Explain/Translate Song Lyrics

[flnu]

Hello, would anyone care to help translate/explain the following lyrics from Acapella 7? I'm a beginning Thai learner and keep finding way too many verbs in the sentences (can't figure out what they're doing). Here we go:

กินเข้าไป อยากกินก็กินเข้าไปเถอะ

Let's keep eating, want to eat, keep eating. (It's definitely เข้า, not ข้าว. What does "เข้าไป" mean?)

แต่ถ้ากินมากไปจะเป็น ตุ่ม

But if you overeat, you'll go and get ตุ่ม (Not sure what "ไป" is doing here.)

เธอว่าเธออยากผอม แต่เธอก็กินไม่เคยหยุด

You say you want to be thin but you never stop eating. (Ok.)

และสุดท้ายเธอก็กลายมาเป็น ตุ่ม ตุ่ม ตุ่ม

And at last, you'll become ตุ่ม ตุ่ม ตุ่ม. (Now what is มา doing here?)

ปากก็บอกว่าอ้วนไป อยากจะให้มันผอมลง แต่ปากทำไมไม่หยุดกินซะทีกว่าที่เธอจะรู้ตัว ก็หมดทางแก้แล้วคนดี ทำใจเถอะนะที่ต้องเป็น ตุ่ม ตุ่ม ตุ่ม (Hopeless.)

[bmore99]

If you want to translate songs, the starting point is to copy and paste the text in Thai2english.com

You will get a translation for each word in the text (not like google translation that will try to build a sentence and ends up giving you nonsense)

This way you will learn how sentences are constructed and find the "meaning" of the sentences. After that you can write the English sentence without trying to translate every Thai word into an English word, as these two languages have nothing in common.

Ben

[flnu]

If you want to translate songs, the starting point is to copy and paste the text in Thai2english.com

You will get a translation for each word in the text (not like google translation that will try to build a sentence and ends up giving you nonsense)

This way you will learn how sentences are constructed and find the "meaning" of the sentences. After that you can write the English sentence without trying to translate every Thai word into an English word, as these two languages have nothing in common.

Ben

Oh, yeah, that's what I did (well, I used the bulk look-up feature on thai-dictionary) to get as far as I did with my translation. I'm not interested in the lyrics for themselves, but becasue I'm trying to learn Thai, and the lyrics seemed kind of fun. Neither thai-dictionary nor Thai2english tells me anything useful as far what "เข้าไป" actually means. I guessed it means some variation of shovel it in, keep eating, but who knows? The dictionary just tells me that เข้าไป means

<LI class=thaiMeaningLi>[to] enter ; reach ; get into

I'm having a hard time putting it together with "eat." Is it a command? A plea? I have a similar difficulty understanding the other verbs I highlighted in the parentheticals. I do get the gist (I hope) but that's not my goal. Thus my post. Thanks!

[bmore99]

get into eating ... is that not the same as "start" and "go on" ?

[DavidHouston]

One view of the lyrics:

กินเข้าไปอยากกินก็กินเข้าไปเถอะ

[You] keep eating. You eat whatever you want.

(กินเข้าไปliterally means "to ingest")

แต่ถ้ากินมากไปจะเป็นตุ่ม

But, if you eat too much, you will break out in pimples

เธอว่าเธออยากผอม แต่เธอก็กินไม่เคยหยุด

You say that you want to be thin; but you never stop eating

และสุดท้ายเธอก็กลายมาเป็น ตุ่ม ตุ่ม ตุ่ม

And, finally, you will break out all over

ปากก็บอกว่าอ้วนไปอยากจะให้มันผอมลง

Your mouth says that you are too fat and you want to be thin

แต่ปากทำไมไม่หยุดกินซะที

But why does your mouth go on eating?

กว่าที่เธอจะรู้ตัว ก็หมดทางแก้แล้ว

Until you know what you are, there is no way that you correct this condition

คนดี ทำใจเถอะนะ ที่ต้องเป็น ตุ่ม ตุ่ม ตุ่ม

[My friend], please acknowledge that you are pimply

เตือนเธอแล้วก็เตือนเธอแล้วให้เธอระวังหน่อย

I have warned you again and again that you shouldbe careful.

[Tod Daniels]

David's translation is far better than I could offer out and I'd run with it. ..

FWIW; given the flowery prose, tons of current slang, the high usage of idiomatic expressions in songs of ANY nationality and the fact who ever writes a song is forced to stay within the rhythm of the song, I found early on thai songs are a tough row to hoe, in direct translating or anything other than an adjunct to learning.

One thing you hafta remember, as evidenced by your post; there is a very high usage of verbs in thai (ไป, มา, เข้า, ออก, ขึ้น, ลง) which are only used to show the main verbs directionality in regards to the speaker or subject. Things come towards, or away from whoever or whatever is the subject of the sentence.

I found when I'd skip the verbs used as directionality markers and use just the main verbs until I worked out the context I got the meanings faster. Then plug in the directional markers and see if it's an activity which is coming towards or going away from the subject in the verse.

The near total lack of, or the use of more intimate personal pronouns (เธอ, ฉัน even มัน) and a lot of 'felt' stuff or ความ'd things and it gets even harder still.

I've got several hundreds of thai songs on my p/c with the thai lyrics as well as what I've back translated myself and asked people to help with. So are spot on, some are a little further from being on the money. I found it's better NOT to go line by line but verse by verse as you'll often get something closer to what the writer meant as an overall idea. The chorus's aren't usually as bad.

