Thread: French lines in a Russian Opera

Hello friends,

I am currently creating English language subtitles for a video of the Russian-language opera "Dubrovsky," by Eduard Nápravník. These subtitles and the video will be distributed gratis as soon as the project is complete (probably by the end of this summer). I have previously created subtitles for numerous other rare opera videos.

"Dubrovsky" contains a couple of songs that are sung in French.

I would greatly appreciate it if any French speakers out there would take a few minutes to translate the following lines.

Thanks very much!



Paul Greif
Calgary, Canada
plgreif@shaw.ca


French lines from "Dubrovsky"


Ne*jamais*la*voir,*ni*l'entendre,
Ne*jamais*tout*haut*la*nommer,
Mais,*fidèle,*toujours*l'attendre,
Toujours,*toujours*l'aimer…
Ouvrir*les*bras*et*las*d'attendre:
Sur*le*néant*les*refermer,
Mais*d'un*amour
toujours,*toujours
plus*tendre
Toujours,
toujours*l'aimer!
Mais*d'un*amour
toujours,
toujours*plus*tendre
Toujours,
Toujours
l'aimer!
Mais*encore*toujours*les*lui*tendre,
toujours,
toujours*l'aimer…
ne*pouvoir*que*les*lui*tendre
Et*dans*les*pleurs*se*consumer!
Mais*ces*pleurs,*toujours*les*répandre,
toujours,
toujours*l'aimer!

Never to see her nor hear her
Never to say her name out loud
But always faithfully to wait for her
Always, always to love her
To open my arms, and then weary of waiting,
to close them again .
But always, always to love her
with an ever more tender love.
But always, always to love her
with an ever more tender love.
But also always to open my arms to her
always, always to love her,
only be able to open them to her,
and consume myself in tears.
Forever to shed tears,
always to love her.

The song relies on a pun on tendre, which means tender, and tendre les bras, which means to open/stretch your arms to someone, this is lost in translation. And it gets more specific because in French you say open THE arms and in English you have to say WHOSE arms.

I'm very glad I'm not a professional translator.

That's GREAT! Thank you so much for taking the time to translate this for me!
I really appreciate it!

I enlisted the assistance of three native Russian speakers and together they produced what is probably the first English translation of this opera, based on an unfinished novel by Pushkin. I am currently revising their English translation, slowly working my way through all 1831 lines of subs.

Your French translation is a big help! Thanks again!

Attached to this message is a preview Eduard Nápravník - Dubrovsky (1961) composite, eng, incomplete.txtof the subtitle file that I am preparing. As I am currently at line 1185 in my revision of the English subs, I ended the subtitles at this point. This is also where the French text begins in the libretto.



Paul
Calgary, Canada

Eduard Napravnik was a 19th century Czechbornconductor and composer who settled in Russia as a
young man and spent the rest of his life there , becoming a highly respected conductor who conducted the premieres of some of the most famous operas by Tchaikovsky and other great Russian composers , as well as composing operas and other works .
I haven't heard the opera Dubrovsky, but would definitely be interested . Some of the leading Russian tenors
have recorded an aria from it .

Dubrovsky is a great opera and Nápravník was perhaps the best russian opera conductor in the second half of the 19th. century (the most important opera he gave peremiere was Boris Godunov).
I have 1954 Nebolsin with Bolshoi Theatre recording and thought it's the only recording available, I didn't know there is also a video production of the opera, so great ! However there are some recordings of Vladimir's Romance made by the legendary tenor Sergei Lemeshev.