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TULE, ÖÖ PIMEDUS (Juhan Liiv, Estonian poet)


tonyv

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TULE, ÖÖ PIMEDUS

Tule, öö pimedus,
võta mind sülle.

Minu päike ei tunne mind,
öö jäänd mulle.

Ainust tähte sääl pole,
minul on kole.

Varja mu üle.

------------Juhan Liiv

 

Here is my translation of this poem --

 

COME, DARKNESS OF NIGHT

Come, darkness of night,
take me in your lap.

My sun does not know me,
I'm left with the night.

No single star,
only my misery.

Cover me.

 

Juhan Liiv was a famous Estonian poet. His work is excellent. I picked this poem to share first, because it was short and somewhat easy to translate. Unfortunately, my translation does not do it justice.

Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic

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goldenlangur

Hi Tony,

 

Poignant and moving - for what it's worth your translation conveys the pathos int he poem very well.

 

 

A brilliant idea - this World Poetry forum. Not sure if I deserve the Modship of this icon_redface.gif But I'm touched by the generosity of spirit you, Aleksandra and others here show.

 

 

I shall have to find a software which will enable me to write the Chokyi ( Classical Tibetan) and Dzongkha ( Classical Bhutanese) to post some work from a myriad of repertoire (mostly mystical works).

 

 

goldenlangur

goldenlangur

 

 

Even a single enemy is too many and a thousand friends too few - Bhutanese saying.

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Thank you, Golden, for your kind comment about my translation attempt. The World Poetry forum itself was Aleksandra's idea. icon_queen.png

 

As for special characters, I had to figure out how to make them on my wordpad program. The Estonian alphabet has three letters with the umlauts and one with the tilde. I had to make a keyboard adjustment in my computer's control panel and I found a site on line which showed how to make these letters. I will post a link for it later tonight in the link archive in the misc. reference forum. I'm looking forward to seeing some Bhutanese poems and how they look on the page.

 

Tony

Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic

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Hi Tony,

 

Now I see you know two languages, I mean at least two.

The poem is simple, but the feeling is deep, piercing.

I only recognized one word "mind", but it turned out to mean "me". icon_biggrin.png

 

New experience here. Hope to read Golden's Tibetan and Bhutanese, too.

 

Thanks for sharing. It's fun reading.

 

Lake

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Lake wrote:

 

Now I see you know two languages, I mean at least two.

The poem is simple, but the feeling is deep, piercing.

I only recognized one word "mind", but it turned out to mean "me".
icon_biggrin.png

Yes, Lake, in addition to knowing English, American, Canadian, and Australian, I also know Estonian. icon_lol.gif And that's very funny about "mind," icon_lol.gif but the "-ind" part of the word is pronounced more like in the word wind. Thank you for your kind comment.

 

Tony icon_smile.gif

Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic

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Aleksandra

Nice work Tony :) . I noticed now that I didn't comment here icon_redface.gif

I like how it looks and sound the Estonian language. And your translation is very good effort, I would like to read some more of your translations :), hopefully one day your poem in Estonian language too ;) .

 

And I am surprised by you that you know many languages :). You seems are a polyglot, soon you will learn " - ind languages " icon_wink.gif

 

well done

 

Aleksandra

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth - Jean Cocteau

History of Macedonia

 

 

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  • 11 months later...
TULE, ÖÖ PIMEDUS

 

Tule, öö pimedus,

võta mind sülle.

 

Minu päike ei tunne mind,

öö jäänd mulle.

 

Ainust tähte sääl pole,

minul on kole.

 

Varja mu üle.

------------Juhan Liiv

 

 

 

Here is my translation of this poem --

 

 

 

COME, DARKNESS OF NIGHT

 

Come, darkness of night,

take me in your lap.

 

My sun does not know me,

I'm left with the night.

 

No single star,

only my misery.

 

Cover me.

 

 

 

Juhan Liiv was a famous Estonian poet. His work is excellent. I picked this poem to share first, because it was short and somewhat easy to translate. Unfortunately, my translation does not do it justice.

 

For as little Estonian I have picked up, I think your translation is excellent Do remember that poems cannot truly be translated, but, since it is a fortunate thing that the meaning of a poem is mostly emotional, what is needed is a poet who can recreate the poetic essence in some other tongue than the original.

 

Not sure about others but I would relish if you could add, in terms of English pronunciation, especially the vowel set sound because the diacritical marks have different effects in different languages using them.

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Thank you, Ikars, for your kind words about my humble attempt. And I agree, it can never be truly translated, probably due to idiomatic differences and other aspects ingrained in the various cultures. As for this:

 

Not sure about others but I would relish if you could add, in terms of English pronunciation, especially the vowel set sound because the diacritical marks have different effects in different languages using them,

I have absolutely no experience using the universal phonetic symbols, but I'll try as soon as I get some time.

 

Again, thanks for visiting this. Glad you liked it.

 

Tony

Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic

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