The other day I came across a useful site called Lyrics Translate, where you can find, submit and request translations of songs. It currently contains translations between a wide range of languages, including English, German, Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Polish and so on, and the site itself can be viewed in a variety of languages. There is also a forum for translators, as well as articles and videos.
So it look like a good place to practise languages you’re learning – you can find songs in those languages, either originals, or translated from other languages, and you could even have a go at translating songs yourself.
I have submitted translations of Cockles and Mussels (Molly Malone) in Irish and Manx – not my own translations admittedly, and just found a song in Breton with a translations in English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and a video. There are quite a few other songs in Breton too.
I also find that site fun and useful and I revised the Swedish translation of the site. 🙂
After looking up a handful of the translations to and from Norwegian, I got annoyed. They’re all unsingable word-by-word line-by-line renderings, offering little that Google Translate couldn’t have done. Ironically, this may in itself be due to lackluster translation. In Norwegian we tend to discern oversettelse “(text) translation” from gjendikting “recreating translation of poetry”.
When I get over it, I might put up a singable Norwegian version of Molly Malone. If I figure out how — and if I dare after this rant.