Can Anyone Help with a Ukranian Song and Poem?
November 5th, 2010

Rodolfo Alcaraz Vardulakis wrote:

Hi,

I am trying to get information about a poem/song that my grandma, who lived in Ukrania until 1918, told my mother when she was a child. She just has her memories of the sounds of that poem, which are the following:

Moikoufchic niepisshen
ichvet nibagat
Noizchdali schliesen
ifchem aramat

Zatshdovy naitzotche
viszeri zedu
ivscromnin bouketsi
ivcharsim sadu

My mother says the poem tells the story of a girl who gives some flowers to her mother?

She recalls also a poem her mother used to tell her sons, starting: “coucouricou matouzicou…”

We would appreciate so much any information about any of these poems. Anything could help us identify the meaning, author, etc, would be just great.

Thank you very much in advance.

Best regards.
Rodolfo

If anyone can help with either of these poems/songs, please comment below.

Thanks in advance!

Mama Lisa

This article was posted on Friday, November 5th, 2010 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, English, Languages, Mama Lisa, Questions, Readers Questions, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Ukrainian Children's Songs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

7 Responses to “Can Anyone Help with a Ukranian Song and Poem?”

  1. Lisa Says:
    November 7th, 2010 at 6:25 pm

    Hello! I was doing my best do decode the song, but unfortunately I couldn’t. The first verse seems like Russian, though the second is more Ukrainian (I speak both languages).
    The first four lines read something like “mine (flowers or something) are not gorgeuos or rich, but everyone can smell their fragrance”. The last two lines say “in a modest bouquet or in (some) garden”.
    About the beginning of the other song, “coucouricou” means “cock-a-doodle-do”, and the ending of the “matouzicou” signals that the word is in Ukrainian. But that’s all I can say.
    Good luck!
    Lisa

  2. Lisa Says:
    November 9th, 2010 at 12:06 am

    Thanks for writing Lisa. Here’s what Rodolpho wrote (so I wonder if the language is a mix or something):

    My grandma was born in Lithuania, then lived in Ukrania (Odessa) and arrived in Greece in 1918 where she and her 5 children lived very difficult times, specially during WWII. This was the poem she used to tell my mother at that time… Thanks for your help!

  3. Rodolfo Says:
    November 9th, 2010 at 10:37 am

    Hi!

    Many many thanks for this!

    We received the following answer from a Polish speaker:

    “the song is very sweet and it is most probably Ukrainian, the endings
    are not Polish, it can be also the folk song in dialect used by Poles
    within the Ukrainian borders”

    What do you think?

    Thanks again!
    Rodolfo.

  4. Rodolfo Says:
    November 9th, 2010 at 10:45 am

    By the way, Lisa, sorry to come back: do you think you could send me the correct spelling for the words you understand? Maybe this can help me doing some further research.

    Thanks!
    Rodolfo.

  5. Lisa Says:
    November 9th, 2010 at 11:00 am

    You can write all you want here Rodolfo! It’s a different Lisa who answered you in the first comment above… not me. I’ll try to send her your message.

    -(Mama) Lisa

  6. Bess Says:
    November 9th, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    It’s the second Lisa (I’ve changed my nick to avoid confusion=)
    Sure, these are the words I recognised:
    moi ~ мой `[moy] = mine
    niepissen ~ не пышен [nie pyshen] = not gorgeous
    nibagat ~ не богат [nie bogat] = not rich
    the Ukrainian word is almost the same – не багатий [ne bahatyi]
    noizchdali ~ но издали [no izdali] = from far away
    schliesen ~ шлышен [slyshen] = is heard, is smelt
    ifchem aramat ~ их всем аромат [ich vsem aromat] = their fragrance to everyone
    All these are in Russian. Though the next are in Ukrainian:
    ivscromnin bouketsi ~ і в скромнім букеті [i v skromnim buketi] = and in a modest bouquetivscromnin bouketsi
    iv..sadu ~ і в …саду [i v …sadu] = in a garden
    coucouricou ~ кукyріку [kukuriku] = cock-a-doodle-doo

    Hope I got them right. Knowing such few words I can’t say whether they’re from the Polish-Ukrainian dialect, sorry.
    Good luck!

    Bess

  7. Lisa Says:
    November 10th, 2010 at 9:38 pm

    Bess later added on our Facebook Group the following (some is the same as above):

    Hello again! Sure, I’ll give the words I think I recognised, their pronunciation in Ukrainian/Russian and, of course, translation.
    moi ~ мой [moj]= mine
    niepissen ~ не пышен [nie pyshen] = not gorgeuos
    ich ~ их [ich] = their
    nibagat ~ не богат …[nie bogat] = not rich, also meaning not gorgeous, abundant (the Ukrainian phrase would be almost the same – не багатий [ne bahatyi]
    noizchdali ~ но издали [no izdali] = but from far away
    schliesen ~ слышен [slyshen] = is heard, felt
    ifchem ~ их всем [ich vsem] = their to everyone
    aramat ~ аромат [aromat] = fragrance
    These look like Russian words, though further are more like Ukrainian to me.
    ivscromnin ~ і в скромнім [i v skromnim] = and in a modest
    bouketsi ~ букеті [buketi] = (in a) bouquet
    iv…sadu ~ і в…саду [i v..sadu] = in a…garden
    coucouricou ~ кукуріку [kukuriku] = cock-a-doodle-doo.
    matouzicou – the ending -ou (or -u) here clearly states that the word is Ukranian, that’s all I can say.

    Knowing so few words I can’t judge whether it’s the Polish-Ukrainian dialect, sorry.
    Good luck!
    (another) Lisa

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