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Topic: Lyrics: Requiem For A City< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
CarstenKuss Offline




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Joined: Nov. 1999
Posted: Nov. 17 2000, 16:11

Here's my rough phonetical transcript of Requiem For A City (Killing Fields). Please remember I'm German. Who can make anything of it? And is it really Latin?

sho requiem qui se jola
ki ret me ra laterna sombre
sho requiem qui se jola
ki ret me ra laterna sombre
dryra dryra retiro
ko le dschy ni dschue gra
due dueb memba
nama neme ge
comemoruti sa kaletepe
kaletepe retiro
mole shys nja gra
aaaah...
cho requiem qui se jola
ko le sin se cha aaah
so
laterna so


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-Carsten-
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Archangel Foster Offline




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Posted: Nov. 17 2000, 16:23

I was going to ask if others agreed there are 'sh' sounds in those lyrics. You seem to think so, too. That would mean it can be neither Latin nor Greek, because both languages don't have that sound. But then, they might just be pronouncing it strangely. This certainly doesn't look like Latin to me, though. Nor Greek. Rather like ancient Egyptian! (But then again, 'requiem', 'sombre', 'laterna' rather sound Latin)
I'd say it's fake Latin. I also checked the catholic liturgic texts, and it's certainly none of those.
Good job, Carsten - I tried to figure it out, too, but I couldn't have written anything down at all!
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CarstenKuss Offline




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Posted: Nov. 18 2000, 16:27

Yes, the pronounciation sounds strange to me, too. But like me, the singers are Germans (Tölzer Boys Choir), so it shouldn't! Can anybody solve this riddle?

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CarstenKuss Offline




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Posted: Nov. 18 2000, 17:26

This could also be in 'symptoms of MO fanatics'... wink
I found the homepage of the Tölzer Boys Choir: www.knabenchor.de
I sent them an eMail in German, asking if they still know the lyrics. I must be crazy.

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-Carsten-
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Archangel Foster Offline




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Posted: Nov. 19 2000, 12:43

cool!
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Man In Rain Offline




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Posted: Nov. 20 2000, 10:02

In fact, we don't know how did the Latins EXACTLY spoke, and today every nation pronounces Latin words slightly different. For example, Cicero is pronounced in Romanian 'chichero', in Hungarian 'tzitzero' and in some other language I heard 'kikero'. So the text might be Latin (words like 'requiem', 'qui', 'sombre', 'laterna') or a mixture of Latin and some other language. Can anybody discover a similarity with religious texts or classical music (e.g. Requiems of Mozart)?
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Cipher Offline




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Posted: Nov. 28 2000, 11:22

On March 23th I proposed to investigate these lyrics, you can see it in the topic list. Also in KF topic. At last someone thinks about it... Well, I love these investigations, I'm sure that together we will discover something. smile
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CarstenKuss Offline




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Posted: Dec. 01 2000, 16:46

Yes we will. But we must work hard.
The Boys Choir haven't replied (yet?).
I put the above stuff through the language identifier at www.onelook.com , and it said: CATALAN. Now where are the Spanish fans....? wink -Carsten-

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Archangel Foster Offline




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Posted: Dec. 01 2000, 20:18

Perhaps we should try to get all the guys here to send a message to the Boys' Choir? Would you perhaps post your request on this forum, Carsten, so that everyone can just copy/paste and send it - especially for those not fluent in the German tongue...
(We should ask them to send their reply to just one person, though - to you, Carsten? Or to Olivier?)
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CarstenKuss Offline




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Posted: Dec. 02 2000, 18:08

I'm afraid that won't help. I'm afraid they don't read their mail... frown

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Cipher Offline




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Posted: Dec. 04 2000, 07:13

BWA-HA-HA-HA!
Carsten, I'm catalan and you can be sure that the lyrics are not in catalan. Well, there's some words that, in the way they're written here, "qui" (who) "se" (reflexive pronoun)"requiem" (same)"me" (reflexive) "sa" (her/his with a female noun) "ni" (nor), but the text is nothing to do with catalan. Some words there exists also in spanish, but be sure that it's not in spanish...
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CarstenKuss Offline




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Posted: Dec. 04 2000, 14:26

Hi Cipher, so I gave you a big laugh without even intending to! Life is funny sometimes! However, it's probably not the language identifier software that's bad. It's probably my transcription. People from other countries should make transcriptions too, and let's see where that gets us... -Carsten-

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Korgscrew Offline




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Posted: Dec. 06 2000, 18:05

The line at the end sounds to me almost like 'Ne terra sum' or something like that (not that it necessarily makes any sense...).

