Chandler said:
Well I am german and I had trouble to make sense of it. Wikipedia lists as translation "Gypsy Airs" but this is not literal. You can pretty much translate it two ways. "Zigeuner" means gypsy but "weisen" can mean two things. 1. "weise" as in "wise man/woman" would mean Zigeunerweisen = Gypsy wise men/women 2. "weise" as in "auf meine weise" which means "my way", so Zigeunerweisen = the gypsy ways (3.) maybe it's a grammatical error and it should read Zigeunerwaisen, then it would mean gypsy orphans ^^ Since the composition is based on roma songs and tradition I would say the second translation is right. |
You are German and don't know the meaning of "Weise" in this case? As you said, "Weise" has several meanings, but in this case it clearly means tune, melody or air (see http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Weise_Methode_Melodie_Lied#Bedeutung2: "kurze, einfache Melodie [eines Liedes]" transl.: "short, simple melody [of a song]"). It's a very old German word, Duden states this meaning for "Weise" already existed in Althochdeutsch (Old High German), i.e. it's probably more than 1000 years old. "Gypsy Airs" actually is the literal translation.
OT: Hounds of Love in my arse - Kate Bush
