PRIDE ASTROLOGICAL PARODY OF WALTZING MATILDA

 This is part of one of two initiatives I am doing for June. One is a Pride initiative and one is a Povel Ramel - a Swediah singer-songwriter whose centennial was right now, on the 1st of June 2022 - initiative. Starting today these initiatives are doing well on my blog... This Waltzing Matilda parody is only the tip of the iceberg (right on the day I'm going to watch Hamlet live)

Once a queer Aquarius entered a watering hole,

under the shade of rainbow flag and love free,

and he sang as he watched and waited till they'd mixed his drink:

"You will come under the covers with me..."

Under the covers, under the covers,

you will come under the covers with me,

and he sang as he watched and waited till they'd mixed his drink:

"You will come under the covers with me..."

Down came a young Aries to drink at the watering hole,

up leapt the Aquarius and grabbed his arse with glee,

and he sang as he kneaded that Aries's derrière:

"You will come under the covers with me..."

Under the covers, under the covers,

you will come under the covers with me,

and he sang as he kneaded that Aries's derrière:

"You will come under the covers with me..."

Up whizzed the sergeant, mounted on his motorbike,

down marched the coppers, one, two, three!

"Who's that fair young Aries you've got lolling in your lap?

You will come under the covers with me!"

Under the covers, under the covers,

you will come under the covers with me,

"Who's that fair young Aries you've got lolling in your lap?

You will come under the covers with me!"

Up sprang the Aquarius and stormed out of the watering hole...

"You'll never take me alive!" said he...

And his voice may be heard in any bar with a rainbow flag:

"You will come under the covers with me..."

Under the covers, under the covers,

you will come under the covers with me,

And his voice may be heard in any bar with a rainbow flag:

"You will come under the covers with me..."

WANDERING WITH A BAG CALLED MATILDA ON MY BACK

This is a parody of Waltzing Matilda in which everything is kind of... expanded. The lyrics are obviously unsingable. But still the style exercise is exhilarating!

Once, an itinerant worker in a positive emotional state camped by a body of stagnant freshwater
under the shade of a Eucalyptus coolabah,
and he sang as he watched and waited until his teawater reached the temperature of 100 ºC:
"You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me."

WANDERING WITH A BAG CALLED MATILDA ON MY BACK,
WANDERING WITH A BAG CALLED MATILDA ON MY BACK,
You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me...
And he sang as he watched and waited until his teawater reached the temperature of 100 ºC:
"You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me."

Down came a young Ovis aries orientalis to drink at the stagnant freshwater,
up jumped the itinerant worker and seized it with elation;
and he sang as he stuffed that Ovis aries orientalis inside his knapsack:
"You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me."

WANDERING WITH A BAG CALLED MATILDA ON MY BACK,
WANDERING WITH A BAG CALLED MATILDA ON MY BACK,
You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me...
and he sang as he stuffed that Ovis aries orientalis inside his knapsack:
"You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me."

Up rode the wealthy landowner, mounted upon the back of his purebred Equus ferus caballus;
down came the military personnel... one, two, three!
"Where's that lively young Ovis aries orientalis you've got inside your knapsack?
You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me."

WANDERING WITH A BAG CALLED MATILDA ON MY BACK,
WANDERING WITH A BAG CALLED MATILDA ON MY BACK,
You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me...
"Where's that lively young Ovis aries orientalis you've got inside your knapsack?
You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me."

Up jumped the itinerant worker and sprang into the stagnant freshwater:
"You shall never seize me while I'm alive!" said he...
And the spirit of him, after he drowned, can be heard as one passes by that stagnant freshwater:
"You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me."

WANDERING WITH A BAG CALLED MATILDA ON MY BACK,
WANDERING WITH A BAG CALLED MATILDA ON MY BACK,
You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me...
And the spirit of him, after he drowned, can be heard as one passes by that stagnant freshwater:
"You'll come wandering in this bag called Matilda with me."

THE ANNOTATED WALTZING MATILDA

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong

• Once - a single time
  
• jolly - gay, but not in the same sense as that understood by the young men of Darlinghurst. (US readers subsitiute "San Francisco" or something similar in place of "Darlinghurst". Spanish readers substitute "Chueca".)
  
