Marie Antoinette Part Five

Drumroll please!

It's worth saying that I embedded this video before it finished uploading. If you see this post and the video doesn't work then we've had last minute technical problems; more that possible!



And now for the, crossposted to my personal blog, post regarding this part

Sorry for the delay with this but it's finally online.

The exact translation in this video is probably a bit sloppy. I'm really out of practice with German which feels weird. It's almost like my old Elisabeth days when I had to stop and look things up every five minutes. Okay, in my really old Elisabeth days I had to look things up every five seconds but I digress. I was also rushing with this part to attempt to get it online and finished it at three a.m.. It's been three months since I uploaded the last part and, although I have good excuse, I feel really bad about that.

Claudia, a friend of mine from Austria, helped me with a line that was causing me real trouble so thank you to her <3

Also, I still can't get accents to render properly on my hard subbing so some words are missing accents. Of course, this doesn't really affect English but this musical does like to chuck in the odd bit of French (translations below).

Anyway, talking about the video:

Axel has this lovely line where he says 'Wir sind freier als die meisten Menschen.' (We're freer than many people). It's a lovely concept. Although they're unhappy he knows that, in comparison, they're lucky and shouldn't complain. Annoyingly, free isn't commonly seen in a comparative fashion, and I'm unsure if technically it can be as you're either free or not. Apparently, there is a word "freer" so that's the one I used.

Maskenspiel is translated as masque not masquerade. A masque is a kind of big entertainment play dance song thing put on by players (within courts). Traditionally, masks would be worn by the players so this is a big metaphorical thing beyond just saying "we wear masks". A masquerade, is a ball at which people wore masks so slight difference :-)

Translations:

Mainly French, again, with a bit of Latin. My Latin is very rusty as I learned it many years ago so may not be accurate. Axel also 'translates it' in the musical. In fact, my French is getting rusty too but that's a complete other story!

Trés jolie, ne c'est pas? - Very pretty, isn't it?

Oui - Yes

Bon soir, Monsieur Orléans! - Good Evening Mr. Orléans!

Palais Royal - Royal Palace

Non! - No

Bien sur. - For sure.

Bien oui - Well yes

S'il vous plaît! - If you please (also means just "please")

Pour le plaisir - For pleasure. (This is kinda creepy in context!)

Dolore Fortiter - Sorrow bravely (Latin)

Quelle que soit - Whatever

Excuse-moi, chéri - Excuse me, dear.

 _____________________________________________________________________

This was originally posted on my LiveJournal account and Digne posted a very interesting comment on the meaning of freedom so it's worth going across there to read that. I also realised that, having posted at 3:00 a.m., most of the post was complete gobbledygook!

Subbing delay

I am really, really late with posting Marie Antoinette, as I promised, and I'm also really behind with the Tanz der Vampire libretto that I am still working on.

A lot has been going on in my life, most recently with my applying for a university in the Netherlands. Still waiting to hear if I will be offered an interview or not! Of course a lot of other stuff has been going on too but I won't go into it here because I have a personal blog for that!

I do, however, feel really guilty for keeping people waiting. I don't even know what part of Marie Antoinette I'm on, that's how long it's been. I'm going to look that up now and I'll get right down to translating now. I should be doing other things but oh well. I'm not going to make a libretto for Marie Antoinette, as I usually do and as I have planned to, and will focus on just getting the videos up. Not promising anything but wanted to say I'm still alive!

Tanz has been progressing slowly. At 2 a.m. when I have nothing better to do I sit down and do a bit of Tanz work ;-)

Just when I thought technology couldn't hate me any more!

Part four has been hell for me. I think I've already posted a rant about finding bits hard to translate, and not liking the song but that is nothing compared to the technical problems I experienced.

Some subtitles simply refused to appear.

Some subtitles decided to appear in a totally different place to where they should have.

And then this happened. One line of subtitles which seemed to explode into a cloud of names.

Eventually, I managed to get things into some kind of order but it got to the stage where I couldn't actually get any of my edits to save either so there are still mistakes. I'm disappointed with this part, both with the translation and with the formatting, but I can't actually change anything even though I have noticed mistakes.

On the plus side, it's not really an important part for character development so there's no chance you miss out on anything.

Can I also say that the prostitutes' dancing, especially after Margrid's entrance, reminds me of how my late grandmother used to dance, if they're rather more sleazy!

Having 'fun' with part four

So, part three of Marie Antoinette finally made it online and I'm onto part four already.

