Episode description
LL0210 - Pelyte Little Mouse
Hi there, this is Jack and I’m Romas and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where we offer the world the Lithuanian Language.
You might notice that we’re not recording in our normal studios today, a lot of echo here, but we’ll just have to deal with it.
According to Wikipedia, Antanas Mockus, of Bogota, Colombia, is the former mayor of that city and he is the son of Lithuanian immigrants. His full name is Aurelijus Rutenis Antanas Mockus Šivickas and as of 2010, he’s running for president of Colombia. He’s the frontrunner in recent polls and has a very good chance of becoming the next president of this South American country.
Today’s episode was inspired by listeners James of Kansas City and Ebed-Melech who both posted references to this nursery rhyme which is similar to the English, “this little piggy.” Thanks for the posts on the Lithuanian Out Loud blogpage, guys!
First, I want to mention we just went over half a million downloads of Lithuanian Out Loud episodes. We’ve started using a program that allows us to see where Lithuanian Out Loud is being downloaded. Sadly, we don’t have very good statistics for the first half million downloads, and I suspect the number of downloads could easily be double that, but the results are interesting. Just in the last four days we’ve had downloads from, the United States, Sweden, Ireland, United Kingdom, Estonia, China, Lithuania, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Norway, Mexico, Australia, Poland, Taiwan, Russian Federation, Turkey, Iceland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, and the Palestinian Territory. Thanks for listening, guys!
Now, I asked our friend Eglė to work with us on this nursery rhyme. Keep in mind that we recorded this without a script or a rehearsal and Eglė didn’t know I was going to spring this on her. So, she slowly steps us through the nursery rhyme and as she’s speaking she’s writing the words.
Every time she says, “tam davė” she touches a new finger. So, if you have a Lithuanian friend, recite this to them, starting with their thumb and on down to the small finger or “pinkie.” Then, as you say, “bėga, bėga, pelytė...” recite this part quickly with alacrity, make your fingers run up your friend’s arm and tickle under their armpit. I doubt your friend will be able to resist laughing. Not only that, but they’ll be really impressed with your Lithuanian.
Alright, enjoy the program and thanks for helping us, Egle!
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...pelytė košytę...ai, virė, virė, pelytė košytę, virė, virė, pelytė košytę, ta...yes, I know this, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko, bėga, bėga...
it’s virė, virė, pelytė košytę, virė, virė, pelytė košytę, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko, bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį...bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti.
and this is for children
yes, uh, huh,
and how do you play this game with a child?
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,
bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti
I understand, that’s good, so,
we call this, “pinkie”
pinkie
mmm, pinkie, so, you end with the pinkie, okay,
could you read this again how you would read it to a child?
okay,
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,
bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti
that’s good!
Let’s do a loose translation of the words and then we’ll go over them in detail. This is not an exact translation but you should understand the idea.
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
cooked, boiled, the little mouse a little porridge
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
cooked, boiled, the little mouse a little porridge
tam davė, tam davė,
to this gave some, to this gave some,
tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,
to this gave some, to this gave some, but for this one there wasn’t any,
bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti
ran, ran, the little mouse to the well to bring water
The meaning of this last line, of course, is that the little mouse needed more water so it could cook more porridge.
Now let’s break down the words of this childrens’ game.
to cook, to boil
virti
I cook, I boil
verdu
you cook (tu)
verdi
he/she cooks
verda
I cooked
viriau
you cooked (tu)
virei
he/she cooked
virė
a mouse
pelė
a mouse (diminutive)
pelytė
porridge
košė
porridge (diminutive)
košytė
to give
duoti
I give
aš duodu
you give tu
duodi
he/she gives
jis/ji duoda
I gave
aš daviau
you gave
tu davei
he/she gave
jis/ji davė
and what is this, “tam davė?”
I gave to that one
I gave to that one
tam
tam
to run
bėgti
I run
aš bėgu
you run (tu)
tu bėgi
he/she runs
jis/ji bėga
a well (water)
šulinys
a well (diminutive)
šulinėlys
a water well (dim.)
vandenėlio šulinėlis
to carry nešti
to bring atsinešti
Now Eglė will say the rhyme for you three times
pirmą kartą (first time)
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,
bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti
dar kartą (once again)
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,
bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti
ir dar kartą (and once again)
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
virė, virė, pelytė košytę,
tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,
bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti
Alright! That’s it for today! Thanks for the download! If you got anything out of this lesson please leave us a review on our iTunes page. We no longer have voice mail.
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Thanks to CCMixter.org, Ditto Ditto and Vieux Farka Toure for the podcast music.
Thanks for tuning in, tell your friends about us, we’ll see you on the next episode of Lithuanian Out Loud.
I’m Jack and I’ve never met a Lithuanian I didn’t like. Viso gero! Sudie!
http://www.Lithuanian.Libsyn.com
email Raminta and Jack at: lithuanianoutloud@earthlink.net
http://www.vieuxfarkatoure.com/
http://www.ccmixter.org/
Antanas Mockus