WORLD TO THE WISE

WAITING for each of our participants in their London hotel room on our recent tour was a moleskin journal with the following paragraph on the front page:

“The fool wanders; the wise man travels.” - Thomas Fuller

These words reflect the philosophy behind the name of our company, World to the Wise. The Proverbs remind us of the importance of seeking wisdom, and much wisdom is to be gained from getting outside one’s immediate surroundings. We travel not because we necessarily enjoy lengthy flights or sleeping in strange beds; we travel because we  need to occasionally be shaken from the quasi stupor we can so easily be lulled into in the comfortable familiarity of life in the United States. It is our belief that God has placed something uniquely beautiful in every culture on earth. He loves diversity! And if we don’t cultivate curiosity, many riches will pass us by. It is not so much about what we do as how we do it.

Augustine expressed it like this:

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

We invite you to stay tuned for announcements of upcoming World to the Wise Cultural Tours — we’ve only just begun!

On Friday, June 11, we will embark on the long anticipated, inaugural World to the Wise Cultural Tour. Spending a week each in London, Paris and Amsterdam, we will not only take in the sights, but drink in the cultural distinctives and beauties each of these great cities has to offer. The mission of World to the Wise is not simply to expose our participants to other lands, but to foster cultural intelligence in the process.

We hope you’ll follow along as we chronicle our adventures — either here or at David’s blog.

Just 10 days until your $200 deposit is no longer refundable! Haven’t signed up yet? No problem — we still have plenty of room!

The excitement is building as we look forward to leaving in just a little over nine weeks! Here are a few updates:

• We’ve made some great connections in all three cities from our network of friends and acquaintances to ensure that you have direct contact with the local population — whether in London, Paris or Amsterdam.
• We’re looking at some great day trip possibilities to give you a taste for what life is like outside the big city.
• Your palette will have as much fun as the rest of you with the food we have planned for you to taste!

Just now hearing about the World to the Wise Cultural Tour? Just scroll down to read the full description — choose just one, two, or all three weeks!

Feed your cultural curiosity!

If you’ve ever sung “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” in church, or grew  up singing “Are You Sleeping” as a child, you’ve sung songs that were originally written in a language other than English. Most of us are unaware of the art involved in the translation of a song; we somehow think it’s simply a matter of translating the literal words of the song from one language to another.

Nothing could be farther from the truth! If a song is intended to be sung in another language, it must of course be crafted in such a way that the new words fit the rhythm of the melody — all the way down to the number of syllables. This inevitably means that a literal translation is usually impossible when creating a singable translation — which sometimes comes as a bit of a shock to the uninitiated! The goal of the song translator is to create a singable version of the song that has the same musical flow as the original language, while maintaining the integrity of the ideas expressed in the lyric. It therefore takes a good dose of artistic talent and sensitivity to render a worthy song translation.

Let’s take the example of “Are You Sleeping” — as you know, the French words go like this:

Frère Jacques, frère Jacques

Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?

If we were to translate those lines literally, it would come out like this:

Brother James, brother James

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?

Try singing that! (This does not explain why we sing “John” in English, instead of “James”, which is the translation of “Jacques”!)

So whoever translated the first song switched the first two lines in order to fit the rhythm of the melody. This is but a small yet representative example of what song translators deal with on a regular basis.

Our song translators are experienced craftsmen who are poets in their own right, paying careful attention to the vital components mentioned above. The sign of a great translation is that those singing it cannot even tell it’s a translation, just as many people have no idea that “A Mighty Fortress” was initially written in German! This is the goal of all our translators at World to the Wise. We also have them work in teams in order to complement each other’s strengths and thereby produce a better result.

To find out more about our song translation services, e-mail us at admin@worldtothewise.net.

In our last post, we mentioned that one of the services of World to the Wise is translation. What comes to mind first for most of us is perhaps business documents, user manuals or even books. We say yes to all of the above — but we also translate songs!

Who would possibly have any use for song translations, you ask? Here are some of our current clients’  reasons for seeking our services:

- a publisher of Christian worship songs wants to have their songs translated into Spanish so churches all over the Hispanic world can sing them in their own language. We also offer the same services in Portuguese, German, French, Dutch, and more!

- a band in the Los Angeles area needs one of their songs translated into Spanish so they can reach a broader audience

- a French-speaking artist from Quebec wants one of his songs translated into English so the American audience can discover it

- A record label gets requests to have their artists’ songs translated into multiple languages; we identify or create the best, most artistically crafted translations of their songs and they approve these as the ‘authorized’ translation to prevent confusion and help the writers receive the royalties they deserve!

I could go on…just send us an e-mail at admin@worldtothewise.net for more information.