About the Event:

Latinx music tells stories about love, moments lived, fun times, dreams and desires, and much more to their listeners. On the one hand, music is a form of art that everyone who has had the opportunity to be exposed to has been able to enjoy its beauty. No matter what the language that the song is being sung, the combination of its lyrics, instruments, and style come together to whisper in one’s ear to enjoy and feel. Still, there is a beauty to some songs that is best left not translated, since their lyrics in another language lose their meaning and don’t sound as beautiful as how they originally did. In this event we will try our hand at translating some famous songs in Spanish into English, to analyze what we feel is lost within its translation, and what is gained for non-Spanish Speakers when we share the knowledge of what the artist is really singing about.

 

Time and Date:

February 17, 2022

6:00-7:00pm on Zoom

Highlights:

  • We listened to “La Vida es un Carnaval” by Celia Cruz and “Vivir Mi Vida” by Marc Anthony and translated the lyrics of these songs into English.
  • Professor Esther Allen and her class, SPA 4004 Seminar in Literary Translation, joined us for our event, and students shared with us an assignment for the class that focused on translating a song from Spanish to English.
  • The audience learned from Professor Allen more about SPA 4004 as the Capstone for students planning on Minoring in Spanish-English Translation, one of several Spanish Minors in the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature.

Co-sponsor:ASEDOM, MexiCulture