# Swedish: "eller är min vilja till, mest till besvär?



## Rasdor

Hej alla, mig igen.

Jag tittar på Lejonkungen 2 (Disneyfilmer är väldigt bra för att öva mig att lyssna) och i låten "Vi är en" finns där sångtext som avläser:
_
Får jag bli sån som jag vill,
eller är min vilja till,
mest till besvär?_

Se er på den YouTube videon till kontext.

Jag är förvirrad om vad den betyder. Såhär översätter jag den ungefär:

_May I be that which I will,
Or is my desire destined to be,
Very difficult/difficult to implement
_
Eller något som sådan.

Men det där låter litet fel till mig, speciellt den sista två delarna. De känner väldigt tafatta på tungan, både på engelska och svenska.  "Mest till besvär" skappar ingen mening till mig (lika den här väl sentens tror jag), och det gör resten av sångtexten jättesvår att helt förstå. Så kan någon vänligt förklara till mig vad sångtexten betyder? Jag tror jag har en ungefärlig idé dock men jag är inte säker.



_
_


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## MattiasNYC

Det kan vara svårt att översätta poesi och musik. Jag antar att man kan lyssna på den Amerikanska versionen och hitta samma del av sången där och se hur orginalet var.

But anyway..........

_Får jag bli sån som jag vill,
_
"vill" kommer från "vilja" vilket jag skulle översätta till "(to) desire/want" istället för "will", eftersom "will" låter med som... ehm... "destiny". Med andra ord "May I be/become what I want/wish/desire".
_
eller är min vilja till,
mest till besvär?_

Jag har lyssnat på låten och det låter och ser ut som om de två raderna hör ihop, som om den andra raden delvis är repetition. Med andra ord så tycker jag att den kan delas upp så här på svenska: "eller är min vilja - mest till besvär". Det är alltså ordet "mest" som läggs till och sedan upprepas ordet "till". Att vara "till besvär" kan översättas till "to be a bother". Alltså:

"_eller är min vilja till," - _"Or is my desire"
"_mest till besvär?" - _"my desire mostly a bother"

Om du sedan lyssnar på sången och tänker på vokalerna i delen som barnet sjunger alldeles innan, så slutar varje rad som följer på svenska:

*......va* (ordet "vara", men uttalat "va")
*......ja *(ordet "jag", men uttalat "ja")
*......är*

och det du frågade om

*.....vill
.....till*
*.....är *(sista ljudet i "besvär")

Så jag skulle nog anpassa översättningen av "besvär" till ett ord som rimmar på ordet "är" i den tidigare delen. Know what I mean? Och "är" kommer från "att vara", "to be". I det här sammanhanget skulle jag översätta det till "the one I am".

Så för att få en översättning som funkar på Engelska _i en sång _bör man kanske välja andra ord och fraser med samma generella innebörd. Jag har svårt att hitta bra synonymer till "bother" som rimmar med "am"..... Eller så struntar man i att det inte rimmar...


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## Rasdor

MattiasNYC said:


> "vill" kommer från "vilja" vilket jag skulle översätta till "(to) desire/want" istället för "will", eftersom "will" låter med som... ehm... "destiny". Med andra ord "May I be/become what I want/wish/desire".



Jag översatte ordet "vill" till en ganska arkaisk betydelse av "will", som är liknande till hur man använder verbet "att vilja" på svenska -- till exempel "I will it (to be done)". Ursäkta mig för att skapa förvirring.



MattiasNYC said:


> Om du sedan lyssnar på sången och tänker på vokalerna i delen som barnet sjunger alldeles innan, så slutar varje rad som följer på svenska:



Jag ha lyssnat till sångtexter och läste de på internetet (ursäkta mig igen för att inte förklara det), så tror jag att de översätter till vad jag skrev -- internetssångtexten kunde vara ju orätt däremot.

I alla fall, jag förstår litet bättre vad sångtexten betyder nu, tror jag. Tack!

(Addendum: Writing this in English as I just wanna be clear: I'm not getting at you/insulting you in any way -- if the Swedish writing seemed like that, I'm really sorry. It does seem a little terse to me, but I'm not sure how to express myself so as it doesn't read as such).


