Widow of the Professional (Tori Amos)

Language: Portuguese

And here we have another case where the lyrics didn't make all that much sense to start out with. The resulting lyrics are probably more grammatical than Tori Amos's original lyrics, but it's still tough to get much information from them. I do like the idea of a "business hit," like a "Broadway hit" or "hit TV show." Business seems to me to be exceptionally prone to fads, like six-sigma or just-in-time-manufacturing, but I don't think you'd call any of these a "hit," exactly.

In any case, I would probably go see a show called "Sensation Who Makes it as a Congressman," though. Especially if it were about an interesting sensation, like the feeling that something bad is about to happen to somebody you don't like, or the feeling of stepping on a dead mouse in your closet, which happened to me once.

-Jessi

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The deer excrement, the honey,
the slag well of
my edges: to bring it close to
those brains (yes) doesn't establish
how we start to be great.
Boy, we only start to be great.

My Daddy as a starfucker
that's only mine. Daddy sells his baby, as
that's only mine. As daddy goes
to that business hit,
"Sensation Who Makes it as a Congressman." It's
functioning in the family.
(Who goes to hit a business?
It makes a sensation, as the congressman
functions in his family.)

He rests his shoulders, cream, and peaches
in all parts. How much can you see in such a Judas way?
That pretty angel calls it "that
Muhammad Ali re-run we started." Each one the prism of that
perfect honey, brings it close to the edges.
What ratio of the boy (Yes, the one of the landslide)
is called the great principle? One boy started to be . . . .

Mary of China, there
can be more candy. The white, the brown, the mother
will supply it, will supply it,
will supply it, will supply it.
A hard tap on it gives me peace and love.

God (Tori Amos)

Language: Portuguese

This is possibly the only song I've posted so far where I actually got out the CD and listened to it to get the words. Occasionally, I've listened over and over to a song here or there just because I enjoy listening to it (for example The Rabbet is in the Heart), but that wasn't to get the words, that was just to hear the song again.

My lyrics lined up just fine with those in the CD cover except for two places: one, there's a bit that's spoken, just barely loud enough to be audible, which I'm told on reasonably good authority is Tori quoting Proverbs 31:3 ("Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings," in the KJV) and which she declined to include in the published lyrics.

The other is that there are a number of occasions where it sounds to me like she's singing "God, sometimes you just don't come through" with a "babe" on the end. She may not be, but it seemed to me like an improvement on the original even if she's not saying it, so I included some possibly-extraneous "babes" in the choruses. Which were promptly swallowed and eaten by the Babelfish Gnome, (mythic beast which resides in the Babelfish code and eliminates potentially interesting things from the text that's returned.) but oh well. Possibly this is the origin of the "dribbling," which is otherwise inexplicable, though turning babes into dribbling is kind of inexplicable itself. We may never know.

-Jessi

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God, you don't only come through the time.
God, you don't come to complete the time.
You'll need a woman to look at that later.
God, you don't come completely; only in the pretty times.

You make pretty daisies, daisies. (Say that you'll come for the lower half of me.) You started to love to find me, to find, to find.
What you're making of the things (You, who make that.)
starts short, if I'm toasty.
Here – whom to burn? Some witches, while you're here? (What do you know of them?)
I started to find finding, for finding,
because you always go when she establishes the wind.

God, you don't only come through the time.
God, you don't come to complete the time; you dribble.
You'll need a woman to look at that later.
God, you don't come completely in time.

Perhaps you say that you are wild:
I'll understand that, then. (Say it low, that you'll come for me.)
You started its nine-iron in the back seat; nine
just in case the
South heard you. Oh, good: it dribbles.
I know you love their new four-wheel. (What they know of you: what you know.)
I started because you always establish the wind, when you find it's gone.

(Spoken: Until a woman forces your elasticity,
it will destroy your kings that way)

You decide if you make the sky fall: it says to itself, exactly that.
Now you will decide to make the sky, if it says "exactly" to you and to itself.

God, you don't only come through the time.
God, you don't come to complete the time; you dribble.
You'll need a woman to look at that later.
God, you don't come completely.
You'll need a woman to look at that later.
God, you don't come completely in time.

Crucify (Tori Amos)

Language: Russian

Another example, here, of a babelfishing twisting the original meaning into something entirely different: check out lines 2-4 in particular. I also think this version sounds a lot sadder, somehow, than the original, mainly (I think) on the strength of "I make it good for you," in the chorus.

-Jessi

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Each finger in the room indicates me.
I spit in their sides after this, and
I am frightened that it could bring me
a bowling ball in my stomach.
I already obtained a desert in my mouth.
I calculate that my courage selected to sell us now.

I looked for a savior in these dirty streets;
I am looking for a savior under these dirty sheets.
I raised upward on my hands
in order to govern another nail.
Exactly one more God than victim.

Why do we crucify each day, crucify
nothing? I make it good for you.
I crucify enough each day
that my heart will be patient, located in the chains.

Have a kick for the dog,
which entreated for its love.
I.e., Go, it has my suffering,
so I have my cross.
I know the tomcat, Easter.
He speaks "You will always teach
the empty girl of a valid cell
if you kill a bird."

Then I looked for a savior in these dirty streets
I am looking for a savior under these dirty sheets
I raised it upward, on my hands,
in order to govern by another nail
(after I obtained sufficient guilt
to begin in my own religion).
If you please,
in order to be
the exception, I weep.

Why do we crucify each day,
crucify nothing? I make it good for you.
I crucify enough each day
that my heart will be patient, located in the chains.