Wednesday, November 10, 2010

English translation of tamil movie songs

I will post English translation of Tamil movie songs. I search for translations of hindi songs as I can't fully understand the lyrics; I thought there must be people who are not familiar with tamil who face similar needs. I hope this effort helps them enjoy a little more,the beauty of the songs. I'll write with the assumption that you may not be familiar with tamil/indian culture.

I will use English to write out tamil and not use tamil fonts; one it's easier to type out in English; two, people who are not familiar with tamil script can still read and understand the meaning. Of course I myself am not familiar using tamil fonts for writing :)

I will channel the efforts into capturing the poet's intention; as you know Tamil is a rich language and it's hard to translate some of the words. As time permits, in a more appropriate future time, I may subtitle the song and upload in youtube.

I appreciate your comments; feel free to offer alternate meanings/translations; I don't have access to the original lyrics and I rely on listening to capture the lyrics -- so there is a good chance I might have misrepresented the poet's intention (of course this adds it's own charm).. feel free to offer your alternate meanings.

To find the song, I suggest you use youtube/google search. The URL I list may go obsolete; but I'll list a few search keywords which will help you to locate the video/audio of the song on the net.

I will use simple fonts and structure; the English lines will start with a * (asterisk). At the end, I'll give a dictionary of some of the tamil words and my translation. Also I'll have a commentary section where I'll write the background/intention of the song so that you can see the big picture/mood for the song. And lastly, all the writings are my own interpretation and I would avoid prefixing most sentences with "I feel..", "I believe"..but just state them as fact. I would love to hear alternate interpretations and please do leave your thoughts in your comments.

4 Comments:

At 12:18 PM, Blogger Gopakumar V S (ഗോപന്‍ ) said...

Karthink, just now only I could see your blog...best wishes and waiting to get a loooooot from you.... good attempt of translation of tamil songs to english

 
At 8:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, I have been trying to get a translation of this song "Istanbul Rajkumari", can you help please. Thanks

 
At 8:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi , thanks for this blog, I am looking for this song "Istanbul Rajkumari" translation, can u help, plesae ? Thanks

 
At 8:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, I have been trying to get a translation of this song "Istanbul Rajkumari", can you help please. Thanks

 

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