Hard to say really...some of those words seem a bit unclear to me...I don't have much of a knowledge of Latin either...could end up being another case of lyrics that Mike has made up...or it could be genuine Latin...
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Labricole Offline




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Posted: May 05 2013, 01:56

From the day I listened to TKF for the first time, I have been convinced that the choir in Requiem for a City was singing in French. I remember being surprised by that the first time I heard this track, but it was obvious to me it was in French. It is my mother tongue, so I have no doubt. However, some parts have been more difficult to understand, because of the changes from male to female choir, the orchestral background, and also possibly because the german choir does not pronounce correctly certain words. However, I can clearly recognise three phrases, some of them being repeated throughout the song :

De ces gens-la
Qui reduira la terre en cendres
Quand le juge viendra

These phrases have a meaning, they talk about the earth being burned down to ashes, and when the judge will come, very much related to the subject of this movie. Since I could not recognize clearly the other phrases, I have been searching on the internet if this was not coming from some religious text, in the style of the apocalypse of St John, but I have been unsuccesful so far.
I also wondered why the lyrics would have been in French. I thought that it could have been David Bedford's choice, that he selected some sort of religious poem in relation with the apocalyptic subject of the movie, although I could not find which text it was. I still believe that it must have been some pre-existing text, I can't see why Mike or David would have decided to have some lyrics written in French especially for that track. The only other possible explanation with the choice of this language would be that Cambodia used to be part of Indochina, a French colony. In the TKF movie, French language is heard from time to time; for example, when Pran works as a servant and pretends to be an uneducated taxi driver, his master speaks French to him to uncover him as being an educated man.
I also looked in this Tubular.net forum, thinking that the complete lyrics would be available somewhere. I was surprised they were not. But I was even more surprised to read that people thought it was in Latin or Catalan, although they could not identify one single word of it. The suggested phonetic transcription is even worse, with suggested sounds far away from what I could clearly recognize when listening to the track. Anyway, I am interested in hearing reactions from the other members. I feel at least that I am suggesting  a rational explanation for these lyrics.
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Labricole Offline




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Posted: June 30 2013, 22:09

Since my initial findings, i made more search and I managed to progress a bit. I found that the lyrics are inspired from the Dies Irae or the Requiem from Mozart. I am now able to fully understand the first verse, which goes like this:

Jour de colere, que ce jour-la
Qui reduira la terre en cendre
Quelle terreur regnera
Quand le juge viendra

Rest of it is harder to understand. I was not able to find a text which matches exactly those words, and the pronounciation of this German choir is not perfect.
However, I will keep searching.

Let's hope that the day Mike will work on an expanded edition of TKF, more clues about the lyrics will be published in the liner notes.
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Philippe Tavares Offline




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Posted: July 01 2013, 11:05

It's really hard to understand even though i'm French !

yes the first verses are ok !! ;)
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Philippe Tavares Offline




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Posted: July 01 2013, 11:19

;) http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_Iræ_(poème)
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Labricole Offline




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Posted: Mar. 06 2021, 02:36

I listened again to this track Requiem for a city, and i decided to bring some slight corrections to the first verse. Here they are:
Jour de colère, que ce jour-là
Qui réduira la terre en cendres
Que la terreur régnera
Quand le juge viendra

The middle section sang by the male choir is much harder to understand, i think i can recognize some words like « vers le ciel » and « jusqu’a » but i am not sure. While comparing with each verse of the French translation from the Dies Irae, i have not been able to find any phrase that fits. Mind again that the German accent of this choir does not help. Also, the very last phrase of this song finishes with « la terre en cendres » but does not begin with « qui réduira ». It begins with something else that i cannot figure out. May be Philippe Tavares or any other French speaking fan could help ?

I initially thought that David Bedford was the lyrics writer since he is credited as the choral arranger. The record credits do not mention anything regarding the lyrics. I am not sure that David or Mike had enough skills in French to go through the challenging exercice of rewriting the translation of the Dies Irae and make it fit the melody Mike had written. At the time he composed this soundtrack, Mike was living in Villars-sur-Ollon in the Vaud canton, a French speaking area of Switzerland. I am thinking now that Mike rather asked a local inhabitant of Villars-sur-Ollon to help him complete that exercice. It would be interesting to ask Mike to confirm if such assumption is correct, identify who this person was, and also ask him to publish the complete lyrics if he has them written somewhere.
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