tisdag 11 januari 2011

Waltzing Matilda

Denna sida ar helt och hallet agnad at Australiens inofficiella hymn " Waltzing Matilda", den sjongs av de Australiska soldaterna i bade fortsa och andra varldskriget och alla skolbarn kan den." Idas Sommarvisa", slang dig i vaggen

(.Med tekniken hjalp skall vi val sa smaningom kunna lagga till lite ljudfiler har. Vi har dock inte hunnit dit annu. Tiden ar begransad, tyvarr kommer texten inte in som jag vill, med ratta rader, jag jobbar pa det ! Far duga sa lange )

Waltzing Matilda
unoffical National Anthem of Australia
Lyrics by
 A.B. Paterson

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a
coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
 "Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
 "Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong
: Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee
 And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker-bag,
 "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
 Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
" And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker-bag
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."
Up rode a squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred;
Down came the troopers, one, two, three:
 "Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag?
 You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!
 Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag?
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"
Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong;
 "You'll never catch me alive!" said he
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
 "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
 "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"

Waltz Matilda:  ar ett uttryck som betyder”ga pa luffen med ett knyte pa axeln”
* swagman: en luffare som bar sina agodelar bland annat en rullad filt i ett knyte pa axeln.
* billabong: en nastan stillastaende vattensamling ofta del av en meanderbildad langsam flod "
* coolibah tree: eukalyptustrad
 * waited till his billy boiled: billy betyder tunnt kokkarl for att koka the och kaffevatten.
 * jumbuck:  “far” eller "sheep"
 * tucker-bag: vaska eller lada som anvands for att lagra mat. “Matvaska”.
* squatter:  en extremt rik faragare med manga far. I Europa betyder det “Husockupant”.

 * trooper: ridande polis eller soldat.




Har foljer historien bakom Walzing Matilda fast pa engelska. Hoppas det gar bra anda !



Banjo Paterson was an average solicitor, but a much-loved poet. Great literature his works may not be, but they captured much about the life of the time.
Paterson worked in Sydney, but was about 1,500 km (950 miles) north, in central Queensland, when he wrote the song. In January 1895, he was travelling with his fiancee Sarah Riley (the Irish element in Australian social history is pretty noticeable at times!). They stayed for a few weeks at Dagworth Station, a 100,000 hectare (400 square mile) property near Winton. There he met an old schoolmate of Sarah's, Christina Macpherson, whose brother Bob managed the station.
At some stage during the rainy visit (it was the middle of 'the Wet'), Christina played a version of a tune called 'Craigeelee'. Some renditions say that she played it on an instrument called an
autoharp, but Richard Magoffin quotes Paterson himself to the effect that it was in fact played on a zither. Unfortunately the term zither is used, and has long been used, to refer to many of a large family of stringed instruments (hence, for example, it could have been an autoharp - which is a fairly specific descriptor - but Paterson could have used the generic sense of 'zither' to refer to it). Here's one history of the zither. The main page contains some second-hand information and some interpretive comments on the tune.
Over dinner at the station, Paterson first heard the experssion " WALZING MATILDA Soon afterwards, Bob Macpherson took Paterson to Combo Waterhole nearby, where they stumbled across the skin of a newly killed sheep.
Another formative influence may have been a recent incident on the property, that must have become known to Paterson. This was the period during which unionisation emerged in Australia, and the sheep-shearers were fighting the graziers for better wages and conditions. On 1 September 1894, a mere four months earlier, shearers had set the Dagworth woolshed ablaze, cremating a hundred sheep. Macpherson and three police troopers had pursued them. One had shot himself (out of remorse at killing sheep?? More likely, to avoid capture). The man's name was Hoffmeister.
So it's to be presumed that Paterson linked a dead sheep at the billabong, presumably killed by a swagman, with some details from the pursuit and presumed defiance of a shearer with a German name. (Sort-of kills the romance, dunnit?!).
One aspect that seems odd is that the song gives the impression of remarkable sympathy for the plight of the working class in the face of the power of the land-owners and their friends the police. Did Bob and Christina Macpherson really enjoy hosting someone who wrote songs that romanticised their opponents?? This explanation, which may have been originated by Magoffin, is not without its critics. I'm told by a correspondent that, in Stuart Svensen's self-published book - 'Industrial War: The great strikes 1890-94' published in 1995 (RAM Press - self published), in a chapter on the origins of Waltzing Matilda, Svenson favours an older theory: "A squatter and three policemen are on a ride; they spot a swagman who has stolen a sheep; the swagman escapes arrest by diving into a waterhole. End of story". Svenson gives his reasons in the book, which comes down to 'logical consistency and parsimony'. Svensen also wrote 'The Shearers' War. The Story of the 1891 Shearers' Strike' (University of Queensland Press, 1989). Svenson's anti-romantic version appears to be supported by no actual evidence.
Whatever the strains [sic] that may have emerged between hosts and guests, Christina wrote up
the score for the song, the original words were revised a couple of times to improve its 'feel' and singability, it was sung at a banquet for the Premier of Queensland on 6 April 1895, and it travelled (via the local horse-races, of course) throughout the State. It was then picked up by the company that sold what was to become another Australian icon, Billy Tea, to use in an advertisement.
By the time of the Great War, twenty years later, it was the country's favourite song (and at least for those odd occasions when patriotism takes hold, it still is). In 1900, Paterson had sold the rights to the verse, along with a few other pieces, for five quid, to another Australian icon, the publishing house Angus & Robertson. So his reputation gained from it, but hardly his pocket. (Sounds like the squatters won again, right?).


Whatever its origins and the fate of the intellectual property, the song encapsulates so much about Australians: a highly urban society of people who like to think of themselves as rugged, independent country folk, standing up against authority. (For an encore, I'd better pull together some lit. crit. on Crocodile Dundee ...)
 













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