Translating music is HARD, almost impossible to get right. But with this song, they turned something quite profound in something... less so. The end of the German version feels post-apocalyptic to me, while the English one basically goes 'It was just a dream'.
I'd love to see a literal translation.
I know things are in a different order. The "Captain Kirk" line appears in verse 3 of the english version and verse 2 of the German version. I'm sure it's out there somewhere.
Like everything else in the world currently. How fitting. Let's hope not too fitting. It tells the imaginary story of how 99 balloons released into the air became the cause of a devastating war between the Soviet dominated East and West Germany.
Yeah it never felt right. I was like "Oh man I wonder what these words mean?" and then I heard the English version and I was like "Ah wait never mind. Some quintessential magic is gone now. Back to German please."
Interesting that the German original "99 Luftballons" came out just before Soviet air defense officer Stanislav Petrov would be called upon to use his judgement to defuse a situation eerily similar to that described in the song. We may not be sitting here today if he sent the false alarm to Andropov
It can't be. The song was first released in March 1983 in West Germany, but Petrov's nuclear false alarm was Sept. 26, six months after the song came out. KAL 007 was Sept. 1. The Able Archer exercise was in November. The song somehow anticipated the worst crises of the Cold War since 1962. 🙀🤯
Strongly Agree. There is an adage that two things can't survive translation: musical lyrics and humor. I speak enough German to love the original lyrics and H-A-T-E the English lyrics.
Both are possible to translate, but it's really hard, because you have to go much deeper than translating the actual words. You have to dive into what it actually means, and then recreate that in the new language. And the associated culture. And, for music, keep the metre and make it rhyme.
My favourite example of well-translated humour is from 'The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy'. In Dutch, Ford Prefect (named after a car that was never sold in the Netherlands) is called Amro Bank (named after a Dutch bank). Very different name, same effect.
After that, reading 'Het leven is een strand, en dan ga je dood' ('Life's a beech and then you die', translated word for word) in the translation of Pratchett's 'Small Gods' was deeply disappointing. I switched to reading Discworld in English after that.
They're VERY jarring. The only one that doesn't have a translated version is Autobahn as far as I know. I'm 99% sure that the English versions actually came out here on release date but I somehow had (superior) German ones.
One of my favorite bands is dancehall+reggae+hiphop in German, English, and Jamaican patois, often all in the same verse. When they translate the German lyrics to English, it lands with a resounding thud.
Weirdly, it was the German 99 Luftballoons that became the big hit here in Canada. The 7" single came with the English version on the B-side, and yeah, it sounded odd. (Nena did not translate it, someone else did, she just sang it, and the translation does not match the German version.)
I heard the English version first as a kid and I don't think I heard the German version until my high school German class years later so it's not as jarring to me to hear either.
My local indie NPR station (WTMD) played the original on air the other week and I loved it.
Saw you last night in Harrisburg. Thank you, enjoyed it a lot.
I saw an interview with them back in the day and the not-Nena guy in the band was complaining about the English translation being terrible and I was sitting there thinking, “But, but, *you* also speak English.” How did they not have input into the English version?
That song always gets me down, in either language. So I was really surprised to hear it (in German) in the grocery store a few years ago. “Existential fear? Aisle 5.”
Comments
https://youtu.be/g9Lt1rwj6R8?si=yZwFbjXsEWBb3NTz
Translating music is HARD, almost impossible to get right. But with this song, they turned something quite profound in something... less so. The end of the German version feels post-apocalyptic to me, while the English one basically goes 'It was just a dream'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-qfzH0vnOs&ab_channel=GoldfingerVEVO
https://youtu.be/Fpu5a0Bl8eY?feature=shared
Jeder war ein großer Krieger
Hielten sich für Captain Kirk
I know things are in a different order. The "Captain Kirk" line appears in verse 3 of the english version and verse 2 of the German version. I'm sure it's out there somewhere.
Ninety nine luft balloons,
You take one down,
You pass it around,
Ninety eight luft balloons on the wall.
https://youtu.be/nFgGe245DNY?si=O192rPe9hCOTV6n7
Now we can decide what does worse to its original.
https://youtu.be/YV4oYkIeGJc?feature=shared
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
One of the best rhymes
I can safely say that the German version has a lot more plays on it.
Saw you last night in Harrisburg. Thank you, enjoyed it a lot.