I went begging to the birds
And each of them gave me
A feather.
A high one from the vulture,
A red one from the bird of paradise,
A green one from the hummingbird,
A talking one from the parrot,
A shy one from the ostrich-
Oh, what wings I’ve made for myself.
I’ve attached them to my soul
And I’ve started to fly.
High flight of the vulture,
Red flight of the bird of paradise,
Green flight of the hummingbird,
Talking flight of the parrot,
Shy flight of the ostrich-
Oh, how I’ve flown!
Let’s start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with A-B-C
When you sing you begin with do-re-mi
Do-re-mi, do-re-mi
The first three notes just happen to be
Do-re-mi, do-re-mi
Maria:
Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti
spoken Let’s see if I can make it easy
Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long, long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow Sew
Tea, a drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to Do (oh-oh-oh)
Maria and Children:
(Repeat above verse twice)
Maria:
Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do
So-do!
Maria:(spoken)
Now children, do-re-mi-fa-so and so on
are only the tools we use to build a song.
Once you have these notes in your heads,
you can sing a million different tunes by mixing them up.
Like this.
So Do La Fa Mi Do Re
spoken Can you do that?
Children:
So Do La Fa Mi Do Re
Maria:
So Do La Ti Do Re Do
Children:
So Do La Ti Do Re Do
Maria:
spoken Now, put it all together.
Maria and Children:
So Do La Fa Mi Do Re, So Do La Ti Do Re Do
Maria:
spoken Good!
Brigitta:
spoken But it doesn’t mean anything.
Maria:
spoken So we put in words. One word for every note. Like this.
When you know the notes to sing
You can sing most anything
spoken Together!
Maria and Children:
When you know the notes to sing
You can sing most anything
Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long, long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow Sew
Tea, a drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to Do
Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do
Do Ti La So Fa Mi Re
Children:
Do Mi Mi
Mi So So
Re Fa Fa
La Ti Ti
(Repeat above verse 4x as Maria sings)
Maria:
When you know the notes to sing
You can sing most anything
Maria and Children:
Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long, long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow Sew
Tea, a drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to
Maria:
Children:
Do . . . So Do
Re . . . La Fa
Mi . . . Mi Do
Fa . . . Re
So . . . So Do
La . . . La Fa
Ti . . . La So Fa Mi Re
Ti Do - oh - oh Ti Do — So Do
La Cigale, ayant chanté
Tout l’été,
Se trouva fort dépourvue
Quand la bise fut venue:
Pas un seul petit morceau
De mouch ou devermisseau.
Elle alla crier famine
Chez la Fourmi sa voisine,
La priant de lui prêter
Quelque grain pour subsister
Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle.
« Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle,
Avant l’Août, foi d’animal,
Intérêt et principal. »
La Fourmi n’est pas prêteuse:
C’est là son moindre défaut.
« Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ?
Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse.
— Nuit et jour à tout venant
Je chantais, ne vous déplaise.
— Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise.
Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »
English
The cicada, having sung
All summer,
Was extremely deprived
When the north wind came:
Not one small piece
Of fly or small worm.
She went to plead famine
At the house of her neighbor the Ant,
Asking him to lend her
Some grain to survive
Until the new season.
“I will pay you,” she says to him,
“Before August, faith of animal,
Interest and the principal”
The Ant is not a lender:
That is its least defect.
“What did you do in warm weather?”
He says to the borrower.
“Night and day all came
I sang, not displeasing you.”
“You sang? I am relieved.
Well! Dance now.”
From sunny countries and skies blue
From which last automn-tide you flew,
Return, dear birds, where you belong,
Most welcome, you!
The woods, bereft of leaf and song,
Weep for they have missed you too long.
In the eternal dome of azure
Did you not dream with longside pleasure
Of what you left? Did you not sigh
For dear Home’s leisure?
Or cry when seeing in the sky
The clouds that northwardly did hie?
You sang to Nature paeans fraught
With holiness, strangers you taught
Our soulful doinas when, at times,
Of us you thought.
But did you tell them that their rhymes
Excle all those of other climes?
Now you come home - and you will see,
Again, the wood, the field, the lea,
Your nests in groves, so warm and deep;
‘Tis summer, verily.
I feel I have a mind to leap,
To laugh for joy, for joy to weep!
You come accompanied by flowers,
By gentle winds and sun-warmed showers,
And nights so rife with honey-dew,
And cheerful hours.
You thus take everything with you,
And bring back everything anew.
From their sleep of darkest night
From where they stayed away from beauty
Return again the orchards home
In flowery dresses reaching to the ground.
It’s Primăvara, again Primăvara
On every boundary of the trail
The ancestors are pushing out their fingers
Of Snowdrops, of Lilies, of Mountain-Violets.
Again the scent of fields is felt
Again the Sun is throwing measles down
At the elaborate song of the Lark
Burst out the harvests’ heads.
The day is spreading all around with Sparrows
In forests Cuckoos have again assaulted
The birds are fighting with their songs in swords
And bring their voices in for sharpening.
It’s Primăvara, again Primăvara
On every boundary of the trail
The ancestors are pushing out their fingers
Of Snowdrops, of Lilies, of Mountain-Violets
Melc, melc codobelc
Scoate coarne boureşti
Că te duc la baltă,
Şi-ţi dau apă caldă,
Şi te duc la Dunăre,
Şi-ti dau apă tulbure,
Şi te sui pe un buştean,
Să mănânci …leuştean
It is a game in which all the children sing the following song:
“The stone bridge is falling down,
The water came and took it away.
We will build another one down the river,
A more lasting and beautiful one.”
There are two children who choose a name which usually is the name of a precious stone or valuable things and then they lift their hands and touch them standing face to face. The other children hold hands to one another and pass under the “bridge” made by the bodies and the hands of the two children. Everybody is singing and when the song is ready one of the children is “caught” in the very moment he/she passes under the bridge.
The three children go a little further and talk. The caught child has to choose between the two names and he will then follow the one he has chosen and stay behind him, holding him with his both arms. They will go back and the children will continue the game. After the last child has been “caught”, they hold one another and the two children who were the bridge hold hands and the others behind them, according to the name they have chosen, start to pull in opposite directions, until the stronger party wins. The game is ready and it may be begin again.
