 | Agapise me-Tamta |
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Hi, I really like the song Agapise me by Tamta. I have tried a few online translation tools to work out the lyrics but it comes out a bit jumbled. Would love to get a real translation of this song. Thanks in advance for your help! : ) Για πόσο καιρό για πόσο καιρό θα αντέχω να μη σ΄έχω για πόσο καιρό για πόσο καιρό θα ματώνω εγώ μόνο Για πόσο καιρό... Αγάπησέ με μην αργείς αγάπησέ με όσο μπορείς τη ζ ωή μου έχω φανταστεί με σένα πρωταγωνιστή Αγάπησέ με μην αργείς αγάπησέ με όσο μπορείς της καρδιάς μου η πόρτα είναι ανοιχτή είσαι ότι έχω ονειρευτεί Σε θέλω εδώ μα ζί σου να ζω κάθε βράδυ κι ένα χάδι σε θέλω εδώ πώς να μοιραστώ τα φιλιά σου την καρδιά σου Σε θέλω εδώ... Αγάπησέ με μην αργείς αγάπησέ με όσο μπορείς τη ζωή μου έχω φα νταστεί με σένα πρωταγωνιστή Αγάπησέ με μην αργείς αγάπησέ με όσο μπορείς της καρδιάς μου η πόρτα είναι ανοιχτή είσαι ότι έχω ονειρευτεί. |
| Re: Agapise me-Tamta |
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The useful site www.allthelyrics.com has an attempted translation at the page http://www.allthelyrics.com/forum/greek-lyrics-translation/26009-tamta-agapise-me.html |
| Re: Agapise me-Tamta |
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The literal translation on the link given - doesn't really make sense when you read it in English. (The words are translated, but it's not how you would express the intended meaning of the lyrics in English) I have tried below to translate the lyrics as they would have been intended to be expressed in the English language. (Not perfect I know - but some things just don't translate well - ie a heart doesn't have a door in English - but my heart can be open to you..) Για πόσο καιρό για πόσο καιρό For how long for how long θα αντέχω να μη σ΄έχω will I last without you για πόσο καιρό για πόσο καιρό For how long for how long θα ματώνω εγώ μόνο will I be the only one bleeding Για πόσο καιρό... For how long Αγάπησέ με μην αργείς love me donΆt wait αγάπησέ με όσο μπορείς love me all you can τη ζωή μου έχω φανταστεί IΆve imagined my life με σένα πρωταγωνιστή with you leading the way Αγάπησέ με μην αργείς love me don't wait αγάπησέ με όσο μπορείς love me all you can της καρδιάς μου η πόρτα είναι ανοιχτή my heart is open (Probably need to add "to you" here as well) είσαι ότι έχω ονειρευτεί youΆre everything I've ever dreamed of Σε θέλω εδώ μαζί σου να ζω I want you here, to live with you κάθε βράδυ κι ένα χάδι every night an affectionate touch σε θέλω εδώ πώς να μοιραστώ I want you here! How could I share … τα φιλιά σου την καρδιά σου your kisses , your heart Σε θέλω εδώ... I want you here Αγάπησέ με μην αργείς Love me don't wait αγάπησέ με όσο μπορείς love me all you can τη ζωή μου έχω φανταστεί IΆve imagined my life με σένα πρωταγωνιστή with you leading the way Αγάπησέ με μην αργείς love me donΆt wait αγάπησέ με όσο μπορείς love me all you can της καρδιάς μου η πόρτα είναι ανοιχτή My heart it is open (Probably need to add "to you" here as well) είσαι ότι έχω ονειρευτεί youΆre everything I've ever dreamed of Hope this helps.. George |
| Re: Agapise me-Tamta |
| This is a better translation and mentions the bleeding notably lacking in the allthelyrics translation. The heart does have a door in English however, particularly in gospel language. You can even knock on that door and be given the key to it, so "the door of my heart is open" would be an extremely natural sounding metaphor in English and well worth putting in the translation. |
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Hi Calum, Having thought about again - you may be right...BUT .... instead of "the door OF my heart is open" I would suggest "the door TO my heart is open". Also I feel that in English you can be given a key - BUT - again not to "the door of the heart" - rather - directly "to the heart" - example "You've found the key to my heart" NOT "You've found the key to the door of my heart" (Nobody speaks this way - at least not any more) So after all that...I feel that the translation below does indeed sit well with me! (in the modern English) ====================================== της καρδιάς μου η πόρτα είναι ανοιχτή The door to my heart is open ====================================== Γειά χαρά, Γιώργος  |
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Γιώργο, 'Door of my heart' is a more accurate translation of the Greek which is partly why I suggested it. 'Door of my heart' would not be less colloquial or natural than the alternative translation 'door to my heart'. Neither are uncommon in English and both are fairly equally used. English can put something two ways where Greek would naturally only use one way but would this inevitably imply that the 'non-Greek' way was more natural or characteristic English? Are not both usages equally characteristic of English? One usage being uncharacteristic of Greek is an altogether different concern. Ultimately, it's your decision how you wish to translate Greek concepts: with exact and natural English parallels which help the reader to get a sense of the Greek, or with English that carries the same meaning and impact as exact and natural parallels but which is uncharacteristic of the Greek. However, I hope I can put it beyond dispute that English hearts do in fact have doors which can open - metaphorically speaking! I appreciate your valiant but doomed attempt to utilise the word 'to' to obviate the existence of a metaphorical door as Ι do your assertion that nobody speaks this way. The English phrases 'the key to the hall' or 'the keys to the car' would normally would imply the existence of doors. However, it's not a question of people having spoken this way now or in the past. Rather, it's a question of this being a metaphor which English speakers past and present would recognise and understand, regardless of whether it is articulated in full detail or not. For the English speaker, the phrase "the key to my heart" implies that the heart has a metaphorical door which opens once the metaphorical key is put in, just like for the car or the hall. The entire phrase 'the key to the door of my heart' can therefore quite naturally form part of the Lucinda Williams song, 'Price to Pay', written in 1988, and Paula Cole and Dolly Parton can release 'Heart Door' in 2001. Warner Sallman's well known religious painting, 'Christ at the Heart's Door', is a good illustration of this metaphor within a religious context. I could go on endlessly quoting instances of this door's metaphorical existence in English but I'm sure you could find them by yourself. Regards, Calum |
