Dimash Kudaibergen

SOS d'un Terrien en détresse → English translation→ English

Translation

French (Original)

SOS of an Earthling in Distress

Click to see the original lyrics (French)

Why do I live? Why do I die?

Why do I laugh? Why do I cry?

This is the S.O.S.

of an earthling in distress

I've never had my feet on the ground

I wish I could become a bird1

I'm sick of being myself

I'd like to see the world upside down

Perhaps it is more beautiful // much nicer from above

from the top

I have been confusing my life

with cartoons and bad comic strips2

Now I have this need for transformation3

I feel something

pulling me

pulling me to the top

At the grand lotto of the Universe

I didn't get the right number

I'm so sick of being me

Ohhh

Perhaps it is more beautiful

much nicer from above

from the top

Why do I live? Why do I die?

Why do I scream? Why do I cry?

I think I'm picking up waves

from another world

I've never had my feet on the ground

Perhaps it is more beautiful

much better from above

Perhaps it is more beautiful

Sleep now, child, sleep.

1. The first of only two reasons I had to tag this "Poetic". I couldn't think of any variations of "I'd rather be a bird" that would translate into English with the same wistfulness and, more importantly, number of syllables.
2. The second reason I had to tag this "Poetic", strictly to get the lyrics to fit: "avec" and "bandes dessinées" add a lot of syllables!
3. This is a really tricky sentence to translate. I think this is the most accurate. It's important to note the pluralization of "envies" as an attempt to emphasize the strength of a growing "need", rather than an intermittent sense as most translations have conveyed. Also, I wanted to avoid using "feel" as it also appears in the next line, and there's no similar parallelism in the French lyrics.

commented

equirhythmic

metered

poetic

singable

Thanks! ❤

This is a poetic translation - deviations from the meaning of the original are present (extra words, extra or omitted information, substituted concepts).

Submitted by

Euno on 2022-05-11

Author's comments:

I took a more contextual approach to the translation, because slotting English words in for French ones doesn't always work because they're, well, different languages. But I thought I'd list a few things here for the curious:

- "Je suis mal dans ma peau" is kind of French for "ugh I feel like shit" --- in other words, it's got a much broader meaning than "I feel sick in my skin" or any other direct translation. I thought "I'm sick of being myself" was the best fit for the mournful tone of the song at that point.
- "plus beau" and "d'en haut" are likewise much broader than any direct translation. "plus beau" can simply mean "better", and "d'en haut" can mean "above", "up", "high", "the highest point", "top", "up top", all sorts of things. I chose translations for what I thought would sound best, and capture the mood of the lyrics at that point. (Still not entirely sure about using "top", not sure it sounds quite right but I couldn't think of anything else).

Very much hope someone enjoys this!

Original lyrics

SOS d'un Terrien en détresse

Click to see the original lyrics (French)

Collections with "SOS d'un Terrien en ..."

1.	French songs sung in French by singers whose mother tongue was not French

Dimash Kudaibergen: Top 3

1.	SOS d'un Terrien en détresse
2.	Дударай (Dudaray)
3.	Махаббат бер маған (Makhabbat ber maghan)

Comments

Dimash Kudaibergen

SOS d'un Terrien en détresse → English translation→ English

SOS of an Earthling in Distress

SOS d'un Terrien en détresse

Click to see the original lyrics (French)