HAMILTON—AUF DEUTSCH

TRANSLATION OF VOCAL MUSICALITY can be straightforward, difficult, or well nigh impossible. For instance, the German of Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle would be a natural into Icelandic, workable into English, but ludicrous into French or Italian.

And it isn’t just a libretto’s utterances transferred into the new language. There are also nuances of heritage and culture. I could image My Fair Lady transformed to French: a waif from les banlieues dropped into Saint-Germain-des-Prés’ 6th Arrondissement. More difficult, but not impossible (think Clint Eastwood), are Kurosawa samurai flicks. 

And Then Came Hamilton. Michael Paulson describes “Six Lyrics That Show Why ‘Hamilton’ is Tough to Translate,” The New York Times, September 14, 2022. Here are two tidbits gleaned from this article, together with a related recollection. I highly recommend reading all of Paulson’s entertaining piece, especially for the linked audibles. 

Paulson begins, “How does one translate ‘Hamilton’ into another language? That was the challenge facing Sera Finale, a rapper-turned-songwriter, and Kevin Schroeder, a seasoned musical theater translator, when they were asked to collaborate on a German version of the show—the first in a language other than English.”

“The project,” Paulson writes, “turned out to be just as complicated as they had feared: complex rhyme schemes, elaborate wordplay and so many songs. There were drafts and demos and revisions; a member of the ‘Hamilton’ music team, Kurt Crowley, learned German to help coordinate the process, and ultimately Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s creator, had to approve or reject each line.”

Don’t Oversell. As an example, Burr’s opening line introduces the title character’s humble upbringing: “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a/Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten/Spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor/Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

“The original proposed German lyric,” Paulson says, “referred to Hamilton as a Bastardblag, an arcane word meaning bastard brat, to his mother as a Hure, meaning whore, and to the islands of Hamilton’s upbringing as verdreckten, meaning filthy.”

Paulson continues, “Miranda thought those words went too far, and asked for them to be dialed back. ‘The first draft was almost Trumpian,’ he said, alluding to a coarse phrase the former president used to refer to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations.”

The chosen new lyrics: “Wie wird ein Bastard/der vom Schoß einer trostlosen Dirne kroch/Aus ’nem gottverdammten, verlor’nem Loch in der Karibik/Ohne Titel, ohne Mittel, ohne Werte/Am Ende doch ein Held und ein Gelehrter?” “How does a bastard/Who crawled out of the lap of a bleak harlot/From a goddamned, lost hole in the Caribbean/With no title, no means, no merits/In the end still become a hero and a scholar?”

It’s still a provocative lyric, but no longer “Trumpian.”

A Pointed Addition. Paulson notes, “The German translators saw an opportunity to interpolate a reference to America’s troubled history with slavery. ‘Our version is kind of a German perspective on America,’ said Kevin Schroeder, one of the translators. ‘He’s saying “unfinished symphony,” and that also implies there are some flaws.’ ”

Not only pointed, but a worthy addition. 

A Finnish Fiddler. I recall a tale of Fiddler on the Roof being performed in Finnish. Unlike Scandinavian languages, Finnish isn’t related to German; a near relative is Hungarian. I like to image a band of ur-Europeans migrating west, one happy with a locale, the other splitting off and heading north.

In any case, Fiddler on the Roof has had a goodly number of translations: Hebrew (a natural) in 1960s Tel Aviv; Yiddish (another natural), 1965; French, 1969, Italian 2004. 

There’s a YouTube, January 15, 2020, of daughter Hodel’s tender song “Far From the Home I Love” from Viulunsoittaja katolla, a Finnish production of Fiddler on the Roof. 

Fiddler’s tale of family is a universal one. However, the highly multi-syllabic nature of Finnish poses challenges. Consider the song “Sunrise, Sunset.” 

“Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset,/ Swiftly through the years,/ One season following another, /Laden with happiness and tears.”

In Finnish, this song begins, “Auringonnousu, auringonlasku, auringonnousu, auringonlasku,” yet I’m sure it’s sweet, moving, and memorable. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2022