These lines from Bernstein/Sondheim’s “America” have long pleased and puzzled me. The lyricist’s problem was to find a rhyme for “Manhattan”; his solution was to take an English idiom and reverse it, thereby making nonsense of it. A possible justification is sociolinguistic: Anita shows her eagerness to fit into her new country by taking an English idiom and using it with enthusiasm, all the while not getting it right…
The translator’s problem was to find an equivalent idiom in French, and then turn it on its head. I asked the question on Quora and got many good suggestions (see here and here), which I was partly inspired by in coming up with my equivalent.
The French lines do not fit in with the rhythm of the original music, but at least they are rhyming decasyllables.
Mad Beppo says
These lines from Bernstein/Sondheim’s “America” have long pleased and puzzled me. The lyricist’s problem was to find a rhyme for “Manhattan”; his solution was to take an English idiom and reverse it, thereby making nonsense of it. A possible justification is sociolinguistic: Anita shows her eagerness to fit into her new country by taking an English idiom and using it with enthusiasm, all the while not getting it right…
The translator’s problem was to find an equivalent idiom in French, and then turn it on its head. I asked the question on Quora and got many good suggestions (see here and here), which I was partly inspired by in coming up with my equivalent.
The French lines do not fit in with the rhythm of the original music, but at least they are rhyming decasyllables.
Juliet Eyre Cunningham says
Thumbs UP!
Mr. T says
I approve of this translation!