Quote:
Originally Posted by Huinesoron
I'll splice the choir into the video when I get a chance. I'm always impressed by your choir work - I can never get it to work well when trying it myself. It's good!
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Thank you!
I confess, I cheat - I rarely can sing harmony clearly right off the top of my head. So instead I write it same way I would write the score, with an instrument playing more than one set of notes, and I fiddle with it until I'm happy with the sound. Then I delete the main voice line, and I'm left with the lower voice(s). Then I can hear them in isolation and sing along to them to make it a cleaner recording. Here's the one for
Appeal, if you wanna give it a try.
Yesterday I was listening to Pella Hisie again, and it just occurred to me that it's Maglor singing, is it not? I think the first time I listened to it the details of the song didn't really register. But what I really want to know is who is the woman that he addresses. Especially since the Quenya and Russian sections seem to have very different meanings when it comes to the crucial lines about her. (FYI, apparently the second section in Russian is a translation by Lora Bocharova! Oh the small world of Russian Tolkien). I have enough Elvish to tell that the Russian is occasionally unfaithful, but then I found a more literal translation that confirmed it.
Quenya Lyrics:
Pella hisie, penna ma'r
o'renyan iltuvima la'r.
Erya tenn' ambarone sundar
Na'lye - fi'rie, nwalma, na'r.
Tular Valar mi' silme fa'nar,
Meldanya curuntanen ta'nar.
Minya Vard' elerri'le anta;
Miruvo're Yavanna quanta.
Ulmo - losse earo, yallo
Aule ca'ra vanima canta.
Nesso - lintesse, Va'no - helmo
Tula Melkor ar anta melmo.
Erwa na, Feana'ro hin, ;
u'ner ma'ra voronda nin.
Hlara, melda carmeo aina,
laurefinda ve Laurelin:
u'-kenuvanyel, tenn' Ambar-metta.
Hlara enya me'tima quetta.
Pella hisie, pella men,
ti'ra ilu'veke'na he'n.
Indis.
Engwa indeo olos.
Na'va manina elya men.
Literal translation
Beyond the mist, without a home
My soul will not find peace.
To its cursed roots
You are death, torment, fire.
Come Valar in shining guises
And create my beloved with their enchantment.
First, Varda gifts starsheen,
Yavanna fills with the nectar of life (Miruvor),
Ulmo gives the foam of the sea, from which
Aule creates a beautiful form.
From Nessa - nimbleness, from Vana - skin.
Comes Melkor and gives her a lover.
Alone (lonely?) is the son of Feanaro;
No one remained loyal to me.
Listen, beloved, fruit of sacred art,
Golden-haired like Laurelin:
I will not see you again until the end of the world.
Hark to my last word.
From beyond the mist, from beyond the water
The all-seeing eye is watching. (All-seeing eye is the Lidless eye in Russian LOTR - is this Sauron?... Or something else?)
Woman.
Dream of a fevered mind.
May your road be blessed.
Russian verses
I have no home even across the sea,
Even in the distance of misty fields.
I have no peace, and no heart -
You have burned it to the roots.
Only the Valar could have created
You, beloved, daughter of the earth.
Varda gifted you white light,
Yavanna filled you with [archaic word for alcohol].
Ulmo gave you a foamy guise,
Aule shaped the wonderous form.
Nessa released the body from bonds,
Melkor made you love another.
Alone (lonely?) is the son of Feanaro,
None are loyal to him now.
Listen, maiden whose hair is gold,
Who was made to be my woe:
I am immortal, there is no worse fate,
I shall not see you until
Beyond the mist, beyond the water
My steps shall lead as well;
After you, whose journey was brief
As the smoke that flies on the wind.
First of all, I saw a number of times when Russian-Quenya poetry is written with a ton of apostrophes and contractions. ...Why? It looks ugly. I can see the reason behind "Vard' ", because the final vowel gets lost. But, for instance, why "ma'r"? What are all these marks supposed to represent? I feel like English Quenya (lol) doesn't have nearly the same amount.
But on to the content... Surely the speaker is Maglor, the lonely son of Feanor! But who is the lady that he is serenading? I cannot recall any canon about Maglor's love life. Interestingly, first major diversion in the lyrics comes on the Melkor line - the person who provided the literal translation pointed out that the Quenya only says that Melkor gives her a "beloved [man]", implying most likely himself - and not another man that she loved instead. So the tragedy is not a love triangle but their love itself, due to their eternal separation. But the last stanza is the meat of it. The Russian really makes it sound like he's talking about a mortal woman - one who is as brief as smoke on the wind. But the Quenya has no support for that, really. It's just a well-wish to someone whose identity remains really vague. I am not sure about the whole Eye reference though. Beyond the water is surely in Valinor, not TA Mordor - so... Manwe watching? Dunno.
As an aside... Surely there's a typo in the last stanza, for "water" - should it not be "nen", not "men"?