Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca

Subject: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Haruo
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 10:20 PM

A couple more eastern European folk songs I'm interested in knowing more about (provenance, original language, original text, English singing versions); I know them only in Esperanto, but I think the first is Slovak and the second Czech (based on very vague memory). The first is originally titled Tancuj, tancuj!, but I don't have the rest of the lyrics; the second I don't even have the original title for.

The first one says (at least in Esperanto)

Dance, let's dance lightly in a circle!
Don't knock over the stove in the middle!
A good stove is important in winter,
You don't have down, you know.

Tra-la-la etc.

A soldier stands guard covered
With an old torn overcoat,
From evening till early,
Dew covers him down to the shoe.

Tra-la-la etc.

You can copy or just listen to the MIDI here.

The second one says (according to the Esperanto version)

At Levoca the river flows torrentially
At Levoca the river flows torrentially
Girls without lovers should jump into it penitentially
Girls without lovers should jump into it penitentially

Why should I throw myself weeping into the water?
Why should I throw myself weeping into the water?
Verily, a young man is not worth drowning over!
Verily, a young man is not worth drowning over!

Shades of Milosevic, I think the c in Levoca is supposed to have a hacek (inverted circumflex) over it. You can copy or just listen to the MIDI here.

Liland

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--- Links fixed ---
-- PA --

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 11:35 PM

A háček on Milošević's 'c'? Is it still called a háček, since it's only supposed to be a slash over the 'c'? What DO you call those? Always shows up as 'ae' when I type it... Pisses me off. If you see 'ae' in my Milošević, was something else when I typed it. Supposed to look like an 'é,' but with a 'c.' ć, DAMMIT!

And if my 'háček' lookes like 'háèek', I'm going to cry... This world is so unfair.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 11:40 PM

Grr, that was me... And, hey! My Miloševiæ looks good, from here at least... Woohoo!

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 11:47 PM

OK, that's weird... Does anyone else see that? When I'm a guest, it looks right, but when I've got my cookie strapped on, it looks like pure crap... Hrrm... Never mind, it's off topic anyways...:)

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Haruo
Date: 12 Oct 00 - 10:56 AM

That really is pretty weird, Hare Majesty!

Liland

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 12 Oct 00 - 11:05 AM

We want more .html codes for diacriticals!  There doesn't seem to be one for "š", for a start.  Still, copying and pasting appears to work, though perhaps only on some browsers.  Back on topic: Liland, who on earth is translating all these songs into Esperanto without telling anybody where they came from?

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Haruo
Date: 12 Oct 00 - 11:26 AM

For the s-with-hacek (or s-wedge as we call it in Lushootseed) I use š (š) for lower-case and 138 (Š) for upper case. It looks like the Hare King was using 263 (ć) for c with an acute accent and 269 for c with a hacek (č). (Hope he doesn't mind my vernacularizing him.) Problem is finding a site with all this stuff laid out so you can see it without needing to know a Slavic language or whatever.

As for the Esperanto translations, if I knew who had translated the darn things I could (assuming they were still alive) ask them where they got 'em. But since one of my main sources (Kantfesto I, put out by the Canadian Esperanto Association in 1982) very explicitly avoids giving specific credit, I don't know whom to ask. I post these queries frequently to soc.culture.esperanto, too, with equally spotty results. I ask mainly because on my website I would like to be able to give proper credit.

Liland

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 12 Oct 00 - 02:00 PM

I was gonna ask where these Esperanto versions had come from, but you saved me the trouble--at any rate, your MIDI links don't work--

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Haruo
Date: 12 Oct 00 - 06:11 PM

Give me an example of a MIDI link that's not working. I go online from three different locations (work, church, library) and only the church (and my home computer, which is not online) has speakers. Dankon!

Liland

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Haruo
Date: 12 Oct 00 - 10:04 PM

The reason the links given above didn't work is embarrassingly simple: I gave them *.html extensions when the real pages have *.htm extensions! Try these links: Ĉe Levoĉa and Tancuj, tancuj!. < RED FACE >

Liland

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Haruo
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 04:25 PM

Still hoping somebody can provide a little light on the original sources of these melodies and texts. Hopefully now the MIDIs *are* working from the links given in the immediately preceding message of Oct 12.

Liland

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 08:32 PM

The Girl Scouts sing Tancuj as:

Stamp and dance be nimble and merry
But watch the stove do try to be wary
For you must know I have no warm bed
And when it's cold I use it instead

La la la la ... (for entire refrain)

Sentry duty midnight til morn
Ragged shivering, why was I born
Amid the rain I pace keeping guard
A soldier's life is weary and hard

refrain

Tell me, Gypsy, have I lover
Or is there someone I can discover
My pretty maid cross my hand with gold
Your future then at once I've foretold

The first two verses are in "Sing Together" copyright 1973, I learned the third in Colorado a few years earlier.

CD

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 08:36 PM

Whoops, shoulda turned the page. The third verse is also in Sing Together (with a different last line: "Your future then, at once I'll unfold"), with a fourth verse I'd forgotten about, thus:
Rise up husband, why do you loll here? You've done no work for many a long year. Why should I work when life is so short? And that, old wife, is my final retort!

CD

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Haruo
Date: 20 Oct 00 - 02:36 PM

Thanks, rabbitrunning. Any indication in your book or memory of the source nationality? I'm thinking Slovak, but not very sure of myself.
Liland

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 20 Oct 00 - 07:51 PM

The book says Czechoslovakia, without indicating which end of the country. They have the pronounciation of Tancuj as "tan-tswee." Does that help?

Subject: RE: Tancuj, tancuj! and At Levoca
From: Haruo
Date: 22 Oct 00 - 05:28 PM

Thanks. Doesn't add much to what I already knew or suspected, but every little bit helps.

Liland