s,o) Uke-Song: "BABEL-TALKY", multilingual version of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky"

PASTICHE with SONG-LYRICS

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: "Jabberwocky" was included in Lewis Carroll's  children's novel "Through the Looking Glass" in 1871, although he had published a short variation of it much earlier as "Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry".

SETTING TO MUSIC: Donovan, 1971.

TRANSLATION INTO OTHER LANGUAGES: Renditions of the classic nonsense poem in various languages can be found in a collection of translations into 29 other languages on the web, although the site appears to have been inactive recently.
COLLATION: Giorgio Coniglio 2014, updated 2016.

PARODY-LYRICS LINK: To return to the corresponding post on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" (and to see the lyrics without the chord-chart indications) click HERE. 

A major tip of the hat to Mike Simmons and John Colosetti for helping find usable ukelele chords.

BABEL-TALKY

 (to the the tune of "Jabberwocky" - Donovan)

(ANGLO-SAXON - Lewis Carroll, 1855)

'Twas bryllyg, and ye slythy toves

Did gyre and gymble in ye wabe.

All mimsy were ye borogoves,

And ye mome raths outgrabe.

(GERMAN - Robert Scott)

"Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch!

Die Zähne knirschen, Krallen kratzen!

Bewahr' vor JubJub-Vogel, vor

Frumiösen Banderschnatchen.   

(ITALIAN - Adriana Crespi)

Afferò quello la sua vorpi da lama

A lungo il manson nemico cercò

Cosí sostò presso l'albero Touton

E riflettendo alquanto dimorò.  

(FRENCH - Frank Warrin)

Pendant qu'il pense, tout uffusé,

Le Jaseroque, à l'oeil flambant,

Vient sifflant par le bois tullegeais,

Et burbule en venant.    

(JAPANESE - Tim Matheson)

Ichi, ni! Ichi, ni! mattaku kanzen ni 

Sakisakiken wa kusukusu waratta  

Shanoshi nokoshi kubi wo mochi

Ikiyouyou to koke kaetta 

(HEBREW - Ahaton Amir)

"Af ketalto, et hapiton?

Achabkecha, yaldi hatzach!

Ho yom-tzilha! Yabah! yabah!"

B'chedvato  patzach. 

(PORTUGUESE - Augusto de Campos)

Era briluz. as lesmolisas touvas

roldavam e reviam nos gramilvos:

Estavam mimsicais as pintalouvas,

E os mommiratos davam grilvos.

(RUSSIAN - E. Orlova and O. Demurova)

Varkalos'. Khivikie shor'ki
Pyryalis' po nave,

I khryukotali zelyuki
Kak myumziki v move.

(SPANISH  - E. Alvarez-Buylla)

Era el briño, y los logrosos

Giraban y mangaban en al panal:

Tan debrable los bogrosos,

Y aún los rantopos salgabran.

(ARABIC - W. Al-Mahdi)

Jarâdhilu l-wâbi dhuhâ

Tadarbahat tadarbuhâ

Mufarfirun tanahnaha
Wa tâ'iru  l-burburi fahâ.

(CLASSIC - Lewis Carroll, 1871)

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Performing Notes 

(sung to the classic 'English' poem, per Donovan)

'Twas [Dm] bryllyg, and ye [C] slythy [Dm] toves

Did [Bb] gyre and [Dm] gymble [Gm] in ye [Dm] wabe.

All [Dm] mimsy were ye [C] boro[Dm]goves,

And ye [Bb] mome [Gm] raths out[A]grabe.

 etc.....

Wordy Uke-Song: "REDUPLICATIONS, L to Z"

SONG with UKULELE CHORDS

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: "The Elements", Tom Lehrer, 1959.


Hawaiian sign



PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015. This song is the eighth of nine in the series on Word-Pairs.


PARODY-WORDLINK: To return to the corresponding post on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" (and to see the lyrics without the chord-chart indications) click HERE.

