LV Community Podcast 125: Multilingual Performances - Part 2

bobgon55 · Post by **bobgon55** » February 17th, 2012, 11:03 pm

Podcast #125, part two on multilingual performances, will be released next Sunday, Feb 26, 2012. Until then, enjoy podcast #124, just released (at the moment, only available on this thread on this forum).

At present, I have about 25 minutes of material for podcast #125, sufficient alone for a podcast. But if you wish to contribute something about recording in more than one language, please feel free to post or PM with a query or an audio file for the show. YOu may also contribute anything relevant to LibriVox: a promo for your project, some helpful hint(s) on recording or any LV process, or some bit of news relevant to LV.

Thanks to all who contribute and listen.

Bob

bobgon55 · Post by **bobgon55** » February 25th, 2012, 4:03 am

LibriVox Community Podcast #125
For Sunday, February 26, 2012
Multilingual Performances Part Two of a Two-Part Series

Hosted by Bob Gonzalez (bobgon55)

With contributions from Piotrek81, Nadine Eckert-Boulet, Leni, & Martin Geeson

Listen to the LibriVox Community Podcast #125

Duration: 31:14

Teaser & Intro 0:00
Piotrek81 2:07
“The Ackerman Steppe” read by Piotrek81 in Polish & Algy Pug in English 5:00
Nadine Eckert-Boulet 7:10
Nadine reading “Un Matin” in French 11:32
Martin Geeson on being sampled by a musician and the continuing language-averseness of the British 13:02
Leni on recording in Latin 16:24
Martin Geeson on his strange motivation to record multilingually for LibriVox 17:43
Leni on the Multilingual collection of Poe’s “The Raven” 21:10
“The Raven” A Multilingual Collage 24:30
Conclusion and Outro 29:55

Piotrek81 · Post by **Piotrek81** » February 25th, 2012, 4:59 am

I've just listened to it. Great stuff

I especially liked the part about the multilingual edition of "The Raven". I totally agree that translations of poetry don't give the same feeling. There were cases of "The Raven" translations read in this podcast when I thought "That doesn't sound the way it should" (no offence to the readers intended!). In fact I'm planning to add my reading of the original version to the already existing pile

I know of several Polish translations of this poem, but I have no idea where to find a PD e-text

And then again, the Polish version would probably sound weird to me after I've read (and heard) the original so many times.

bobgon55 · Post by **bobgon55** » February 25th, 2012, 5:12 am

Glad you liked it, Piotrek! I had fun putting together the collages, yours & Algy's and "The Raven." In fact, that is what took up most of my time! I could only go by cadences and the few words I could make out in all the translations (except Spanish, where I understood most of it). I loved making the collages of the LibriVox disclaimers, too. I thought it was neat to hear the word LibriVox pop up within the sea of non-English words. I especially like the sound of the Chinese version and reader. The goodbye collages were fun, too. Today's podcast had the addition of Kristinjg, who added a couple this week.

What did you think of the experience of hearing your poem with the English translation interspersed within it? I performed a Pablo Neruda poem somewhat like this in a live show with a student of mine and felt it was very effective. The student and I actually switched off with Spanish and English, so that both of us spoke both languages at some points in the poem. I think it is an interesting way to present bilingual poetry to a mixed audience.

Thanks for your support of the podcasts, both as contributor and enthusiastic listener!

Bob

Piotrek81 · Post by **Piotrek81** » February 25th, 2012, 5:43 am

it was neat to hear the word LibriVox pop up within the sea of non-English words.

Actually, "librivox" is a non-English word too. It's Latin

As to the sonnet, for the purpose of recreational listening I'd prefer to listen to one poem in its entirety and then the translation, so that the mood and imagery are sustained.

Btw. when doing the final mix for the project of "Sonety krymskie/Sonnets from the Crimea" I found that the English translation is often quite loose. I don't know much about translating poetry, but if it hadn't been for the titles and sequence of poems I would have probably found it difficult to match the versions, at least in some cases.

bobgon55 · Post by **bobgon55** » February 25th, 2012, 5:50 am

I had a feeling that the English translation was not literal, particularly because it rhymed and was metered. Usually, there is only one or other quality - literal translations are somewhat ugly and "poetic" translations are not very faithful.

