Template:Verse translation

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Usage

This template may be used when a verse text in its original language and its translation into English are to be displayed together. It displays the original text in italics and the translation in roman. Optionally it displays attributions for each text below. The main parameter set is: {{Verse translation|original text|translation|attr1=original text attribution|attr2=translation attribution}}

Minimal example

The first 2 parameters are required, unlabelled, and hold the 2 texts. The following code:

{{Verse translation|
Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
'''Bist du sicher?'''
|
No, that's why I need this translation.
I <u>think</u> I would know.}}

...generates this display:

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Bist du sicher?

No, that's why I need this translation.
I think I would know.

While |lang=de is omitted from this minimal example, the |lang= parameter should be specified in normal use.

Line breaks in the code texts are preserved in the display. Extra markup like <br> is not required, but will also be displayed, if included. As shown below, correctly formatted inline references can also be added to both texts.

Full example

|attr1= and |attr2= are optional, must be labelled, and do not preserve line breaks in the code. They are meant to contain the attributions for (1) the original text and (2) the translation. Either, both, or neither may be used. Their content will be displayed preceded by a dash and in slightly reduced text. These texts do not wrap automatically; if wrapping is required <br> can be used, as below. Also optional (though recommended by Manual of Style accessibility guidelines) is |lang=, which takes an IETF language tag or ISO 639 language code in the same format as {{lang}}.

The following code:

{{Verse translation |lang=es |
¿Qué es la vida? — Una ilusión,
Una sombra, una ficción,
Y el mayor bien es pequeño;
Que toda la vida es sueño,
Y los sueños sueño son.<ref>{{cite book |title=La vida es sueño |last=Calderón de la Barca |first=Pedro |author-link=Pedro Calderón de la Barca |editor-last=Comfort |editor-first=William Wistar |location=New York |publisher=American Book Company |date=1904 |page=104 |url=https://archive.org/details/lavidaessueo00comfgoog }}</ref>
|
What is life? A thing that seems,
A mirage that falsely gleams,
Phantom joy, delusive rest,
Since is life a dream at best,
And even dreams themselves are dreams.<ref>''Calderon's Dramas'', pp. 78–79. London: Henry S. King & Co., 1873.</ref>|
attr1=Calderón: ''{{lang|es|La vida es sueño}}''<br/>Act II, Scene 19, lines 1197–1201
|attr2=[[Denis Florence Mac-Carthy]]
}}

...generates this display:

¿Qué es la vida? — Una ilusión,
Una sombra, una ficción,
Y el mayor bien es pequeño;
Que toda la vida es sueño,
Y los sueños sueño son.[1]

What is life? A thing that seems,
A mirage that falsely gleams,
Phantom joy, delusive rest,
Since is life a dream at best,
And even dreams themselves are dreams.[2]

—Calderón: La vida es sueño
Act II, Scene 19, lines 1197–1201 —Denis Florence Mac-Carthy

References

Notice that in this second case, as in the first, the separator | is placed at the end of the final line of the translation text, even though <ref>...</ref> intervenes.

Italic override

If |italicsoff= is set to any value, the 1st-column italics are turned off. This is useful for original texts in non-Latin scripts, for which italics may be neither useful nor appropriate:

{{Verse translation |lang=ka |italicsoff=y |
მელნად ვიხმარე გიშრის ტბა და კალმად მე ნა რხეული,
ვინცა ისმინოს, დაესვას ლახვარი გულსა ხეული.
|attr1=[[Shota Rustaveli]]: from ''[[The Knight in the Panther's Skin]]''|
For ink I have used a lake of jet, and for pen a pliant crystal.
Whoever hears, a jagged spear will pierce his heart.}}

მელნად ვიხმარე გიშრის ტბა და კალმად მე ნა რხეული,
ვინცა ისმინოს, დაესვას ლახვარი გულსა ხეული.

For ink I have used a lake of jet, and for pen a pliant crystal.
Whoever hears, a jagged spear will pierce his heart.

—Shota Rustaveli: from The Knight in the Panther's Skin

Right-to-left text

If |rtl1= is set to any value, the 1st-column text is aligned right. This is useful for original texts in languages like Arabic, as exemplified below:

{{Verse translation |lang=ar |italicsoff=y |rtl1=y |
خل الذنوب صغيرهاو كبيرها ذاك التقى
و اصنع كماش فوق أرض الشوك يحذر ما يرى
لا تحقرن صغيرةً إن الجبال من الحصى
|
Abandon sins, big and small – that is Tawqa
And be like the one who walks on a thorny path, he is cautious of what he sees
Do not belittle the small sins; truly mountains are made from pebbles}}

خل الذنوب صغيرهاو كبيرها ذاك التقى
و اصنع كماش فوق أرض الشوك يحذر ما يرى
لا تحقرن صغيرةً إن الجبال من الحصى

Abandon sins, big and small – that is Tawqa
And be like the one who walks on a thorny path, he is cautious of what he sees
Do not belittle the small sins; truly mountains are made from pebbles

Tips

Special characters

As with many other templates, if the characters = or | appear in the verse texts, they will break the template's display. The easiest solution is to replace them with {{=}} or {{!}} respectively.

Language markup

The |lang= parameter covers the first block of text in this template. It is good practice to enclose any other non-English text, such as in |attr1=, in the {{Lang}} template.

Indentation

The indentation provided automatically in this template is approximately equal to:

<blockquote>''Text.''</blockquote>, displaying

Text.

...or... <poem style="margin-left: 3em; font-style:italic">Text.</poem>, displaying

Text.

Prose

Although optimized for verse, the template works equally well for prose:

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt. Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen, a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit. Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae, propterea quod a cultu atque humanitate provinciae longissime absunt, minimeque ad eos mercatores saepe commeant atque ea quae ad effeminandos animos pertinent important, proximique sunt Germanis, qui trans Rhenum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt. Qua de causa Helvetii quoque reliquos Gallos virtute praecedunt, quod fere cotidianis proeliis cum Germanis contendunt, cum aut suis finibus eos prohibent aut ipsi in eorum finibus bellum gerunt.

All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani; the Marne and the Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilization and refinement of [our] Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valor, as they contend with the Germans in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers.

—Gaius Julius Caesar, Commentarii de bello Gallico 1.1 —translated by W.A. McDevitte and W.S. Bohn

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