Today’s word, uśmiechnięta, means ‘smiling’ in Polish, and appears in the Polish version of Silent Night:
Cicha noc, święta noc,
pokój niesie ludziom wszem,
A u żłóbka Matka święta
czuwa sama uśmiechnięta,
Nad Dzieciątka snem.
Nad Dzieciątka snem.
The singing group I go to at the Hammersmith Irish Centre in London will be performing (for charity) at Hammersmith tube station a week next Monday. One of the things we’ll be singing will be Silent Night and we’ve decided to try to sing it in Polish and Irish, as well as in English.
We can cope with the Irish version as there are at least five Irish speakers, including myself, in the group, but the Polish version is proving more of a challenge. This week a Polish friend of one of the group members came along to help us with the pronunciation, so we now have a rough idea of what it sounds like. I also found a recording of the Polish version on YouTube.
We’ll probably just sing the first and last lines of the Polish and the rest in English as we’re not sufficiently confident to sing the whole of it.
I found translations of Silent Night in many different languages here, and plan to put some of them on Omniglot in my songs section. Do you have any suggestions for other multilingual songs I could include?
I have to say “uśmiechnięta” is feminin. No man should say “Jestem uśmiechnięta” 😀
That reminds me when during quite long time I was greeting my Thai friend with “Sawadikaa” how woman say “hello”. She had good laugh 😀
However, there are only “św-” that would be difficult for Czech speaker. Your Polish friends will be joyful if you try all of the song; they’ll love it.
Most of people know only how to swear in Polish 🙁
Disney do a lot of songs in other languages, but I’m not sure you want to turn the page into a Disney lyrics book. 😉
What sort of songs are you looking for? I can think of a few artists who sing their songs in more than one language, and I can also think of a few covers which are in another language, although they’re not by the same artist.
What a small world it is! I’ve met this girl singing in the video, couple years ago. She lives only few kilometers from my hometown 🙂
How about “El Noi de la Mare” – Catalan & English lyrics plus access to midi file of tune at:
http://home.pcisys.net/~pwebber/midi_source.htm
It would be cool if you sang Silent Night in the original German. Much of the meaning was lost in the English translation. I get so much more out of the song when it is sung in German.
Hi Simon,
Singing concert outside would be wonderful around this season,
when it could be cold though, Hammersmith is close to Earl’s Court where the B&D I stayed is located in London, isn’t it?
I wish your singing group will give a great performance with flying colours.
Yuko
“Dormi, Dormi” is a sweet song in Italian. It’s a lullaby for the newborn baby Jesus:
Dormi, dormi bel bambin
Re divin, re divin
Fala nanna fantalino
Re divin, Re divin
fala nanna fantalino
Fa la la la la la ….
Sleep, o sleep my lovely child
King divine, king divine
Close your eyes and sweetly slumber
King divine, king divine
Close your eyes and sweetly slumber
Fa la la la la la …
ever tried Polish tongue twisters?:) eg: w Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie..:) (literally: a beetle buzzes among the reeds in Szczebrzeszyn)
pob lwc with that one:)