DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)

Subject: Lobachevsky (correction)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 14 Feb 13 - 09:44 PM

The DT Attribution & Minor Corrections PermaThread is closed. I hope it's OK to start a thread to note a minor correction that ought to be made in the DT lyrics for Lobachevsky.

Between

"It stinks."

and

"But changing title to 'The Eternal Triangle',"

there is a line missing:

"Metro-Goldwyn Moskva bought the movie rights for six million rubles,"

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Feb 13 - 10:01 PM

Hi, Gerry - I think you must have found the Recorded Messages complement to the DT Attribution & Minor Corrections PermaThread. The PermaThread is open, but we move messages to the closed "recorded messages" thread when Susan of DT has recorded corrections for the Digital Tradition. I convinced her that Mudcatters should be aware of songs that had already been reported.

Here are the Digital Tradition words to "Lobachevsky." I've inserted your added line. Any other corrections?

LOBACHEVSKY
(Tom Lehrer)

Who made me the genius I am today, the mathematician that others all quote,
who's the professor that made me that way? The greatest that ever got
chalk on his coat.

One man deserves the credit, one man deserves the blame,
and Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name. Hi!
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach...

I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.
In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics: Plagiarize!

Plagiarize, let no one else's work evade your eyes,
remember why the good Lord made your eyes, so don't shade your eyes,
but plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize ...
only be sure always to call it please "research".

And ever since I meet this man my life is not the same,
and Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name. Hi!
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach...

I am never forget the day I am given first original paper
to write. It was on analytic and algebraic topology of
locally Euclidean metrization of infinitely differentiable
Riemannian manifold. Bozhe moi! This I know from nothing.
But I think of great Lobachevsky and get idea - aha!

I have a friend in Minsk, who has a friend in Pinsk,
whose friend in Omsk has friend in Tomsk with friend in Akmolinsk.
His friend in Alexandrovsk has friend in Petropavlovsk,
whose friend somehow is solving now the problem in Dnepropetrovsk.

And when his work is done - Haha! - begins the fun.
From Dnepropetrovsk to Petropavlovsk, by way of Iliysk,
and Novorossiysk, to Alexandrovsk to Akmolinsk to Tomsk to Omsk
to Pinsk to Minsk to me the news will run,
yes, to me the news will run!
And then I write by morning, night, and afternoon, and pretty soon
my name in Dnepropetrovsk is cursed, when he finds out I publish first!

And who made me a big success and brought me wealth and fame?
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name. Hi!
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach...

I am never forget the day my first book is published.
Every chapter I stole from somewhere else.
Index I copy from old Vladivostok telephone directory.
This book was sensational!
Pravda - well, Pravda - Pravda said: (Russian double-talk)
It stinks.
But Izvestia! Izvestia said: (Russian double-talk)
It stinks.
Metro-Goldwyn Moskva bought the movie rights for six million rubles;
But changing title to 'The Eternal Triangle',
With Brigitte Bardot (or Ingrid Bergman) playing part of hypotenuse.

And who deserves the credit? And who deserves the blame?
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name. Hi!

@math @science
filename[ LOBACHEV
RG

---

My wife was born in Rhode Island, but her first language was Polish. She knew right off that "Bozhe moi!" means "My God!"

Delightful song, isn't it?

-Jeo-

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 14 Feb 13 - 10:31 PM

Thanks, Joe. I think the rest of it is right, at least in the sense that it is a faithful transcription of one of Lehrer's recordings of the song. On another recording (the earliest, I think), he had Ingrid Bergman playing part of hypotenuse. (Who would he name if he were recording it today?)

The two places where it says "Russian double-talk", you can find webpages where people have transcribed what he said on the recordings --- but unfortunately these people don't agree with each other as to the transliteration or the translation, and I don't know any Russian so I can't give an informed opinion on the issue. So I give you this with no assurance that it's right:

The first is "Zhil byl korol' kogda-to, Pri njom blokha zhila," which means "Once upon a time a king had a pet flea," which Mephistopheles sings in Goethe's Faust, in the Russian translation composed by Musorgsky.

