Talk:Nella Fantasia

Would an Italian speaker kindly confirm if the English translation of the lyrics is accurate? It looks slightly strange to me, particularly the line "Full of humanity in the depths of the spirit". Cheers, Jacklee 23:27, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Categorization of article
I have put this article in the category "Category:2000s pop songs", but the date when the lyrics of the song were composed needs to be confirmed. The music was composed in the 1980s for the film The Mission. Cheers, Jacklee 22:51, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

I have recategorized the article into "Category:1990s pop songs", as the song apparently first appeared on Sarah Brightman's album Eden (1998). Cheers, Jacklee 00:42, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Translation of Lyrics
There are some 'infelicities' with the translation. "Fantasia" really means "imagination" or something like "in my mind's eye". It is what translators call a 'false friend', a word whose surface meaning is misleading but understandable. Fantasy in English carries the connotation of unreality, which the Italian doesn't have. In the first stanza "li" really means "there", so that line should be "In that place" or "There" but that wouldn't flow musically so it is okay as given. The line "Pien' d'umanità in fondo l'anima" is a real problem because although "Full of humanity in the depths of the spirit" is literally accurate it isn't very good English. When I listened to the song I realised there is a pause after "d'umanita'" which is quite important to the meaning. The pause makes the meaning more like: "Full of humanity; Deep in Spirit" or something like that, they are two separate but related expressions referring to the spirits that fly like clouds. There is another issue too. "Li" again means "There" and on the second time it is used it suggests something like "There even night is less dark" but what is given works OK I think. However "Che soffia sulle città, come amico" comes over as "In my fantasy exists a warm wind,That breathes into the city, like a friend" but "sulle citta'" is plural so it should be "over or into the cities" and I guess in natural English we might say "breathes life into towns and cities" or something like that.

Overall it isn't a bad translation but several bits are quite stilted and don't really reflect what the original Italian is saying. Ciao. PRC 07 (talk) 10:25, 3 November 2009 (UTC)