The original line, I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory, became, every day death writes between the lines in my diary.įINALE: This is an example for me that I just translate with the heart. LEWIN: The translators also swapped out imagery they didn't think would fly in German. I'm a loaded gun about to blast off, but I only got one shot. By making Hamilton the gun, now a version - somehow becomes the gun, and then it suddenly starts to make sense. But (speaking German) is also hot or edgy or keen, and (speaking German), again, is like loaded with a shot but also, like furious. (Speaking German) is like, if you're talking about ammunition, it's like locked and loaded, in a sense. I'm just like my country, about to get going, to blast off. SCHROEDER: But translated, it's, man, I only got this one shot. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Alexander Hamilton, rapping in German). LEWIN: So they found German words that cut several ways to indicate that Hamilton himself was ready to explode. SCHROEDER: And especially we don't have that meaning of shot as an opportunity or a chance you have. LEWIN: Kevin Schroeder says schuss, German for shot, has some of those meanings, but not one that's key to the song. Over the course of that one song alone, it means gunshot, opportunity, liquor shot, and several more along the way and past tense of being shot. I'm young, scrappy, and hungry, and I'm not throwing away my shot. MIRANDA: (As Alexander Hamilton, rapping) I am not throwing away my shot. For instance, the song "My Shot" contains multiple meanings of the word shot. LEWIN: Having translated Stephen Sondheim's lyrics for "West Side Story" into Spanish, Miranda, who doesn't speak German, encouraged Schroeder and Finale to go with the spirit of the text and take liberties if necessary. Hamilton tends to get rhymiest (ph) when he's most stressed out or agitated. My first question is, is that possible to maintain that? Because I do believe that the success of the show is the rigorousness of the way in which different characters express themselves through rhyme or not rhyme or the degree to which they do it. There's lots of vowel agreement all along the way. MIRANDA: This is not the kind of show where the only rhyme is at the end of the line. LEWIN: When "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda was approached about the project, he says he was concerned about preserving the musical's innovative sound. SERA FINALE: So rap is all about the consonants. SCHROEDER: I bring in all the musical theater experience from my work, and he's just a brilliant rapper, lots of experience for flow and language as a rapper. The two men didn't know each other, but Schroeder says they made the perfect team. LEWIN: Enter the German songwriter and rapper Sera Finale, who had barely heard of Hamilton. SCHROEDER: But they said, we think we should also have somebody who's got more of a hip-hop background. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Aaron Burr, rapping in German). KEVIN SCHROEDER: And then Stage said, yeah, we are convinced it's possible. When he saw "Hamilton" in New York shortly after it opened, he approached Stage Entertainment, which presents musical theater all over Europe. But none of that fazed German playwright and lyricist Kevin Schroeder, who specializes in translating musicals. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton isn't exactly a household name abroad.
#GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY FULL#
LEWIN: In "Hamilton," those words go by at breakneck speed, full of English idioms and the rapping rhymes and rhythms of the musical's hip-hop roots. LESLIE ODOM JR: (As Aaron Burr, rapping) How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALEXANDER HAMILTON") LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: It's 23,000 words in this thing, so. NAOMI LEWIN, BYLINE: For starters, composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda says there's the sheer volume. Translating all the elements of this very American musical was complicated, as reporter Naomi Lewin discovered. This past week, a production of "Hamilton" opened in one of the top foreign venues for musical theater, Hamburg, where everything is performed in German. and in various English-speaking countries since 2015. And finally today, Lin-Manuel Miranda's award-winning musical "Hamilton" has been playing to sold-out houses in New York, around the U.S.
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