Talk:Die Wacht am Rhein

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Songs, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to songs on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

Can someone translate this into English?

--[User:mr100percent] 2004.10.11

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

Contents

[edit] name of article

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)

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)
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)

[edit] Translation of ruhig

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

[edit] Added better Translation

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).

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)

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).

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)

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).

[edit] Parody

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)


[edit] Sides

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)

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)