Rois Elfes sous le soleil,
Sept pour les Seigneurs Nains dans leurs demeures de pierre,
Neuf pour les Hommes mortels, destinés au trépas,
Un pour le Seigneur ténébreux sur son sombre trône
Dans le pays de Mordor où s'étendent les ombres,
Un anneau pour les gouverner tous,
Un anneau pour les trouver,
Un anneau pour les amener tous et dans les ténèbres les lier
Au pays de Mordor où s'étendent les ombres.


And here's the direct translation:

Three rings for the Elf Kings under the sun,
Seven for the Dwarf Lords in their residences of stone,
Nine for the mortal Men, destined to death,
One for the dark Lord on his dark throne
In the country of Mordor where the shadows extend,
One ring to govern them all,
One ring to find them,
One ring to bring them all and in the dark bind them
In the country of Mordor where the shadows extend.

That's pretty close to the English, wouldn't you say?

[Earniel]

Now if you had spoken the verse in Dutch, it would have been another story

Yes, I guess it would. Too bad, I can't let you hear it. Dutch vowels sound often very different from the way English vowels are pronounced.

I'm not suprised you can understand much of it, a girl I knew from Danemark could also understand much of what I said in Dutch, probably because it's close to German in many aspects.

Ooh, thank you for the French translation, Shadowfax! That I can read!

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Well, I never read the Lord of the Rings in Portugal, but I did pick up a copy of the Silmarillion and read it a bit at Jumbo! If I remember, here's the way it went:

No principio, fosse o Unico, que chamam-se Iluvatar na lingua elfica...

That's all I remember: It was a long time ago: The translation comes out to this:

In the beginning, there was the Only/Unique, whom they called Iluvatar in the elfic tongue...

Not too bad.

[LuthienTinuviel]

oops double post.
stupid 90 second rule

[LuthienTinuviel]

oh god, coney, your avatar! PLASTIC JESUS! that's the name of the demo tape that my best bud scott is doing!

anyways, i should get it in spanish... lemme go see if i's can do it. and it might take me awhile, but i can probably also get it in german too... maybe.
this is the sweetest thread ever, i love reading things in other languages.

[Baby-K]

Originally posted by Artanis
Eärniel, it's amazing how written Dutch resembles Norwegian. I think I could have guessed most of the meaning of that verse, if I hadn't known it before.

Now if you had spoken the verse in Dutch, it would have been another story

Baby-K, forgive my ignorance, but is English your native language?

Nope - English is my second language - I am actually Afrikaans, but English & some african languages were compulsory subjects at school, so I speak English & Afrikaans fluently & I can get on in Zulu & Northern Sotho. I was looking at translating the first quote you guys posted, but I wouldn't be able to do it justice as I would have to translate to Afrikaans & from there to Zulu & Sotho, but the african languages do not have some of the words which means that you have to translate to the nearest possible word (or give a description of the thing that is being discussed) when you translate back to English it sounds more like a recipe than a LotR quote

[FrodoFriend]

OK, here's the Hungarian!

Három Gyûrû ragyogjon a tünde-királyok kezén,
Hét a nemes törpök jussa,kiknek háza cifra kõ,
Kilencet halandó ember ujján csillantson a fény,
Egyet hordjon a Sötét Úr, szolganyájat terelõ,
Mordor éjfekete földjén, sûrû árnyak mezején.
Egy Gyûrû mind fölött, Egy Gyûrû kegyetlen,
Egy a sötétbe zár, bilincs az Egyetlen,
Mordor éjfekete földjén, sûrû árnyak mezején.

Three Rings to shine in the hands of the Elven Kings,
Seven to fall to the noble Dwarves, whose houses are of gaudy stone,
Nine to kindle the light on the fingers of Mortal Men,
One for the Dark Lord to carry, some kind of deflector (?),
On Mordor's midnight-black earth, the meadow of dense shadows.
One Ring above all, One Ring unmerciful,
One to shut into darkness, the One is a manacle,
On Mordor's midnight-black earth, the meadow of dense shadows.

Pretty cool, though I'm not sure about the whole deflector thing... I couldn't figure out what szolganyájat means.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Very nicely written, indeed (except the deflector?). While not accurate, it gives an interesting flavor of the Ring rhyme; a very interesting flavor indeed.

[Earniel]

Yes, very interesting. And a very poetic translation. "meadow of dense shadows" Pretty....

[Jonathan]

Into how many languages has LotR been translated?

[congressmn]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by FrodoFriend
[B]OK, here's the Hungarian!

Három Gyûrû ragyogjon a tünde-királyok kezén,
Hét a nemes törpök jussa,kiknek háza cifra kõ,
Kilencet halandó ember ujján csillantson a fény,
Egyet hordjon a Sötét Úr, szolganyájat terelõ,
Mordor éjfekete földjén, sûrû árnyak mezején.
Egy Gyûrû mind fölött, Egy Gyûrû kegyetlen,
Egy a sötétbe zár, bilincs az Egyetlen,
Mordor éjfekete földjén, sûrû árnyak mezején.

Three Rings to shine in the hands of the Elven Kings,
Seven to fall to the noble Dwarves, whose houses are of gaudy stone,
Nine to kindle the light on the fingers of Mortal Men,
One for the Dark Lord to carry, some kind of deflector (?),
On Mordor's midnight-black earth, the meadow of dense shadows.
One Ring above all, One Ring unmerciful,
One to shut into darkness, the One is a manacle,
On Mordor's midnight-black earth, the meadow of dense shadows.

ok the hungarian one beats it all.