What do you see when a shooting star goes by?

Shooting Star? (Photo credit: deltaMike)

How often do you look up at the stars? Until recently, I used to work night shifts. I would get home sometimes at one or two o’clock in the morning, when it seemed like everyone else in the quiet, semi-rural suburb that I live in was fast asleep. Most lights were off, our street is not very well lit anyway, and as I walked up the side of the house, which is bathed in darkness, I couldn’t help noticing the night sky. I would stop, look up and be dazzled by what I saw. The stars are always so impressive away from the bright lights of a big city. In some big cities, apparently, there are children who have never seen a star.

The reason why I am blabbing on about stars is because recently I have been listening a lot to the song O Stea (A Star) by Deepcentral … if you are not familiar with them, here is an entry from ro.wikipedia.org, which is the Romanian version of Wikipedia:

Deepcentral (uneori scris DeepCentral sau Deep Central este o formație românească de muzică house și pop, înființată în anul 2009. Cel mai de succes single al lor este piesa „In Love”, ce s-a clasat pe locul 1 în Romanian Top 100.

The computer then asks if I want it to translate, and offers two options “Translate” or “Nope”. It’s funny that “nope” is used instead of a simple “no”, but there we go. I suppose the next generation of English speakers will say “nope” a lot. OK, let’s see the translation.

Deepcentral (sometimes spelled Deepcentral or Deep Central) is a band Romanian music house and pop , founded in 2009 . The most successful single of their song “In Love” , which was ranked No. 1 in Romanian Top 100 .

Well, that is not a very good translation, is it? But you get the gist. So, they are a Romanian band, but their first few singles were all in English. They had four Top 10 hits in Romania from 2009 to 2011, including the above-mentioned number one, In Love, which is here if you want to listen to it (I don’t care much for their English stuff because it sounds so much other English house/pop manufactured material). However, last year they changed direction somewhat with the release the lovely, solemn O Stea, sung in Romanian. Although it only made number 35 on the local chart, it got decent enough airplay. Here is a version from YouTube with the Romanian lyrics on it appearing as they are sung (there is also a translation at bottom of the post, plus a very nice piano cover and an acoustic guitar cover).

And here is the official video if you want to see Deepcentral in action…

For anyone who is interested in languages, here are the Romanian lyrics and an (awkward) English  translation from the website http://www.versuri.ro

Strofa 1:
Caut pe cer o stea, una doar a mea,
O cometă ce să-mi umple lipsa ta,
Numele tău să-i pun,
Să-i urez drum bun aşa cum n-am reuşit ţie să-ţi spun.

Verse 1:
Looking in the sky a star, one of my own,
a comet fills me your absence,
your name to ask,
to wish farewell as I failed to tell you.

Refren:
Te caut printre stele, alunec printre ele,
Aşteptând să te revăd până în zori,
De ce nu mi-ai spus oare că eşti stea căzătoare?
Pe al cui cer vei răsări, pe al meu sunt nori?

Chorus:
I’m looking for the stars, slip through them,
Waiting to see you until dawn
Why do not you tell me you’re really shooting star?
On whose heaven will rise, mine are clouds?

Post-refren:
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, o stea,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, a mea,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, o stea,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, a mea,
A mea.

Post-chorus:
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, a star,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, mine,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, a star,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, mine, mine.

Strofa 2:
Norii vin rând pe rând,
Rămân aşteptând cu speranţa că te voi zări cândva,
Fără tine am rămas, nu mai am nici glas,
Merg tăcut printre străini, maï fac un pas.

Verse 2:
Clouds come in turn,
Remain waiting in the hope that someday I will behold,
Without you I was, I have no voice,
I go silent among foreigners, a step.

This song has inspired a number of people to do covers of it on YouTube. Some of these people should have known better. But I rather like this one by a cool young pianist called Andrei Nastase.

This chap Marinel E also makes a decent fist of it on acoustic guitar, his vocals are on a par with the original, and he has even gone to the trouble of putting a big star on the screen of his computer.

Damn, I wish I had musical talent! I always come last in karaoke competitions. 🙂

Finally, here is something a bit more upbeat by Deepcentral, also in Romanian. It’s more in keeping with their usual style, I guess, but I like it too.

Related articles

• Languaging Issues (arundotcom.wordpress.com)
• Shooting Stars (qianhui99.wordpress.com)