And I would say that "LibriVox" is a pseudo-Latin word, since Hugh actually invented it by combining two real Latin words.

Piotrek81 · Post by **Piotrek81** » February 25th, 2012, 5:56 am

bobgon55 wrote:And I would say that "LibriVox" is a pseudo-Latin word, since Hugh actually invented it by combining two real Latin words.

Yup, I know. "It's the kind of word you come up with when you don't know any Latin" if I remember the General FAQ correctly

Perhaps we will do another bilingual duet project similar to "Sonnets" in the future. We even have a candidate

bobgon55 · Post by **bobgon55** » February 25th, 2012, 6:23 am

Piotrek81 wrote: Perhaps we will do another bilingual duet project similar to "Sonnets" in the future. We even have a candidate

That sounds great. The more bi/multi/lingual projects, the better.

Post by **Leni** » February 25th, 2012, 9:53 am

Piotrek81 wrote:
bobgon55 wrote:And I would say that "LibriVox" is a pseudo-Latin word, since Hugh actually invented it by combining two real Latin words.
Yup, I know. "It's the kind of word you come up with when you don't know any Latin" if I remember the General FAQ correctly

On that, I was a bit surprised when I learned that, because it actually makes sense in Latin. "Libri" would be the correct way of saying "of the book" (liber, libri), and "vox" is the correct way of saying "voice", so it does read as "the voice of the book". Of course, in Latin you wouldn't put them together like that to form just one word. But hey, if you consider Latin was written as scriptio continua for a long time, it doesn't look that strange.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » February 25th, 2012, 10:55 am

There speaks a true Latin scholar.

I, as a once (much lower) level, Latin scholar, am always mildly irritated when people call it LibroVox, for the very reason that that does NOT seem to make sense to me... voice by the book, voice to the book?... book by the voice would be OK.

And LibroVox is wrong anyway, of course. But then, I have seen Liverbox and Librewax too.

Ruth

bobgon55 · Post by **bobgon55** » February 25th, 2012, 11:00 am

Leni, I love the sound of "the voice of the book" for a tag line for LibriVox.

LibriVox: The Voice of the Book

It's also interesting to note that for centuries when writing was first invented, people always read aloud. First, because they would be reading aloud to others who could not read but second, they would even read aloud to themselves, so much and so commonly so that St. Augustine noted in his Confessions the strangeness of Ambrose reading silently. My theory about this is that since humanity was more used to hearing words than seeing words, reading them aloud was the best way for them to embrace the new technology of writing. It's interesting that today we commonly read so silently that those who read aloud their subject matter to themselves or who even just "move their lips" when they read are thought to be "slow" or mentally deficient. (Unless, of course, they are rehearsing for a performance of the text, either live or recorded.)

Thanks for the link to scriptio continua. I think an additionally difficult pattern of writing and reading was boustrophedon, where one read a line left to right, then the next line right to left, then the next left to right again, ad infinitum. The thought of doing that now would drive me crazy!

Piotrek81 · Post by **Piotrek81** » February 25th, 2012, 11:02 am

@RuthieG
Liverbox?

Whoever used that must have had some weird ideas about what the people here are up to

Post by **TriciaG** » February 25th, 2012, 11:26 am

Piotrek81 wrote:@RuthieG
Liverbox?
Whoever used that must have had some weird ideas about what the people here are up to

Well, I can see a dyslexic person doing saying that.

Starlite · Post by **Starlite** » February 25th, 2012, 4:28 pm

Piotrek81 wrote:@RuthieG
Liverbox?
Whoever used that must have had some weird ideas about what the people here are up to

It was a child.

I think it is in a former podcast so if you go through all of them....

Esther

Post by **annise** » February 25th, 2012, 5:54 pm

Maybe they couldn't say "r" very well - I know Australians do not tend to emphasise it much. As a total non Latin student I have always thought Libri reminded me of Free as well as books but it is probably my Aussie ears

Anne