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Geske

Μου δωσ' ο πλάστης την καρδιά

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It came by on the radio

a song about as old as I am

a good old song....

ΜΟΥ ΔΩΣ' Ο ΠΛΑΣΤΗΣ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΡΔΙΑ || The Creator gave me a heart

Μουσική: Σταύρος Κουγιουμτζής || Music: Stavros Kougioumtzis

Στίχοι: ’κος Δασκαλόπουλος || Lyrics: Stavros Kougioumtzis

Μου δωσ' ο πλάστης την καρδιά και συ αγάπη δώσ' μου || The Creator gave me a heart - and you, give me some love!

δώσ' μου κουράγιο να διαβώ τη σκοτεινιά του κόσμου || Give me some courage to endure the darkness of the world

Κάθε σου χαρά είναι χαρά για μένα || Your every joy is a joy for me

ήρθες κι έσβησες με μιας τα περασμένα σε μια βραδιά || you came and wiped out the past all at once in one evening

Κάθε σου φιλί μες την καρδιά τραγούδι || Your every kiss is a song in my heart

κάθε δάκρυ σου στην ερημιά λουλούδι στην ερημιά || Your every tear is a flower in the desert, in the desert

Μου δωσ' ο πλάστης την καρδιά πίσω θε να την πάρει || The Creator gave me a heart and he will take it back sometime

μα εγώ τη ρίχνω στη φωτιά για τη δική σου χάρη || but me, I'd throw it in the fire for your sake

Κάθε σου χαρά είναι χαρά για μένα || Your every joy is a joy for me

ήρθες κι έσβησες με μιας τα περασμένα σε μια βραδιά || you came and wiped out the past all at once in one evening

Κάθε σου φιλί μες στην καρδιά τραγούδι || Your every kiss is a song in my heart

κάθε δάκρυ σου στην ερημιά λουλούδι στην ερημιά || Your every tear is a flower in the desert, in the desert

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Μου δωσ' ο πλάστης την καρδιά πίσω θε να την πάρει         ||         The Creator gave me a heart - my God, he can take it back!

I needed some years to clarify it, but finally I was successful:

"θε να" (which can be found in other songs and poems too) simply means: "θα" / "πρόκειται να".

(Therefore the "θε" in this song is not a vocative from the word "θεός" but a particle.)

So the translation should be something simple like:

"Μου δωσ' ο πλάστης την καρδιά πίσω θε να την πάρει || The Creator gave me a heart (and) he will take it back again"

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O good, that makes a lot more sense!

thanks to all three of you...

(as usual I edit the correction into the first post, not to hide the mistake but to keep the translation readable and easy-to-find).

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Geske, I'm sorry, but you still have a mistake in there. You say "he will can take it back sometime." Don't you hate little annoying typos like that?

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:lol: :lol:

Andoni, two days ago I had already started to write a similar posting like you because the "will can" sounded so queer to me. I also had the impression that it was a typo. But then I thought of my bad English and decided to search in the Internet before "complaining" about the "will can". And to my big surprise I found a number of sites where this construction is used.

And just know I found this:

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/cache/20.can.html

There they write that "will can" is simply the future of the verb "can"!!!!!

So Geske is obviously right. :) (Provided that she wanted to express in the translation the "can". To my mind it would have been sufficient to translate "and he will take it back sometime", but I think Geske decided deliberately to add the "can".)

PS: Sorry, Geske, that I interfered. But the opportunity was too seductive as I had exactly the same problem as Andonis. ;)

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ROTFL!

Antometrios can be excused as a greenhorn, but you, Michael, you've known me years..... have you still not learned that i make as many typo's by myself as the rest of the forum put together?

recommendation: if something looks not-quite-right in a translation of mine, SAY. It's most probably a typo and I'll correct it, and if it's not, I'll explain what it is and why and how. And probably change it anyway because these translations are meant to be clear and understandable.

i don't mind typo's so long as we can laugh at them

(the same applies to interference btw)

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Michael, you just destroyed my ambition to be an English major. What on earth kind of language allows a phrase like "I will can do that"? :) Maybe they meant "can" as in "can-can." "Do you dance the can-can?" "Do you can-can?" "I will can! ...can!" Oh good Lord. Haha

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Go try the verbs site, it's really, really funny (well, if you enjoy language for its own sake, that is).