• swagman - itinerant worker, called a swagman because of the "swag" normally carried by such persons. A swag comprises the worldly belongings of the swagman, wrapped in a blanket and formed into a back-pack. A swagman is also known as a "swaggie"
  
• camped - made camp (nothing to to do with the behaviour of the Darlinghurst set)
  
• billabong - oxbow lake formed when a meandering river cuts through its own course leaving a segment of the river isolated from the main stream
  

Under the shade of a coolibah tree

• under - beneath. Implies that there is something above (this may be wishful thinking)
  
• shade - half a pair of sunglasses
  
• coolibah - type of eucalyptus tree which grows in some of Australia's wetlands
  
• tree - a woody thing with leaves, which gets pissed upon by dogs
  

And he sang as he watched and waited 'till his billy boiled

• and he - a distortion of the swagman's name (Andy)
  
• sang - another distortion
  
• watched - something the swaggie did while waiting
  
• waited - something the swaggie did while watching
  
• 'till - another distortion. Not to be confused with the money receptacle found at the checkout in most stores.
  
• billy - a tin can with a lid, and a looped wire handle over the top. Used by denizens of the Australian outback as a cooking utensil primarily for the boiling of water to make tea
  
• boiled - what happened to the water when it was heated to 100 degrees. (This effect is not so apparent in backward countries like the US, where the water must be heated to over 200 degrees before anything interesting happens because they use the Fahrenheit scale instead of the Celsius scale)
  

You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me

• You'll - a distortion
  
• come - no comment
  
• waltzing - walking; the term used by swagmen to describe their means of travel
  
• matilda - the name given by one particular swagman to his swag. Apparently the swaggie in question was a Dutchman who came to Australia after his wife, Matilda, had died. He adopted the swaggie's lifestyle, and named his swag in memory of his wife. Use of the name spread. (This is supposed to be a true story. Really.)
  

Waltzing matilda, waltzing matilda

You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me

And he sang as he watched and waited 'till his billy boiled

You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me

Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong

• down - opposite of up (see next line of song)
  
• jumbuck - a sheep, specifically a young ram
  
• drink - to swallow water or other liquid, to imbibe alcoholic beverages (the latter being somewhat unlikely behaviour for a sheep, so water is assumed - this assumption may not be correct however, since it is said "to drink at" as opposed to "from")
  

Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee

• up - opposite of down (see previous line of song)
  
• jumped - to have performed a jump or leap, or in this case probably just standing up briskly.
  
• grabbed - seized suddenly, snached
  
• glee - Matilda had been dead for quite some time

And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker-bag

• shoved - pushed, stuffed, packed. Presumably after skinning and gutting
  
• tucker - food, hence "tucker-bag"
  
• bag - sack, usually made of hessian. The term also refers to a woman of similar appearance (to the hessian bag, not the sheep.)

You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me

Down came the squatter mounted on his thoroughbred

• squatter - a landholder through occupancy rather than purchase
  
• mounted - sitting upon (we hope this is not a reference to the Darlinghurst types mentioned at the beginning)
  
• thoroughbred - a breed of horse. Not much use in the Australian bush or as a farm horse, but probably ridden by the squatter as a symbol of wealth. A similar phenomenon may be observed in Sydney, where one can see the odd yuppie driving his Ferrari over the Harbour Bridge in the peak-hour.

Down came the troopers, one, two, three

• trooper - outback policeman
  
• one, two, three - just to show that the swaggie could count

Where's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag

• a singularly redundant question

You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me

• waltzing - a dance performed by sheep stealers whilst suspended from a gibbet by a rope

Waltzing matilda ... (etc)

Up jumped the swagman and jumped into the billabong

• jumped(1) - (see previous definition)
• jumped(2) - in this case probably more of a misguided leap, especially when one considers the ending to the song

You'll never take me alive said he

• alive - what the sheep isn't

Now his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong

You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me.

THE SILLY BASTARD COULDN'T SWIM !

---

I hope this helps those who would otherwise never have been able to decode this song.

VALSA, MATILDA

VALSA, MATILDA
översatt av Sandra Dermark
från engelskan (australiensisk folkvisa)
den 19 november 2016

En frejdig knalle slog läger vid en liten sjö,
i skuggan av tre höstgula björkträd,
och han väntade på att fikat skulle koka och sjöng:
"kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!"

