Lyric Writing Help

[Linguanaut]

Okay, first a little background on my situation:

My best friend Zak's older brother, Adam is getting married to his fiancée, Rachel, in a year. She really does not like her family's social views, as they are very Catholic (she calls her father "The Überpope"). Rachel is from Ireland and most of her family speaks Irish Gaelic as their first language. Her family recently found out that I dated Adam's younger brother for a while, and were furious, albeit, passive-aggressively, that she would marry into a family that accepts homosexuality. She came up with the idea that she wants Zak and I to sing the song, "Londonderry Air" (A.K.A. Danny Boy) in Irish Gaelic at the reception. However, she and Adam say that it would be really funny for them if we changed the lyrics completely. They want us to sing a romantic, mildly sexually explicit, homoerotic version of the song. Rachel doesn't speak much Gaelic so she can't translate. That isn't my problem. My problem is that I'm suffering from the world's worst case of writer's block and can't think of anything that isn't either stupid or too graphic and nobody seems to want to help. I don't need a translator, as I found one, so I just need help with English lyrics, and my translator will make it fit to the song. I have the opening line in Irish already, "A Rún mo Chroí" which can mean something along the lines of "My Love." it's a bit different when I can remember the exact translation, but I'm using my iPhone to post this and I'm too lazy to look it up.

So, any ideas?

[princealbertofb]

Well, my opinion, Linguanaut, is that no translation that is done through a computer translation will be accurate or even mean anything. So if you don't speak Gaelic yourself, I wouldn't even venture there. You really need a human person who speaks the language to tell you if what you have found (as far as ideas go) is meaningful or not... You'll also want to avoid ambiguity (if not meant) and approximations. This is a very difficult task, it seems, for anyone who isn't a translator. What would sound good in Gaelic would probably not come out of an electronic translator, however good it is. You'd need rhyme and scansion and whatever it takes to make a song "listenable" to. So first you need to find ideas that are, as you said, midly homoerotic but not foul language, and then you need someone competent to help you word these in the target language... Next, you need to learn how to pronounce or sing the song... wow! What an undertaking!! Good luck.

[princealbertofb]

Ok... that said, just to be helpful with the writer's block...
* What are the events that might lead to confrontation in this homophobic family?...
* What ideas about gay love would you like to convery?
* How would you like to show them that gays are just normal people with normal feelings? And not a threat to their own identity and beliefs?
* How do you want to mingle the Christian message of "love thy neighbour as thyself" in that song too?
* Are there any funny events or truths, or anecdotes that you could see happening in the future? Or that have happened in the past?
* Are there any things in this situation that could be cause for a good laugh or joke or cause for alarm? -- something to do with irony (when there's a group that knows and a group that doesn't realise (yet)?

If you give us a few pointers, then we might be able to imagine some funny situations in which gay sexuality and mentality may be made into a song of humour and light deprecation of homophobia.

[Linguanaut]

Well, first, I have a human translator, I speak two languages fluently I'm majoring in a third and teaching myself a fourth and a fifth, in doing so, I have come to the conclusion that Machine translation is essentially useless. Ok, second, I think I just want to convey the feelings one man can have for another when in a loving, passionate relationship, but I'm having a boatload of trouble with every aspect of that. Everything I think of sounds so clichéd and cheesy, and that's what led me to get stuck. I couldn't think of any good ways to put it into words.

[princealbertofb]

You could use the words of a poet, maybe... and un-cliché that? Try Shakespeare or Walt Whitman? Difficult to translate though... Actually, I'd go with the clichés and give them a humourous twist... cheesy could be a good beginning for a joke. Force the trait and you've got a caricature.

[marshlander]

I'm wondering why you need to change the lyrics at all. The very notion of two men singing this song to each other would have enough potential for either passion or humour, depending on the performance.

Personally I have always disliked this song as horribly sentimental, but a London Derrière obviously holds attractions for some ...