I wanted to sing, but it didn’t work translated to gal-simple. So I tried a mental translators, but then I learn that it most only scan the left side of the brain for the sentence structures. Singing comes from the right side. -- Anon Guest
[AN: There's growing evidence that the left-brain/right-brain stuff isn't as real as we once thought. However, there are other things that say it's real in very specific directions.]
Sometimes, you just got to sing. Sometimes, those listening do not understand the language being sung. This has lead to some true travesties in the past. Fortunately, technology exists to bridge the language gap.
Unfortunately, language is complicated. Songs are even more complicated as meter, rhyme, allegory, and allusion all blend together into something in which the literal translation is worse than unrelated to the original work. Some experimentation has occurred in the area of scanning the brain waves of the singer to try and get metaphorically closer to the meat of the meaning.
Initial results were... not that great. Especially in Humans. Redundancies built upon a brain structure initially designed to find food and co-ordinate a body and little else were not made for complicated linguistics. In Deathworlders especially, this meant different areas for (a) the language itself, (b) the tonal inflections within or surrounding the language, and (c) any meaning within both. There were more than that, but those were the bare minimum. It was a disaster.
First result - cacophony. At least three synthetic voices talking over each other and in the case of the tonal inflection, providing a melodic counterpoint to the babble. Worse, the synthetic voices were all delivered in a meterless monotone.
The scientists behind it all leaped for the cutoff switch within the first few seconds.
The second result attempted various filters. The big problem being that GalSimple was made to be understood by the most amount of people in the least amount of time. It was not meant to convey complicated concepts like yearning for the unattainable, a common thread in Terran mating songs.
Fitting, Self want muching-much best body, self want muching-much best inside motive force[1], into the extant meter just would not work. So they attempted the best-fit solution, which did not mean using GalSimple.
Humans could, and would, write songs in GalSimple; but they were very rarely about complicated topics. One notable hit is the GalSimple tune, Self Want Mating With You, But Mutual Plumbing Not Mesh Good. Put it this way, the short version is technically the twelve-inch mix.
GalStand just has more room for interpolated hyperbole. That said, the translations are never direct and never easy. Some prefer the translations done by living beings, and the automated translations are the reason why.
Using the above example, filtered through GalStand Omnibeliefs, the lyrics become, I want perfection in my physical self, I want perfection in my inner self. Not exactly a bop. That, and it doesn't scan.
The good news is that Humans can, have, and will, translate things for amusement. Therefore the rest of the Alliance stands back and waits for someone to crave, as the Humans put it, "shits and giggles."
The words may change in these translation, and the meaning with it, but somehow these mad creatures manage to preserve the spirit of the original lyrics.
They're still trying to work out how it's done.
[1] The original lyric being, I want a perfect body, I want a perfect soul. From a pre-shattering romantic ballad that has managed to survive to the Uniting Era.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / elfachero3]
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