Part of Ascensus Casusque Sigii Sidorum et Aranearum Martis, a project to translate Ziggy Stardust into Latin
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It Ain't Easy
by David Bowie
When you climb to the top of the mountain
Look out over the sea
Think about the places perhaps where a young man could be
Then you jump back down to the rooftops
Look out over the town
Think about all of the strange things circulating round
It ain't easy, it ain't easy
It ain't easy to get to Heaven when you're going down
Well, all the people have got their problems
That ain't nothing new
With the help of the good Lord
We can all pull on through
We can all pull on through
Get there in the end
Sometimes it'll take you right up and sometimes down again
It ain't easy, it ain't easy
It ain't easy to get to Heaven when you're going down
Satisfaction, satisfaction
Keep me satisfied
I've got the love of a Hoochie-Koochie woman
She calling from inside
She's a-calling from inside
Trying to get to you
All the woman really wants you can give her something too
It ain't easy, it ain't easy
It ain't easy to get to Heaven when you're going down
It ain't easy, it ain't easy
It ain't easy to get to Heaven when you're going down
Non Facile Est
ab D. Bovio
Cum scandente ad apicis montis
Super aequorem vide
Forte locorum ubi iuvenis sit revolve
In tectis inde salis
Superque urbem vides
De insolutis circulantis in mente agita
Non facile est, non facile est
Non facile est eundum Caelo dum delabere
Hem, omnia dolores habent
Illud non est novum
Cum auxilio Dei boni
Possumus survivere
Possumus survivere
Ibi in exitu advenient
Modo te sursum recta fert, modo te deorsum rursus fert
Non facile est, non facile est
Non facile est eundum Caelo dum delabere
Compensatio, compensatio
Satisfactum maneam
Amorem Huchiae-Kuchiae habeo
Ex interiore parte vocat
Ex interiore parte vocat
Ad te nititur pertinere
Omnia quae eget aliusque potes dare
Non facile est, non facile est
Non facile est eundum Caelo dum delabere
Non facile est, non facile est
Non facile est eundum Caelo dum delabere
Translation notes
Not many troubles with this one. I spent a fair bit of time trying to match the rhythm of the song in some lines — I don't like having it too far out of whack with the original song, so I had to play with some lines. This is noticable especially in lines 6 and 15.
I had a bit of trouble with the line "I've got the love of a Hoochie-Koochie woman." What I decided to do was assume that Hoochie-Koochie came from the Greek (which could have had the "ch" in a word) and find a Romanized version as the Romans would have. So a Hoochie-Koochie woman is a "Huchia-Kuchia."
I also had a lot of trouble with line 24 — "All the woman really wants you can give her something too." What does this even mean? I didn't want to use a literal translation, as that would have made no sense at all. I ended up deciding that Bowie may or may not have meant "All the things woman wants, you can give her, and something else too," which is as good as anything, I suppose.