A Greenland Tune / GRÓNSKÁ PÍSNIČKA
Translation: Marek Landry

   

Faraway in the north there lives in Greenland
An Eskimo girl with an Eskimo man
That it is freezing there is something unknown

They breakfast on ice cream and on snow cones
They sleep a lot there everything is just right

Six months of the year makes up a polar night
In spring they wake up and run out the doorway
Six months a year makes up a polar day

When the fresh snow falls more than ankle-deep there
they play cops and robbers along with the bears
It´s hard for the Eskimos to win the fight
In the snow the bears are never in sight

On Wednesday every week just when it s two
The head bear comes and he knocks on the igloo
Good afternoon Could I drop around shortly
I´ve brought you a bit of fish for your tea

The kettle on the stove heats a bubbling tea
Outside the dogs are stopping thieves from entry
The laughing is shaking throughout the igloo
The bear´s showing many neat tricks to do

So their life in the north could not be better
They can make fun out of a themometer
That it is freezing there is something unknown
for they´re all together and are at home

A Mouse at Summer´s End / MYŠ NA KONCI LÉTA
Translation: Marek Landry

 

Everyone is sleeping only we are up
We´re the last two in the whole house
I am writing a literature paper up
And following me she peeps out

A grey mouse from some field apparently
Summer´s end and reaping´s begun
But just think about how painful it could be
to be scythed and cut by someone

But it ´s not a pal in distress I´m thinking
Calmly stay and I´ll fit you in
Before someone comes you´ll rise in the morning
We´ll meet again at evening

Into the night we will both scratch together
You with your teeth and I a pen
That we have different coats is of no matter
But just our take on creation

It´s summer´s end and I am full of regret
killers are going through the land
If it harms you or not who can assess it
So I´m offering you asylum

 

At five a.m. tomorrow
Placed against the wall
I´ll toast before I go
to my health with vodka
I´ll tear off the blindfold then
in order to see sky above
and I ´ll think once again
of you my sweet love
na na na
And I will think of you my sweet love

At five a.m. tomorrow
The priest will come in
I´ll say it isn´t so
I´m not going to heaven
I have lived as I have lived
And in the same way I will die
I ´ve made a mess of it
and I ´ll face what comes by
na na na
I´ve made a mess of it what comes by

At five a.m. tomorrow
“Fire” the captain cues
Too bad I´ll never know
Future kisses from you
I´ll still wave at the sun
As sadness comes to me
You´re left here, my loved one
and you will be lonely
na na na
You´re left here, my loved one and lonely

At five a.m. tomorrow
You´ll wash the laundry
and some hay will be thrown
at the wall where I´ll be
so tend to the fire yet
and keep your sorrow out of sight
I beg you don´t forget
Don´t forget and live life
Na na na
Don´t forget about me and live life

GAUDEAMUS IGITUR

The maids went ahead

Completely barefooted

bearing Death´s effigy

The boys came after

With concealed flowers

and caps tilted slightly

Ref:

The geldings neighed behind their bars

The raven crowed the dawn hour

Behind that little barn of ours

Gaudeamus igitur

And when the wind had climbed

Death looked like a pine

completely left behind

It rattled through the trees

winter was unkind

the land lay in the freeze

Ref:

The geldings neighed behind their bars

The raven crowed the dawn hour

Behind that little barn of ours

Gaudeamus igitur

A procession of spring

Dressed as a nursling

that was slowing shifting

Their mouths were steaming

And the ice was jingling

T´was the Day of Three Kings

Ref:

The geldings neighed behind their bars

The raven crowed the dawn hour

Behind that little barn of ours

Gaudeamus igitur

The maids and  boys fled

The ice patches were cold

but their hopes couldn´t freeze

Two bells sounded

One was for the constables

The other for the theives

Ref:

The geldings neighed behind their bars

The raven crowed the dawn hour

Behind that little barn of ours

Gaudeamus igitur

Life´s Worth Living if It Can be Put in Song
/ Dokud se zpívá ještě se neumřelo
Translation: Marek Landry

   

From Teshin quarterly each hour trains drive away
Yesterday no sleep and not a chance to rest today
Saint Medard, my patron, tells me upstairs something´s wrong
But life´s worth living if it can be put in song

I´m buying a roll and salty breadsticks at the boothes
I have a heart for love and a head for pleasing tunes
I certainly know well from school what should done have been
But life´s worth living if it can be put in song

I stick another one into the ticket album
I left a moment ago there´s no possible end
Outside I see life as a folding book moves along
For life´s worth living if it can be put in song

A hundred times I have made false steps and have paid dear
Up and down up and down riding a roller coaster
Even if over me vultures are starting to throng
But life´s worth living if it can be put in song

From Teshin trains drive away to the ends of the earth
I pick the telephone up and ask: Folks are you there?
And from a great distance in my ears it came along
That´s life´s worth living if it can be put in song

