Does anyone know of songs whose lyrics were originally in English, and were either translated or had new lyrics written from scratch in any of these languages
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I have that Faye Wong song on my iPod! I should look up that album now.
While not quite what the OP is asking for, there are plenty of originally Japanese pop songs with Chinese versions, and no doubt the reverse situation too. One nostalgic pop song I remember from my childhood (Japanese song 「春はSA-RA SA-RA」by 長山洋子 Nagayama Yoko) turned out to be a cover of a Finnish song ("Kiitävän hetken hurma" by Eini), of all things, I was happy to find the original on YouTube, and then I found out there was also a Cantonese version in Hong Kong (covered off the Japanese cover version)... loads of cover songs out there.
Maybe more what the OP is looking for, I find if I just look for names of songs and then 中文版 in You Tube I find all kinds of interesting Chinese versions of stuff.
Probably every song in every Disney movie. You can find versions all over YouTube. Here's some examples, with the sidebars absolutely filled with translated versions:
Chinese Spanish Danish Farsi (This might actually be Dari, I'm not sure. Farsi seems to be the hardest to find.)
the 'yéyé' singers in France in the 60s rewrote (and murdered) plenty of English language songs. One of the longest lasting (because it is used as a theme tune for a sausage product advertisment!) isHerman's Hermits "Doo wa diddy" (about a boy eyeing up a girl) became 'vous les copains je vous oublierais jamais' about a girl and her friends (sung by Sheila) and many many more. Much of the native pop music in France in that period was either little ballads or Gainsbourg (and Gainsbourg was wonderful the rest to my ears or Johnny Halliday bellowing an out of tune version of rock and roll
In reverse however Claude François wrote 'Comme d'habitude' which was translated & greatly improved on to become sinatra's great classic 'My Way' the French classic Les Feuilles Mortes was pretty faithfully rendered to Autumn Leaves. this last is a good example of what can be done....those of us who translate literature (especially poetry) know what the difficulties are;
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While not quite what the OP is asking for, there are plenty of originally Japanese pop songs with Chinese versions, and no doubt the reverse situation too. One nostalgic pop song I remember from my childhood (Japanese song 「春はSA-RA SA-RA」by 長山洋子 Nagayama Yoko) turned out to be a cover of a Finnish song ("Kiitävän hetken hurma" by Eini), of all things, I was happy to find the original on YouTube, and then I found out there was also a Cantonese version in Hong Kong (covered off the Japanese cover version)... loads of cover songs out there.
Maybe more what the OP is looking for, I find if I just look for names of songs and then 中文版 in You Tube I find all kinds of interesting Chinese versions of stuff.
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Chinese
Spanish
Danish
Farsi (This might actually be Dari, I'm not sure. Farsi seems to be the hardest to find.)
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and many many more.
Much of the native pop music in France in that period was either little ballads or Gainsbourg (and Gainsbourg was wonderful the rest to my ears or Johnny Halliday bellowing an out of tune version of rock and roll
In reverse however Claude François wrote 'Comme d'habitude' which was translated & greatly improved on to become sinatra's great classic 'My Way'
the French classic Les Feuilles Mortes was pretty faithfully rendered to Autumn Leaves.
this last is a good example of what can be done....those of us who translate literature (especially poetry) know what the difficulties are;
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