Dreaming while Awake

If you are ever feeling great about your vocabulary in a language, you just need to try translating a song (assuming you are bilingual), and that experience will humble you. I used to be a big fan of the Tamizh author Baalakumaaran (the reason for "used to" is a post in itself) and have thought of translating his novels into English, so that more people could read him. But I have never done it and may never do it after this. But then maybe translating a novel is easier than a song...maybe.

One of the recent songs that I very much like is "suttum vizhi chudarae" from the movie Ghajini. I can listen to it five or six times in a row, much to the chagrin of my co-listeners. One day, I happened to be listening to this song with some of my friends who don't know Tamizh and so I translated some of the sentences for them. As a credit to this song, even my not-Tamizh-knowing friends liked the song (or so they said!) and figured out that it was romantic (maybe because it was a duet?!) . This, combined with wanting to translate for some time, prompted me to translate this song from Tamizh to English. But now I wonder what got into me to want to do that.

First of all, translating a song is difficult. You realize that it is hard to find words in another language even if you understand what it means in the original language. I like languages, especially Tamizh and English (the ones I know) and Spanish and Italian (which I don't know but like to hear them anyway), but now I have better appreciation for the nuances in different languages. These two languages are so different that it is a wonder that I can speak both :-)

Without much more rambling, here is the translated song in English.

Male:
Light from bright eyes
Light from bright eyes
My world revolves around you.
Your photo in my shirt pocket
Is touching me and
My heart is on fire.
I fall in your sight and
Fly in space.
I dream while I am awake
Because of you
I dream while I am awake.

I saw softness on your chest
Hardness in your sight
Searched for the in between
But didn't find it.

Female:
I blabbered in my sleep
Stood in the drizzle
And thought of you
When I sneezed.

Male:
Are there black and white flowers?
I saw them in your eyes. Your eyes
are flowers that eat the bees. Your eyes
are flowers that eat the bees.

Female: (Light from bright eyes)
A certain wood pecker
Snatched my heart and
I gave my body and soul.

Male:
With neither fire nor wick
That bodies would burn
I realized only today.

Female:
Is rain more beautiful? Or sunshine?
When you flirt, rain is beautiful.
When you are angry, sunshine is beautiful.
When you are angry, sunshine is beautiful.

(Light from burning eyes)




Notes on the translation:

The translation does not do much justice to the beauty of this song and so one is better off listening to the song either at Raaga (original version) or at Swarasthaanam (a beautiful rendition by Meera and Jo). "Light from bright eyes" does not come close to expressing all that is in Bharathiyaar's phrase "suttum vizhi chudarae" (I could not translate "suttum vizhi chudarae" and had to ask a friend for help and I don't mean to discredit the friend's translation but just want to emphasize the difference in the beauties between languages). I still don't know how to translate "mellinam" and "vallinam" into english and have went with substitutes like "softness" and "hardness".

The biggest challenge in translating is to choose between the literal translation and taking some liberty so as to convey the message. I think the above translation has both, as and when convenient for me! Regardless of the fact that the English version is not as mellifluous as the Tamizh version, it was a new and enjoyable experience.

Thanks to Selvaraj for helping me with the translation. If you have a better translation for any of the words/phrases in the song, let me know through the comments.

And folks, try to dream while you are awake as well (not the same as day dreaming!).