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## MattiasNYC

I understand that you didn't intend to insult. It didn't look like that in Swedish I think.

I don't really understand if you're telling me that you found the English language version and it was as you wrote it (?).

I still wonder if "I will it to be done" is the correct translation though (I'm continuing in English now, because I think there will be less ambiguity this way). The way I understand the English phrase it seems a bit stronger than the word "desire". To put it differently; if the English original had said something with the meaning "will it to be done" I would probably not have translated that into the Swedish that you see in the lyrics (which were correctly translated as far as I can tell).

At any rate, I really don't think the last line of your translation is correct. It's not about difficulty in implementation, it's whether or not the desire causes an inconvenience/is a bother.


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## Rasdor

Oh, I think I see what you're saying. Let me explain.

The English 'version' was just my off-the-cuff translation of the Swedish version so I could convey what I meant, and show the problem I had in understanding the final line. The two previous lines were only really there for context; I understood these two lines (although my translation into English was a bit strange). In the real English version of the film, these lines read:

_If there's so much I must be,
Can I still just be me, the way I am
Can I trust in my own heart, or I am just one part of some big plan
_
The English lyrics had no effect on my viewing of the Swedish lyrics, nor in my translation of them -- I only just looked up the English lyrics now to wrote this post.

I think my English translation of the first line is wrong because I (accidentally) wrote it in such as way that it mirrored the poetic/lyrical quality of the original line.

I also absolutely believe you that the last line of my translation is wrong. I always knew it was wrong/incomplete at best, and I should have distinguished between my non-understanding of the final line and my relative understanding of the first two (terrible translation of the second line notwithstanding).

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding on behalf of my poor expression in Swedish.


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## MattiasNYC

So, I think my intuition was right in that the translation from English to Swedish actually wasn't that great (in my opinion). To me the two versions imply different things:



> If there's so much I must be
> Can I still just be me
> The way I am?
> 
> Can I trust in my own heart
> Or am I just one part
> Of some big plan?
> 
> -------------------------------
> Alla vet hur jag ska va
> Men jag vill bara va jag
> Just den jag är
> 
> Får jag bli så som jag vill
> Eller är min vilja till
> Mest till besvär



In the English version, the way I read it, it feels a lot more like a destiny is implied in the very first line and that the child is afraid of losing its essence as it grows up. I think that's mirrored in the second line where it's implied that it's (maybe) just one big plan in which the child is a part, so trusting its hard doesn't really work, because it's all destiny. That's what I get from it _more so_ than in the Swedish version.

In the Swedish version it feels a lot more like there's a choice. "Alla vet hur jag ska va" to me feels like others have an opinion about how the child should be, and the next two lines has the child say it wants to keep its (again like the English version). And then when the last line talks about "being a bother" it again (to me) affirms that it's an issue of being a bother to others by insisting on being different (from what is expected). 

So again, I'm just feeling a bit of a difference there in terms of destiny versus expectation. 

I would actually love it if other Swedes could chime in here, because it's actually quite interesting.


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## Rasdor

To the best of my knowledge, Disney songs are rarely, if ever, 'translated' into other languages as much as they are reinterpreted. The overall meaning of the song remains, but much of the content is changed. So you probably shouldn't read too much into different versions of the songs, as they mostly seem to act independently of one another with the aforementioned exception of keeping the same overall message for the sake of the story.

It's definitely really interesting to see how different concepts are harder/easier to express in a poetic manner across different languages. Perhaps something for sociologists or psychologists to think about -- does out language affect how we think at a basic level?

Also very interesting to consider how different dubbings of Disney films may be. Despite the broad message being the same there are, as you mentioned, bits and pieces where concepts mentioned in one part of the story is different in another language version -- eg the difference between a character's feelings of 'destiny' and what it must become, and what it is expected to come by other characters, as you pointed out.

It may be theoretically really interesting to see if people's perceptions of the overall message of a Disney song or story-line changes depending on what language they view it in.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this now.


