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Um... let's see...
Okay. Last year, at Swedish Midsummer, we did the silly sorts of songs where you go around and make hand motions, and I remembered the tunes of almost all of them except the one I *wanted* to remember. That's the one that you acted out various parts (man, woman, crying, laughing, I don't know) and spun in a circle clapping.
Middle of the year, I find a nursery rhyme/game that seems almost the same. In English. I mean, it has the acting and spinning and clapping and all. Weird, yeah?
This year, Ana declared it her favorite. So I ask one of the two Swedish au pairs at the toddler programs we go to about it, and after some talking she remembers the name of it. She knew the song, of course, but not the name. (The two au pairs come together, speak Swedish to the three 20-month-blondes they bring with them, and are largely assumed to be a couple with triplets. But no, it's twins and another one and they just know each other, which is probably better than triplets.)
So she wrote down the name, which turns out to be "Räven raskar över isen", which doesn't appear to have *anything* to do with what we were doing, but whatever. After some patient googling, I find a site with the music written up and a midi - which is currently down, but again, whatever.
And a teeny bit of browsing the site gets me one with lyrics like this:
En elefant balanserade, på en liten liten spindel-tråå-ååd
Det tyckte den var så intressant, så den gick och hämtade en annan elefant
Två elefanter balanserade, på en liten liten spindel-tråå-ååd
Det tyckte de var så intressant, så de gick och hämtade en annan elefant
Tre elefanter balanserade, på en liten liten spindel-tråå-ååd
Det tyckte de var så intressant, så de gick och hämtade en annan elefant
Now, I don't speak a word of Swedish, of course... but guessing that "elefant" means "elephant" and "en, två, tre" means "one, two, three", and spindel-whatever might just mean "spider"...
Then I think we have that exact same song in English.
Which made me laugh, because we sing that same song in Spanish every Wednesday! Well, they sing, I kinda hum along and bounce Evangeline, because I haven't read the words and only know what they mean, not how to sing them.
Okay. Last year, at Swedish Midsummer, we did the silly sorts of songs where you go around and make hand motions, and I remembered the tunes of almost all of them except the one I *wanted* to remember. That's the one that you acted out various parts (man, woman, crying, laughing, I don't know) and spun in a circle clapping.
Middle of the year, I find a nursery rhyme/game that seems almost the same. In English. I mean, it has the acting and spinning and clapping and all. Weird, yeah?
This year, Ana declared it her favorite. So I ask one of the two Swedish au pairs at the toddler programs we go to about it, and after some talking she remembers the name of it. She knew the song, of course, but not the name. (The two au pairs come together, speak Swedish to the three 20-month-blondes they bring with them, and are largely assumed to be a couple with triplets. But no, it's twins and another one and they just know each other, which is probably better than triplets.)
So she wrote down the name, which turns out to be "Räven raskar över isen", which doesn't appear to have *anything* to do with what we were doing, but whatever. After some patient googling, I find a site with the music written up and a midi - which is currently down, but again, whatever.
And a teeny bit of browsing the site gets me one with lyrics like this:
En elefant balanserade, på en liten liten spindel-tråå-ååd
Det tyckte den var så intressant, så den gick och hämtade en annan elefant
Två elefanter balanserade, på en liten liten spindel-tråå-ååd
Det tyckte de var så intressant, så de gick och hämtade en annan elefant
Tre elefanter balanserade, på en liten liten spindel-tråå-ååd
Det tyckte de var så intressant, så de gick och hämtade en annan elefant
Now, I don't speak a word of Swedish, of course... but guessing that "elefant" means "elephant" and "en, två, tre" means "one, two, three", and spindel-whatever might just mean "spider"...
Then I think we have that exact same song in English.
Which made me laugh, because we sing that same song in Spanish every Wednesday! Well, they sing, I kinda hum along and bounce Evangeline, because I haven't read the words and only know what they mean, not how to sing them.
