Ein seelenvoller Mann (A Soulful Man)

[lily_handmaiden]

made by me!

I'm alive! And excited to be past a horrible, stressful stretch of grading and paper-writing and into something resembling the clear. Or something I like to pretend is the clear to keep my own sanity.

Here is the German translation of "A Sentimental Man," which hopefully will be followed by more entries tomorrow. In German it is "A Soulful Man," because I know that when I think of the Wizard of Oz, I think soul.

So. This song. This eleven-line song. Almost defeated me. You will see why in the notes under the cut.

 

Ein seelenvoller Mann

(A Soulful Man)

 

(Honestly, I have no clue who is playing the Wizard in this clip, but Willemijn Verkaik and Lucy Scherer are once again Elphaba and Glinda, respectively. The clip includes pretty much the entire scene in the Wizard's throne room. I would translate the song's reprises, too, but the quality is such that there are a few words in each that I just can't quite make out. I know the second one says something about swaying in the clouds, and both repeat the "Living means to learn how one flies" line. In the dialogue department, something I noticed is that at the top of the scene when in English the Wizard puns, "Which is witch?" the German Wizard says, "Both enchanting! And which one enchants?" I also lol'd when I caught Glinda calling herself "Glinda. Mit stummen 'Ga'"-- "Glinda with a silent 'Ga.'")
 

WIZARD:

Ich bin ein seelenvoller Mann,

I am a soulful man,
Voll unerfüllter Vatersehnsucht.

Full of unfulfilled longing to be a father.
Und darum hoffe ich, ich kann

And that’s why I hope I can
Dem Volk von Oz ein Vater sein,

Be a father to the people of Oz,
Der zu verstehn sucht.

Who seeks to understand.
Du, Elphaba, sollst lernen, wie man siegt,

You, Elphaba, shall learn how one triumphs,
Denn glaub mir: leben heißt

Because, believe me: living means
Zu lernen, wie man fliegt.

To learn how one flies.
Wer so wie du mein Herz rührt, soll

Anyone who touches my heart as you do should
Erhöht sein bis zum Höhenkoller, (1)

Be raised up to the point of high-altitude hypoxia, (2)
Denn ich bin ein seelenvoller Mann.

Because I am a soulful man.

(1) THAT WORD. "Hoehenkoller" did not exist in any dictionary I could find online except as the title of a movie from the '70's. Nor did it exist in my paper dictionary. Or the one at my friend's house. "To the point of high anxiety?" I thought. "To a high mountain?" "To wearing a high collar?" All possibilities were entertained for some period of time. But none of them seemed right. Refusing to concede the victory to an eleven-line song, I finally-- after about a week-- emailed a professor of mine from undergrad. Who grew up in Germany. I explained the situation, and his knowledge of colloquialism plus the use of yahoo.de (which I used pretty regularly after that for weird words) finally revealed that "Hoehenkoller" is high-altitude hypoxia. This is the condition of the body being deprived of oxygen due to high altitude. HOW DID I NOT GET THAT? /sarcasm 

(2) Why, yes, it is a weird expression. I'm 98% sure that this is less something people actually say and more something that went into this song to achieve rhyme. What the Wizard is trying to say is that he wants to metaphorically raise Elphaba up so high that she would be metaphorically hitting her head on airplanes. She would metaphorically need a sherpa. In a figurative sense. That's how exalted he desires her to be.

 

Comments

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA man that is dedication. /a hilarious word. I will try to integrate it into my conversation more often.

[lily-handmaiden.livejournal.com]

I know, right? Totally useful in everyday life. ;)