Afrikaans translation, please!

[alexUK]

My girlfriend is in the USA, she is South African. I had to move back to the UK for 9 months to finish school. I would love to send her an email in Afrikaans - i know it will make her smile. I'm heading out to South Africa with her at christmas but till then i wont get to see her.
Please help and translate this or a version of this text, you may have to excuse the content..it comes out of an unhappy man. :

Since i have gone i have been feeling hollow. Leaving you seems like the most painful situation i have been in. Even though I know we will see each other again soon it is still too far away.
I need you to be myself, i though we were seperate people but you were right, our souls have been tied. I dont feel the same, i feel like i cant smile properly, or laugh normally, it hurts my mouth when i am smiling because i know its not the real thing. I am aching for you to hold me, and its hurting so much. The more i think about you the harder it gets, but trying to forget you is even harder and doesnt seem like the right thing to do. I love you so much. Life throws things at you once in a while and it knocks you back,i know we can get through it because i actually think i can still feel your heart from over here.
Having said all of that, no words can describe how i feel.

- Thanks youy very much if you decide to help me. I appreciate it more than you csn imagin!

[liza81]

Alex, firstly welcome to our site (your one stop for all your afrikaans translation needs ) and secondly, snaps on your unsurpassable taste in women!

Vandat ek weg gegaan het voel ek leeg. Om weg van jou af te gegaan het, het soos die pynvolste situasie waarin ek al ooit was gevoel. Selfs al weet ek dat ons mekaar binnekort weer gaan sien is dit nog steeds te ver.
Ek het dit nodig dat jy ek moet wees. Ek het gedink dat ons twee aparte mense was maar jy was reg, ons siele het een geword. Ek voel nie dieselfde nie, ek voel asof ek nie behoorlik kan glimlag nie, asof ek nie normaalweg kan lag nie. Dit maak my mond seer as ek glimlag omdat ek weet dis nie eg nie. Ek wil so graag hê dat jy my weer moet vashou dat dit seer is. Hoe meer ek aan jou dink, hoe moeiliker word dit, maar om te probeer om jou te vergeet is selfs moeiliker en ek voel nie asof dit die regte ding is om te doen nie. Ek is so lief vir jou. Die lewe gooi elke af en toe dinge jou kant toe wat jou hard tref, ek weet ons kan dit oorleef want ek dink regtig dat ek nogsteeds jou hart kan voel selfs is ek so ver. Nou dat ek al hierdie woorde geskryf het moet ek sê dat geen worde kan beskryf hoe ek voel nie.

There you go - it's a bit of a loose translation. I stuck as close to your original meaning as I possible can early in the morning before my cup of coffee.

If any of the other Afrikanertjies would like to correct/suggest something else - please don't hesitate. I mean, the guy is paying good money for this!

Alex - just send me an e-mail and I'll send you my bank info and you can deposit the two pounds per word into there

Liza

[ches]

Alex,

Liza said it even better than you! It's really a close translation (ignore what she said), but she has a marvellous way with Afrikaans. Don't you dare use another translator ever, and pay her well.

Ches

[alexUK]

Thankyou soooo much!!! I had problems logging onto this site and would have thanked you earlier..you made a very beautiful girl in the US a very happy person. She loved it.

By the way, I'm heading to SA at christmas, can anyone tell me the best way to start learning?? i thought that a recorded tape or cd would be the best way for me..any suggestions?

And about payment, i will gladly deposit money into an account for accurate translations. hows about you stick 100 words on my bar tab? ;-)

[liza81]

Will do! Remember if you don't pay your bills I'll have woestynryer smash you kneecaps in

Ches, dankie vir die kompliment! Dit was voor my koffie, en ek moes edit om spelfoute reg te maak.

I was rather pleased with what I came up with for the last sentence. A bit poetic, if you will. The english of what I wrote would be: Now that Ive written all these words I must say that no words can describe how I feel.
The nice thing here is that the afrikaans word for write is more like scribe, so your sentence says something like, now that I've scribed all these words I must say that no words can describe how I feel. I liked that!

Alex, check out this link for afrikaans language teach yourself cds http://www.maps2anywhere.com/Languag...age_course.htm
I've naturally never used any of them, since, you know, I can speak afrikaans! Everybody I know who speak it as a second language learned how at school so I can't really recommend anything. I'd say you should just see if you can find any of them on say, amazon.co.uk and just buy the one that suits your budget.

Naturally you can come here with any afrikaans question, no matter how silly you might think it is. I live in the US too, and tranlating things on this board is one way that I keep my lanuage alive to myself even though I do not get the chance to speak it daily.

I've been told before that it was helpful to read back through old threads, since I have translated lots of girl/boyfriend related sentences there.

Anyway, hope to have you around a lot.
Cheerio