Valsa, Matilda! Valsa, Matilda,
kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!
och han väntade på att fikat skulle koka och sjöng:
"kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!"

Ner kom en tacka att dricka i den lilla sjön,
upp hoppa' knallen och tog den med sig,
och han sjöng när han stoppa' tackan uti ränseln sin:
"kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!"

Valsa, Matilda! Valsa, Matilda,
kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!
och han sjöng när han stoppa' tackan uti ränseln sin:
"kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!"

Upp kom patronen, ridande på fullblodshäst,
ner kom tre knektar, ett tu tre!
"Vems är den där tackan som ni uti er ränsel har?
Kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!"

Valsa, Matilda! Valsa, Matilda,
kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!
"Vems är den där tackan som ni uti er ränsel har?
Kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!"

Upp hoppa' knallen, han hoppa' i den lilla sjön:
"Vid liv till fånga tar ni aldrig mig!"
Och det hörs att han går igen vid den lilla sjön:
"kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!"

Valsa, Matilda! Valsa, Matilda,
kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!
Och det hörs att han går igen vid den lilla sjön:
"kom nu och valsa, Matilda, med mig!"



Waltzing Matilda in Swedish; that's a bunny I came up with not long ago. Changing eucalyptus for birch and tea for coffee, and setting the story in the woods of my Scandinavia instead of the Aussie outback, meant I had to adapt the setting.
"Knalle" is the Western Swedish word for peddler. Before the advent of consumerism, this figure was a staple of rural Sweden with its many isolated farms and hamlets. To the Svenssons (average Swedes) of those days, the peddler was one of their few contacts with the outside world, a subject of both mistrust and wonder. All the "knallar" in the region understood one another and even had their own professional jargon, words of which have seeped into standard Swedish. Nowadays there's even a mall called Knalleland (Peddlerland), even though it's a post-industrial shopping centre.
One of these peddler's jargon's words which have made their way into everyday Swedish, and which you will certainly hear in Sweden every day is "fika", literally "feeco" ("coffee" in verlan), which has the same connotations as the British "cuppa" (the quintessential cup of a hot drink, especially during a pause/in the afternoon or evening).
Other knalle words that have become commonplace in standard Swedish are "stålar" (literally "steels,") which refers to money informally (like "bread" in English); "tjacka", "to buy something" in the same informal context, and "lattjo lajban" (a now devaluated informal expression of excitement, like "radical" and "groovy" in English).

WALTZING MATILDA

WALTZING MATILDA
is the unofficial national anthem of Australia, a story of passion, freedom, and suicide:

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
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled:
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

Down came a jumbuck to drink at that 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 the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred.
Down came the troopers, one, two, three.
"Where'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"
Where'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."

EXPLANATIONS:

• swagman: a drifter, an itinerant worker
• billabong: a lake in the Australian outback
• coolibah: a kind of eucalyptus, specifically a wetland eucalyptus
• billy: kettle (both the kettle itself and the tea-water)
• jumbuck: a young ram (male sheep)
• tucker bag: a knapsack
• squatter: a wealthy landowner, one who owns Crown lands to be more precise
• Matilda: the name the drifter gives his sleeping bag: he's grown so close to it that he's given it a girl's name, much like some owners name their vehicles or weapons
• Waltzing Matilda: wandering about the outback with the sleeping bag on one's back (from German "auf der Walz" for travelling on foot and the name "Matilda").

"Waltzing Matilda" in European English - the lyrics explained for us across the globe:

Once a merry drifter camped by a little lake
under the shade of a eucalyptus tree,
and he sang as he watched and waited till his kettle boiled:
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me?"

Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me
And he sang as he watched and waited till his kettle boiled:
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

Down came a young ram to drink at that little lake.
Up jumped the drifter and grabbed him with glee.
And he sang as he shoved that young ram into his knapsack:
"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 young ram into his knapsack:
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

Up rode the master, mounted on his thoroughbred.
Down came the troopers, one, two, three.
"Where's that jolly young ram you've got inside your knapsack?
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me
"Where's that jolly young ram you've got inside your knapsack?
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

Up jumped the drifter and sprang into the little lake.
"You'll never catch me alive!" said he.
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that little lake:
"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 little lake:
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."