What It Is
- Artist: Erich Fried
- Song: Was es ist
- Translation: German → English
- Submitted by
brightswan on Sat, 11/02/2012 - 22:50 - Translations: French, Greek, Hungarian
Was es ist
Es ist Unsinn
sagt die Vernunft
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe
Es ist Unglück
sagt die Berechnung
Es ist nichts als Schmerz
sagt die Angst
Es ist aussichtslos
sagt die Einsicht
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe
Es ist lächerlich
sagt der Stolz
Es ist leichtsinnig
sagt die Vorsicht
Es ist unmöglich
sagt die Erfahrung
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe
What It Is
Rationality says
It’s nonsense
Love says
It is what it is
Reckoning says
It’s doom
Fear says
It’s nothing but sorrow
Sense says
It’s hopeless
Love says
It is what it is
Pride says
It’s ridiculous
Caution says
It’s reckless
Experience says
It’s not practical
Love says
It is what it is
| thanked 29 times |
More translations of "Was es ist"
| User | Posted ago | |
|---|---|---|
| Mauler | 1 year 14 weeks |
Is there anything I can do to improve upon this?
Well, I'm not the one that rated 4 stars and German isn't my first language but maybe I can share my take on this part:
sagt die Einsicht
Aussichtslos sounds stronger than just "not promising" to me. I would suggest hopeless or desperate.
Also, I would probably translate Einsicht as intelligence but I'm not sure if it fits better.
Hope I helped.
Thank you maëlstrom,
I used "sense" for Einsicht, hopefully that fits better! 
If you want to do a literal translation, I guess you can't say Unglück = doom or unmöglich = not practical. I suppose this might have bothered your first voter.
It is pretty tricky to find the perfect translation, it's more about the "feel", so I it's not easy to give an unbiased vote.
Hope you don't mind if I post my own version (at first, I wanted to put my 50 cents in, but then I realized you can't find a "perfect" translation).
No Turcanin, I don't mind - do what you need to do; however, I would like to add that Unglück means more than misfortune, and unmöglich means more than impossible. And you're right - there is no perfect translation. Good luck with yours!
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