moonlight poem,plz help

[goddamit]

hi all,i'm a newbie on this board though there's no denying i've been a gr8 GF fan for years.i can still well remember just how addicting and fun the story was when i first played it.

 

currently,my buddy and i are working on translating Grim Fandango's in-game poems into another language.nevertheless,due to language and culture differences we had met some difficulties understanding some of them correctly,especially for the connotations.so i came all the way to this fanbase section,registered a username and post this thread in the hope of someone here being kind enough to throw me a bone.

 

right now,it's about the moonlight poem,just as teh following

 

It shone, pale as bone,

As I stood there alone.

And I thought to myself how the moon,

That night, cast its light

On my heart's true delight,

And the reef where her body was strewn.

 

what confused us is the last two lines.

what does "true delight" here mean?does it refer to the happiness which manny was brimming with the moment he saw meche after year's torment?or does it simply stand for meche,manny's sweetheart,his bona lisa?or rather it could hold other connotative meanings that i haven't come up to yet?

and what about the last line,what is the author(Tim?) trying to deliver or to express,and can someone here be kind enogh make an close analysis of it,i just can't figure it out?

 

ps: plz excuse me for my poor english,i'm not that good handling it.

and feel free to leave your note,any comments are apperciated.

[VampireNaomi]

I always understood the poem the way that it didn't tell about Meche specifically (besides, didn't Velasco also have a part in reciting it?) but that it was just a random poem. In my eyes it's about a man who is musing over his lover's dead body. Other people probably have different ideas, but that's my two cents.

 

What language are you translating it into? I love languages, so it would actually be interesting to see what the GF poems look like in different ones. Shall we have a small collection right in this thread?

[elbiolin]

Exactly, "my heart's true delight" was his lover.

She's dead now and "the reef where her body was strewn" it's a reference to the world of the deads. The place where she rests now.

Remember that Acheron river where the soul of the deads where taken to the Hades. Islands and shores were always a poetic symbol for death. Maybe it's a reference to where was Mercedes at that moment: The Edge of the World. I don't know Velasco's past. Maybe he lost someone.

 

Here's my attempt to translate it to spanish:

 

Brillaba, pálida como un hueso,

Mientras permanecía en soledad

Y pensaba para mí mismo, cómo la luna

Aquella noche, derramaba su luz

Sobre el verdadero encanto de mi corazón

Y la ribera donde fue abandonada.

[Yohein]

I think that's a poem Velasco taught Manny (they sing it together). Because "the reef where her body was strewn" sounds more like a ship story, and remember Velasco had this kind of story

[goddamit]

thankies for reply and interpretations.yep,now things are getting much clearer to me.

 

hi,VampireNaomi, it is Chinese that we're translating into,excactly.i don't know if u understand Chinese,but if you like,i think i can post the translations up after we've eventually finish them.

 

cheers

[goddamit]

I think that's a poem Velasco taught Manny (they sing it together). Because "the reef where her body was strewn" sounds more like a ship story, and remember Velasco had this kind of story

 

wow,i second that.

it could be a reference to the ship(what's-her-name) of Velasco that got wrecked off the coast in the limbo,perhap the poem was orignally written by him.you got a great point!!

 

 

 

oh,and so sorry for doubleposting~~~~~:skul9:

[VampireNaomi]

I don't understand Chinese, goddamit (okay, that sounds wrong ) but I'd still love to read the poem in that language.

 

There was never a Finnish version of GF, so the following is my pathetic attempt at translating the poem.

 

Se hohti, kalpeana kuin luu

Kun seisoin siellä yksin

Ja mietin itsekseni, kuinka kuu

Tuona yönä langetti valonsa

Sydämeni todelliselle onnelle

Ja riutalle, minne hänen ruumiinsa oli levitetty.

 

I quite like the Spanish version. How well does it correspond to the one used in the actual Spanish dub?

[Yohein]

In the official Spanish dub, the poem is like this:

 

Brillaba, pálida como un hueso,

Mientras yo estaba solo.

Y pensaba para mí cómo la luna,

Esa noche, arrojaba su luz

Sobre el verdadero placer de mi corazón

Y el arrecife donde su cuerpo estaba esparcido.

[elbiolin]

OK! I had no idea of what the original traslation was.

But it's not too literal? Anyway, forget mine.

[Yohein]

Well, probably. The Spanish translation of the game isn't too good, so maybe some phrases can be too literal, yes.