Fairuz: Yet Another Version of Polyshko Polye

I have previously mentioned various versions of my favorite Russian song, Polyshko Polye (Полюшко Поле) here and here.

I've just found out about the Arabic version called Kānu Yā Habībī (كانوا يا حبيبي) by Fairuz of Lebanon, arguably the most famous singer in the Arab world. A very Russian song sung this way is very, very interesting.

Incidentally, the first Arabic song I've learned to sing (as part of my Arabic training) happens to be one of Fairuz's classics (see below). I can never pull off the way she emotes when performing without giggling like an idiot, though. But this is Fairuz; this is her signature style.

Here's her famous Habaytak Bi Sayf (حبيتك بالصيف) or "I Love You in the Summer" (Go here, if you want to know the meaning of this (kind of) sad song.

The Dalai Lama Walks into a Pizza Shop ...

Sigh ...

This reminds me of the time when I spoke very little English, didn't know much about the American culture or the West in general, and struggled every single day to communicate as an adult through 5th grade level English vocabulary (while trying to retain some dignity). It doesn't matter whether it's done out of good intention; it's exactly this type of humor that embarrassed me, shamed me in public, took away any confidence I might have had to the point where I was so fearful I didn't want to converse with anyone in English. It told me that the person wanted to say/do what they wanted to say/do so much they couldn't care less whether I'd understand or what my failure to understand would make me feel.

Those who speak English as an additional language, especially when they're still in the initial stage of learning, already struggle on a daily basis. The knock-knock jokes, guy-walks-into-a-bar jokes, etc., don't make it any easier for them.

Related Post: Don't Hurt Your Interpreter: Don't Build Contents Based on English

What English Sounds Like to Non-English Speakers

This is from an Italian TV program: a song sung in gibberish designed to sound like American English.



A Thai news anchor reads the news in Thai with British accent. (Just so you know, without the subtitle, I wouldn't understand a word she's saying. And I speak Thai.) Hilarious.

Si Tu Me Olvidas - Pablo Neruda

Quiero que sepas
una cosa.

Tú sabes cómo es esto:
si miro
la luna de cristal, la rama roja
del lento otoño en mi ventana,
si toco
junto al fuego
la impalpable ceniza
o el arrugado cuerpo de la leña,
todo me lleva a ti,
como si todo lo que existe,
aromas, luz, metales,
fueran pequeños barcos que navegan
hacia las islas tuyas que me aguardan.

Ahora bien,
si poco a poco dejas de quererme
dejaré de quererte poco a poco.

Si de pronto
me olvidas
no me busques,
que ya te habré olvidado.

Si consideras largo y loco
el viento de banderas
que pasa por mi vida
y te decides
a dejarme a la orilla
del corazón en que tengo raíces,
piensa
que en ese día,
a esa hora
levantaré los brazos
y saldrán mis raíces
a buscar otra tierra.

Pero
si cada día,
cada hora
sientes que a mí estás destinada
con dulzura implacable.
Si cada día sube
una flor a tus labios a buscarme,
ay amor mío, ay mía,
en mí todo ese fuego se repite,
en mí nada se apaga ni se olvida,
mi amor se nutre de tu amor, amada,
y mientras vivas estará en tus brazos
sin salir de los míos.

The Green Banana

I read "The Green Banana" by Donald Batchelder for the first time when I was in high school and it has stuck with me ever since. It was the first time in my life when I started questioning where the center of the world is for me, where it is for others, and what all that means; it was also the beginning of my interest in learning about other cultures beyond foreign languages.

Have you read it?

You can find this short essay from one of these sources here.

The Best Version of Polyushko Pole

I have shared with you a few versions -- from the most traditional to an instrumental version by a Turkish musician -- of my favorite Russian folk song Polyushko Pole (Полюшко Поле) in an earlier post along with some background information on the song. Last week, I stumbled across this version from 1969 which I'd like to declare my number one favorite to date. Enjoy.

Learning English Through Songs: Bennie and the Jets

The commentary is in green.

Bennie and the Jets (Elton John, 1974)

Hey kids, shake it loose together
The spotlight's hitting something
That's been known to change the weather
The singer is using the interjection "hey" to get the attention of a group of human beings between the stages of birth and puberty. The following imperative is a command for them to collectively cause something ("it") to move back and forth. Whether or not the singer will join in the shaking of the undefined "it" remains unclear from the adverb, "together." He's also making a non sequitur statement about the spotlight hitting something the result of which has been known to create changes in the weather.

We'll kill the fattened calf tonight
So stick around
The singer is now informing the aforementioned children that a baby animal (could be a baby cow, a baby whale, or a baby elephant) which has been made plump will have its life terminated this evening. He's using the killing of said animal to motivate the children to stay where they are.

You're gonna hear electric music
Solid walls of sound
Another reason is cited for why these minors should not leave the scene: they will hear music which is electronically created. This music, based on the following appositive, is akin to multiple architectural partitions characterized by good substantial quality.

Oh, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
But they're so spaced out, B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets
It's unclear at this point whether the singer is addressing two children named Candy and Ronnie who are part of the group or he is turning his attention to a completely new group of people of which Candy and Ronnie are part. Regardless, he wants to know if Candy and Ronnie have ever seen Bennie and the Jets, two never-before-mentioned entities (one singular and one collective?) who are described as being stupefied or disoriented from, or as if from, a drug.

Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
The singer is opining that these two entities are preternatural and strange in character and that they are extraordinarily good. Bennie, in particular, the singer asserts, is finely sharpened.

She's got electric boots, a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets
According to the singer, Bennie has in her possession the kind of protective footwear that is operated by electricity as well as an outer garment of fabric created with yarn made from the silky hair of the Angora goat. It is unclear as to whether she has them on her person at the time of the singing or she merely owns these items. The singer, however, makes it clear that the source of his information about Bennie's personal belongings is a periodical containing a collection of articles (also possible: a receptacle in which anything is stored, especially military stores, as ammunition, arms, provisions, etc.).

The names of Bennie and the Jets are again invoked. Reasons for this are unclear.

Hey kids, plug into the faithless
Maybe they're blinded
But Bennie makes them ageless
The singer is again turning his attention to the same group of minors. This time he calls upon them to use an object, such as a cork or a wad of cloth, to fill tightly a hole of those who are described as disloyal, unreliable, and having no religious faith. He makes a supposition that these people -- into whom the plugging is to be performed -- have been deprived of sight. Bennie, however, is making these people exist forever in an unchanged stage. (The cause-effect of this part of the song is a bit questionable.)

We shall survive, let us take ourselves along
Where we fight our parents out in the streets
To find who's right and who's wrong
The singer is concluding his speech by stating that he and the children (we) will remain alive and continue to function or prosper. He's encouraging them to take themselves to a place where they can contend in battle or physical combat in the public ways (or thoroughfares in a city or town) with the people who have begotten them. The purpose of this hostile activity is to determine which party is being in accordance with what is just, good, or proper and which is not.

The end.


For extra clarity, see this version (h/t @ThaiFoodBlog):