TRADUguide - Your Guide to Translators and Translation Agencies

153 months ago

Brenda Galván (a guest user) asked this question:

This question has already been answered and rated. Therefore, no new answers can be given.

153 months ago

   wrote:

Echo of piano scales.

My comment:

??

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

What about "piano scales reverberate"? Sorry, I can't submit my suggestion on my own question.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

I mean, "resonate". Forget my "reverberate".

153 months ago

   wrote:

Piano scales are heard in the background.

My comment:

Alternatively, "Piano scales ring out" suggests louder, more dominant levels of sound; "scales" suggests practice is occurring, perhaps by a beginner - if the playing is understood to be (for example) background music as in a bar scene, perhaps: Piano music fills the room. A bit more context would, as ever, help the decision as to what is the best way to translate.

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

No more context is need for a theatrical direction. It's enough. The are short and pithy prior to a character's cue.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe certain parts. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

I like "piano scales ring out." I imagine a child practicing and pounding on the piano keys. It's definitely scales now that I know the context.

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

In English, bells ring out. Not someone playing scales on a piano.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

What about "piano scales reverberate"? Sorry, I can't submit my suggestion on my own question.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

I mean, "resonate". Forget my "reverberate".

153 months ago

Ffion Marianne Moyle   wrote:

A whole/wide range of piano notes sound out/resonate/resound

My comment:

gamme = range. You could even perhaps say "a variety of piano notes resonate"

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

For stage directions in English, the words should be pithy. From the internet: STAGE DIRECTIONS All stage directions appear in parentheses, 2.75 inches from the left edge of the page. Each line of stage directions on the page should not extend past approximately 2.5 inches before wrapping to the next line. http://www.gordonstate.edu/PT_Faculty/lking/CPF_play_formatting2.pdf I guess if I were not a native speaker, I would not attempt this. Sounds like few plays have been read here....

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe certain parts. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

What about "piano scales reverberate"? Sorry, I can't submit my suggestion on my own question.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

I mean, "resonate". Forget my "reverberate".

153 months ago

Josephine Cassar   wrote:

the notes of the piano resound

My comment:

you can continue: in the air

153 months ago

Josephine Cassar   wrote:

the notes of the piano resound

My comment:

you can continue: in the air

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe certain parts. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

So, had we had such context before, I would have put-the sound of piano practice could be heard from the streets(where the others are playing); resound is not much good in this context as the sound means it was excessive though if the girl was just a beginner, a novice, she might have struck the piano bars too hard. Put context before as now it is better but answers provided first were guesswork. I would not put "floated" inn the air, as this means a soft sound, not hard.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

What about "piano scales reverberate"? Sorry, I can't submit my suggestion on my own question.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

I mean, "resonate". Forget my "reverberate".

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

So, had we had such context before, I would have put-the sound of piano practice could be heard from the streets(where the others are playing); resound is not much good in this context as the sound means it was excessive though if the girl was just a beginner, a novice, she might have struck the piano bars too hard. Put context before as now it is better but answers provided first were guesswork. I would not put "floated" inn the air, as this means a soft sound, not hard.

153 months ago

Josephine Cassar   wrote:

Resonating scales of piano

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

Stage directions are given in short, descriptive sentences, not phrases...usually.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe certain parts. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

English -French - English medical, scientific ++   wrote:

Some piano scales resonate.

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe certain parts. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

Piano notes float off in the distance.

My comment:

It really depends on context. It's my version of what someone else already wrote, (assuming you want to create an atmosphere.)
If you translate it literally, it sounds like a piano lesson! Résonner has a much broader meaning in French. It can just means "being heard/played."

My references:

The sentence I wrote popped up on the Internet.

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe certain parts. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

trilinguallady   wrote:

the piano strings in the grand piano which resonate

My comment:

Les clefs are the keys so I am guessing the strings in the piano itself

My references:

guess

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

You need to stay closer to the text.

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

This answer like most of the others are not in keeping with stage directions in a play. and strings is not gammes, gammes are scales.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe certain parts. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

frenchican   wrote:

Notes of a piano float through the air.

My comment:

My comment is that the word "gammes" CANNOT be translated literally. I am a published writer (French born, writing in English) and I feel this idea (or "image" can and MUST be translated.)
The English word "range" does NOT and I repeat NOT transpose the French idea. Range is too technical, devoid of the author's real meaning. Google would translate "gammes" by "range." I do not think the author meant the actual "power" of the instrument when he/she used the word "gammes." He/she probably "saw" (imagined" musical notes flowing through space. Ah, le romantisme est difficile a traduire en Anglais, la langue de feue la Reine Victoria pour laquelle les sentiments tendres n'existaient pas....
frenchican@hotmail.com

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

This sounds like the physical pieces of wood of the piano are floating through the air....range? There is no range. These are piano scales: do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do...for the C scale... to play scales. Jouer une gamme: to play a scale.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe certain parts. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

frenchican   wrote:

The piano's range of notes are played out in a way that resonates/in resounding fashion.

