Translation - English-Danish - Earth Song

jeg tror, jeg ville ændre "Som du sagde at vi skulle vinde... " til "Som du sagde at vi skulle opnå...."

Mht "killing fields" er jeg en del i tvivl... det får mig til at tænke på "The Killing Fields" (a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime) - jeg tænker lidt på, om det måske kunne oversættes til "slagmarker", men er som sagt i tvivl.

Hej Anita. Er enig med den første sætning: "Som du sagde at vi skulle opnå...." og retter. Hvad angår slagmarker er jeg også i tvivl. Det er en sang , som du jo ved, og jeg tror, at hvis Michael Jackson, ville have henvist til dramaet i Cambodia, ville han så ikke have skrevet: THE killing fields". Nej, for søren du retter og lad mig vide hvad angår "slagmarker".

Ian, could you please help me out here, I´m in doubt whether "killing fields" in Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" refers to the place where a battle (war) takes place and people are killed?

It specifically made me think of the killing fields in Cambodia, but since MJ doesn't sing "THE killing fields", I am guessing it could be translated to something more generic like "battle fields" - what do you say?

CC: IanMegill2

Hi Anita,
You know, I think the words "killing fields" here refer in a poetic way to all the killing fields in all the wars, i.e. the places where so many people were killed...
I think the reason why MJ chose those specific words was because they are actually designed to make us remember the specific killing fields in Cambodia, and to generate the same feeling of sadness and revulsion that those fields gave rise to in us, but then we also generalize those feelings of sadness and revulsion to all wars in general, i.e. that wars are not about "heroism," but rather are all "killing fields."
It's always dangerous to try to interpret a poem of course, but I think this is a fair interpretation: MJ uses a specific poetic reference to a historical tragedy, in order to generalize about all the battlefields in all the wars, and to make us feel the same way about these other battlefields as well...
Hmmm...

"vinde" sound like a competition, better - "tjene".
In the original English "was" shgould be substituted with "were" (plural).

Thank you very much for your thorough explanation, Ian!
I´m afraid it will be practically impossible to capture the exact same "feeling" in Danish, but I suggest we then write "krigens slagmarker" (the battlefields of war) in the Danish version.

jairhaas:

I have already suggested to write "opnå" (achieve) in stead of "vinde" because you are right that "vinde" usually refers to something competition-related.

However, your suggestion (tjene) is money-related, and means "to earn".

CC: jairhaas

Er enig med dig, Anita, hvad angår ""krigens slagmarker". Det er faktisk bare fint.

Perfekt, så synes jeg, oversættelsen er fin, når "vinde" bliver rettet til "opnå" og "de ødelagte marker" til "krigens slagmarker".

Det synes jeg også, takket være dig. Tak søde.
Det er vel Ernst der skal rette, ikke?

CC: Bamsa

Jo, det tror jeg - jeg forsøgte at rette selv, men fik ikke tilladelse til det.