I just love translation differences.  For example, literally translated to English my blog title says: You Tell This.  It is the title of a song by an Israeli artist named Rami Kleinstein.  On long road trips, I bring various Andrew Lloyd Webber CDs as well as Billboard hits from ancient years such as 1984 plus whatever random CD I may have purchased or borrowed from the library that came out in the past 5-10 years.  My mother brings whatever Israeli CDs she's managed to come across one way or the other. 

The one CD I really like is Rami Kleinstein's "Tagid Et Zeh."  Today I researched the song online and was shocked to discover that the song is usually translated as "Say It."  I had been told that the title meant "Tell This."  "Tagid" is masculine for "you tell" while "tagidi" would be the feminine version.  When translated, the "you" is generally left out because, let's face it, it would sound pretty funny to translate everything beginning with "you (male)" or "you (female)."

Tagid = tell.  Zeh = this.  Hebrew does not have a word for "it."  Everything is either masculine or feminine.  "Mah zeh?" means "What is this?" not "What is it?"  Of course, the word "is" is added for translation purposes as there is no actual word for "is" in Hebrew.  "Is" is implied.  In contrast, the word "et" does not really have a translation.  It has a point and serves a function but the English language does not have a comparable word.  Long story short, "et" makes "tell this" sound a lot nicer in Hebrew.

This "Say It" business is baffling me.  "Say" is "amar" not "tagid." Saying something is similar to telling something, but there are differences.  When you say something, you are simply speaking outloud, relaying some sort of information. Telling something is more meaningful.  There's a reason we tell stories and don't say them.

For anyone interested in the lyrics of the song: http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-tagidetzeh.htm .  It even has the lyrics translated into Spanish.  Any Spanish speakers out there?

I did not intend for this blog to be a translation information session.  Something someone said to me yesterday reminded me of this song's title, I researched the song just because, and then went on a rant about the way it way translated.  That will have to be a blog for another time.

Side note: I'm going to try to remember all of the weird, random questions that pop into my mind for no reason at all and post them here for you to answer.

Lady Ta'aluma's Random Related to Music Question: How many times in a row do you think the average person can listen to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody without going insane?