Strategies Used in the Reformulation of Lyrics: an Analysis of Kenyan Gospel Kiswahili Covers

Abstract

The phenomenon of cover songs has gained popularity globally, with singers, both budding and renowned embracing it either as a way to launch their music career, to gain a larger audience or merely for fun. While doing cover songs, some artists may opt to reformulate the lyrics into their native languages with view to give it a more “authentic” sound and make it appealing to their target audiences. During this process songs might undergo a lot of manipulation, sometimes so drastic that one may not even tell whether it is a reformulation or a new song altogether. The research therefore set out to analyze translation strategies as demonstrated by several Kenyan Gospel artists in the reformulation of selected Gospel songs from English into Kiswahili. It also aimed at assessing the semantic implications of these strategies on the TL songs as well as to test whether strategies used by Kenyan artists attest to Franzon’s theory on choices in song translation. To this end, the researcher employed the documentary analysis method and analyzed five Kiswahili Gospel covers of songs originally performed in English. This data was analyzed using Franzon’s theory on choices in song translation. From this study it was concluded that during song translation, a translator has more choices than those posited by Franzon. The findings further revealed that Franzon’s choices in song translation apply to the macro-unit level of the texts i.e. verses. The translator therefore has to still make choices while working on the micro-unit levels i.e. words, phrases and expressions. The choices used at the micro-unit levels may include literal translation, transposition, use of a more general expression, omission, use of a more specific expression as well as writing new lyrics altogether. In conclusion, this study has also proven that for artists the song is king. Therefore the artists are at liberty to bend, break or even invent their own rules provided that they produce a singable text that is appealing to their audience. This is a luxury not enjoyed by translators.