a bunch of stuff I found in 2 hours of searching 'Waltzing Matilda' sites and related words....(I was looking for a picture of a coolabah tree to illustrate the internal 'joke' or error, in the song mentioned at the bottom...coolabah trees are lousy shade trees!!)---------------------------------------------------------
A Coolabah tree was pointed out as we drove zipping by. The interesting thing about this Eucalypt is that the leaves turn to place themselves parallel with the sun's rays, thus having minimum heating, and leaving very little shadow. The song says, "Once a jolly swagman sat beside the billabong, under the shade of a Coolabah tree. It must have been a very little shade. Like in Oh Susanna!,--- it rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry, sun so hot I froze to death, Susanna, don't you cry. I didn't know the Waltzing Matilda song had double meanings, but It does.
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he Combo Water Hole is one such patch of muddy water. Its legend is etched into the history of Australia. Banjo Paterson has immortalised the story of a swagman, a jumbuck, a squatter and the law in such a way that myth and truth merge together and become indistinguishable from each other.
Folklore has it that Banjo was told the story of the suicide of a Samuel Hoffmeister beside the Diamantina 20 kms upstream of the Combo Water Hole in September 1894. Hoffmeister had reportedly been one of the striking shearers involved in the burning down of the Dagworth Station shearing shed. This story, combined with others that Paterson heard, inspired him to write "Waltzing Matilda" at Dagworth in 1895.
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waltzing matilda
Matilda was a mock-romantic word for a swag, and to waltz matilda was to hit the road with a swag on your back. Very few non-Australians seem to understand this, and hence regard the song as gibberish or cute, something like 'Jabberwocky' set to music. "'Twas brillig and the slithy toves ..." indeed.
The term is thought to come from a German expression. Auf die Walz gehen means to take to the road, and Mathilde is a girl's name, applied to one's bed-roll.
So the poem (doggerel? folk song?) can be interpreted as yet another Aussie complaint about them in authority. We're one of the most urbanised nations in the world, who sort-of yearn for the wide open spaces (there's so much of it out there!), and the freedom that goes with it (or at least seems to go with it, to those that don't live there). So Waltzing Matilda strikes a chord (so to speak), generation after generation, for the same reason that Crocodile Dundee was as popular here as anywhere else - we know we're not like that; but it's fun pretending for a while that we are.
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WALTZING MATILDA
BALI VERSION
Once an Aussie tourist sunbaked on Kuta beach,
Far from the shade of the coconut trees,
and she sang as watched and waited for the sun to set,
Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?Waltzing matilda, waltzing matilda.
Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?
and she sang as she watched and waited for the sun to set,
Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?Down came a hippie bloke selling dope on Kuta beach
Up jumped the tourist and grabbed some with glee,
And she sang as she shoved that ganja in her Qantas bag,
You'll come a waltzing matilda with me.Waltzing matilda, waltzing matilda.
Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?
and she sang as watched and waited for the sun to set,
Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?Down came the coppers mounted on their Honda bikes
Down came their sniffer dogs, one, two, three.
Where's that jolly ganja you've got in your Qantas bag,
You'll come a waltzing matilda with me.Waltzing matilda, waltzing matilda.
Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?
and she sang as watched and waited for the sun to set,
Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?Up jumped the tourist and sprang into the raging surf,
You'll never catch me alive said she,
And her ghost can't be heard if you pass by that rowdy beach, (sing softly)
Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me? (sing loudly)Original words by Banjo Paterson. Parody by Bill Gresham
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And, in Esperanto....
Valse Matilda
Gaja vagabondo kampis apud bilabong
kie la Coolabah ombris por li
kaj li kantis atende gxis bolos en la billipot
Vi vagas valsa Matilda kun mi
Venis sxafido por trinki en la bilabong
kaptis vagulo kun gxoj` plena kri`
kaj li kantis sxovante la sxafon al la mangxosak`
Vi vagas valsa Matilda kun mi
Aperis farmisto sur pursanga al cxeval
Venis gxendarmo unu, du, tri
"Kies bela sxafo, tiu en la mangxosak"
Vi vagas valsa Matilda kun mi
Tuj la vagoulo saltis al la bilabong
"Vi vane kaptas vi min," diris li.
Kaj fantomon vi auxdos pasante cxe la bilabong.
Vi vagas valsa Matilda kun mi.
A.B. Paterson
Trad. En Esperanto: Ralph Harry