Talk:Die Wacht am Rhein

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Many, Many more translations[edit]

I happened to stumble upon this book: https://books.google.com/books?id=yYpSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA60#v=onepage&q&f=true. It contains translations of the poem into many more languages including Latin, French, and Hebrew. I believe it opens up the possibility for a page solely for translations. Does enyone else agree? --Heil Kaiser (talk) 22:00, 6 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]


Untitled[edit]

Can someone translate this into English?

--[User:mr100percent] 2004.10.11

Seconding translation --Grevlek 04:15, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)

name of article[edit]

There is a auto-redirect from the German name to the English name. Which one, tho, should be used for the actual title? Beanbatch 19:17, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

IMO, the main article should be at the German name. Practically all non-English songs at List of patriotic songs are listed in their native phrasings. Olessi 22:22, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds like a precedent to me. If you know how to do it cleanly (and auto-migrate existing links) I say go for it.Beanbatch 22:34, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Translation of ruhig[edit]

Ruhig ist better translated with calm than quiet in this case.

Added better Translation[edit]

I changed the translation to the lyrics from ingeb.org. They actually rhyme, and portray the (probable) meaning of the poem better than the old translation. Is that OK? -Alex, 74.133.188.197 04:13, 14 May 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Thanks for your contributions, but I've reverted to the older version which I consider closer to the German text. Feel free to add your version here on the talk page, so that people can discuss the pros and cons of a more "free" or "poetic" translation.--Matthead 20:24, 1 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, when someone comes here to read the translation, they probably expect the english translation to rhyme as much as the original german words do. It just sounds better, and it gets the intended sentiment across better. Though the literal translation does that fine, it doesn't have the, as you said it, poetic sound to it. The english translation should have a poetic sound to it, considering that the german language version was originally a poem, which as put to music about a decade after it was written. -Alex, 74.133.188.197 18:41, 2 June 2006 (UTC).[reply]

I prefer having literal translations, as they indicate the "true" meaning of the foreign text, instead of a poetic translation in which the translator might take some liberties with the original text just to conform with poetic rules. Is there enough space to add a third column listing an English poetic version as well? Olessi 17:55, 3 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I say, add it. If you want a good poetic translation that rhymes well, use the ingeb.org page of Die Wacht am Rhein: http://ingeb.org/Lieder/esbraust.html The only part of it I don't really like are the refrain and the first strophe, but you can use the one I made, just check the history of this page. -Alex, 74.133.188.197 12:07, 4 June 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Parody[edit]

In Robert Graves' memoir Good-bye to All That, he mentions a WWI English song titled something like "We're Going to Wind Down the Watch on the Rhine"... AnonMoos 11:40, 22 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Sides[edit]

article: "Germans feared that France was planning to annex the left bank of the Rhine, as it had sought to do" i guess the right bank of the rhine would be accurate, as the left bank has been french territory since louis XIV. it wasn't annexed by the german reich before the 1870/71 french-prussian war. correct me if i'm getting it wrong. --77.4.134.158 (talk) 00:58, 10 May 2008 (UTC) ("Willie McBride" on de.wiki)[reply]

This is explained in the article. The german-french border before 1871 was the same as it is today. The southern left bank was french, the part in the north was german. French politicians indeed sought to annex the whole eastern bank up to the netherlands so that the river itself would serve as a border. See the article Rhineland. 91.65.112.226 (talk) 14:49, 19 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Approximate translation"[edit]

The "approximate translation" makes some mistakes.

It translates "wer will des Stromes Hüter sein?" ("Who wants to be the river's guardian?") in the first stanza as "who guards tonight my stream divine?". By adding the word "divine" it gives a wrong impression of the first stanza. (The word "heilig" "sacred" only appears in the second stanza. The word "göttlich" "divine" can't be found anywhere in the poem.)

"Heldenväter" ("heroic fathers") in the third stanza is translated as "ancient heroes". This change to the text makes no sense. In 1813/1814 German forces had fought against the French at the banks of the river Rhine, driving the invaders back to France. Thus these soldiers belong to the generation of the fathers of the young men in Germany that Max Schneckenburger addresses in his poem. (They are "Helden, "heroes", because they died during the fightings against Napoleon's troops which is also the reason why they look down from Heaven where they reside now, according to the poem.) 91.50.44.230 (talk) 18:10, 9 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is called a forced rhyme. Who wants to translate rhymes to rhymes has to make approximations.--131.159.0.47 (talk) 15:59, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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"modern verse translation"[edit]

what's the source for this modern verse translation? (And who sings "pugnaciously"?) --jpgordon𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇 01:10, 15 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]