Part of Ascensus Casusque Sigii Sidorum et Aranearum Martis, a project to translate Ziggy Stardust into Latin
Back to It Ain't Easy — Forward to Star
Lady Stardust
by David Bowie
People stared at the makeup on his face
Laughed at his long black hair, his animal grace
The boy in the bright blue jeans
Jumped up on the stage
Lady Stardust sang his songs
Of darkness and disgrace
And he was all right, the band was all together
Yes, he was all right, the song went on forever
Yes, he was awful nice
Really quite out of sight
And he sang all night long
Femmes fatales emerged from shadows to watch this creature fair
Boys stood upon their chairs
To make their points of view
I smiled sadly for a love I could not obey
Lady Stardust sang his songs
Of darkness and dismay
And he was alright, the band was all together
Yes, he was alright, his song went on forever
And he was awful nice
Really quite paradise
And he sang all night, all night long
Oh! how I lied when they asked if I knew his name
For he was alright, the band was altogether
Yes he was alright, and his song went on forever
He was awful nice
Really quite paradise
He sang all night long
Domina Sidorum
ab D. Bovio
Ad fucum in vultum eius intuebantur
Ad crinem nigrem ridebant, et lepotem animalem
Puer in caerulea toga
In scaenam salivit
Domina Sidorum cantus canebat
Tenebrarum infamiamque
Etenim iucundus erat, chorusque simul erant
Etenim iucundus erat, cantus in aeternum durabat
Vero amoenissimus erat
Vere spectaculum
In cantu pernoctabat
Dominatrices ex shadis emergerunt
Ut monstrem pulchrem videant
Pueri in sellas stabant
Ut sententias aperiant
Maeste amori quem non poteram obire subridebam
Domina Sidorum cantus canebat
Tenebrarum pavoremque
Etenim iucundus erat, chorusque simul erant
Etenim iucundus erat, cantus in aeternum durabat
Vero amoenissimus erat
Vere paradisus
In cantu pernoctabat, per omnem noctem
O! quam mentiebar cum rogerint si nominem sciriam
Etenim iucundus erat, chorusque simul erant
Etenim iucundus erat, cantus in aeternum durabat
Vero amoenissimus erat
Vere paradisus
In cantu pernoctabat
Translation notes
This song was one of the more challenging yet, as I was trying as best as I can to capture the particular connotations of the words that Bowie chose (deliberately, I must assume). The song has enough gravitas that I couldn't go with silly translations of slang, as in Moonage Daydream or Starman. So I spent a while juggling possible translations of the song.
Here's a fun fact: the word crinis, which I use for "hair" in line 2, is listed in my dictionary as also having figurative use as the tail of a comet. Neat.
There was a lot of time spent playing with timing in this one, mostly because this is one of my favorite songs, well, ever. There are a lot of implicit eiuses in the first couple of lines, as I was working with too many syllables anyway. Also, I decided that crinis (hair) had a connotation of length, as the adjective derived from it means "long-haired", so I was able to compress "his long black hair" into two words.
Here's another fun word choice: I chose canere for "to sing" over cantare, as canere carries overtones of prophecy and a call to arms, which I thought seemed appropriate.
I ran into a problem in line 8, which was that it's difficult to translate "the song went on forever" if Latin apparently does not have the word "forever." Neither my dictionary nor several others I checked had it listed. I briefly considered a use of semper, but it seemed like "always" wasn't quite the meaning that Bowie intended. I ended up settling for "the song lasted through eternity."
In line 10, I used "quite the sight" instead of "out of sight," mostly because they both are visual metaphors. In line 11, "And he sang all night long" became "and he spent the night in song." This choice (pernoctare has some pretty specific connotations) evolved out of the ineluctable sexual nature of Ziggy's character.
In line 24, I had to make the choice between the two versions of this line that Bowie sang: "Oh! how I sighed when they asked if I knew his name" or "Oh! how I lied when they asked if I knew his name." I chose the latter, because I think that it's far more meaningful to the album's story if it echoes Peter's denial of Christ.