Lost in Translation Vol. 8 REVEALED

Lost in Translation is back with the answer to this week's song! Yet again, for the fourth week in a row, we had another winner!!

It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon here in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and my wife and I have now been in our new home for three days. The last ten days have been a whirlwind of shopping, unpacking, and moving in. While there’s still a lot left to do, we do at least now have some semblance of order. We have sofas and beds (mattresses on the floor), plates, cutlery and a coffee maker and, perhaps most importantly, a beautiful new hi-fi system. The view from my office in the new house is, to use the typically British art of understatement is . . . not bad!

I feel like my Substack has really over suffered these last couple months of travel, hiking, and moving in to the new place; new posts have almost exclusively been limited to the Lost in Translation series, and updates have been intermittent and not on a regular schedule (hence, this update being a day “late” for the second week in a row). But such is life! Now that we’re a little more settled at the new house, we can begin to establish some new routines and I expect Joy in the Journey to benefit immensely. Thanks for your patience over the course of 2025 so far—we’ll be back to more regular programming shortly!

And now what you’ve been waiting for! It’s time to provide the answer to Monday’s Lost in Translation.

The Translated Lyric

Here’s the lyric I provided:

Perhaps this latest study is meant to confirm a lifelong claim.

Violence leads to nothing, nothing happens.

To all those who were born under hatred

Let us never forget how weak we are.

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The Original Lyric

And here’s the original lyric as it was before being passed through half a dozen languages:

Perhaps this final act was meant to clinch a lifetime's argument

That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could

For all those born beneath an angry star

Lest we forget how fragile we are.

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The Song

I was sure that this week’s song would be a stumper and that nobody would be able to guess the track. While it’s from a popular, well known and well-established artist, I’ve always considered it to be a bit of a deeper cut given that it didn’t see any significant chart success (number 1 in Poland, 11 in Belgium, 12 in the Netherlands; failed to chart in the US). But Dave Purcell, who says he’s “usually totally clueless” when it comes to the songs in this series, chimed in with the correct answer within hours of the post being published. Thankfully he provided a little clarity around how the answer came to him: “Your fourth line made me think of it and then I remembered his violence line in line 2”. In the timeless words of Bill and Ted, “most excellent!” and well done to Dave. It seems that my quest to stump readers of this series will have to extend by at least another week!

For those that didn’t see Dave’s answer in the comments, or weren’t able to guess the song, the lyric comes from the Sting song “Fragile” from his second solo album, 1987’s Nothing Like The Sun. Here’s the video of the song, cued up at the start of the lyric:

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Feel free to jump into the comments with your thoughts:

• How did you do? Were you close? Or completely stumped?

• Did you know this song already?

• Would you have been able to name the song from the original lyrics?

We’ll see you again on Monday with a new installment of Lost in Translation. Until then, happy listening!!