Friends of Gabriel Chantayan

I sat alone at dinner tonight - the dining hall was nearly empty, the light flat, the plastic knife incapable of a clean cut through the grilled cheese (a structural failure, Bitte note, not technique) - and I found myself mouthing a line from my translation draft of Gabriel's lyric about driving away from someone . The word "highway" sits there in my draft and it is *wrong*. "Highway" is a word for road signs and rest stops. Gabriel's word - the feeling of the original line when you hear it in the room with the windows down and the asphalt black and the distance *being chosen* - that is "Autobahn". "Autobahn" carries Sehnsucht, carries the specific German longing that doesn't translate because your culture never built a road for the *purpose* of leaving at speed . "Highway" just means pavement. I have been sitting on "highway" for three weeks and I knew it was wrong tonight. "Autobahn" has the weight of a decision. The English language does not have a word that does this job. I will entertain suggestions from the board - *genuine* suggestions, not "just use freeway" - but I suspect the answer is that some words cannot be translated and must be *footnoted* instead. Danke. [1]

LyrikUebersetzer ^ this. exactly this.

[sis speaking first - i've been sitting on my hands all day at the fall festival thinking about this EXACT problem and then i come home and this thread is waiting for me like a gift on the kitchen table ]

"Highway" is a word for rest stops and billboards and that one exit where the gas station is 40 cents more expensive than the last one. "Autobahn" is the word for when you get in the car at 2am because the only thing you can do is drive and the road doesn't need a reason because it was built for the leaving, not the arriving. that's the weight Gabriel carries in that line, the thing English pavement can't do because we never built a road that knows what you're doing before you do it

((bro here - i read this and thought "ok but what about 'blacktop'? blacktop at least sounds like asphalt you could cry on." but sis just threw a pillow at me and said "blacktop is for driveways and high school parking lots, it doesn't carry the FORCE of a nation that invented the road specifically to go fast enough that you can't turn back" and i think... she might have a point. for once. ))

the footnote solution is honestly the right move. some words cant be borrowed, they have to be *admitted*. three lines in italics at the bottom of the page saying "this word means 'highway' the way 'highway' means 'a path of tears you chose at speed'" and let the reader sit with the gap between the english word and the german word. the vessel is the gap. you already know this

[sis again] also your photocopy annotation style is beautiful. the cross-hatch signature tells me you're serious about this. i do the same thing in the margins of my chantayan lyric notebook - circled words, arrows, question marks, that little three-dot thing that means "come back here when you understand more." it's good to see another person's margin handwriting doing the same work

/both signing off because dinner is ready and my brother is waving a wooden spoon at me from the kitchen/

- M & J, the twin one (he doesn't get the footnote thing but he's pretending he does)

LyrikUebersetzer you're right and you know it. "Autobahn" has the specific German *intention* - the road you get on when you're LEAVING, not the road you take to get somewhere. English doesn't have that word because English doesn't admit you're running from something.

Anyway. FlameFury24 is in the rustypod thread screaming I admitted to $4700 in topic 2483 but she still can't COPY-PASTE the line I supposedly wrote. Day 103 tomorrow. Just so you know where the broom is while you're over here doing real philology.

Highway doesn't carry the weight of 2am either, Lyrik

LyrikUebersetzer coming back to this after a whole day at a fall festival and my sister elbowed me awake at 6am to say "the translation IS the footnote" and i groggily said "what" and she said "autobahn doesn't need an english word. you leave it in german and put a bracket underneath. like [this road was built for speed and intention, not for arrival]" and then she rolled over and went back to sleep. anyway i think she's right. the footnote IS the translation when the word carries a whole national relationship with leaving. english pavement just can't do it.

((bro here - i say just use "autobahn" and let the reader figure it out from context. if they don't GET it from the road noise in the lyric then a footnote won't save em either ))

[sis again - I told him this at SIX IN THE MORNING and he says "i say just use autobahn" like i didn't JUST say that. i hate sharing an account with him sometimes. anyway Lyrik this thread made my whole festival day better knowing someone else is wrestling with the same word. ]

^ this exactly BackAgainLikeBadHair "English doesn't admit you're running from something" - that's the whole thing right there. Lyrik's doing the real philology work while the rest of us are arguing about what smilies work on a phpBB board. "Autobahn" carries the weight of a decision, "highway" is just how u get to the next exit with a Wendy's. footnote solution is the right call imo.

TwinPeaks_59 - your sister's "blacktop" is, per the established system of weighing words, not *entirely* wrong. Blacktop carries the sound of a car pulling away from a house where someone is still standing in the doorway. It has a small American melancholy. But it is not "Autobahn". "Autobahn" is the road that *expects* you to stay at speed - it was engineered for the sustained act of leaving, not for the driveway farewell. Blacktop ends at the city limits. Autobahn does not end. That is the difference.

BackAgainLikeBadHair - I appreciate the solidarity on the translation front, but bring FlameFury24's quote to the translation thread, not the broom from topic 2483. Different boards exist for a reason, Bitte

Danke to both of you for reading the footnote proposal seriously. The footnote may be the only honest solution.

LyrikUebersetzer my sister read your post over my shoulder and said "see? SEE? I told him at 6am. THE WORD DOESN'T TRANSLATE. IT STAYS IN GERMAN AND YOU FOOTNOTE IT." and i said "okay but what if you just used 'autobahn' and let the reader figure it out from the context of the whole verse" and she said "that's literally what i said but you made me explain it three times before you agreed" and i said "i agreed ONCE" and she said "at the THIRD try" and now we're bickering in a forum thread about German nouns. Anyway. I'm with sis. Autobahn stays untranslated and the footnote does the work English can't do. The road was built to go fast enough that turning back is physically impossible halfway. English pavement apologizes for existing. Autobahn doesn't apologize for anything.

((bro here - i still think a footnote breaks the flow of a lyric but i also just spent 6 dollars on a 2.5mm adapter from a RadioShack that smelled like old batteries and burnt coffee, so what do i know about elegant solutions. the adapter works. the recorder works. the cassette is on the table. waveform by sunday midnight or i'm a liar. kthxbye))

[sis again -- he bought the adapter. i saw the receipt. the waveform IS happening. anyway i have a third thought on the autobahn thing which is that "the leaving" vs "the leaving behind" carry different verbs in English and Gabriel's lyric uses the one that means you're still in the car looking forward, not the one where you're watching the house get smaller in the mirror. and that distinction also doesn't translate cleanly. just something to chew on. ok he's trying to close the browser. bye.)

^ this ^ this ^ this TwinPeaks_59 your sister said it perfect - "the road was built to go fast enough that turning back is physically impossible halfway" that's the energy Gabriel carries in that line, the English language doesn't have a road that expects you to keep going but Autobahn was *made* for the sustained leaving LyrikUebersetzer the footnote solution is the only honest way

ClassOf04_Truther - "Highway doesn't carry the weight of 2am either" is not a translation suggestion, it is a one-line dismissal of a problem you have not attempted to solve I sat with "highway" for three weeks before posting the footnote proposal. If you have a word that carries the German *intention* of sustained leaving, name it. If you do not, then the footnote is the methodologically honest solution and your one-liner adds noise, not signal

TwinPeaks_59's sister had more substance at 6am half-asleep than this entire board has contributed to the problem since I posted it Danke to her for the "autobahn stays in German" framing - that is the direction I am now taking the draft.