Saturday 19 July 2014

Multilingual Version of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky - "BabelTalky"

POST #50
PASTICHE with SONG-LYRICS
ORIGINAL POEM: "Jabberwocky" was included in Lewis Carroll's  children's novel "Through the Looking Glass" in 1871, although he had published a short variation of it much earlier as "Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry"
SETTING TO MUSIC: Donovan, 1971.
TRANSLATION INTO OTHER LANGUAGES: Renditions of the classic nonsense poem in various languages can be found in a collection of translations into 29 other languages on the web, although the site appears to have been inactive recently.
COLLATION: Giorgio Coniglio 2014, updated 2016.


KEYWORDS: poetry, goldenoldy, multicultural, pastiche

A major tip of the hat to Mike Simmons and John Colosetti for helping find usable ukelele chords.




BABELTALKY

 (to the the tune of "Jabberwocky" - Donovan)


(ANGLO-SAXON - Lewis Carroll, 1855)
'Twas bryllyg, and ye slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in ye wabe.
All mimsy were ye borogoves,
And ye mome raths outgrabe.

(GERMAN - Robert Scott)
"Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch!
Die Zähne knirschen, Krallen kratzen!
Bewahr' vor JubJub-Vogel, vor
Frumiösen Banderschnatchen.   

(ITALIAN - Adriana Crespi)
Afferò quello la sua vorpi da lama
A lungo il manson nemico cercò
Cosí sostò presso l'albero Touton
E riflettendo alquanto dimorò.  

(FRENCH - Frank Warrin)
Pendant qu'il pense, tout uffusé,
Le Jaseroque, à l'oeil flambant,
Vient sifflant par le bois tullegeais,
Et burbule en venant.    

(JAPANESE - Tim Matheson)
Ichi, ni! Ichi, ni! mattaku kanzen ni 
Sakisakiken wa kusukusu waratta  
Shanoshi nokoshi kubi wo mochi
Ikiyouyou to koke kaetta 

(HEBREW - Ahaton Amir)
"Af ketalto, et hapiton?
Achabkecha, yaldi hatzach!
Ho yom-tzilha! Yabah! yabah!"
B'chedvato  patzach. 

(PORTUGUESE - Augusto de Campos)
Era briluz. as lesmolisas touvas
roldavam e reviam nos gramilvos:
Estavam mimsicais as pintalouvas,
E os mommiratos davam grilvos.

(RUSSIAN - E. Orlova and O. Demurova)
Varkalos'. Khivikie shor'ki
Pyryalis' po nave,
I khryukotali zelyuki
Kak myumziki v move.

(SPANISH  - E. Alvarez-Buylla)
Era el briño, y los logrosos
Giraban y mangaban en al panal:
Tan debrable los bogrosos,
Y aún los rantopos salgabran.


(ARABIC - W. Al-Mahdi)
Jarâdhilu l-wâbi dhuhâ
Tadarbahat tadarbuhâ
Mufarfirun tanahnaha
Wa tâ'iru  l-burburi fahâ.

(CLASSIC - Lewis Carroll, 1871)
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.


Performing Notes 

(sung to the classic 'English' poem, per Donovan)

'Twas [Dm] bryllyg, and ye [C] slythy [Dm] toves
Did [Bb] gyre and [Dm] gymble [Gm] in ye [Dm] wabe.
All [Dm] mimsy were ye [C] boro[Dm]goves,
And ye [Bb] mome [Gm] raths out[A]grabe.
 etc.....





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