Fate (An Interpretation into English)

I'm not quite sure if this is allowed, but this is my interpretation of the Korean song "In Yeon" by Lee Sun Hee (you can listen to it here). It's one of my all-time favorite songs, and I wanted to make it so that the song is singable in English while still preserving as much of the meaning as possible.

The instrumental version can be found here if you would like to sing along.

[Edit] Tweaked the wording an punctuation a tad.

Fate (An Interpretation into English)

I promise you, when we see each other again,
On that day in the far future,
I'll give up everything and come to stand by you
So, down the same path, we'll both walk.

This is what we call a "fate", and it cannot be denied.
Will I ever have another meeting in my life as beautiful as this?
You're a gift to me in life as I walk its wearing road.
Our love is something I will polish so it never rusts away.

Our meeting was so very brief, and yet, here we are --
My love for you cannot be denied.
I won't regret this love if it can never be
For nothing lasts for all of time.

This is what we call a "fate", and it cannot be denied.
Will I ever have another meeting in my life as beautiful as this?
There's so much I want to say, but I think you know it all.
On that future day we once again meet, please don't ever let me go.

Love, we could not have this life,
Fate, we could not share this life --
On that future day we once again meet,
Please don't ever let me go.

Cool song!

pece
~*~fairygirl~*~

Hey Kyl!

I'm listening to the song now, and it really is beautiful. I've never attempted to translate lyrics myself (not that I have a need to) but it's always seemed difficult to get it right in the translation. Sometimes it feels like the beauty is lost through it.

But, that's not what I'm here to talk about!

I don't really have any nitpicks for this. It's sort of difficult to do, because I can't really comment on the meaning, as that was already written. But, this seems like an absolutely wonderful interpretation. It's not the style that I'm used to from you, but it's still pretty flawless and lovely.

One thing I would say is that, in English, the words don't really sound as beautiful as I'm sure they do in the native language. Some of it is a little simplistic, which I do love, but I feel like it could be slightly more flowery, but in a good way! Not wishy-washy ... if that makes sense.

But it's lovely! Nice job!

~Amy

Hey Kyllorac! Here as you requested!

So, I can't really give this a proper review... the song has already been written, and because I don't know Korean, I can't tell how well you did in your translation. Translating is always difficult, but I'm glad you decided to give it a try. Translating is quite a big part of my life because sometimes I write my poetry in Finnish and then translate it into English, but usually I write straight away in English, because it's particularly hard to transfer images in another language. In any case, I can relate to the difficulty.

You just have to remember that when you translate, try not to do it word by word. This way it will often become awkward and choppy. Even if you had to change the word order or even line order, I would encourage doing it, if it makes the translation of the song flow better.

Keep writing and translating, it's very good practice!


Demeter
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