Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Póg mo thóin
It's funny how some words in one language, mean something completely different in other language. One of most unfortunate case of that is naming some global brand with some fictional name, which turns out to mean something in one language. For example- car names. Even in related languages one word might have two completely different meanings. For example- Czech word for blowing air into (for example a balloon..) means in most South-Slavic languages (including Slovene) to do... you know- the F word. ;-)
I remember visiting Ireland in July 1997. We were in these traditional pub in Kilkenny, and there was a music session in progress. All of the sudden the musician started singing a song, which to me sounded virtually impossible to understand. Due to accent some Irish are hard to understand even when they are sober. And this time I was rather confused- musician didn't look that drunk (true, there were 3 empty glasses infront of him, but that's no match for real Irishman). What I did seem to understand was, that now and there he was saying F... this, and F... that (this and that being words I didn't understand either). Well, I don't mind a bit of cursing, but it was still strange hearing that much in one song, so I asked my friend what was going on. Well, as it turned out, musician was singing song in Irish - "An Poc ar Buile" (The mad puck goat). And what (at least to me) sounded like F word was actually "An Poc". Well check the video, and you'll see what I was talking about. And yes- of course my comment caused some laughs in that pub. ;-)
And just in case you were wondering what the title means- it's basically your simple "Kiss my ass" in Irish. You didn't think the punk band like Pogues would name themselves after Barbie doll, would you? Anyways, it doesn't sound at all like what it means, so if you want to blow some steam without insulting people- there you go. And if you need something more exotic, try this. ;-)
I remember visiting Ireland in July 1997. We were in these traditional pub in Kilkenny, and there was a music session in progress. All of the sudden the musician started singing a song, which to me sounded virtually impossible to understand. Due to accent some Irish are hard to understand even when they are sober. And this time I was rather confused- musician didn't look that drunk (true, there were 3 empty glasses infront of him, but that's no match for real Irishman). What I did seem to understand was, that now and there he was saying F... this, and F... that (this and that being words I didn't understand either). Well, I don't mind a bit of cursing, but it was still strange hearing that much in one song, so I asked my friend what was going on. Well, as it turned out, musician was singing song in Irish - "An Poc ar Buile" (The mad puck goat). And what (at least to me) sounded like F word was actually "An Poc". Well check the video, and you'll see what I was talking about. And yes- of course my comment caused some laughs in that pub. ;-)
And just in case you were wondering what the title means- it's basically your simple "Kiss my ass" in Irish. You didn't think the punk band like Pogues would name themselves after Barbie doll, would you? Anyways, it doesn't sound at all like what it means, so if you want to blow some steam without insulting people- there you go. And if you need something more exotic, try this. ;-)
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Pikapolonica
I've been a bit busy lately with work, and with getting our folklore group web page online (check it out here, though for now it's Slovene only). It might take me a little while more to switch from very busy to not so busy, so in the meanwhile- here's a video of one of my favorite songs. The English translation of the title would be lady bug, but don't worry- it's not about insect world. ;-)
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