Eurovision 2023 is upon us and what better opportunity to relaunch our “Google Translate Does Song Lyrics” series. As a professional translation company, we’re not Google Translate’s biggest fans but the machine translation tool certainly has its uses: translating food menus when you’re on holiday, looking up an odd word or two for context, and, of course, translating song lyrics!
We’re massive fans of Eurovision here at LEaF – we love the coming together, the party atmosphere, the unbridled joy of it all. And, thankfully for a translation company from the UK, it is definitely the taking part not the winning that counts!
So, let’s put Google Translate to work for the good of Eurovision. We decided to challenge Google Translate with the song lyrics of the 1981 Eurovision classic Making Your Mind Up by Bucks Fizz. As Ukraine was rightly crowned winner last year, it seems only fair to translate the lyrics into Ukrainian. But how do we know the translation is correct? We translate it back into English of course. And that is where the fun commences…
But first, let’s step back in Eurovision time and enjoy a little piece of Eurovision history courtesy of Bucks Fizz…
Making Your Mind Up by Bucks Fizz
Wasn’t that glorious?
Now it’s time for Google Translate to work its magic and translate the classic lyrics into Ukrainian:
Прийняття рішення
Ви повинні прискорити це
І тоді ви повинні уповільнити це
Бо якщо ти віриш, що наше кохання може досягти вершини
Ви повинні погратися
Але незабаром ви побачите, що настане час
За те, що ви вирішили
Ви повинні включити його
А потім ти маєш це згасити
Ви повинні бути впевнені, що це щось
Усі будуть говорити про
Перш ніж ви вирішите, що час настав
За те, що ви вирішили
Не допускайте своєї нерішучості
Візьми тебе ззаду
Довіртеся своєму внутрішньому баченню
Не дозволяйте іншим змінити вашу думку
А тепер вам справді потрібно його спалити
І зробити ще одну муху вночі
Отримайте біг за свої гроші
І ризикніть, і все вийде правильно
Але коли ви побачите, як це має бути
Ви приймаєте рішення
І намагайся виглядати так, ніби тобі все одно
Але якщо ви хочете побачити ще щось
Порушення правил гри
Дозволить вам знайти того, кого ви шукаєте
І тоді ви можете показати, що думаєте, що знаєте
Ви приймаєте рішення
Не допускайте своєї нерішучості
Візьми тебе ззаду
Довіртеся своєму внутрішньому баченню
Не дозволяйте іншим змінити вашу думку
А тепер вам справді потрібно це прискорити
І тоді ви повинні уповільнити це
Бо якщо ти віриш, що наше кохання може досягти вершини
Ви повинні погратися
Але незабаром ви побачите, що настане час
За те, що ви вирішили
А тепер вам справді потрібно це прискорити
І тоді ви повинні уповільнити це
Бо якщо ти віриш, що наше кохання може досягти вершини
Ви повинні погратися
Але незабаром ви побачите, що настане час
За те, що ви вирішили
За те, що ви вирішили
За те, що ви вирішили
За те, що ви вирішили
I don’t know about you, but my Ukrainian really isn’t up to much. It’s a good job there is a handy, free machine translation tool to translate these Ukrainian lyrics back into English… Drum roll please, it’s time for Google Translate’s version of Making Your Mind Up:
Making a Decision
You have to speed it up
And then you have to slow it down
Because if you believe that our love can reach the top
You have to play
But soon you will see that the time has come
For what you decided
You must enable it
And then you have to put it out
You have to be sure it’s something
Everyone will be talking about
Before you decide it’s time
For what you decided
Do not allow your indecision
Take you from behind
Trust your inner vision
Don’t let others change your mind
Now you really need to burn it
And make another fly at night
Get a run for your money
And take a risk, and everything will turn out right
But when you see how it should be
You make the decision
And try to look like you don’t care
But if you want to see something else
Violation of the rules of the game
Lets you find who you’re looking for
And then you can show what you think you know
You make the decision
Do not allow your indecision
Take you from behind
Trust your inner vision
Don’t let others change your mind
Now you really need to step it up
And then you have to slow it down
Because if you believe that our love can reach the top
You have to play
But soon you will see that the time has come
For what you decided
Now you really need to step it up
And then you have to slow it down
Because if you believe that our love can reach the top
You have to play
But soon you will see that the time has come
For what you decided
For what you decided
For what you decided
For what you decided
I have to admit, most of those lyrics sound very Eurovision. Everyone knows that the best thing about the Eurovision Song Contest is and always has been reading the subtitles and enjoying the questionable translations of the foreign-language song lyrics. To be fair, often it isn’t the translations that are dodgy, but the lyrics themselves – but that’s another blog post entirely!
In this case, I would say that Google Translate has excelled itself. You can definitely get the gist of the song, although I’m not sure I would agree with replacing the catchy “Making Your Mind Up” with “making a decision”, “for what you decided” and “you make the decision” – it seems our friend Google was struggling to make its mind up here!
Then there’s the verse:
Now you really need to burn it
And make another fly at night
Get a run for your money
And take a risk, and everything will turn out right
But when you see how it should be
You make the decision
I’m intrigued by the “make another fly at night” idea and I suppose “but when you see how it should be, you make a decision” kind of makes sense, but I’m not sure it’s an entirely accurate translation of the original!
Hopefully that has whet your appetite for the big night on Saturday. Here’s to another year of weird and wonderful lyrics and even stranger translations!
In the meantime, why not take a look at the other songs from our Google Translate does Song Lyrics series:
Round #1 – Perfect by Fairground Attraction
Round #2 – Bewegung by Ohrbooten
Round #3 – Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran
And why not head over to our Instagram page to tell us what you think or even suggest some future contenders for Google Translate does Song Lyrics…
Finally, if you are in need of a translation service for slightly more serious purposes – for a website translation, translating a blog post, translating business comms, translating event information (Eurovision, we’re looking at you!), marketing translations or something else entirely – do get in touch. We would be rubbish on stage at Eurovision, but when it comes to translation, there’s no one better!