I recently heard a song by Isabelle Boulay on a French radio station. I was suprised how grabbed I was by her voice given that her music is not generally of the genre that immediately catches my attention.

As I do in these circumstances, I went in search of the samples that accompany MP3 downloads these days and found the album Nos Lendemains (Our tomorrows) in the UK iTunes store.

I was not suprised to find that her previous album De retour à la source was nominated for the Canadian Juno Award for francophone album of the year in 2008 which was eventually won by Daniel Bélanger who was one of the earliest singers I translated on this site.

I suspect that I will soon return to the world of distorted guitars, male vocals and ska, but first here is a translation of a song from Nos Lendemains called Ton Histoire (Your story).

I’ve done something with this translation that I’ve not attempted before.

Whenever I translate on this blog I concentrate first and foremost on conveying the meaning of the original lyrics trying to keep as much as possible the feeling of a song. However, this is the first translation where I have consciously attempted to make the translation poetic, so that it could indeed by sung over the same tune.

For example, here is the first verse…

…here is how I translated it originally…

…and here is my attempt at adding a little flavour…

As you can see I am clearly in no danger of becoming the next Poet Laureate.

When a professional translates a song for the very purpose of being recorded in a new language, he or she will more often than not have to restructure, rewrite, or juggle large chunks of the song in order to create a good song in the new language. As you can see I’ve not done that here.

Once upon a time I translated a tremendously famous song by Charles Aznavour called Hier Encore. I gave the original French, my translation and provided the YouTube video of the actual English recording of the song. You can clearly see the art of the professional translator in that post.

With this translation of Ton Histoire I have, as always, provided certain vocabulary and expressions prior to the lyrics. You can therefore check out for yourself where I may have taken a few liberties with the flavour of words.

I’m not sure how well it worked but it’s an experiment that I enjoyed and may try again in the future. Suggestions welcome!