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ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS
Click on any chord chart to enlarge and enter thumbnail mode (the slides for both the parody and the original versions can then be enlarged and viewed in any order). 

The remaining 6 slides in Lehrer's original song, "The Elements" can be viewed as a supplement to our parody-song-blogpost "No Elements". Click HERE to proceed.

There’s lazy Daisy, loosey-goosey, Ling Ling, and lickety-split

And lovey-dovey, legal eagle, mellow yellow, and nitwit

And mumbo-jumbo, muck-a-muck, Mau Mau, Bony Moronie

And Mai Tai, mole hole, nitty-gritty, phony (fake)-baloney.

There’s namby-pamby, no-no, ooey-gooey, okey-doke, ping pong

And pom-pom, palsy-walsy, pasty-faced, slap-happy, singalong
And pow-wow, pitter-patter, pooper-scooper, plain Jane, and pell-mell
And poo-poo (scat), pooh-pooh (reject), and pupu (snack). How can you tell?

There's quick fix, quack-quack, razzle-dazzle, rail trail, ragtag, ring-aling

And razzmattaz, and rumble-tumble, Roger dodger, and Sing Sing.

And ready Freddy, rollick-frolic, “fuddle-duddle” (P. Trudeau)

And roly-poly, rinky-dink and super-duper, or so-so.

There's shock jock, sure cure, snip-snap, sci-fi, smartcart, 

       shipshape, stun(ning) gun,

And silly billy, speed read, shilly-shally, squish-squash, stumblebum

And shady lady, seesaw, space race, Star Wars, snail mail, PigglyWig'

And tutti-frutti, tittle-tattle, tiki, tip-top, thing'majig.

There's teeter-totter, tootsie-wootsie, teentsie-weentsie, and tee-tee

And tom-toms drumming, tartar, tum-tum, tattle-tale, uh-huh, TV
And tubby-wubby, wishy-washy, willy-nilly, woman’s womb

And walkie-talkie, wingding, yo-yo, yoo-hoo! zig-zag and zoom-zoom.

                       Ta-Dah !!!

This song represents the ninth in the cycle of 10 sets of our parody-lyrics dealing with word-pairs. 

HOT LINKS to the SONGS in the WORD-PAIR CYCLE (Updated, 2021)  

Uke-friendly versions here on "Silly Songs and Satire"

Pairs

Alliterative Binomials, part #1

Alliterative Binomials, part #2

Rhyming Binomials, A to L

Rhyming Binomials, M to Z

Reduplications - Lesson

Reduplications - Lexicon A to K

Reduplications - Lexicon L to Z

Legal Doublets

Limerick-Uke-Saga: "ITALIAN TREATS", with a supplement

UKE-SONG, derived from lyrics of a multi-verse limerick

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: For this post, we will use the melody for the verses of the 1960 hit "The Anniversary Song", as explained HERE.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, 2017.

POETRY-LYRICS: The lyrics were originally composed in limerick format (3 verses, a 'brief saga') and submitted to OEDILF, an online humour dictionary, by Giorgio Coniglio in 2017. They can be found published as a blogposted poem on, "DAILY ILLUSTRATED NONSENSE". Click HERE.

 

SUPPLEMENT: MORE ITALIAN TREATS

SONGLINK (note in followup): As of February 2018, another Italian song with Giorgio's substituted lyrics about Italian food can be found on this blog -- see "Filastrocca: PISA'S LEAN TRATTORIA" (set to the classic tune of "Santa Lucia"). 

Readers may be delighted to find some more singable limericks about Italian treats, provided here as a free supplement to today's offerings!

For better or worse, the verses below have been set to music using the standard "Limerick Song". 

WORDPLAY LINK: Folks who enjoyed these song might also be keenly interested in the posts on our wordplay-and-poetry blog Edifying Nonsense entitled "The Culinary World Explored With Palindromes", and "Limericks about Food Intolerance".