Forums:I need help translating into Sindarin.

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I am basically engraving a ring of my own with the tengwar transcription of the Sindarin translation of the following lyrics from my personal favourite song "Nothing else matters" by Metallica:

"So close, no matter how far. Couldn't be much more from the heart. Forever trusting who we are and nothing else matters."

I know that some words don't exist in the Sindarin language as the language itself is incomplete and I know that the words of the song will have to be changed but it only has to be a rough translation for it to work. It would mean a lot to me if someone could help me out. —Unsigned comment by LordoftheBeardedOnes (talk • contribs).

As you said, Sindarin is not a finished language. And even what's finished isn't final. Tolkien changed his mind a lot of times. Tolkien couldn't even find a translation of the Lord's Prayer he was happy with.

THere'll be plenty of people who "speak Sindarin" - they could construct simple lines. But these aren't simple lines. It's got awkward sentence structure, it's got ambiguity, it's got idioms, it's got unclear verb tenses, it's got rhyme (well, assonation). In order to "translate" this, you would have to butcher the original line so much it wouldn't be recognizable. The song is not called "All other things are not great burdens". --Ederchil ^{(Talk/Contribs/Edits)} 07:07, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

This is a problem with songs in general. I sing a lot of songs in Italian, German, and French, and knowing what each word means is essential to communicate the meaning of the text effectively. But when you translate a song from one language to another, you usually lose the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the original language. So you often see "singable translations" that, to a greater or lesser extent, veer from the original meaning and "feel" of the lyrics in the compositional language, in order to maintain a singable rhythm and rhyme. Example:

Original Italian: "Caro mio ben, credemi almen / senza di te, languisce il cor."

Literal translation: "Dear, my beloved, believe me at-least / without (of) you, languishes my(the) heart."

English "Singable" Translation: "Thou, all my bliss, believe me this / when thou art far, my heart is lorn."

In an incomplete art-language like Sindarin, this would be even more challenging. It would take some real doing to create a translation that EITHER would maintain (as best it could) the spirit of the original lyrics, OR keep a musical rhythm and rhyme. To do both equally well is difficult under the best of circumstances, you have to compromise one for the other.

It would help any translator to know what the purpose of this translation is, in order to know how much and in what ways they can warp the original text, compromising and accommodating for the original poetic rhythm and rhyme (if that's even important), and differences in idiom and grammar. Corsair Caruso 03:29, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Haha, I see, you mentioned it was for an engraving. In that case, Ederchil's comment still stands. Corsair Caruso 03:32, 30 July 2017 (UTC)