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Hi Calum, I think we might have to "agree to disagree" on a few of the points you raise. Firstly, I concede that the heart can have a door metaphorically in the English language. Literally the heart does not have a door, but metaphorically yes. This is true in both Greek and English. (Quad est demonstratum!) Secondly, the literal translation “door of my heart” is also correct. However what I was trying to do, & perhaps did not express my intentions clearly, was translate into “common” English. Sometimes the literal translation – although grammatically correct – may not convey the intended meaning. IΆll give you an example using another sentence from this song: Αγάπησέ με μην αργείς Love me donΆt be late A reader could interpret this as follows: “Love me.” (No ambiguity) “DonΆt be late" "(for your dental appointment)” ???? "(for your haircut)” ???? Hence my preferred translation was “Love me, donΆt wait” The reader can interpret this correctly – “DonΆt wait to love me”, which in my humble opinion is the “intended” message of the lyrics. (My wifeΆs translation was “Love me, donΆt leave it too long” – equally acceptable – but too long winded for me) Thirdly, your reference to song lyrics was most interesting. I too found examples of the “hearts door” in song.. Buddy Holy – “Door to my heart”, Dean Martin – “The door is still open to my heart”. I think you would agree that in both Greek and English, there is a bit of “poetic license” when deriving song lyrics. ThatΆs not to say that these particular examples are incorrect, but there are other examples that metaphorically “butcher” the English language. Modern rap artists are a classic example of this. So in conclusion, I am in agreement with you – correct literal translation is: “My heartΆs door is open” My preferred translation for the commonly spoken English is: “The door to my heart is open” Just out of curiosity – I made a few calls to some friends (native English speakers of Greek descent), and 6 out of 7 chose “The door to my heart is open”, without any options given to them. (I wonΆt repeat what the 7th said in good company!!) When I gave them the 3 choices “My heartsΆ door is open”, “The door of my heart is open”, “The door to my heart is open”, all 7 chose “The door to my heart” as their preferred translation. Finally, as you correctly point out – this is only my personal (and very humble) interpretation of the song – and I am in no way implying that it is the correct one. Γεια χαρά Γιώργος … |
| Re: Agapise me-Tamta |
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Γιώργο, With regard to your first point, I'm surprised you raised the issue of the heart literally having a door in order to highlight the door's metaphorical existence. However, I am pleased that you no longer pursue the argument of the word 'to' implying the metaphorical non-existence of the door. With regard to your second point, may I reiterate that the phrases 'door of my heart' and 'door to my heart' are eqally common in English and that the literal translation in this case does in fact convey the intended meaning entirely. What is not clear to me is which form is most common in song, and it is a song which you are translating, not a colloquial conversation. The metaphor is very poetic regardless and both forms are used within song. I find your third point irrelevant because, the phrase 'door of my heart', being grammatically and semantically faultless, does not butcher the English language. I might add that you are translating a song here on a website which is aimed towards learners understanding how Greek works. Regarding your small sample of friends, it is relevant that you did not ask them which phrase they would use in an English song lyric, which seems an appropriate question here. You also offered your friends only one option instead of two and therefore you couldn't establish whether both are used equally commonly and are equally acceptable in speech. You compelled them to choose only one (the one which I would also probably have given had you asked me). Your sample was very small. The British National Corpus uses a sample of 100 million words from a wide range of sources. Unfortunately it seems likely that neither the 'door of my heart' or 'door to my heart' appear within the corpus. It did allow me to search for parts of the phrase with the following results. 'door of my' 18 'of my heart' 78 'door to my' 18 'to my heart' 36 With regard to your final point, I wouldn't want to pressurise you to change your translation. A Google search elicited 238,000 entries for 'door of my heart' and '265,000' entries for 'door to my heart'. However, I do want to make it clear to anyone chancing upon this topic that both phrases are equally common in English and equally characteristic and that both of them may be used in song. If I can make a point of my own now, it is that my concern for this point arose in context of my statement that 'the heart does have a door in English' and that you can 'be given the key to it'. You responded to this that 'in English you can be given a key - BUT - ... not to "the door of the heart". I hope that we can now agree to agree that my statement is in fact justifiable and that such is the case in English and therefore that no English speaker would correct any English speaker who said, "I've given him the key to the door of my heart and I won't open it to anyone else now". Regards, Calum |
