My Lion King Forum

We wouldn't happen to have any Swahili speakers/people familiar enough with the language on the forum to translate the lyrics to the song, would we? It doesn't help much that I have yet to see any lyrics being posted on any websites like has been done for the other movies (at least the first two), and it seems like most Swahili-to-English translators are a lot more inconsistent than Zulu/Xhosa translations, which I actually find pretty surprising.

Completely random side note; if you listen closely, you can hear someone shifting in their squeaky chair about 30 seconds into the piece when the French horns start playing. This is why I always prefer to play standing up.

sorry I'm no help, but wanted to drop in and say I've really been longing for this too!

Same! It's such a shame it isn't subtitled. Kids could totally sing along to it if they had a little direction.

I ordered a songbook with sheet music for a bunch of the songs. It should be here on Sunday. They usually have lyrics on them. We shall see.

[quote="HasiraKali"]I ordered a songbook with sheet music for a bunch of the songs. It should be here on Sunday. They usually have lyrics on them. We shall see.[/quote]
If it's the one I'm thinking of, I can confirm it has the lyrics. One of the Lion Guard wiki members added the first page of lyrics from it. Still not sure if it's the long version or the TV version lyrics, though

Link to sample sheet!

[quote="SimbaPrescott"][quote="HasiraKali"]I ordered a songbook with sheet music for a bunch of the songs. It should be here on Sunday. They usually have lyrics on them. We shall see.[/quote]
If it's the one I'm thinking of, I can confirm it has the lyrics. One of the Lion Guard wiki members added the first page of lyrics from it. Still not sure if it's the long version or the TV version lyrics, though

Link to sample sheet![/quote]

This is for the TV version. The translation websites are failing me yet again, but it's cool to have at least some of the words up so I can properly pronounce them when I start singing to myself...

So, Hasira, anything more from the songbook? I too would love to know the words!

So I was able to ask a friend from Kenya if she could translate it, and she tried her best, though the sound mixing is such that a lot of the words get muddled and too hard to make out. Here's what she was able to hear from the full version, from the beginning (note that this is more of a rough translation, and occasionally there's a repeated syllable (RS)):

Na simba kulindana (16x) = "And lions to protect one another"

Njoo wamama kumbe, kumbe = "Come mothers lo, lo"
Njoo wamama tuimbe, tuimbe = "Come mothers sing, sing"
Mama kumbe = "Truly truly" or "It is true"
Kweli kweli, mama kumbe = "Really really, (it is true/truly truly)"
Kweli, kweli, kweli = "Really, really, really"

Njoo wamama kumbe, kumbe = "Come mothers lo, lo"
Njoo wamama tuimbe, tuimbe = "Come mothers sing, sing"
Tutazame -zame -zame = "Let us observe" ("-zame" is just a repeated syllable)
Tutazame -zame -zame = "Let us observe"
[unclear word]

[unclear lyrics here]
[unclear lyrics here]
[unclear lyrics here]
Zama zama = "Era era"

Tusaidie sisiwe = "Help us we, we"
Tusaidie sisiwe = "Help us we, we"
Tusaidie sisiwe = "Help us we, we"
Zama zama [RS] = "Era era [RS]"

The middle section after that gets too blurred for her to make out individual words. The clapping breakdown section is a repeat of the first part:

Njoo wamama kumbe, kumbe = "Come mothers lo, lo"
Njoo wamama tuimbe, tuimbe = "Come mothers sing, sing"
Mama kumbe = "Truly truly" or "It is true"
Kweli kweli, mama kumbe = "Really really, (it is true/truly truly)"
Kweli, kweli, kweli = "Really, really, really"

Repeated, with interjected words and syllables

Njoo wamama kumbe, kumbe = "Come mothers lo, lo"
Njoo wamama tuimbe, tuimbe = "Come mothers sing, sing"
Tutazame -zame -zame = "Let us observe" ("-zame" is just a repeated syllable)
Tutazame -zame -zame = "Let us observe"
[unclear word]

[unclear lyrics here]
[unclear lyrics here]
[unclear lyrics here]
Na simba kulindana = "And lions to protect one another"

The bridge and the main theme here is too blurry, but the very last part of the song is a repeat of the previos section just before the bridge.

[unclear lyrics here]
[unclear lyrics here]
[unclear lyrics here]
Na simba kulindana = "And lions to protect one another"

Like I said, some parts of the song are too cluttered to make out the required syllables needed to properly translate the whole thing, but if she or someone else is ever able to pick up on it, I'll update them here.

Update 1: Added the line "Na simba kulindana" and its associated stanzas, currently still undeciphered.

It sounds like, just like the circle of life, for the non-english vocals they chose ones that flowed well over being meaningful or making sense.

Ha, I don't think the non-English vocals in any of the films' big scores really directly described the story itself. They always kinda danced around or played into some deeper theme with their more poetic meanings, but they never seem to address the actual story in the way that a 'proper' musical number would. I kinda like that, actually.

I'm very curious to see if I can get my other Swahili-speaking friend's feedback on it; she's from Tanzania, and apparently the Swahili spoken there is more "proper" than the Kenyan version, so we might get some slightly more meaningful literal translations, assuming that Sarah Mirza was working based on Tanzanian Swahili as opposed to Kenyan Swahili. Might also help with deciphering the words in the more instrument-heavy sections; a lot of African languages rely on various intonations and ways of pronouncing non-vowel sounds, so obscuring that with a lot of instrumental stuff makes it difficult for even native speakers to clearly pick up on what's being said.

Really wonder why Disney doesn't at least provide lyrics when they do songs in non-Western European languages.