Rhyming a sentence in foreign languages

[Paul Fierlinger]

I am animating a scene showing sailors singing a song in several languages. I use cartoon balloons instead of voice overs (graphics novel style) and need help in translating this sentence into several languages, but the sentence must also rhyme as in the English below:

GO TO YOUR WIFE AND SAY, VEGETABLES EVERY DAY

I specifically need it in French, German, Russian, and Spanish, but any other language such as Arabic or Hebrew would be useful as well. If you want to help me, please type the sentence using the language's native alphabet. Hint: to make the sentence rhyme, you might have to construct it in a different way, such as, "Tell your wife and say..." or "Wife, I tell you, vegetables every day!" etc. Many, many thanks to those who want to help me out...

[slowtiger]

Do they want vegetables, or do they want to leave the wife because of everyday vegetables?

[Paul Fierlinger]

They want vegetables and they are being told to ask their wives to make something with vegetables everyday. This is the 19th century and sailors understand that to prevent scurvies they must eat a lot of vitamin C so they sing this little sea shanty in which they mock their wives for serving them nothing but vegetables which they toss at each other. These are members of gun boats patrolling their local waters (the Strait of Magellan) and return every week to their homes. In those days Punta Arenas was a thriving city with a gold rush, animal furs and a coaling station so there were many foreigners drawn to the inhospitable land, primarily from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

[slowtiger]

"Deiner Frau sei's eingebläut / daß Gemüse uns erfreut!" (Beat it into your wife / that fresh fruit save our life!)
"Sagt es deutlich euren Frauen / daß wir auf Gemüse bauen!" (Tell it clearly to your women / that we trust on vegetables)
"Kauft die Frau Gemüs' und Obst / achte drauf, daß du sie lobst!" (If the wife buys frut and vegetables / take care to praise her)

[Klaus Hoefs]

Simple translation: (German), with a bit of slang -

Geh' zu deinem Weib und sag:
Gemüse, jeden Tag !


@Markus:
Your suggestions are sounding to me like s.th. among Goethe and Eichendorff or that kind, right ? Sailor's language was a bit different ... and probably still is.

[slowtiger]

So waht? One should never miss an opportunity to play with language. As Dr. Erika Fuchs did with her translations of Donald Duck: "Wir wollen sein ein einig Volk von Brüdern, in keiner Not uns waschen, noch Gefahr!"

[Paul Fierlinger]

Very funny!!! Please keep it up. Klaus, could you translate yours please? The shorter the better, of course, but it could be amusing to have them all short except for the one in German.. BTW, there's a note by Slocum in his book that he was pleasantly surprised by how educated these sailors and their officers were and that he had a great time with them (Slocum had only a fourth grade education but was self taught from being a voracious reader.)

[chatbraque]

1 - Va voir ta belle et dis lui : " J'veux des légumes jours et nuit !" (…" donne moi des légumes jour et nuit")
(go to your wife and say, vegetables night and day")

2 -"Va dire à ta belle : "j'veux des légumes dans ma gamelle !""
"go to your beauty and say : I want vegetables in my dish")

"Va dire à ta belle : "jette tes légumes dans ma gamelle !""
"go to your beauty and say : throw your vegetables in my dish")
… "gamelle" is a nice slang word very 19 ème… "ta belle" sounds 19 ème too… it' not much "in use" nowadays

variation in "direct" style :
- "Hisse et Oh!* ma belle !… verse tes légumes dans ma gamelle!"
("Hisse et Oh my beauty… put your vegetables in my dish"… hisse et Oh ! it's a genuine and very well known sailor expression… and suitable for the 19 ème)

3 - "Dis à ton tendre amour : 'faut qu'j'mange des légumes tous les jours""
"tell your wife : "my love, I must eat vegetables every day""… this one doesn't sounds particularly "19 éme" (it's not "old fashioned" nor "sailor language")

4- "Va, demande à ta bien-aimée, un tas de légumes pour la carrée"
"Go !ask your beloved, a heap of vegetables for the "carrée""
( "bien-aimée" is nice and very 19eme s… "carrée" is the place where the officiers are eating (it' a "sailor" (navy) expression)

5- "Triple buse !… pèle des légumes pour la cambuse !"
"triple buse" ! peels vegetables for the "cambuse"" …
"triple buse" is slang, gently insulting, but fun and not really rude (it's the way a father or a chief reprimands a bad children or soldier)… in "Tintin", the capitaine Haddock (sailor) does use it a lot ! (even funnier… but it does'nt sound childish in this case))… "cambuse" is the place where sailors (not the officiers) are eating… it's a "navy" expression too (and it's a sailor way of speaking ! (a bit rude)… not suitable for an officer)

9- "Disons le tout net à nos femmes, sans légume la bouffe est infâme !" (sounds "Offenbach" to me )
"let's say it clearly to our brides, a meal without vegetable is vile"

A sailor from south of France (maybe not what you need )
"Dis lui : Oh ! ma Chichette!… verse l'aïoli dans l'assiette" !
"avé l'assent" untranslatable, but it means the same than the formers, something like : "Darling, put vegetables in my plate"…
(I'm dying to see how google translator will fix it ) ( I guess, you can forget this one )

[Paul Fierlinger]

Chatbraque (and other's possibly ahead) would you please give me the English translation? I am afraid if I take it to google translation I could still get a distorted sense of the sentence. And thanks for helping!

[chatbraque]

literally translated :
"Demande à ton tendre amour, un plat de légumes chaque jour"

or :
"Demande à ton tendre amour, des légumes tous les jours"

[Peter Wassink]

...Klaus, could you translate yours please?...

Klaus translated the sentence literally!

a dutch one:

Vraag het je vrouw met een lach, groente elke dag
(ask it your wife with a smile, vegetables every day)

[Paul Fierlinger]

I know; I shortly afterwards went to google and found out -- I don't know why, but I never expected that.

[Klaus Hoefs]

"Weib" (wife, broad) is seldom used in German today ,--- slightly it has also a scornful meaning ("weibisch" sein) and it is opposite to the more neutral or positive "weiblich" ( female ) /// it defines traditional roles: a man says what a woman has to do or what she is not allowed to do.

" Geh' " is a slanguage from " Gehe " ( go ), it is starting an unambiguous imperative sentence, which is finishing with the slogan " Gemüse, jeden Tag ! " (= Vegetables Every Day ).
A slogan has to be short and precise, easy to understand for everyone. For s.th. like shanties it should also have rhythm, simple rhymes can do this.


But Markus is offering also some fine translations, which are given the song an ironic semantic level for today's listeners, I think.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Well, I might use both because this is the 19th century and men certainly spoke that way to "their women". But at the same time my worry is the length of the sentences so I might be forced by the rhythm of the shanty to go for only the short ones. Peter, is it possible to come up with a shorter one in Dutch as well? How about a very short one in French too? Possible or impossible?

[chatbraque]

impossible?

… is not french !
… but :  "short"… "19eme"… "sailor like" … pfuuu !!!… ( who's helping ?)

J'aurais encore :
- Va, demande à Margot, des légumes à gogo !
Go, ask Margot lot of vegetables
Margot is a girl name that is used in traditional french songs to design a woman waiting for her man to be back home… "à gogo" means "a lot"… it' is "slang" but maybe a bit too XX ème s… I'm not sure.

- Va, demande à Fanchon, des légumes à foison !
Same meaning … "Fanchon" is for girlfriend in traditional (military) french songs

- Demande à Madelon, des légumes à foison !
same thing, but "madelon" is for a woman that serves wine or food to soldier (not really a wife)… and sounds more XX ème (14/18) than XIX ème s…