I have no plan. I will leave it to the good things and good times to find me.
Nimrat Kaur
The third and final post in the series Danube Songs From Bulgaria features some modern, happy folk songs with amusing videos.
The first video is of the Ensemble Plam from Ruse. According to Google Translate, the word "Plam" translates to enthusiasm or passion. They certainly express it here!
Plam reminds me of another band from Ruse: Orchestra Horo. There is a link about them and their music at the bottom of this post.
Plam is into modern instrumentation (except for the tupan.) There are two guys on accordion, one on saxophone, one on a keyboard and one on a clarinet; you don't see evidence of a gaida or gadulka here.
The song is Kray Dunava (from the Danube region); the music and the dance are another variation of Kraj Dunavsko Horo. It's lively and fast, and there's some eye candy for the guys (two attractive female singers with bright purple dresses, which alternate with quasi-folk costumes). The dancers get silly with brooms and a bottle of booze. It's fun to watch.
Harry Bend is another group that plays modern versions of traditional Bulgarian folk tunes. The next video is another "White Danube" song (Dunave Beli Dunave).
The instrumentation is similar to Plam except that the drummer plays a modern set of drums instead of a tupan. This is another fun video with dancers, a man and a woman in a rowboat, and a woman in a swing (all wearing elaborate embroidered costumes.) I have no idea what's in the two white bags, it could be contraband for all I know :) The guy in the boat also has a kaval, but you can't hear him play it.
You will recognize the rhythm of this song if you are familiar with the dance Padjusko Horo.
Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture. Anthony Burgess
Have you ever wondered about what some of those folk songs mean? Before the Internet it was almost impossible to get translations of Balkan folk songs. Now they are relatively easy to find if you know where to look.
Today's post features two songs from Croatia with humorous lyrics. After I read the translations, I wondered if Croatia is a fantasyland full of crazy people and anthropomorphic creatures. From what I've seen of it in pictures, it looks nothing like Disney World. Croatia does, however, have some amazingly beautiful scenery, and it's a place I'd definitely like to visit. I've been to Disney World too many times, anyway.
The first song is Raca Plava, and the group in the video is a "bonding folk dance class" from China. They seem to take their dancing quite seriously; you can hear the teacher call the steps while the music plays.
Click this link for the lyrics in English translation. If you've ever seen a duck swimming with a basket on its head you have probably had a bit too much to drink or spent too much time in Alice's Wonderland. According to the lyrics, the man is in love with a woman who has a distinctive walk. Maybe she walks like a duck. The song as a whole is rather strange.
The next song Sukacica, (dance: Sukacko Kolo)is another excursion into surreality. This time it's a kitchen disaster, complete with burnt food, poultry with singed feathers, and roasted chickens with water running out of them (somebody tried to put out the fire). The cook and the rest of them danced all night despite the mishaps. They had a jolly old time. You can read the lyrics in Croatian, German and English here:
By the way, the Songbook For Nearsighted People is an excellent source of lyrics with songs from the Balkans and beyond. Most of the songs are translated into German and English. It's definitely worth a look.
Sukacko Kolo can be done in a circle (kolo is Croatian for circle) or as a couple dance. This group is from Belgium, and they use the "double kolo" method: two circles.
The world lasts because it laughs (motto for the House of Humor and Satire, Gabrovo, Bulgaria)
Warning: The reading of this post may cause uncontrollable laughter. Reader discretion is advised.
Why is there a picture of a centipede on the top of this page? You'll find out later.
Today's April Fool's Day post contains humor, insults, silly songs and proverbs from the Balkans.
If you are looking for creative ways to insult your enemies, here are some really strange put-downs from the Balkans. The first two from Serbia sound like they date back to the NATO bombing of Belgrade back in the 1990's.
"May your house be live on CNN." (on fire for the world to see...)
May God give you to search for your children with a Geiger counter." (Maybe the Serbs thought those NATO bombs were radioactive?)
Another insult from Serbia: "May your wife give birth to a centipede so you have to work for shoes all your life." (Maybe she had sex with an arthropod. Centipedes are nasty ugly things, so she must have been pretty desperate.....)
If you want to insult a Bulgarian, compare him to a salad.
"You're as ugly as a salad." (Maybe the salad was left out in the sun too long.)
This is one of those Bulgarian "yo' momma" insults:
"Your mother sucks bears in the forest."
Hmmm...this one borders one the obscene. Bear sucking? The whole bear or just a part? Was a vacuum cleaner involved? And is this a male or female bear?
This Bulgarian proverb proves something that I've known all along about men:
"It is easier to fondle lassies, than to cut timbers." Cutting wood isn't much fun, anyway....
The Shope region of Bulgaria is known for humorous and satirical folk songs. Oi Shope Shope, about a young man who's full of himself as well as a know it all, is one of my favorites.
You can find the the song (in German and transliterated Bulgarian) on a page from the Songbook for Nearsighted People. You don't have to be nearsighted to read this book, but the large font is very helpful for those with vision difficulties (actually the book was created so that the musicians and singers could see the lyrics in semi-lit rooms). Rumor has it that some of them also needed reading glasses :)
The House of Humor and Satire in Gabrovo, Bulgaria celebrates its 40th year on April 1, 2012. The symbol of the Humor House is a cat with a part of its tail cut off (so less heat would escape from the house when the cat went out). This cat is also a symbol of the town. It is said that cats in Gabrovo are sent down chimneys to clean them, in order to save money on chimney sweeps.
The link for the House of Humor and Satire can be found here (along with jokes and sayings from the town of Gabrovo):
If you didn't get enough humor today, this Croatian dance will put a smile on your face. Burning dinner is par for the course at my place (my daughter says that the food is done when the smoke detector goes off). The premise of the song is basically this:
The cook burned up a delicious cheese pie
Because the old man gave her the evil eye.
Reminds me of something I wrote for Bad Poetry Night on Facebook :) What's even funnier is that this video involves a male-female role reversal.
For some reason the Songbook for Nearsighted Peoplehas the lyrics for Sukačko Koloin English and German as well as the original Croatian. Read them, they're quite funny :)
If you enjoyed this you may also like A Cat Who Likes the Gaida and the Cat of Gabrovo. Have you ever wondered why critters like music made from the bodies of other animals? I've wondered about that, too.
The Gadulka in Bulgarian Folk Music goes into detail into the "bloodbath" that is Bulgarian folk music. On this post you will find a link to a funny story, written by a Bulgarian musician, on how folk instruments are made.
If you love Balkan music and dance you have come to the right place! The Alien Diaries began in February 2010 and is updated at least twice a month.
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my cat Fatso (see avatar), who passed away on April 9, 2011 from congestive heart failure. He was the inspiration for several of my early posts.
Don't forget to check out my second blog, Light and Shadow, for some humor, satire, photos and poetry!