I'm trying to back translate some simple engrish songs into thai that stay within the meter of the songs and it is a hair-pulling experience (thankfully I am nearly hair-less do to my advanced age, but I do a lot of teeth gnashing, lol)

That website ethaimusic dot com has a lot of songs, and a pretty active forum for translating songs. Their engrish translations aren't all that bad, but sometimes they're not all that good either.

Google translates is a tough one to use, as it keeps tying to match to groups of words already in the program, so a lot of what you get is hogwash or unreadable nonsense.

Either use thai-2-engrish, or thai-language's bulk look up feature (and if you do use thai-language's site make sure you go to the site settings tab on the main page and click the allow racy gay/lesbian content boxes; that's where the 'new' current slang is hidden.

Now I could be wrong on this (as I all too often am) but. ... It is my experience that a ตุ่ม is one of those fat squat clay water pots that they use up country to catch rain water off the house roof. I have heard it used as a idiom or descriptive term for a woman who is more than pleasingly plumb. (However I have heard it as a nick name for a very thin gurl too, so go figure ). A quick google showed me about as many hits for that clay pot as people with pimples, so I really couldn't hazard a guess, lol.

Good luck, while that song isn't my style keep at it.

Edited January 4, 2011 by tod-daniels

[DavidHouston]

I like Tod's suggestion of ตุ่ม referring to a jar and being a metaphor for "squat and fat". Note that Lexitron shows several definitions of this word, the first of which is "pimple" and the second is "large earthen jar". Were the second definition used, my translation would change to:

__________________________________________________________

กินเข้าไปอยากกินก็กินเข้าไปเถอะ

[You] keep eating. You eat whatever you want.

(กินเข้าไปliterally means "to ingest")

แต่ถ้ากินมากไปจะเป็นตุ่ม

But, if you eat too much, you will get fat.

เธอว่าเธออยากผอม แต่เธอก็กินไม่เคยหยุด

You say that you want to be thin; but you never stop eating

และสุดท้ายเธอก็กลายมาเป็น ตุ่ม ตุ่ม ตุ่ม

And, finally, you be squat, fat, and rotund

ปากก็บอกว่าอ้วนไปอยากจะให้มันผอมลง

Your mouth says that you are too fat and you want to be thin

แต่ปากทำไมไม่หยุดกินซะที

But why does your mouth go on eating?

กว่าที่เธอจะรู้ตัว ก็หมดทางแก้แล้ว

Until you know what you are, there is no way that you correct this condition

คนดี ทำใจเถอะนะ ที่ต้องเป็น ตุ่ม ตุ่ม ตุ่ม

[My friend], please acknowledge that you are squat, fat, and rotund

เตือนเธอแล้วก็เตือนเธอแล้วให้เธอระวังหน่อย

I have warned you again and again that you should be careful.

_______________________________________

Thanks, Tod, for the suggestion.

[Tod Daniels]

A quick view of this video (dunno if it's the 'official MV') shows a clay-mation gurl getting fatter. Also the picture of the pug in the beginning of the video stretches fatter. Dunno, really. Just thought I'd share it.

Acappella 7 - ตุ่ม

[tgeezer]

I'm having a hard time putting it together with "eat." Is it a command? A plea? I have a similar difficulty understanding the other verbs I highlighted in the parentheticals. I do get the gist (I hope) but that's not my goal. Thus my post. Thanks!

Ah! a man after my own heart; if you can read which you obviously can may I recommend that you use a Thai dictionary it is the easiest way.

The word ไป after a verb shows action going on into the future. กินไป carry on eating, somewhere it says ไม่หยุดกิน which says the same differently ; following a คำวิเศษณ์ ไป intensifies; มากไป Too much

The word มา on the other hand, after a verb, shows that it started in the past and is still going on. และสุดท้ายเธอก็กลายมาเป็นตุม ตุม ตุม word for word is; in the end you then will change มา to be a jar jar jar The มา means will change all the way to 'in the end' which, when it occurs will be now.

I am not a linguist so can't put that very well.

Edited January 4, 2011 by tgeezer

[flnu]

Thank you so much. The commentary especially is helpful. The point about the inaccessibility of lyrics is well-taken. I guess I'm looking for ways to have contact with the language that doesn’t feel as deadening as my proper learning materials.

[DavidHouston]

"แต่ถ้ากินมากไปจะเป็น ตุ่ม"

The full phrase for "too much" is มากเกินไป; however, in common conversation this is often shortened to "มากไป".

Some are more erudite than I try to break down the total phrase into its constituent components to enhance comprehension. For me, knowing the meaning and use of the entire phrase is sufficient.

Best of luck in your studies.

[tgeezer]

"แต่ถ้ากินมากไปจะเป็น ตุ่ม"

The full phrase for "too much" is มากเกินไป; however, in common conversation this is often shortened to "มากไป".

Some are more erudite than I try to break down the total phrase into its constituent components to enhance comprehension. For me, knowing the meaning and use of the entire phrase is sufficient.

Best of luck in your studies.

Yes I am awake early because this occured to me while I slept; for the middle degree I thought that for มากไป 'very much' might do.

For ตุ้ม; in my part of the world if we said 'pot' in this context it would mean the same, 'you will become a little pot'' or potty which has the shape and used to go under the bed at night before plumbing got to everypart of the house.

Edited January 5, 2011 by tgeezer