The Gates Of Delirium comes to its finale! I invite you to comment on this entry and share your interpretation of “Soon” – a wonderful poem that may have many personal meanings for each of you…
Translations wanted – let’s write “Soon” in all languages of the world! A few guidelines:
- create a singable version with the original vocal melody.
- no need to translate word by word – be creative – write your own meaning.
- change the words as to flow naturally in your own language.
- back-translate into English – to explain your translation literally.
- Read other people’s comments – it will give you some ideas.
- If you are a native English-speaker, you can write by your own words your interpretation of “Soon”
A future video collaboration with your version of “Soon” can be arranged – to be discussed later.
Thank you very much!
Original (English version)
Soon oh soon the light
Pass within and soothe this endless night
And wait here for you
Our reason to be here
Soon oh soon the time
All we move to gain will reach and calm
Our heart is open
Our reason to be here
Long ago, set into rhyme
Soon oh soon the light
Ours to shape for all time, ours the right
The sun will lead us
Our reason to be here
Miguel Falcão (miguelbass) 
Скоро скоро светлината
ще влезе и ще облекчи безкрайната нощ
и ще те чака
смисълът да бъдем тук
скоро скоро време е
всички ние които дерзаем напред
ще достигнем заветната цел и ще се успокоим
сърцата ни са отворени
смисълът да бъдем тук
отдавна много отдавна в хармония
Скоро скоро светлината
наша ще даде облик завинаги наше е правото
слънцето ще ни води
смисълът да бъдем тук
Thank you Anelia for your Bulgarian version. Много благодаря :)
M
Miguel,
I wish I were talented enough to contribute something here!
– Robert
Robert, you *are* talented! I know you speak English as mother language so you won’t translate. If “Soon” inspires you enough to share with us your interpretation of its lyrics, just write it here. Have a nice weekend, my friend!
M
Hi,
I’m Italian and this is the translation I’ve done of “Soon” in my language:
Presto, oh presto la luce
Arrivera’ e plachera’ questa notte infinita
E ti aspettera’ qui
La nostra ragione di essere qui
Presto, oh presto il tempo
Tocchera’ e calmera’ i nostri desideri di guadagno
Il nostro cuore è aperto
La nostra ragione di essere qui
Tanto tempo fa, in una poesia
Presto, oh presto la luce
Potremo dargli forma per sempre, sara’ un nostro diritto
Il sole ci guidera’
La nostra ragione di essere qui
Presto, oh presto la luce
Potremo dargli forma per sempre, sara’ un nostro diritto
Il sole ci guidera’
La nostra ragione di essere qui
All the best,
Alessio.
Sounds beautiful, Alessio! Did you try to sing it yourself? Thank you very much your contribution – Grazie!
M
Miguel Alessio’s translation is really really good, but you can’t sing it. If you want I can try to make a musical version.
Hello Giuseppe,
All interpretations are welcome. As I said, it doesn’t have to be one per language. It is even better because there is more communication.
So my answer is – Yes!
M
Mig, és o máximo!!
Eu não vou contribuir para esta causa, mas não posso deixar de te pedir pra continuares com este teu trabalho.
Um abraço deu teu amigo.
Rick
Obrigado manasso – de qq maneira já contribuiste. Gd abraço!
M
Olá Miguel, here’s my rough translation to spanish -awesome video of yours btw!- ;)
“Pronto, oh pronto la luz
Atravesará y calmará esta noche sin fín
Y te esperará aquí a tí
nuestra razón de estar aquí.
Pronto, oh pronto el tiempo
Todo lo que movimos para adelantarnos llegará y calmará
Nuestro corazón está abierto
nuestra razón de estar aquí.
Hace tiempo, compuesto en un poema.
Pronto, oh pronto la luz
Nuestra para poder darle forma, nuestro será el derecho
El sol nos conducirá
nuestra razón de estar aquí.”
Be the light with all of you.
Hello Alex!
Sounds good to me! You know I’m thinking how it would be better in Portuguese and I’m stuck… Your translation is giving me some ideas, given the similarity we have in grammar.
Are you a speaker of some other Spanish language (I was thinking Catalan, maybe)
As I suggested to others, would you consider adapting your poem to be sung and fit in the melody?
Muchas gracias, amigo.
Um abraço.
Miguel
Thanks Miguel, making it singable, that’s the hardest part. I guess I could try with catalan, it might even sound more melodic and sweeter than in spanish. Ok, here it goes:
“Aviat, oh aviat la llum
Passarà i calmarà aquesta nit sense fí.
I t’esperarà a tú aquí mateix
la nostra raó d’estar aquí.
Aviat, oh aviat el temps
Tot allò que vam desitjar aprofitar arrivarà i ens calmarà.
El nostre cor està obert
La nostra raó d’estar aquí.