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## raumar

I have not seen the movie, so I don't know the context, but I agree that there is a difference between the English and Swedish versions. I am not sure whether the main difference is destiny versus expectation, though. I understand why you see it that way, Mattias, but couldn't the "big plan" in the English version just be other people's expectations?

My impression of these lines is that the child seems more determined to fight against the destiny, or expectations, or whatever it is, in the Swedish version. First, the question from the English version (_Can I still just be me, the way I am?) _has been transformed to a statement in the Swedish version (_But I just want to be me, just the way I am_). Second, there is no direct equivalent to the Swedish "_vilja_" in the English text. You have both translated "_vilja_" as "desire", but (at least in Norwegian), "_vilja_" implies something more: a stronger element of resolution or willpower. 

We can just speculate about the cause of this difference: does it reflect different views on the bringing up of children in Sweden and the US, or is it just accidental - a result of the need to find words that rhyme...


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## Rasdor

The theme seems to continue throughout the two versions, though. Most likely it is of course accidental for the sake of rhyme, but its pretty cool to think about nonetheless.

The lines before the choir chorus in English, for example, reads:

_We are more than we are,
We are one
_
Whilst the Swedish version reads:

_Vi är mer än du tror,_
_Vi är en_

The English version implies to me that the emphasis is on the group itself being strong, greater than the sum of its parts ( "We are more than we are "), whereas the Swedish version seems to give agency to the cub, and her opinion on the group.


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## MattiasNYC

raumar said:


> I have not seen the movie, so I don't know the context, but I agree that there is a difference between the English and Swedish versions. I am not sure whether the main difference is destiny versus expectation, though. I understand why you see it that way, Mattias, but couldn't the "big plan" in the English version just be other people's expectations?



Hmmm..... To me, in English, "part of some big plan" really implies either an actual plan concocted by humans or pretty much destiny, meaning there's sort of a grand design and the universe has it's own big plan for you. I suppose I'd have to see the film to understand that better. You could be right.



raumar said:


> My impression of these lines is that the child seems more determined to fight against the destiny, or expectations, or whatever it is, in the Swedish version. First, the question from the English version (_Can I still just be me, the way I am?) _has been transformed to a statement in the Swedish version (_But I just want to be me, just the way I am_). Second, there is no direct equivalent to the Swedish "_vilja_" in the English text. You have both translated "_vilja_" as "desire", but (at least in Norwegian), "_vilja_" implies something more: a stronger element of resolution or willpower.



I'm not sure I feel a difference in how much determination the child has. I suppose the other thing is how literally the questions are to be taken; are they rhetorical and just an expression of the child's thoughts, or are they meant to be answered by the adults?

As for the word "vilja" I actually think "desire" is a fairly strong sentiment. In Swedish there's also the noun "vilja", which indeed translates to "willpower". In context I think "desire" or something similar would translate better (this is now ignoring that we in retrospect have the English version). Actually, one thing to consider is that it's a far "darker" thing to consider a child's "willpower" to be a bother as opposed to its wishes. At least it appears that way to me. I mean it in the sense where if your child wants to be something really esoteric and something that they'll either likely fail at or never make money from as an adult, you could possibly try to steer their dreams and desires in a different direction without killing their willpower (for a different goal). Know what I mean?



raumar said:


> We can just speculate about the cause of this difference: does it reflect different views on the bringing up of children in Sweden and the US, or is it just accidental - a result of the need to find words that rhyme...



It's a good question. I often get bothered in films with translations into Swedish. When I grew up in Sweden I always read the subtitles and the sound was secondary. It was just the way my brain defaulted. Since I moved to the US of course I hear dialog now and it's surprising the translation errors that fly by once you catch it. Most of the time it's subtle, but sometimes it changes intent and meaning sufficiently to see that a Swedish person relying on subtitles won't get the same rich experience.


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## MattiasNYC

Rasdor said:


> The English version implies to me that the emphasis is on the group itself being strong, greater than the sum of its parts ( "We are more than we are "), whereas the Swedish version seems to give agency to the cub, and her opinion on the group.



I see your point and agree. Interesting.


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