I must admit that I'm finding this part really, really difficult for various reasons. Firstly, I've not really translated anything for six months now, and haven't even looked at German translation for at least three. That means that everything is going a lot, lot slower than normal. Then I have to come up against a song that includes proverbs, idioms, and euphemism. The icky things to translate! Not only are they often difficult for me to understand but they also are often impossible to correctly put into English. Add to this the lack of practice and I can imagine there are going to be some rather funny sounding translations in this part! Taking it slowly though so hopefully it'll turn out okay!

Then there's the fact that I just don't like this part. For those of you who haven't seen it on the facebook page, this part focuses on Margrid's meeting with Madame Lapin and on introducing Madame Lapin's brothel. I often joke with Nené that every good musical has a good prostitute song (seriously, think about it!) and this is not one of them. I find this song insipid, unnecessary and plain annoying.

So, add all that together and I am really not enjoying translating this part. On the plus side, it is only six minutes long or something.

Anyway, this all seems rather like bad news so I'll spill the better news now. The whole of act one is now split up into parts. I have also timed quite a lot of the subtitles for later parts (and am looking forward to translating those bits) so there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Remind me why I subtitle stuff again?

My goodness, has this been a difficult part to complete. I can't remember if I had problems in the translation because it was so long ago! However, the technical aspects have plagued me completely.

I have ended up with this file as an mp3 (useful when it's got subtitles, I know!). I have ended up with it apparently in HD yet being so fuzzy as to be unreadable. I have ended up with files that have had a predicted save time of several days. I have had upload times that get stuck at three minutes. I hate technology.

As you're reading this, however, I've managed to get something bearable together. It's worth me saying that, having noticed that we were having some problems with them, I have removed all accents from the subtitles. I don't know what the issue is with accents right now but there is an issue! I may sort this for the next part or I may bury my head and cry about technology.

I couldn't up the quality as much as I would have liked so made the subtitles bigger, which is something I had wanted to do anyway, to make them legible.

Oh, and because someone will moan about my lack of translation of 'esprit': this word, despite being used in German is a French loan word and is used in England too. It means lively and witty and, well, spirited.

Anyway, talking about the part, it contains what is probably my favourite song from the musical "Still, Still". It's a beautiful song of hope and of love, made all the more poignant by the circumstances. What's not so clear in the video, Agnés is tending to the children of a dead woman at this point and it is this woman that Margrid doesn't want to end up like. It's a powerful scene.

I also LOVE Louis in this part. I just feel that the role is perfect. Marie Antoinette herself I'm not so keen on as I feel that she is always made into some evil person but oh well.

Names: to translate or not to translate?

Every now and then, translation can pose some problems. Do you translate something literally or change the literal meaning to get more of the implication and flavour? What do you do when there is an obvious rhythm, rhyme, plosive structure that matters but can’t be carried across into English? How do you translate it when someone has been playing with their words? What do you do with names?

Usually, when translating into English I choose to keep the original name. I think that most of the people who are reading my subtitles could work out that, Zsuzsanna, for example, is the Hungarian spelling of Susanna. However, even if this is not the case I think that everyone could learn that when I write Zsuzsanna I am referring to a certain character or person.

However, with the musicals that I translate there are sometimes some additional difficulties with characters being well known or having more unusual character names. Der Tod, for example, is often used by English speaking fans of the musical Elisabeth to refer to the character himself. In Japanese the character is actually called "トート", "Toto", which is derived from his German character name. However, I hardly think that Der Tod’s mother named him that when he was born, and somewhere he probably has a perfectly ordinary name (like Brian), so it’s probably good practice to translate this to Death, in the musical. It’s more a descriptive title than a name.

So what about historical characters? Franz Joseph, for example, seems to appear in most English history books, that I have seen, as Francis Joseph. How should this be written? Quite frankly, it really annoys me to see him referred to as Francis so my choice here was selfish rather than based purely on logic. That said, it’s probably right to keep it in the original German, which is sometimes used in English anyway, especially when Franz Joseph is the name that was used by the Emperor and in the musical. He’s also not the most famous ruler in history – I was a history student and most of my classes hadn’t heard of him - so people are less likely to need to know who he is to enjoy the musical anyway.