The second line is "Ja edu kuda sam tsar idet peshkom", which translates as "I am driving where the king himself goes on foot", which hints at the toilet, but actually means that someone is trying to outdo the king in a little unimportant matter, and is being rather foolish at that.

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Feb 13 - 10:33 PM

Lehrer did have a tendency to insert "spoken interjections" in some of his songs during performances, so what's in the songbook might not match what's on one of the recordings.

The line in question looks like it might be one of those, but it certainly fits - no problem.

It does suggest that he's one of those for whom different sources might give different results, so source citations would be helpful(?).

I gave up long ago trying to track variations in recordings by one of the favorites at our big annual festival (Mike Cross) because he got tired of my favorite versions really quickly and kept changing them.

John

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: mrdux
Date: 15 Feb 13 - 01:34 AM

and another:

in the first recording -- the 10" one (songs by Tom Lehrer (1953) -- the "original paper" bit has the following (italicized) added line (and dropping the But):

Riemannian manifold. Bozhe moi! This I know from nothing.
What I'm going to do?
[But] I think of great Lobachevsky and get idea - aha!

michael

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 15 Feb 13 - 05:45 AM

Eeze of corrce pure fiction, given that N.I.L. died in 1856. According to Wikipedia, one of his rivals was a Hungarian, hence (??) Lehrer's plagiarism quotation of Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" with the line "And then I write by morning, night, and afternoon, and pretty soon".

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jul 13 - 05:29 PM

Gerry said:
"The second line is "Ja edu kuda sam tsar idet peshkom", which translates as "I am driving where the king himself goes on foot", which hints at the toilet, but actually means that someone is trying to outdo the king in a little unimportant matter, and is being rather foolish at that. "

I'd have to disagree. "Ya idu", however you which to transcribe the spelling, means "I am going on foot". It has nothing to do with "driving" in any sense, and thus the bathroom reference is correct.

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 24 Jul 13 - 07:38 PM

That is more or less Gerry's point as well: the text version or transcription is slightly incorrect. ("Ya [y]edoo", or, in German trascription, "ja [j]edu", can mean "I drive".) But it does not matter much, since in the context it amounts to nonsense anyway - as if Lehrer had just used both Russian phrases he ever memorized, tongue-in-cheek.

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 25 Jul 13 - 04:12 AM

For those of us who are learning standard Russian: "I drive" correctly translates "Я езжу" (ya yezzhoo). Though "Ya yedoo" would be a recognizable colloquialism or regionalism, Gerry's interpretation of "outdoing the tsar" is unsubstantiated. The anonymous Guest (who may well be more of an expert than I) is quite right.

The actual meaning is "Russian gibberish", for sake of comedy.

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 25 Jul 13 - 08:26 AM

Grishka, please --- I wasn't interpreting anything, just reporting what I had found on the web, and with the explicit disclaimers, "I don't know any Russian", "I can't give an informed opinion on the issue", and "I give you this with no assurance that it's right". I thank you for bringing some solid information to the discussion.

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 25 Jul 13 - 09:19 AM

No criticism intended whatsoever, Gerry. It was not clear to me whether your disclaimers extended to "but actually means ... or not. (Apart from that, I am a fan of intelligent guesswork, and like to contribute to it myself. Disclaimers such as "AFAIK FWIW YMMV it seems as if it might ..." are always implied.)

Thus, instead of "Gerry's interpretation" read "the interpretation reported by Gerry". OK?

Subject: RE: DT Correction: Lobachevsky (Tom Lehrer)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 25 Jul 13 - 09:38 PM

Grishka, my disclaimers extend to everything I have ever written and everything I ever will write on this or any other website. "interpretation reported by Gerry" is cool, as are we.