and that's not unusual for Romanian music

plenty of times the lyrics are just a means to an end (on this account, my dad had little patience for quite a few of the popular Romanian songs, he is an engineer and used to call then "unsingable melodies") : the thing is that words are primarily used to give general direction to feelings conveyed by the melody and they usually do that well as long as you understand the culture (and go along with it... my father didn't!) and don't expect a very cohesive overall message for songs (that's not really the point...) ; so it's not really a translation issue... it's more of a different culture value emphasis... it is quite acceptable to just suggest things and quite possible that only few people would understand what you really mean and still end-up with something most people love...

a good example of this is one of Dan's ballads: Oriunde ai fi (Wherever you will be): to make the message clear I had to do some "creative translation"(I basically helped out by clarifying things that were just vaguely suggested, dropping things that were extraneous or just plain confusing, keeping the same voice throughout and not worrying whether or not it rhymes -- it doesn't!)

Wherever you will be

I looked her in the eye for the last time,
Tears were rolling down her face and they were so bitter.
She asked me not to forget her -- she somehow knew,
I lightly told her love never dies.
I had no idea it was our last night, that we were so close to the end…
Silly me, I talked to her casually as I looked at her that last night.

I still remember that last look and I can’t forget the disillusion.
(It was all like a dream, like a fairy tale that just ended.)
But wherever she will be, I will always find her.
And I will always love her, wherever she will be,
I will find her, day or night, wherever she will be
My sweet, my bitter,
I will find her inside of me when I will love again,
I will find her in my dreams.

When I go to bed, I listen to her favorite song,
And it makes me feel so good -- so close to her,
It reminds me of us and of our last night,
Of our last kiss: her lips were cold, I was trembling and my mouth was bitter.
I kiss her in my dreams the way I did that summer,
I kiss all night long the ghost of her that summer.

I still remember that last look and I can’t forget the disillusion.
It was all like a dream, like a fairy tale that just ended.
But wherever she will be, I will always find her.
And I will always lover her, wherever she will be,
I will find her, day or night, wherever she will be
My sweet, my bitter,
I will find her inside of me when I will love again,
I will find her.

I will love her when the sky is full of stars, in my dreams where I will find her.
I will imagine holding her in my arms the way I did that last time,
We will always be close -- I will find her inside of me when I will love again.

Delia

P.S. this is the song that convinced me Dan can sing... (in most of the U-tube clips he seems to be just yelling) D.