Sometimes it's very hard for me to understand what you post. There are very good dictionarys inside (correct?) the internet. My favourite is www.leo.org. I even found 'braggadocio'. But what the heck is a ralph macchio? Serious: some expressions are to hard for me.

My first question:
Final Boss.

Whart does it really mean? Something like 'Diabolo' in Diabolo I

Improve.
On the internet.

Ralph Macchio is an actor. He is most famous for (I think) the movie, The Karate Kid, where he swings his arms because he is learning how to fight.

You are doing a far better job than I would be doing were I to try to speak in German. :)

As for "Final Boss" you are correct, it is like Diablo from Diablo I. A lot of video games (and other forms of media, if you think about it) feature a final, superior bad guy who you must defeat.

-Yook

Title? Improved!

I've been thinking about something similar recently, after talking to Wordburglar at Nerdapalooza. With his lyrics, its sometimes difficult to translate from Canadian to American, so I can only imagine how much harder it is for someone who is learning English.

I've been thinking I'd like to make a wiki for annotating lyrics. That way, if a particular word or phrase needed more explanation, there could be a link or pop-up or whatever to explain. Here's a primitive example I made for the lyrics to Wordburglar's "The WB".

I think it would need to be a wiki because I don't actually know what some of the words mean myself, and I want someone else to tell me!

Let me help with the translation of "Saying Raps." When Burg says "I'm not from Quebec but I eat Poutine," what he manes is "while I am not French-Canadian, I still consume nasty shit." ;)

Ohhhhhh, I was wondering what Mr. Stair meant by translating from Canadian.

Poutine, by the way, is amazing. Unless if they put in too much cheese....and you don't like cheese.

Spelling checker? Installed :o)

@sstair

thank you for your tip. But first of all - as a foreigner - I listened to mcf's music. In my opinion he is a brilliant musician. Even better than Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. The text I could approximately comprehend with dictionary's help.

Next thing:
I'm such a nerd that my mama used a bang-path address to call me home to dinner.
bang-path address?

Seriously... Canadian to American? You guys are killing me. Go try and translate some heavily idiomatic Japanese lyrics to English (without three pages of footnotes). Hell, even Gaddy's working within the same family of languages.

I like sstair's idea.

Yes. Yes, indeed. ;)

I dunno how to explain it other than it was the predecessor to the email address.

It was an address, but in its name it showed where it should go to get the message to someone. You would put a ! (called a "bang") between each step in the path. The steps were basically each computer it had to pass through until it reached the recipients computer.

Now two often used words. The purely translation sometimes didn't really plug in the gap.

a) fronting
b) awesome

Fronting is projecting a "facade" (a "front") to conceal your true self. Fronting is traditionally one of the worst things a rapper could do. I think biting rhymes (stealing lyrics) might be a close second.

Awesome describes something that is so good that it (figuratively) induces awe.

And now for some help in German. How do you translate the following into German? "Give unto me a bit of flooring under this fat floating sofa".

I've asked two Germans who tell me this can't be translated because sofas do not float. However, Frank Zappa somehow managed to sing it in concert. I've showed the lyrics to a couple other German guys who claim Mr. Zappa's translation is wrong, though they cannot offer a more correct one either.

This is pretty amusing - I used to have a Russian friend who had nearly perfect English, but idioms really, really tripped her up.

And music lyrics, nerdcore or otherwise, are typically chock full of idioms.

It was fun translating. Lucky for me she was not one for hardcore rap...I'm not sure I'd be ready to explain donkey punch.

--Robert

"Give unto me a bit of flooring under this fat floating sofa"

It's difficult. A sentence taken out of context.

'unto' is afaik used in a poetical way. So this sentence seems to be a piece of a poem (Zappa likes sometimes more sexual poems?)

The 'sofa' could be something where he could lay down. Pehaps a woman? A woman who avoids diet coke. In a special physical condition (floating). Perhaps near orgasm, drunken, stoned or XXL (compare floating body).

'a bit of flooring' is more complicated *harrumph*. 'Bit of' is often used in phrases. e.g. a bit of a yawn, to be a bit of a bully. So what does a bit of flooring mean? Bit of yawn - booring; bit of bully - playing strong man; bit of flooring?

I think Zappa is dreaming of rider position* with a reubenesque (floating) lady.

What do you think about


* Opposite of missionary position. German expression purely translated.

Oh! I forgot the translation:

Oh würde mich eine üppige Maid reiten.

Oder so ...

Awesome.

*lernalot*
The next two questions
wick-wack
begzor

*

* what are the usual icon names ?
icon_smile
icon_evil
icon_lol
icon_question
...
icon for
:-P
:-x
8-)
etc.

Wack in rap terms is probably best defined here as "street slang for bad"

I suppose "wick-wack" is somebody saying "wack" whilst beat-boxing. A sucker-duck MC is wack. A wick-wack mickety mack daddy would be an oxymoron. Do people really say wack anymore?

Apparently while I wasn't paying attention, all the young 'uns started adding "orz" to words. For example, if you're a hacker, you're haxorz. If you suck, you're suxorz. If you rock, you're roxorz. I guess it's the new pig-latin. If you're begging, then you're engaged in a begzor.

Kris Kross says that inside out is wiggida wiggida wack.