What's everyone up to right now?

[Cod]

Pricing up new tyres for my vehicle, this aint going to be cheap.

[Rev. Rye]

A few days ago, a bunch of random Wikipedia searches led me to Carl Michael Bellman. He was a famous singer-songwriter from Sweden active in the 1700s. I know the phrase singer-songwriter seems a tad anachronistic for an era where Mozart was still composing, but the more I look at it, the more convinced I am that this is probably the best word that still applies, since he was a poet whose work was all set to music (by him) and a composer whose music was all set to his poems.

One of the most famous of his works is this:





It was written in 1768, and the story behind it has him lying in the gutter, hung over so bad he's cursing his parents for having conceived him, even to the point where he's cursing whoever built the bed where the dirty deed was committed (although he is willing to make concessions if it was just upon a table). Then the tavern opens, and, as soon as he gets some hair of the dog, he's thankful for being alive.

I want badly to be able to perform this song, but I don't know Swedish. I know there are apparently professional translations of Bellman in English, particularly by Paul Britten Austin, but I have been able to find no leads on what a translation that isn't Google Translated would look like (and that leaves several words untranslated, particularly the "paulun" that I had to Wikipedia to find out what it even is). The only lead I've been able to find is that, apparently, Austin's translation is called "Ah, tell me mother," but I could find no other quotes from this version, and even that one I was only able to find on an archive.vn page that Firefox flat-out refused to open (Safari, however, has no such compunctions.) I managed to find a version of PBA's biography of Bellman, which appears to include some of the translations, but there's no word on whether this is one of them.

[Jackalope]

Chilling at the beach in front of the fireplace, sharing some edibles with my lovely wife.

[Angrboda]

Drinking coffee and listening to music. I scheduled myself to re-season my iron skillet this morning, but I don't feel like getting up off my arse. I finished the reading I have to do for the Little Canada book club last night, so there's that. I thought they had said the book was 280 pages long. It was only 80 pages long. So I came to the end a lot sooner than anticipated, given that I set a pace for 280 pages. And the reading for my philosophy group Monday is done, so I've got the time tonight.

[Gwaithmir]

Mahjong? Did someone say mahjong?

We play by Hong Kong rules.

[vulcanlogician]

I want badly to be able to perform this song, but I don't know Swedish. I know there are apparently professional translations of Bellman in English, particularly by Paul Britten Austin, but I have been able to find no leads on what a translation that isn't Google Translated would look like (and that leaves several words untranslated, particularly the "paulun" that I had to Wikipedia to find out what it even is).

Sweet tune.

And IMHO, the google translated version ain't so bad. Lol. It leaves me wondering if a more accurate translation won't be missing something.

[pocaracas]

Mahjong? Did someone say mahjong?

We play by Hong Kong rules.

hmmm.... I use classical Chinese rules, the ones in XMJ: http://mahjong.julianbradfield.org/

[Rev. Rye]

I want badly to be able to perform this song, but I don't know Swedish. I know there are apparently professional translations of Bellman in English, particularly by Paul Britten Austin, but I have been able to find no leads on what a translation that isn't Google Translated would look like (and that leaves several words untranslated, particularly the "paulun" that I had to Wikipedia to find out what it even is).

Sweet tune.

And IMHO, the google translated version ain't so bad. Lol. It leaves me wondering if a more accurate translation won't be missing something.

I'd beg to differ, especially when A) it leaves several words untranslated, and B) I'd actually like to be able to sing it in English. Maybe if there was a more human literal translation, I might be able to make a singable version (I've done it before), but at the moment, I'm still holding out hope that Paul Britten Austin put his translation of this song in his biography that I ordered.

Bizarrely, Martin Best has put out an album of some of Austin's translations, but "Ah, tell me mother" isn't one of them.





Also, Best's tenor doesn't seem to fit with Bellman. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he'd make a great Tamino, but it really doesn't seem right.

[vulcanlogician]

I'd beg to differ, especially when A) it leaves several words untranslated, and B) I'd actually like to be able to sing it in English. Maybe if there was a more human literal translation, I might be able to make a singable version (I've done it before), but at the moment, I'm still holding out hope that Paul Britten Austin put his translation of this song in his biography that I ordered.

Bizarrely, Martin Best has put out an album of some of Austin's translations, but "Ah, tell me mother" isn't one of them.

I meant to say I found it amusing. Hence the "lol." I don't know if you caught that. Maybe my tongue-in-cheek didn't convey itself so well in my post. But, even still, there may be some unintended poetry to be found in the mistranslation.

When you cool down,
Burn my blood in you.
You boarded the lock and boom
For your virginity.
For your virginity.

Regardless of the lyrics/translation, the song was pretty nice. Thanks for sharing.

[Cod]

On my way to IKEA... Oh joy!