h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My friends and I wanted to redesign and try out an improv gig at the
renaissance faire in which I will use Latin to try and "impress" the
Queen or woo women on the streets. The idea was to use part of a song.
The song chosen was Elton John's -Your Song

It's a little bit funny
This feeling inside
I'm not one of those who can easily hide
Don't have much money
but boy if I did
I'd buy a big house where we both could live.

This the the first verse of the song and it's all I need to try and make it work. Does any one want to take a bas at trying to translate this short verse into Latin as near to the song lyrics as possible?

I'd be grateful for anyone to give this one a bash and I'll see if I can pull it off in our street improv theatrics.

ROFLMAO! Wow ... I'd love to see this, too. I don't do Ren Fairs, but I'm in the SCA, so I could definitely find places to use it!

San Diego Ren Fair! I should try it too!

While I encourage anyone interested to try something similar, the gig I had planned requires timing and good execution. There are more than two players in this gig and in order to pull it off the way I want, a female counterpart and translator is critical to sucessfully putting it on as well as having an exit. I may try it in San Diego faire providing I have all my cast members and everyone knows their lines and so forth.

Anyhow, we'll see what happens. In the meanwhile I still need to get a translation of the first verse of the song. Anyone willing to try and do a Latin translation?

Sounds pretty cool, Rahonavis. I hope you folks come down to SD so I can see it.

In the meantime, I'll try to work out something resembling a translation, but good old Banjo Golly will be along to give one far better than mine, I'm sure.

I chose Elton John's "Your Song" because we re wrote it for the Queen as Your Sonate by Poet John Davies. While many people at faire didn't catch on, some did and laughed at how ingenius it was to do so. I had considered another song which many people know wich is "Lady" by Styx.
Both are excellent choices and I'm more than happy to run with either songs. Somehow I get the feeling Lady was a better piece, but I'll see if Banjo Golly is feeling up to it or if he has the time.

The alternative would be STYE's song:


LADY by Styx
Lady when you are with me I'm smiling
Give me all your love
Your hands build me up when I'm sinking
Just touch me and my troubles all fade

Lady from the moment I saw
Standing all alone
You gave all the love that I needed
So shy, like a child who has grown

I did rewrite it in old english so it would read as....

Mistress when thou art with me I am smiling
Give me all thyne love
Thy hands build me up when I am sinking
Just touch me and mine troubles fadeth away

Mistress from the moment I layed eyes upon thee
Standing all alone
Thou gavest all the love that I needed
So shy, liken unto a child that hath grown

So either of the two songs, anyone is welcome to try and translate
the piece. I'd really appreciate the help and assistance.

That would be Early Modern English. Old English looks like this:

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum...

Which translates as, from the Francis Barton Gummere translation:

LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes...

There's Old English for you!

Then you have Middle English, like the Canterbury Tales:

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droughte of Marche hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne with swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour.

(I think that's right, I did it from memory.)

Then comes Early Modern English:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

(Also from memory; my apologies if I messed it up.)

Then finally Modern English, which is what we speak today, and have spoke since around the 18th century.

From 'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan...' to 'The fog comes on little cat feet.'

Excuse the linguistics lesson. I'm a bit pedantic about the evolution of the English language.

Unfortunately I can't call to mind the tune to the Elton song, so any attempt at a translation most likely wouldn't fit. Hum it for me.

Hmmm... Hmmmm...

No, I don't know how it goes either.

theres a website that's one of those cheesy translators that will translate into prety accurate latin. try looking for that. but thats a pretty great idea for a fest. though mayube doing it in shakespearean time english and style of verse...(iambic pantameter...wow...) might be even cooler.

The tune of the song can be found in Elton John's Greatest Hits Vol.1
or Greatest Hits 1970-2002, or Elton John (Original Remaster, Elton John Love Songs. Any one of these albums will have it as it was one of his greatest hits.
The idea of doing it in Latin, is so that it doesn't rhyme like a modern song. This way my counterpart can accuse me of plagiarism.

Well, that's easy. Listen to the Midi-file:
http://www.midifilearchive.com/Rock-pop/YourSong.mid
HTH
Rob

I don't know if Rahonavis still needs this. This is a quick first attempt. The rhythm of this can (with some creative stretching) fit fairly closely the rhythm of the midi file kindly linked by RobertDaniel. Below it is an exact English translation. (I assume Elton is talking about hiding himself rather than hiding something else.)

Singulare est illud
Quod intra me sentio
non sum in eis qui facile se celent
pecuniae parum habeo
sed certo si dives sim
villam ubi vivamus una grandam emam.

peculiar is that
which within me I feel
I'm not among those who easily themselves may hide
of money an insufficiency I have
but assuredly if I were rich
a villa where we might live together large I'd buy

WOO! Dang! You are truly the Latin King!!!

I made an error: "grandem" not "grandam"

Nice job, BG!


I'm suitably impressed

WOO HOO!!! Banjo Golly you are awesome. While it really doesn't
matter if it's not translated exactly, it is the sheer impressiveness
of it all is worth it.
Thank you so much. I'll let everyone know how the outcome of the
Improv Gig go.