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Apr. 27, 2005 One of my pastimes, which I have pursued since I was a teen-ager, is singing in various languages. As of this morning, I knew 142 songs in 18 languages. My big languages are English, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish and Russian. But I also know a good number of songs in French, Latin, Italian and German, as well as a few in Chinese, Arabic and other languages. I recall that when I was in high school in the early fifties, I already knew Cielito Lindo, Solamente Una Vez and Perfidia, all three still among my favorites. I've learned another dozen or so Spanish songs since, including Guantanamera, Viva La Quince Brigada (Long Live the Fifteenth Brigade), Doce Cascabeles (Twelve Little Bells) and other traditional favorites. But there were some Spanish songs that I love for which I could never find lyrics or music. Every time I lived in a new city, I´d check song books in the library. It was only in 2002 that I began to use Internet, and at first it didn't occur to me that I'd find lyrics and sometimes even notes on the Worldwide Web. This has been a boon to me. In the last year I finally learned Malagüeña (Girl from Málaga), Granada, Amapola (Poppy) and Sobre las Olas (Over the Waves, melody of The Loveliest Night of the Year), which I'd long been trying in vain to find. As for Hebrew, my first wife was Jewish. So I learned some of the traditional Jewish songs from her, Hava Nagila (Come On, Let's Dance), Tsena Tsena (Come Out, Come Out), Artsa Alinu (We Returned to the Land), Zum Gali, Dona Dona Dona, and Hatikvah (The Hope, the national anthem of Israel). Afterwards, I went on to study Hebrew, learning about 20 more Hebrew songs, including Hei Daromah (Hey, Southward), Laila Laila (Night Night), Shnei Shoshanim (Two Roses) and Im Yesh Eisham (If Anywhere There Is), the last two being beautiful traditional lovesongs. I do know three songs with lyrics from Isaiah also, mostly about making the desert bloom, but I have dropped all songs that I once knew that had to do with the Patriarchs, Abraham, Moses, etc. As for the web, I managed to get lyrics for Migdalor (Lighthouse) from an Israeli on a forum, and I found Lekh Lekh Lamidbar (Go, Go to the Desert) on a Hebrew website. I'm currently trying to catch the sung lyrics of Ben Nhar Prat Unhar Hidekel (Between the Euphrates and the Tigris). At about the same time I got interested in Hebrew songs, I began learning Russian and Greek songs too, and later went on to study the languages and read books too. Favorite Russian Songs are Ochi Cherniye (Dark Eyes), Darogoi Dalnoyu (By the Long Road, melody of Once Upon a Time There Was a Tavern), Ei Ukhnem (Volga Boatmen), Stenka Razin and Uznik (The Prisoner). It's difficult to use Internet to search for a Russian song you have in mind, because it's unlikely that the transliteration into English letters will be turned up, given that there are different ideas about how to transcribe a Russian word in the first place. But it's easy enough to go to a Russian website and see what they have. So I did learn a couple of new Russian songs here recently, Podmoskovnie Vyechera (Moscow Nights) and Dvye Gitari (Two Guitars), both famous traditional Russian songs. Favorite Greek songs are Tin Xanthóula (The Blonde Girl), Mia Voskopóula (A Shepherdess), Mia Kóri Me Sgourá Oloxanthá Malliá (A Girl with Curly Blonde Hair), T'Aidóni (The Nightingale) and Eleftheriá (Freedom, the Greek national anthem). I haven't had much luck hunting down Greek songs on the web, but a Greek lady provided me with the lyrics to Misirlóu, which is one of the most beautiful of Greek lovesongs, on a language forum. Since I already know 17 Greek songs, I'm more interested in learning some in other languages. I never studied French, German or Italian really seriously, though my pronunciation is nearly perfect in all three, except for those songs in the Neapolitan dialect of Italian, which I'm going to have to improve. I also know the languages well enough to understand the lyrics of my songs, anyway. The past two years have been great for getting French songs. I've learned 9 new ones, La Vie en Rose (The Rosy Life), La Habanera (from Carmen), Pauvre Jean (The Poor People of Paris), Cerisier Rose et Pommier Blanc (Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White), La Femme d'Hector (Hector's Wife), Dominique Dominique, Milord, Entre Les Êtoiles (Among the Stars) and Plaisirs d'Amour (The Joys of Love). I already knew La Mer (The Sea, melody of Somewhere Beyond the Sea), La Marseillaise (French national anthem), Auprès de ma Blonde (Next to My Blonde) and others. The only new German song I've learned is Lilli Marlen (Lily of the Lamplight), which I got on the web, but I'm trying to learn some more. I already knew Freude (Ode to Joy, Beethoven's Ninth Synphony), Mackie Messer (Mac the Knife), Du Du Liegst Mir im Herzen (You Are in My Heart), plus songs from Carmina Burana, a medieval collection of German and Latin songs. All the Latin songs I know are also from Carmina Burana. Volare (To Fly) is the only Italian song that I half-knew that I've been able to find on the web. I already knew O Sole Mio (O My Sun), Santa Lucia, Torna a Surriento (Come Back to Sorrento) and Finiculì Finiculà, all in Neapolitan, plus La Donna È Mobile (Woman is Fickle, from Rigoletto). I want to increase the number of songs that I know in other languages, with emphasis on Chinese and Arabic, both of which I studied. But it´s very difficult to get the lyrics in the original script along with the printed music. Chinese is not so bad, because the official transcription in very reliable, though tones are usually omitted, which makes it hard to understand, but the amateurish transcriptions one finds for Arabic songs, if one finds them at all, are nearly worthless. It's virtually impossible to manage without the original Arabic text, which should be vocalized to show all the vowels, ordinarily omitted in Arabic. Lately I learned a new Chinese song, Meihua Jinxingqu (The Plum Blossom March), and I relearned a Turkish song, Üsküdara Gider Iken (While Going to Üsküdar) and two Finnish songs, Maamme (Our Land, the national anthem of Finland) and Finlandia, which I'd forgotten years ago. In English, I learned more words to a number of songs that I knew imperfectly: Scarborough Fair, Greensleeves, The Minstrel Boy, Barbara Allen, Streets of Laredo, Red River Valley, Unchained Melody, Henry Martin, What Is a Youth?, Nonesuch and others. But I don't want to get lopsided with English-language songs. I'm more interested in other languages. I am very selective about the kind of songs I learn. Although I know a few martial and religious songs, that I learned years ago, I don't plan to learn any more. I don't like any drinking songs or humorous songs, though I know 1 or 2 already, which I keep singing just for language practise. Basically, I automatically rule out rock and roll, country music, rap, jazz, hymns, Christmas carols and Broadway musicals without further ado. I consider all of these mass-produced consumer-oriented music. This leaves me with traditional folksongs, better popular songs and classical music, more of the first two. The ideal circumstance for me is to have the music (sheet music or the equivalent), as well as the lyrics in the original language. Failing that, if I can listen to the music played or sung, I can manage. Transcribed lyrics are a pain. It sometimes takes hours and hours to restore, for example, a Hebrew song in English letters, to the original Hebrew, so I can see what it's all about. I find that being able to sing fluently a long foreign song, like Cerisier Rose et Pommier Blanc, with 11 stanzas, takes me about 200 repetitions, which generally span over a year or two. After that I have to make sure I go over it at least once every three months or so, or I'll forget the words. How many great songs have I forgotten simply because I neglected to sing them? If I were rich, I'd collect stamps or jewels, but I'm not, so I collect songs. Frankly, I'm not much interested in being a listener. One can spend his whole life reading what others have written, listening to others sing, hearing about others' travels. As for me, I prefer to write, sing and travel myself. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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