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I'm trying to translate a poem from English to German, and the "missing line" is:

"I've heard some talk, they say you think I'm fine."

I've rendered "They say you think I'm fine" as "Man sagt du liebst auch mich."

But I need something for "I've heard some talk." Could I use a construction using the word "Gerucht?"

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I've corrected the German title of your question. In German there is no title case. – splattne♦ Jun 13 '11 at 21:16
@splattne: Good to know. Danke. – Tom Au Jun 13 '11 at 21:37

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

My proposal:

Es gibt Gerüchte, ...

or

Ich hab davon gehört, ...

An elegant translation for "they say" is "es heißt":

Es heißt, du glaubst es gehe mir gut.

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@splattne: I thought so. But I had just learned the word "Geruchte," two days ago on this site, and wasn't sure how to use it. Thanks. It now reads..."Es gibt Gerucht', Man sagt du liebst auch mich." – Tom Au Jun 13 '11 at 21:21
But "du liebst mich" means "you love me"; that's quite different than "you think I'm fine", isn't it? Or is it dichterische Freiheit (poetic license)? – splattne♦ Jun 13 '11 at 21:26
@splattne: Poetic license. Actually, the slang, "You think I'm fine" is an understated, but parallel construction to "This guy's in love with you" in the song. In another translation, I translated You are my life, my love, my all," as "Du bist mein Leben, meine Liebe, mein SCHATZ." (But the previous line was Sommer und Fruhling, Winter und Herbst.) I thought Schatz rhymed better with Herst, than "alle," as well as being more "German." – Tom Au Jun 13 '11 at 21:31
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@Tom: And you also can't leave away the dots over the "ü" of "Gerüchte". They are not just some adornment to the "u", it's really so that "ü" is a different letter. I can guess that it's non-trivial to get an "ü" on your keyboard, but see this meta post: Wie schreibt man Umlaute und scharfes S auf nichtdeutschen Tastaturen? – Hendrik Vogt Jun 14 '11 at 6:23
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@thei Gerüchte does not necessarily have negative touch. For example: "Es gibt Gerüchte, dass im Herbst das neue iPhone erscheinen wird." Though I agree that it's not the most beautiful word to use in a poem. – splattne♦ Jun 14 '11 at 7:05
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