Marjorie  /Mařenka

Do not weep, Marjorie, I´ll come, abide

I wanted to have you lean on my side

Our way is waiting through a bush of thorns

I´ll not leave my dear Marjorie forlorn

I´m going with a shirt  you a light coat

We lost the way right when we had set out

Throughout the dark night  two stars are twinkling

The Lord has left us without an inkling

Take my hand in such a winter as this

It won´t be easy or be effortless

For who knows it more  certainly than us

Expelled to the cold and to the darkness

The boats have gone and the birds have all flown

 He who is without sin cast the first stone

The truth and love are   what other men prize

And those who look back will be petrified

I am the groom and you are my betrothed

What could be waiting us along the roads

Don´t ask anyway It won´t be disclosed

 Behind the trees there are two hungry wolves

Those two wolves who have been physically scarred

The overthrow of angels from the stars

They do not answer, are silent, hungry

You are the only one my love only

The only one alive your perfect match

I´ll make a small fire from leaves of grass

till the tree barks can show how the flames lick

You´ll be Vochomůrka  I Kremilek

I´ll climb to the tree crown by the branches

The eye of the moon shows which our way is

Across pits, hollows or through a canyon  

We´ll go on show us some compassion…

The Camisole  /Košilka

Take off your camisole my precious love

The light of morning is a long way off

The light is far away the heart ´s closer

It´s lovely when people love each other

You are now here with me but once you ran

Noone has carressed you the way I can

Ice can conceal itself when waters stir

This is the last time now we ´ re together

Take off your camisole porcelain fine

You´re the most beautiful who could be mine

The red sky  up above as red as blood

You´ll be my first one and I your first love.

The Comet /Kometa

I spotted a comet  streaming across the sky

I wanted to sing to  it  but it left my sight

Disappeared in a parkland as a forest hind

In my eyes a few small  gold coins were left behind

I hid the coins under  an oak tree in the earth

When it flies once again  we will then not be here

We will then not be here  oh so futile and proud

I spotted a comet   and wanted to sing out

Ref: Of water,   of the grass,    of  the woods

of a death which we would allay if we could

of our love, of lost trust, of the Earth

and of all the people who ever lived on the planet here

The wagons are clinking  in the stellar stations

Mister Kepler described  heavenly relations

In the stellar glasses  I found out from my search 

the secret which we now  carry on our shoulders

a great and long standing  secret of creation

that only a person   gives birth to a person

that a root is connected  to the tree branches

the essence of our hopes  wanders through the cosmos

Ref: Of water,   of the grass,    of  the woods

of a death which we would allay if we could

of our love, of lost trust, of the Earth

and of all the people who ever lived on the planet here

I spotted a comet  as it were in relief

From the hand of an artist who is now deceased

I climbed up to the sky I wanted to touch it

My vanity had stripped  me completely naked

As a white marble stat ue carved out by David

I stood there and I searched   and I searched overhead

We will then not be here  oh so futile and proud

We will then not be here   the others will sing out

Ref: Of water,   of the grass,    of  the woods

of a death which we would allay if we could

of our love, of lost trust, of the Earth

and it will be a song about us and a comet

Three Small Piglets /Tři čuníci

Lined up in a row

Three small piglets go

In the mud they plod on

Through rain, sleet or snow

With no bags they go

The way they don´t  know

Setting off into the world,

singing gladly as they go

Ui, ui, ui (oink, oink) (squeal,squeal)

Left and right foot step 

Now front and the rear 

Three small piglets go, go

going together

Munching rye they go

Ears ring to and fro

Setting off into the world,

Singing gladly as they go

Ui, ui, ui, (oink, oink)

Cars are going there

Here the lorries go

Three small piglets, go, go

following their nose

Staring as they go

People do not know

For what these small piglets here are

Singing so gladly as they go

 Ui ui ui

When it starts to rain

a break in the cloud

They snuggle together

snout to little snout

In a lightning show

drops patter as they go

in the rain and in foul weather

singing gladly as they go

Ui Ui Ui

When they´re out of breath

When their hooves are sore

They sit at a small well

high above the shore

Looking down their nose

At their splashing toes

They rest there just for a moment

and on again as they go

After many years

since the world was named

three times they crossed the globe

there and back again

Lined up in a row

Look there there they go

Let´s go along with them and sing

gladly their song as we go

When They Took Me in the Army / Když mě brali za vojáka
Translation: Marek Landry

When they took me in the army

they shaved my head completely

I looked as if I were a moron

as all others around me – me-me-me

as all others around me

They confined me to my barracks

And began to instruct me

How to be a proper soldier,

how to protect my country- try-try-try

how to protect my country

In the room after we had lights out

I snuggled against the wall

I  blubbered out so nicely

for my love who I recalled-called-called-called

for my love who I recalled

When she came to see me in six months

I had a pneumonia bout

In the hall someone always came

so then nothing came about –out-out-out

so then  nothing came about

Do not cry, oh these eyes of mine

There´s nothing else she could do

A young girl needs to find love

so love she helped herself to–to-to-to

so  love she helped herself to

It was then in front of the gate

she met a  big-star major

He said that his quarters were just free

so she let him go with her-her-her-her

so she let him go with her

Why take interest in a soldier

when his  girl has let him down

Goodbye, Mr. Frankie Šrámek

This little song´s over now-now-now-now

How on earth did you like it?

It´s nothing special anyhow