Actually it's not as bad as it looks from its messing up of "can" - I tried it on some defective Dutch and French verbs and it did them all right. And it has weird things like Klingon and Old Frisian - but not, alas, Greek, since it is confined to the latin characters.

I'm proven immune to all computer games anyone has managed to throw at me so far, but i could spend all night playing with that conjugation thing... (just so you know what kind of weirdo you're talking to).

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I have stopped a long time ago to wonder about all the queer things in the English language. So I would have accepted "will can" too (as future of "can"), as I have seen it also on other websites. :)

Geske + Andoni, concluding from your comments: So what they write on the website www.verbix.com ("Future: I will can, you will can, he will can ...") is wrong???? ;)

Considering your advice, Geske, I have neither the abilities nor the ambitions to deal with the English language more than is necessary in order to communicate when there is no other way of doing it than English. So usually I am not the appropriate person to comment if your translation was made in a correct English (perhaps with exception the indication of ... typos ;)). My ambition is only to see if there is (possibly) an evident inconsistency between the Greek original and what you say in English.

PS:

Off topic:

So what's the future of "I can"? - "I will be able" ?

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When English-speaking people want to express what they can do in the future, they say they "will be able," yes. Maybe "will can" worked at one point, but certainly people would give you odd looks if you said that today. :)

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When English-speaking people want to express what they can do in the future, they say they "will be able," yes. Maybe "will can" worked at one point, but certainly people would give you odd looks if you said that today. :)

As a bona-fide English person, can I confirm that Antometrios' suggestion - "I will be able"- is fine.

However, I have never, ever heard anyone say "I will can"! I might try it at some point today to find out how many odd looks I get ;);)

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Μου δωσ' ο πλάστης την καρδιά πίσω θε να την πάρει || The Creator gave me a heart and he will take it back sometime

I would replace the "sometime" throught "one day", it seems to have a more clear meaning (right, Diane?). Or I'd leave the words completely away, as they are absent in the original, what makes the whole sentence more "certain", as an obvious truth.

PS. Thanks for talking again about one of my beloved songs, and (on a personal note) a very appropriate one these days.

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As a bona-fide English person, can I confirm that Antometrios' suggestion - "I will be able"- is fine.

...and as an atypical English ( ;) ) I agree with Diane and Antometrios.

BUT... (if there were no "buts" there wouldn't be "Panos" :mad: )

I'd prefer to chenge the last modification to a simpler one.

So instead of: The Creator gave me a heart and he will take it back sometime.,

I would leave it as: The Creator gave me a heart and he will take it back.

(there is no need of "sometime")

You see how simple things are? As simple as combing a ...hedgehog (skantzoxoiros) :lol: :lol: :lol:

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I would leave it as: The Creator gave me a heart and he will take it back.

(there is no need of  "sometime")

So obviously you follow Olga's suggestion. :mad: (As I do too. ;) )

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Mmmmm...it is not that I agree exactly with Olga's view....but I can't find the right choice :(

It's so confusing :blush:

No that I'm thinking of translation as a profession, I realise that to be a translator you must be a person who can make fast and precise choices... and the problem is that you can not follow blindly any "guidelines" (e.g. dictionaries). So the choice is subjective and the critics are...merciless - as we do in this page ;):mad:

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Merciless you may be, but I am more ruthless still. Most merciless of all for my own translations - but not soft on other people's, either.

Actually, just as doctors take less medicines and undergo less surgery than the average of the population, just so translators avoid reading translations. I'm not kidding. It's probably the most frustrating job in the world, one where you are *by definition* bound to fail.

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