Wheels on the Bus in Esperanto

For those with youngsters learning Esperanto (or perhaps the young at heart?) here is a translation of the popular children’s song Wheels on the Bus in Esperanto. More verses could easily be added, but I’ll leave that to others.

Radoj de la Buso

La radoj de la buso rondiras, rondiras, rondiras.

La radoj de la buso rondiras, tra la tuta urbo.

Viŝiloj de la buso viŝadas, viŝadas, viŝadas…

Sidlokoj en la buso knaradas…

Ŝoforo de la buso stiradas…

La beboj en la buso ploradas…

Patrinoj en la buso suspiras…

La patroj en la buso ronkadas… (or diras jes, or kapjesas)

La hundoj en la buso bojadas…

La katoj en la buso miaŭas…

Infanoj en la buso saltadas…

La pordoj de la buso ekfermas…

La lumoj de la buso ekbrilas…

One Tin Soldier in Esperanto

Some time ago, I inquired of an Esperanto newsgroup whether anyone had ever translated the song One Tin Soldier by the group Coven. The message of the song seemed to have a very Esperantic tone, that being that war is bad (or at least pretty stupid.)  Within a few days a reply was posted, an Esperantist in Brazil had done a quick, but rather good translation of the song’s lyrics.  I made one tiny change and overall I think the translation (perhaps ‘adaptation’ is a more apt word) is very good.  I would only question if there was a better way to convey what a ‘tin’ soldier is. The second line of the refrain reads a bit awkward to me as well, but that could simply be my ear.

In any case, I wanted to put this out there in the hopes that someday, someone might grab it and record it.

(UNU) SOLA (LAD)SOLDATO

Aŭdu, idoj, la rakonton el tre fora, fora jar’
pri popol’ en iu valo kaj reĝlando sur montar’.
En la montoj trezorego kuŝis en la ter’, sub ŝton’:
la valanoj kune ĵuris kapti ĝin por sia bon’.

Malamegu la najbaron, trompu la amikon plu:
nome de la paradizo vi pravigos ĉion fine, ĉu?
La fina juĝo sin anoncas sen trumpet-sonor’;
unu sola ladsoldato sekvatage rajdos for.

La valanoj ekkontaktis la montanojn per leter’
kun la peto je transdono de l’ trezoro sub la ter’,
sed alvenis la respondo: “Dividiĝu inter ni
la sekret’ sub nia monto, ĉia valoraĵ’ en ĝi”.

Malamegu la najbaron…

“Ek al glavoj, al ĉevaloj!” oni kriis el la val’
kaj mortigis la montanojn por trezora ideal’;
oni kuris al la ŝtono kaj rigardis tuj sub ĝi,
sed aperis nur skribaĵo: “Monda Pac'”, nenio pli.

Malamegu la najbaron…

“It goes away”

For a long time I have tried to figure out  how to express an English term in Esperanto. I finally got it the other night while perusing an Esperanto textbook in my personal library.

Let’s say you’re sitting at your kitchen table and there is an assortment of items on it, a result of a short shopping trip. There might be eggs, which ‘go’ in the refrigerator,  bananas, which ‘go’ in the fruit bowl on the counter, a box of cereal, which ‘goes’ in the pantry, a box of trash bags, which ‘go’ on a shelf in the laundry.

In Esperanto, it is quite easy to say ‘put that on the shelf’, or ‘put that in the refrigerator’, but how to say in a generic way, ‘put those away’, Or ‘those go away’?

‘Ĝustaloki‘ is the answer.  I found the word used in my M.C. Butler Textbook and in his dictionary as meaning ‘to put in the right, or proper place.’

So the command would be in Esperanto ‘Ĝustaloku tiujn‘ or ‘Tiuj metu ĝustaloken’.

Ah, Jen la bona viv‘

Other Worlds

My friend, who celebrates his birthday this day, created an interesting wiki project a while ago. It’s a shared fictional community called Argent Lake. It’s a fun project and one in which I’ve participated. I found it interesting enough that I even started a similar project in Esperanto. I call it Haveno. My project hasn’t yet attracted a fellow contributor. One fellow did give it a try, but he didn’t understand that it’s not so much a story as it is a ‘history’ of a fictional setting. Even I haven’t had time to add to it recently.