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

"IS" played out.

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

resonate is a bit strong...

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

Not if the music has an impact on the emotions.

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

"Resonates with the emotions."

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

Most definitely not for stage directions in a play. And there is a mistake which others made too. Gammes are scales. To play scales, going up and down the piano playing a scale. jouer une gamme=basic French music term. People missed this completely.

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

I prefer to translate in a manner that is, apparently, less literal and "basic" than what you propose, Jane.

153 months ago

Marie-Claire   wrote:

"The piano's range of notes ring out" or "resonate throughout the room" are a couple of other options I propose.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe the part that comes before and after the sentence in question. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

frenchican   wrote:

Piano scales are heard

My comment:

(piano scales are heard)

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

I agree

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

The passive voice is never an appropriate choice when it comes to good writing.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

To evoke an atmosphere permeated by a sound, the passive fine. And especially for theatrical directions. Nothing like a hackneyed cliché to stymie good translation.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

The use of the passive is never "fine", as you put it, in any kind of writing, especially when it is obvious that the active can be used. It's the sound of the range of notes that permeates, in the "active", dynamic way that I and some of the others have expressed it.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

Most of the answers are sloppy English. The passive is fine. Piano scale being played loudly Not a bunch of //of the's// etc. Often, in stage directions, full sentences are not used. No one even bothered to go and find out how stage directions are written. They might have had to open a book. Or they might have had to have studied playwriting in English. The answers are all terrrible....

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

it's not about literalism. Here what is being played are piano scales, nothing more nothing less. But, of course, that requires knowing that jouer des gammes is not playing a piece of music in particular. It's practicing, playing scales.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

That's right, there's no need for the translation to be literal and "basic". In fact it's usually counterindicated, just as I indicated under my own entry above, especially if you don't want to put a reader to sleep. Anyway, a "range of notes" does not necessarily refer to an entire piece of music, either.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

There is no range of notes. It's scales. DO RE MI FA SOL LA TI DO. The scale of middle C, for instance. Range of notes is your literal translation. What is being heard are scales being played. You translated gamme as RANGE, which it is in other contexts and Piano as notes. But it does not mean that: the person is going up and down the piano playing SCALES, Barbara, SCALES. Do re me fa sol la ti do....or some other scale. There are at least 8 major ones!

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

See them here in FRENCH on a piano: accords et gammes: CHORDS AND SCALES. http://www.pianoweb.fr/clavier-virtuel/accordsetgammes-pianovirtuel.php

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

First of all, my translation is clearly not the "literal" option, as you so categorically state, and as I have mentioned before. The fact that you are using so webpage to back up your point of view doesn't mean that "scales" is necessarily the best option in this instance. IMO, that word sounds flat and lifeless, while "range" offers more of a flowing impression, in the same way that a great deal of music moves and flows.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

"some webpage"

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

Translating gammes de piano as range of notes is a mistranslation. I an using that webpage so you can see that in French: des accords et des gammes means: chords and scales. Gammes in this context can only be that. And here too: gammes de piano=piano scales, as opposed to them being on a guitar or violin. Range is a mistake.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

Even though it runs counter to my true nature as a literary translator to rely all that much on pages on the Internet, www.key-notes.com, a website devoted to the piano, has an entire page devoted to "Piano Range," which it uses the almost interchangeably with "scale". But I'm sure that most readers would prefer the use of term like "range", which would always seem to suggest something much more dynamic than "scale", which, in general, has connotations of something that is labored/laborious.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

In other words, the translator should write in a way that the reader will find appealing, that will draw him or her into the piece and hold his or her attention, while still getting the meaning across.

153 months ago

Brenda Elkja   wrote:

It’s a court-métrage (short film). I can’t put a lot of details due to obvious reasons. However, I can describe certain parts. A little girl is walking on the streets. Then she runs into her friends and they ask her if she wants to play but she declines because she has piano lessons. Next scene: [PIANO]. The interior of a home is described. The little girl is on her piano lessons with her instructor.

153 months ago

Ffion Marianne Moyle   wrote:

Yes JLR is right or perhaps "piano scales are practised" or "piano scales resonate/sound out/resound", I like resonate

153 months ago

Ffion Marianne Moyle   wrote:

Brenda, OK, a film script, not a theatrical play. Fine. Directions in scripts are the same style: short and pithy. And of course, the main meaning should be "hit", which here is the idea of piano scales. If you don't use piano scales it will be a mistake. The verb you choose is arguable: are heard, (Loud piano scales are being played) would also work but is long. It's isn't a piece of music. That is the bottom line as to semantic meaning here.

153 months ago

Ffion Marianne Moyle   wrote:

I agree

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