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Die Armee kann nicht verrecken
There is not a good translation of Brecht and Weill's "Kanonen-Song." Iconic as it is, Blitzstein's is not very literal,1 and all the later versions I've run across are even less so.2 The real problem is that the song is a barrack-room ballad, so the ideal translator is Rudyard Kipling and short of necromancy, that is not going to happen.3
I am not Rudyard Kipling. I am not posting a translation here tonight, either. But I am working on one, if only to my own satisfaction. And I'm curious now: what other echoes am I missing? I have never formally studied Bertolt Brecht. Kipling would be a very roundabout way to get into him.
1. His third verse works very well, but he discards all the geography of the chorus (and its issues of race: 'ne neue Rasse / 'ne braune oder blasse) and the second verse just falls apart—I mean, "for the army is just a pink tea"? Nicht so viel.
2. There's one whose chorus starts "Soldiers live under / The cannon's thunder" which is not terrible, but I remember fragments of whichever translation they used at Brandeis in 1999: "The British Army / Will make salami / From Basra to [somewhere that rhymed] / We help the foreigner to meet the coroner . . . You can tell from the bodies where the squaddies have been." Which is appropriately shocking, but also overplays its hand.
3. This entire post brought to you courtesy of re-reading the Barrack-Room Ballads I don't know by heart (trans.: not set to music by Peter Bellamy) and realizing that "Surabaya-Johnny" derives directly from "Mary, Pity Women." And, good grief, so does Polly's "Farewell Song"—it's the first chorus, translated straight. Possibly this footnote should be a post of its own.
I am not Rudyard Kipling. I am not posting a translation here tonight, either. But I am working on one, if only to my own satisfaction. And I'm curious now: what other echoes am I missing? I have never formally studied Bertolt Brecht. Kipling would be a very roundabout way to get into him.
1. His third verse works very well, but he discards all the geography of the chorus (and its issues of race: 'ne neue Rasse / 'ne braune oder blasse) and the second verse just falls apart—I mean, "for the army is just a pink tea"? Nicht so viel.
2. There's one whose chorus starts "Soldiers live under / The cannon's thunder" which is not terrible, but I remember fragments of whichever translation they used at Brandeis in 1999: "The British Army / Will make salami / From Basra to [somewhere that rhymed] / We help the foreigner to meet the coroner . . . You can tell from the bodies where the squaddies have been." Which is appropriately shocking, but also overplays its hand.
3. This entire post brought to you courtesy of re-reading the Barrack-Room Ballads I don't know by heart (trans.: not set to music by Peter Bellamy) and realizing that "Surabaya-Johnny" derives directly from "Mary, Pity Women." And, good grief, so does Polly's "Farewell Song"—it's the first chorus, translated straight. Possibly this footnote should be a post of its own.
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My problem here is that I can't read German, but yeah, even just looking at it, it certainly does sound far more subtle and complicated than I'd been given to understand. Like everyone else, I look forward to your version, Kipling-inflected as I know it'll be.
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Very probably, in both cases—I have heard the translation (on the radio, weirdly; it turned up on an alternative station), but I don't own a recording. I trust your recall of the lyrics over mine.
Like everyone else, I look forward to your version, Kipling-inflected as I know it'll be.
Heh. Thank you. No pressure . . .
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