However, it’s not always that simple. If I were to ask you to tell me about King Ludwig XVI you are unlikely to be able to tell me much about the gentleman I’m referring to. If I were to ask you about King Louis XVI you will probably be able to tell me a bit more, especially if I also said he was the husband of Marie Antoinette. It seems sensible, therefore, for me to choose to translate Ludwig back to its original French and away from the German version used in the musical of Marie Antoinette. Marie Antoinette herself is known by her French name (which is bizarre considering that, as an Austrian by birth, Maria Antonia’s original name was German anyway) so I also feel there should be some continuity. All the same, I feel really bad deviating from my usual ‘use the name used in the play/musical/text’ resolution.

So here’s the question: Does the translation, or lack of translation, of names into English matter to you? Which do you prefer?

Subbing, Translating, Reviewing and... stuff!

Ah, free time…
Yep, I’m still not used to not having to study every five minutes. It’s leaving me feeling quite lost to be quite honest!

As promised, I’m here with an update about my subtitling. I’ve roughly timed most of the next part of Marie Antoinette. This is the most tedious part… well, maybe second most tedious so I’m pleased to get it out of the way as it’s usually the bit I’ll procrastinate over.

The really good news is that I had just written a huge apologetic blog post saying how I’ve lost my libretto etc and therefore I didn’t know when I’d be able to finish subbing the part. Went out without posting it and, while out, found the libretto.

So, I’m going to sit down tomorrow and I will attempt to finish this part of Marie Antoinette. I say attempt because you have no idea how much trouble I have with the technical aspects that come after translation and timing. Fingers crossed.

As for Tanz, I think I wrote about how I was going to translate this, I plan to have the libretto done before I go away in late September. I’m actually really looking forward to doing this properly. If you want a copy of the English libretto then please contact me here or elsewhere (see below) with an email address. As always, I will not send things I do not own but if you want English librettos or subtitle files (depending on what I have) I am willing to email those.

Oh, and before I go, I finally got round to reviewing  The Reluctant Empress by Brigitte Hamann, having read it for the third time. If you’re interested then I’ve posted this on my other blog here.

So, until tomorrow... probably. See ya!

Les Misérables the film a.k.a. Havanah's confession

Exams finished yesterday and, having some free time, I decided to finally bite the bullet and just get it over with… I watched Les Misérables… the film.

Now, I suppose most of you who are reading this know that I was terrified of watching this film. Les Mis is very important to me as a musical, as it is to many people, and I knew that I would be upset if it wasn’t done justice in the film. I was a little nervous of casting, and then very nervous as I saw the reviews people posted which seemed to lean towards the “it’s not the best, the camera work is shoddy, and don’t even get me started on Javert”. That said, I knew I wouldn’t rest until I saw it so I bought the DVD for thirteen pounds, pretty sure I would regret spending so much on it, and sat down to watch it.

To start with it lived up to my rather low expectations and, in fact, my mother told me to turn it off. The first scene, although immense, sounded a bit like sung by an amateur dramatics company who were attempting to sound like prisoners. It sounded rather messy. Things looked up a bit when Colm turned up because that man could sing completely out of tune and we would still love him (for the record, his singing wasn’t out of tune!). By the time “At the End of the Day” started I was swept off my feet.

The film turned out to be amazing. Having read the script when it surfaced a while ago, I wasn’t surprised that they had made the plot closer to the book than the stage musical but I was surprised about how well the changes worked. Like any human being, I am adverse to people changing something when it already works well but these changes were worth it 100%. Suddenly, every character had a lot more development. Yes, that one student might only have three minutes of ‘camera time’ but you felt like you knew them by the end of it and you sorrowed with them. Yep, there was a lot of sorrow. Mind you, I still couldn’t associate with Cosette but then she has always annoyed me!
Yes, the camera work was a bit odd at times, and took a bit of getting used to, and I must admit that the random butterflies at night were a bit too cliché for me but overall it was beautiful. The ‘ghostly figures’ during Fantine’s death and, of course, at the end where too much for me to bear. Someone came up with some amazing ideas and knew how to carry them off. There was also a rawness to the film that you rarely get in films or on stage. The barricade scenes were brutal, uncomfortable to watch, sickening… Artaud would have been proud.

One thing that I haven’t mentioned is the singing. It was okay. Some people sang really beautifully, some people didn’t but, to be quite honest, it didn’t matter. The acting was exquisite and, other than the first scene, the singing level seemed to suit the characters in question.
Talking of which, I feel I ought to mention Javert as he has been criticized a lot. I will be honest and say that I did not like Crowe’s portrayal of Javert until he joins the students on the barricades. He seemed wooden and it wasn’t until you saw these flickers of doubt that he had any kind of character (and the scene with Gavroche – oh, goodness, if you don’t cry at that then you have no heart!). However, once he started to develop I felt he worked really, really well and so that by his suicide I liked the portrayal. Maybe when I rewatch the film I will be able to appreciate Javert from the start, with the benefit of hindsight.