Temps ençà, fet en un poema.
Aviat, oh aviat la llum.
Nostra per poder donar-li forma, nostre serà el dret
El sol ens conduïrà
la nostra raó d’estar aquí.”
Well, I don’t think it’s very singable either :)
You know in fact, phonetically, Portuguese is actually closer to Catalan than Castilian itself.
The main trouble with our Romance grammar is that we use much more words (and longer) and it’s hard to fit on the same musical-syllabic space.
I am very sure that if I ever manage to put up a Portuguese version I will have to change sentences to make them shorter and try to keep just the meaning – hopefully.
Nonetheless, a well worthy effort :))
Thank you once more Alex, we are colouring the map!!!
Miguel
Hi Miguel!
Great videos, great playing, great idea!
Here is my (completely unpoetic) rough translation to Slovenian language (I am warning you – it is impossible to sing with original tune). As I see you are somewhat familiar with cyrillian letters (russian, bulgarian) – so here you also have two new letters for you: In our language we have a little roof (or “V”) on the top of certain “S” and “C” if your computer can read them. We pronounce them as “sch” and “ch”.
I must also confess that my english is too poor to understand the true meaning of Jon’s lyrics (I have read sometimes he also doesn’t :) since he used to compose stoned and on the basis of how the words sound, not what they mean.
Kmalu
Kmalu, oh kmalu bo svetloba
Prišla iz notranjosti in ublažila to neskončno noč
In tukaj bo čakala nate
Naš razlog, da smo tu
Kmalu oh kmalu bo čas
Ves naš pohlep bo pomirjen
Naše srce je odprto
Naš razlog da smo tu
Daleč nazaj je bil zapisan verz
Kmalu, oh kmalu bo svetloba
Da bi jo oblikovali ves čas, naša je pravica
Sonce naj nas vodi
Naš razlog da smo tu
Andrej
Dear Andrej,
That’s a wonderful surprise, thank you for your translation in Slovenian of “Soon”.
As a total stranger to your language (I can identify only some similar words to other Slavic languages), I must confess that, maybe like Jon also did, by listening the sound of your words, it must sound very beautiful in Slovenian.
Wouldn’t you like to try and sing it? Even if you have to adapt a bit of the lyrics to fit on the metric of the poem? Or, if you know of someone who would like to sing it, please write me and we’ll try to do a collaboration,
Thank you so much and best wishes from Portugal!
Miguel
Oh, just another note, I’m not very sure of the meaning of ‘all we move to gain’ in each of those translations that I’ve posted. I kind of made a direct translation of that.
That’s part of the whole discussion, where for sure some English speakers would help here :)
My interpretation (again) has changed over the last days… the way I look at it now would be… all our actions (we move to) towards our egoistic desires/selfishness (gain) will cease. This could mean the death of ego, the silence (calm) in our (open) heart.
Hope this will inspire you, Alex! Thanks :)
M
Wow, Miguel, the lyrics of the Gates becomes kinda Gospel – open for spiritual interpretations :) I also find it difficult to translate the sentence “All we move to gain will reach and calm”. I was thinking about “all we strive boldly after our goals will reach and calm”. Your interpretation above goes far beyond the words and fits much more into the pattern of the song.
Anelia,
The nature of Man’s mind is to have desires/goals, to strive after it, and once they are fulfilled there is a temporary feeling of satisfaction/pleasure. Once that feeling is gone we feel unsactisfacted, we need to fulfill other desires and so the story goes. That’s mind and ego. Only when we calm them and stop with the desire for pleasure, for our ego – then there will only be calmness and silence and will our heart be open and let the soul shine through. Well that’s my recent reading speaking here (Yogananda,Swami Vivekananda & Sri Chinmoy)
M
Zum-di-dum. I’ll promise you the finish version during year 2009. At the moment I’m a little bit too drunk, gotta check few words from dictionary even I know basically what Jon is singing in this song :)
Hi Ilkka,
That’s ok – take your time. Don’t worry too much about exact translation. It’s better to make it singable and keep the meaning of what it means to you, personally. Then you can back-translate to english and explain us your view :) BTW, this is a suggestion for all.
Miguel
I only speak English so I don’t have another translation to contribute here, but I wanted to say that I’ve enjoyed taking the time to ponder the meaning of this beautiful spiritual song and reading what others have had to say. Thank you Miguel for inviting me to your blog so that I could have the opportunity to realize how much I love this song :)
Dear Julie,
I’d love to hear how you feel the poem. As we start discovering, some passages can be subject of different personal interpretations. It’s up to you to tell us if you feel you have something to share. In any case, it’s great to have your visit and to know you enjoyed reading everybody’s contributions. Thanks!
