Slovenian Translations of Jazz Song Lyrics

Komel, Kati (author), Stopar, Andrej (mentor)

The master’s thesis investigates singable translations in jazz. Using the functional approach, the skopos theory and the Pentathlon Principle, it analyses the corpus of fifteen lyrics pertaining to jazz standards, translated from English to Slovenian after the year 1991. Singable translation of song lyrics calls for special attention not just to the transfer of meaning, but also to various aspects of a song, such as singability (musico-verbal unity), naturalness of language, rhythm, and rhyme. Bearing in mind that balancing their importance greatly depends on the context and genre of a song, the thesis first explores some characteristics of jazz. The analysis of the prosodic, poetic, and lexical features of the texts in the corpus, along with a multilayered approach to each of them separately, reveals the aspects that are closely related to their musical genre, translator, and commissioner. It was found that the chosen jazz standards were translated freely in terms of semantics, prosodics, and poetics. The choice of categories that are deemed more important in translating a certain song depends on its translational skopos (purpose).

• Language: English
• Keywords: singable translation, jazz standards, the skopos theory, the Pentathlon Principle
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2025
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-173604
• COBISS.SI-ID: 253413635
• Publication date in RUL: 19.09.2025

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Slovenski prevodi angleških besedil pesmi v jazzu

Abstract

Magistrsko delo raziskuje prevajanje pétih besedil v jazzu. Na podlagi funkcionalnega pristopa, teorije skoposa in principa pentatlona obravnava korpus petnajstih besedil jazz standardov, ki so bila prevedena iz angleščine v slovenščino po letu 1991. Prevajanje pétih besedil poleg pomenskega transferja zahteva upoštevanje različnih lastnosti skladbe, kot so spevnost (glasbeno-besedna enotnost), jezikovna naravnost, ritem in rima. Iskanje ravnovesja med njimi je močno odvisno od konteksta in zvrsti pesmi, zato je najprej navedenih nekaj značilnosti jazza. Z razčlembo prozodičnih, poetičnih in leksikalnih značilnosti besedil v korpusu, pa tudi z večplastno analizo vsakega teksta posebej, smo ugotavljali, katere njihove lastnosti so povezane z glasbeno zvrstjo, prevajalcem in naročnikom prevodov. Izkazalo se je, da so izbrani prevodi jazz standardov svobodni tako s semantičnega, kot tudi s prozodičnega in poetičnega vidika. Izbor kategorij, ki jim je pri prevajanju dana prednost, je odvisen od prevajalskega skoposa (namena).

• Keywords: prevajanje pétih besedil, jazz standardi, teorija skoposa, princip pentatlona