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Hi Calum, without dwelling on on this for too much longer, I feel that we are generally in agreement here. If I could just clarify though - I did not imply that this particular translation "butchered" the English language. Quite the contrary, I find it to be a most elegant use of the language. I stated that some modern day artists (rapsters in particular) butcher the language when they take their "poetic license" to the extreme. Also, as I stated previously, the translation I gave was my own personal preference, not necessarily the correct one. Literal translation "...door of my heart" is indeed correct (no argument here). Personally "...door to my heart" sounds better in my view (only my personal opinion). The internet seems to be split 50:50 on the usage "..of/to my heart", so I feel both are equally acceptable. ================================ της καρδιάς μου η πόρτα είναι ανοιχτή The door of my heart is open (literal) The door to my heart is open (my preference) ================================ Γειά χαρά, Γιώργος PS "My sister-in-law paid us a visit this morning, I asked her the same question - she preferred "door OF my heart" - so there you have it - what would I know !!!  |
| Re: Agapise me-Tamta |
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Hi again Calum, It has just "clicked" to me what you are saying about this website....quote "I might add that you are translating a song here on a website which is aimed towards learners understanding how Greek works. " With this in mind I have corrected the translation given earlier in this thread, to a literal translation of the text. I have then clarified this with "my own personal translation" into the English I would use every day. Please accept my sincere apology on this matter. George ============================ LITERAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION ============================ For how long for how long will I last not to have you For how long for how long I will be bleeding me only For how long Love me donΆt be late love me all you can My life I have imagined with you protagonist Love me don't be late love me all you can The door of my heart is open you are what I have dreamed of I want you here together with you to live every night and one affectionate touch I want you here how can I share … your kisses, your heart I want you here =================================== ======================== MY PERSONAL INTERPRETATION ======================== For how long for how long will I last without you For how long for how long will I be the only one bleeding For how long Love me donΆt wait love me all you can IΆve imagined my life with you leading the way Love me don't wait love me all you can The door to my heart is open youΆre everything I've ever dreamed of I want you here, to live with you every night, an affectionate touch I want you here, how could I share … your kisses, your heart I want you here ========================== |
| Re: Agapise me-Tamta |
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Γιώργο, You're right to correct me concerning poetic licence and butchering language. I see now this was an aside in your e-mail and that, despite raising the point, you didn't actually intend it as comment upon the forms under discussion here. I've stated twice from the outset that the choice of translation is entirely yours as both forms are valid translations of the Greek and I'd have said that regardless of whether the translation was on this site or on another. One form, being more accurate a translation by employing the possessive, is conceptually closer to the original Greek form but this does not invalidate the other. Consequently I've saved a copy of both the Greek lyric and your personal translation of it onto a file at home, Γιώργο, side-stepping your literal translation altogether. I hope that's alright with you. I appear to have brow-beaten you into producing a literal translation which was not my intention. After your original hesitation to include the word 'door' in your translation, my intentions have been to make it clear that the metaphorical door exists in English too and that both forms are equally common and characteristic expressions of the English metaphor, points you subsequently disagreed with. However, I'm glad that we now appear to agree on these points. I just hope R C appreciates getting a translation so improved by Γιώργο on the one at allthelyrics. Should anyone wish to hear this song, it is available to listen to on Youtube at the time of writing this e-mail at the webpage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H29cXsREAaM where Τάμτα (a Georgian who learned Greek) can be seen in all her glory. Regards, Calum |
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Thanks Calum, I have only just recovered from my "beating" Sorry about all the confusion I've caused, I wandered off the path for a short time, but I'm back on the straight road now In future if I ever undertake such an excersise, I will make sure that I stick to the translation as it should be, and give my own opinion as an extra sidepoint! Interestingly RC has been notably absent in all this Beautiful song by the way - but I still prefer Tsitsani or Vamvakari or Tsaousaki (sorry no Greek keyboard on the PC I am using at the moment)Gia hara Giorgos |