Miguel
By the way Miguel, I’m the same guy who has commented few times at your youtube sibe under the nickname “wolandoes”.
Just to make it clear I’m not talking to you first time :)
Pian oi pian valo
pääsee sisälle ja poistaa tämän loputtoman yön
Ja odottaa siellä sinua varten
Syyhymme olla täällä
Pian oi pian aika
Kaikki yrityksemme saavuttaa rauha
Sydämemme on avoin
Syyhymme olla täällä
Kauan sitten, jo osana laulua
Pian oi pian valomme
Muotoilee sen mihin oikeutemme on
Aurinko johtaa meidät
Syyhymme olla täällä
This is VERY VERY raw translation with help of google translator. The main problem is that I (to be honest) can’t catch what Jon is really after to within that english version. I need someone who speaks english as his/her mother-tongue to explain that text to me before I’m able to really translate that to my mother-tongue. This version is simple “lucky guess” so don’t shoot the messenger guys ;)
This is better translation (with a little help of my friends…):
Pian, oi pian Valo
syttyy sisällämme ja liennyttää tätä
loputonta yötä
Ja odottaa sinua siellä
– Syymme olla täällä
Pian, oi pian on aika
Kaikki mitä kuljemme saavuttaaksemme, saavutamme ja rauhoitumme
Sydämemme on avoinna
– Syymme olla täällä
Kauan sitten, riimitettynä
Pian oi pian Valo
meidän muovattavamme kaikiksi ajoiksi, meidän oikeutemme
Aurinko johtaa meitä
– Syymme olla täällä
Pian oi pian Valo
meidän muovattavamme kaikiksi ajoiksi, meidän oikeutemme
Aurinko johtaa meitä
– Syymme olla täällä
Sounds very poetic :) Which language is this? Excuse my ignorance, but it would be interesting to know.
This was finnish translation made by web person called “Ruukinmatruuna”. I asked her help cause I noticed I didn’t catch what Jon was meaning with his words. I made raw translation earlier but this is much better.
Finnish language is spoken by finnish people who lives in Finland, one of the Scandinavian countries :)
Thank you Ilkka :) I know about Finland :) and something about the Finnish people :) One of my favorite books was by a Finnish author Martti Larni – i just found in google the title in Finnish: “Kaunis sikopaimen eli Talousneuvos Minna Karlsson-Kanasen muistelmia” was old but still funny :))
Never heard that one, gotta check this one out :) By the way Anelie, which country, which nationality, which mother-tongue? ;)
Well I checked out of that Larni, you gotta be from some Eastern European country then, he’s not that popular in Finland I noticed. Interesting story about him in finnish wikipedia, gotta say that :)
Hi Ilkka! Our friend Anelia is from Bulgaria. You can see her first translation right at the top of the thread :) Thank you once more for your translation upgrade! Any chances of finding a voice to sing it? :)
Good night!
M
Well Miguel, I could sing that partly but I’m not THAT good singer :)
If any falsetto singer comes around I’ll let you know.
What kinda weather there is next month, I have few days holidays to spend (24-29.11), never been in Portugal, can you recommend Portugal in November to anybody..?
Hello, Miguel,
Here is the French translation,
For your beautiful initiative! :)
———————————————-
Bientôt, oh bientôt la lumière,
Viendra et assoupira cette nuit infinie,
Et elle t’attendra ici
La raison d’être ici.
Bientôt, oh bientôt, le temps viendra
Nous allons atteindre l’ultime but de paix
Notre cœur est ouvert,
La raison d’être ici.
Il y a longtemps, entré dans la rime.
Bientôt, oh bientôt la lumière,
Qui est notre, pour que nous lui donnions forme
A nous le droit
Le soleil va nous guider
Notre sens d’être ici.
Here is the Norwegian version of “soon”:
Snart åh snart kommer lyset
passerer gjennom og lindrer i denne endeløse natt
og venter her for deg
vår grunn til å være her
Snart å snart kommer tiden
da vår drift til mål vil nå frem og bero
hjerte vårt er åpent
vår grunn til å være her
lange siden, sett i rim
Snart å snart kommer lyset
vårt rett til å forme i all tid
sola vil alltid lede oss
vår grunn til å være her
sola vil lede oss
vår grunn til å være her
Some comment about this song. I live 300km north to the polar circle, which means that we are going into the darkness period. We will miss the sun in about 2 weeks, and will not see the sun until the middle of February!!
So, what can I say, soon we who lives here in the north will say:Soon oh soon the light
Pass within and soothe this endless night.
Hi,
I recently stumbled across your site & works. Very nice!
Anelia brought up spiritual. To me, many of Jon’s songs [both solo & group efforts], have a religious/spiritual aspect to them. Perhaps depending on your religion, it may be interpreted differently. That’s what’s so cool about music, it can speak directly to you and you can make it your own. A song does not have just one meaning, it has as many meanings as the number of people that listen to it.