And thus ends my rant-like review of Les Misérables. I do wish people wouldn’t ask me to review things, I’m rubbish at it. To sum up this entire post: Les Mis was great and Havanah was an idiot for putting off watching it.

Oh, and just another note, I’ve just started a new blog which is a personal one which I hope to use to document my gap year etc. I am going to stay around here for theatre/musical/translation related stuff and you might get the odd personal post but, for those of you who are here for Havanah related stuff (I know, it’s impossible to imagine anyone might want to know about me hehe) then I’m over at http://oiahavanah.blogspot.co.uk/

Exams and some more questions, a.k.a. Havanah clears out her inbox!

Youtube Gitches
So, I just updated my channel style on youtube and find that people have been leaving me the most delightful comments for the last few years which, for some reason, I wasn’t able to access. Genuinely, one update a few years ago I lost my ability to look at channel comments, assumed it was a lost feature, and never thought that people could be writing to me via them! I have therefore decided to do a generic reply here to the common questions (although I hope to contact everyone individually too, that might take a while!)

To the people who say thank you for my subbing Elisabeth/Rebecca. You are more than welcome. Thank you for your kind words and if you get the chance to see it live do!

I’m hoping to finish the new translations of Elisabeth soon. Actually, Act One is finished and Act Two just needs some formatting but I probably won’t do this until after my final exams end in late June.

I do have the DVD of Elisabeth but, being an utter technophobe, I had to get one of my friends to get me the file. I dunno if they ripped it from my DVD or downloaded it! I’m not good with technology.

I have looked at doing Tanz Der Vampire and am definitely creating an English libretto because I’ve already started that!

If you want to download the files off of youtube to watch on your computer then I’m not going to have a problem with that. As always, I won’t send out files and I certainly won’t send high quality video out. It’s that horrible balance of making the musicals accessible but not creating something to replace the buying of the DVD.

And I think that’s it!



Exams (yuk)
Well, I've already done my two theatre performance exams but from next week the writing exams start. I will be around online but I will not be uploading any videos, translating anything (okay, maybe some little things), or painting/drawing at all until after the 18th of June. Yes, it's painful for me too. I simply can't allow myself to take on any major projects because I will get distracted and, these being my final exams, I cannot allow that to happen.

That said, please do say hello to me every now and then... human company keeps me sane!

General updating malarkey!

Oh livejournal, how I have neglected you and how much life has gone by since I last wrote here.

In all fairness, I first started this to help keep people up to date with my subbing and with the 'translator's notes'. I've now got a facebook page for the subbing updates, and am still using the forum. I guess the translator's notes will still go here though.

And as for my subbing, yes I have fallen behind... terribly behind. So, here's a summary of the last six months or so as means of an excuse!

I went to Budapest again.
My house flooded.
I restarted at college.
I started my dissertation.
I started to subtitle Marie Antoinette.
I visited Austria, saw the musical Elisabeth, met with my dear friend.
My house flooded.
I finished my dissertation 1st draft.
My house flooded.
I started writing a play for my drama course.
My house flooded.
Christmas.
Landlord said he wanted us out.
Important exams.
Started rehearsing for a different play.
Started to be ill.
Managed to upload the first part of Marie Antoinette FINALLY
Moved out and started living in travelodges.
Got more ill (pneumonia, joy of joys)
Got mostly better.

So, I'm currently doing my last year of college, living a nomadic lifestyle, frantically rehearsing for my play which is being performed in about a week (the 13th) and for the other play, while still a little ill.

No, I don't believe it either!
So do I have a good enough excuse for the absence? hehe


On the plus side I am very excited for my play, and exceptionally stressed. Everything about it was done by me and a classmate from writing to lighting to acting. It's a short about friendship and mental health and it's quite, erm, chaotic, shall we say. There's a lot of stuff in it including costume changes between each scene for all characters and freaky makeup applied onstage. There's dance, there's fight scenes (fisticuffs!), there's guitar, there's German. Someone decided to bite off more than they could chew. Anyway, I might be able to get some photos up on here at some point and I'll post how it goes on my personal facebook if not here.