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This CD of Slovenian X-mas songs is available on Amazon.
Caroling in Slovenia is an old, old, old tradition — mentioned already in the 16th century. It doesn’t seem to be as popular anymore. But it does exist; there’s even a readily available CD to buy.
Some of the titles are a bit, I don’t know, difficult to imagine in a traditionally festive context. I certainly can’t imagine Bing Crosby crooning stuff like Blood from the Butchering (Track 4) or I’m Old and Sick. (Track 25) Although I’d certainly love to hear it.
You can preview some of the carols here at Amazon, or over at Allmusic.
(Thanks Tron!)
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Huh, indeed I am a child of socialism… I keep forgetting about “koledovanje”. Good thing you’re around to remind me.
And I thought Last Christmas by Wham was a carol…
Uh, the translation of the fourth song is not “Blood from the butchering”, because “keri” (literary - “kdo” or “kateri”) is “who” and “kri” is “Blood”. So I guess that translation would be: “who is going to have the butchering” or something like that.
BTW, my dictionary says that “koline” means “pork and sausage”, but i don’t know if it refers to an act or something else… :):):)
n.
“Koline” is just about everything: it is the act of killing a pig (it used to be done with a little help from one’s friends and relatives, but this is forbidden nowadays I was told), cutting it up, putting it away (freezer/cellar) and eating and drinking and making merry all the while. It is also a course of certain foods that one prepares and eats at that time and for some time afterwards. Pork, sausage, but also turnips and even blood and brains and stuff.
Just when I thought that Amazon managed to avoid mistakes on a page devoted to Slovenia, I noticed a reference to another CD, “Folk Music & Songs of Slovinia”. Oh, well.
Despite ninnqua’s correction, there’s still plenty of gore on this CD; Just take a look at the lyrics for “Pobelelo pole” (written in an old Bela Krajina dialect):
Pobelelo pole z ovcama.
Ne imale ovce Ä?obana.
VeÄ? maleno dete Jakove.
ÄŒobanÄ?e je leglo, zaspalo.
Vile su mu srce vadile.
»Ali poznaš, sinko, koje so?«
Ti si, majku, srce vadila.
Sestrica je tanjor držala,
Ljubica je milo plakala.
Tebi Ä?u ja, majko, odprostit.
Sestri Ä?u ja srce izvadit.
A lubo Ä?u verno poljubit.”
The song is about a shepherd boy’s heart being cut out by his mother while his sister helped her and his girfriend cried, and the boy then vowing to cut out his sister’s heart in revenge (but managing to forgive his mother). Of course, all of this has a symbolic meaning but it still isn’t something Bing Crosby would have sung.
BTW, the group Katalena did a wonderful modern version of this classic, which you can watch here:
www.katalena.net/vsebina.cgi?up=&kategorija=22781372071108723894&ozadje=1
The fourth song is about blood from the butchering-Keri ce koline meti(song about butchering the slaughtered pig) singer from Tomaz/Stajerska,recorded 1999
www.mytempdir.com/1124336
But being from Prekmurje this is the nicest song on the record
www.mytempdir.com/1124349
Stara sem bolana sem
www.mytempdir.com/1124357
Panpipe, Fran Laporsek from Podlehnik,Stajerska,recorded 1009
why such gore? i have to ask…
“Ordinary” people singing Pobelelo pole
www.mytempdir.com/1124440
Because that was what life was all about in the good old days
BTW, since I’m fascinated by dialects, here’s my translation of “Pobelelo pole” into Standard Slovene (in bold):
Pobelelo pole z ovcama.
Z ovcami pobeljeno polje.
Ne imale ovce Ä?obana.
Niso imele ovce pastirja.
VeÄ? maleno dete Jakove.
Ampak malega otroka/fantka Jakova.
ÄŒobanÄ?e je leglo, zaspalo.
PastirÄ?ek je legel, zaspal.
Vile su mu srce vadile.
Vile so mu srce izkopale.
»Ali poznaš, sinko, koje so?«
»Ali veÅ¡, sinko/sinÄ?ek, Ä?igave so?”
Ti si, majku, srce vadila.
Ti, mati, si mi srce izkopala.
Sestrica je tanjor držala,
Sestrica je krožnik držala,
Ljubica je milo plakala.
Ljubica je milo jokala.
Tebi Ä?u ja, majko, odprostit.
Tebi, mati, bom oprostil.
Sestri Ä?u ja srce izvadit.
Sestri bom srce izkopal.
A lubo Ä?u verno poljubit.
Ljubo bom pa ? poljubil (I don’t know what “verno” means here — “faithfully”?)
This Bela Krajina dialect shows strong influences of Serbian and Croatian settlers known as Uskoks, who also brought “kolo” dancing to the region, but that’s another story.
Oh, and here’s my loose translation into English (I do this because of my Bela Krajina pride):
A field whitened with sheep,
The sheep have no shepherd,
But rather a boy named Jakov,
The shepherd-boy lay down and fell asleep,
His heart was cut out by a pitchfork,
“Do you know, son, whose it is?”
You, mother, cut out my heart,
My little sister held the plate,
My love cried.
I will forgive you, mother.
I will cut out my sister’s heart.
And I will kiss my love.
WWU: Great work! I always had trouble understanding true Bela Krajina dialect. And the “Ä?oban/pastir” translation… I’d never have guessed. The only bell that rang was “ÄŒobane, vrati se”, an album by Rambo Amadeus
Thanks, Pengovsky! I should point out that this is a really old and heavily Uskok-influenced text. Nowdays, the word “Ä?oban” is no longer used in Bela Krajina, but many other elements (such as first-syllable stress, the use of “znati” in place of “vedeti”, words such as “majka”, and so on) do survive.
The Uskoks started off as respectable people, who due to assorted problems became pirates, they lived on Vis and a few other of the Croatian Adriatic islands.
Later efforts by assorted nations broke up the Uskoks.
www.komiza.com/story2.htm
has some interesting information on them.
>And the “Ä?oban/pastirâ€? >translation… I’d never have >guessed. The only bell that >rang was “Čobane, vrati seâ€?, >an album by Rambo Amadeus
@pengovsky:
ÄŒobane, vrati se, tvoje ovce ne mogu bez tebe…
ÄŒoban is AFAIK standard Serbian word for a shepherd. Rambo, of course, talks about MiloÅ¡ević, who is still missed by some of his followers…
Čoban (çoban actually) is also standard Turkish for shepperd.
Oh and let’s not forget that one of the most popular Slovene pop groups was “Ashes and Blood” (Pepel in kri).
It s funny how close is the slovene language to slovak,it s pretty easy to understand the lyrics without have ever studied slovene.:)
Pole sa zbielilo ovcami,
ovce nemali pastiera,
len malé dieta Jakova,
Malý pastier zalahol a zaspal,
Vidle mu srdce prebodli,
VieÅ¡ synÄ?ek koho sú?
Ty mať moja,si mi srdce prebodla,
sestra tanier držala,
Moja láska len plakala,
Tebe mati odpustÃm,
sestre srdce prebodnem,
a moju lásku verne ľúbiť budem.