Soon is one of my favorite songs. I’ll be looking at this song thru the eyes of a Christian, since that is my religion. I would love to see this thru the eyes of other religions.
Of course, this is only my interpretation of it, not all Christians.
Consider this when reading/listening: Light = God or Jesus Christ
Soon oh soon the light
Pass within and soothe this endless night
And wait here for you
Our reason to be here
———
We are here, to accept God’s love, His presence, His grace. When our lives are in turmoil, we are at war with ourselves, our loved ones, we long for the “Light’ to pass within and help us put things at peace.
———
Soon oh soon the time
All we move to gain will reach and calm
Our heart is open
Our reason to be here
———
We try to further our thoughts, words and actions to be more Christ-like or God like. To love ourselves and others as much as God loves us, and then show that love to the world. We know that we has humans can never be God, yet our hearts are open to absorb or gain as much of God’s love so we can be at peace and love.
———
Long ago, set into rhyme
Soon oh soon the light
Ours to shape for all time, ours the right
The sun will lead us
Our reason to be here
———
God gives His love and grace to us freely. It’s ours, it’s our right. We can take that love and shape in an infinite number of ways.
Knowing that Jon often uses the sound of words, I chose to replace the word sun with Son. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, will lead us.
———
Wow – what an interesting experience. I’ve never really sat down and thought it in that way. Thanks!
Al
Dear Al,
Thanks for stopping by and give us your thoughts about Soon.
I read it – I think it’s not an relevant to agree or not. When I tried to make my own “decoding” of Jon’s message for the first time I had a different perspective.
Learning a bit about meditation changed, of course, my perspective. Many words that I thought to be abstract and dreamy now have a very concise meaning.
The beauty then resides in the fact that we all have a different interpretation, and a dynamic one. Even so, I think the essence is one, despite our varied interpretations.
It was great that you took the time to share your version! Thank you very much.
Miguel
Hello Miguel, this is the serbian translation of your song, written in cyrilic alphabet!
(You should actually thank Ved (from Croatia), she told me about your song)
Ускоро о ускоро ће светлост
Проћи и умирити ову бескрајну ноћ
И чекаће на тебе
Наш разлог што смо ту
Ускоро о ускоро време
Све за чим тежимо ће достићи и умирити
Срце нам је отворено
Наш разлог што смо ту
Одавно, уписано у стих
Ускоро о ускоро ће светлост
Наша да обликује време, наше право
Сунце ће нас водити
Наш разлог што смо ту
Dear Mire,
Thank you very much for your translation in Serbian! I see you have certain Cyrillic characters that are maybe exclusive Serbian :) Cool.
Do you mix it with Latin? Ex: бескрајну seems to have a Latin “j”.
I already know a bit of Slavic languages so I could follow your version and understand some bits by analogy with other brother Slavic languages. “Sounds” beautiful to my ears, although I would love to actually hear the words. Again, if you know of someone who would be interested in doing a sung version of (or adapted from) your translation, please let me know!
Thank you very much! Now let’s hear from Ved! (Thank you Ved!)
M
Olá amigo! :-)
Here I am with my version in croatian!
Hope you will like it!
I must say that I like your work! Well done man!!!!!
Uskoro o uskoro svjetlo
Prolazi i umiruje ovu beskrajnu noć
I čeka te ovdje
Naš razlog da budemo tu
Uskoro o uskoro vrijeme
Sve za čime čeznemo će doseći i smiriti
Srce nam je otvoreno
Naš razlog da budemo tu
Davno, pretočeno u rimu
Uskoro o uskoro svjetlo
Naše da ga oblikujemo za sva vremena, naše pravo
Sunce će nas voditi
Naš razlog da budemo tu
Olá amiga! Thank you very much! We’re filling the map together!!! I’m glad you like the clips and the music :)) Um abraço! Miguel
hi guy, I recently discovered your work and i´m very excited with. i’d like to show you me playing Soon in my wedding with my steel guitar made by myself.
Thank you
Olá Eugénio. O meu nome é Miguel e sou de Portugal. O Guy é um amigo que escreve da Noruega “dukered21”. Já vi o teu video e comentei! Um abraço!
I just want to thank you, Miguel. I’ve been a Yes fan since you were born, and it is a delight to listen and watch your videos. You obviously love the music as much as I do (and can play it better than I ever will). I hope you’re also in a band where a live audience can hear and appreciate your talent.
Hello Randy. Thank you very much for your kind words. I am playing in some bands, non-professional, here in Portugal. Although in different musical registers, I will share some of that work soon. All the best! Miguel
Jon explains a bit about the meaning of Soon and the Light in this video. It’s from one of his solo shows last year.