Does Anyone Know a Dutch Children’s Song the Title of which Sounds like “Saitcha Fara”?
Elyse wrote:
Does anyone know anything about an old Dutch children’s song about girls and boys picking flowers, drinking tea and sweet milk with honey, giving chickens water, and the clock striking ten? My grandmother sang it to me years ago. The title sounds like “Saitcha Fara” though no such Dutch words with those spellings exist in my dictionary. I’ve never seen the song or the title in writing.
Elyse
If anyone can help out with this song, please comment below or email me.
Thanks!
Mama Lisa
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Hi I think you mean: Schuitje varen, theetje drinken, varen we naar de overtoom, drinken we zoete melk met room, zoete melk met brokken, kindje mag niet jokken.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Dear Mica,
I assume that the words in your reply to my question to mamlisa.com are the correctly spelled Dutch translation of the phrases that are in the song “Scuitje varen”. I appreciate your giving me this but I would like to know if you’ve heard of the song. If so, can you write in English and in Dutch all the words that are in the whole song?
Elyse
June 13th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Dear Elyse
I’m not really good in English but it means something like this:
schuitje varen sailing in a boat
theetje drinken drinking a cup of tea
varen we naar de overtoom we sail to the other side
drinken we zoete melk met room we drink sweet milk with cream
zoete melk met brokken sweet milk with chunks
kindje mag niet jokken little child may not lie
Paula
June 19th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Beste Elyse (meaning Dear Elyse)
Yes, I do know the song, which I learnt as a little child in the Netherlands. Paula is correct with most of her translation, just a few details:
Schuitje varen: We are boating
Theetje drinken: We are drinking a little tea
Varen we naar de overtoom: We are sailing across the river
Drinken we zoete melk met room: We are drinking sweet milk with cream on top
Zoete melk met brokken: Sweet milk with lumps in it
Kindje mag niet jokken: The little child is not allowed to tell a fib
I had hoped I had the melody for the recorder written down somewhere, but I don’t appear to have it anymore. I’ll see if I can find it somewhere for you if you like.
Harriët
July 15th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
This is a reply to both Paula and Harriet or anyone else that could help. Would you mind or could you write down ALL the Dutch and/or English words? The Dutch words alone could also help as I have a Dutch-English dictionary. Here’s how much of the English words I know: We are boating. We are drinking a little tea. We are sailing across the river. We are drinking sweet milk with cream on top. Sweet milk with lumps. The clock starts to strike ten. Ten o’clock, ten o’clock. [Then, sounds like - "De meistes (little boys or girls) mit de sura. De yumakes (maybe girls or boys) mit de water de hal (haul or bring the water), und de kippeches mut de drinke. (so the chickens can drink?) I know I'm not spelling the words correctly but this is the way they sounded when my grandmother sang the song.] Thank you.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
This is a supplement to my last post. I left out a line of the song. It comes after “We drink a little tea.” I believe it’s “we pick flowers” in English.
Elyse
February 26th, 2009 at 6:04 am
With some help of google, i think i found what you mean. As for all old songs, a lot of versions seem to exist. Personally I knew only the version that was posted earlier, but i think you refer to this one:
Schuitje varen,
Theetje drinken,
Blommetjes plukken, (picking flowers)
Bestje met krukken, (granny with crutches)
Dom, dom, dom.
Dan gaan we naar den Overtoom,
Daar drinken we zoete melk met room,
Zoete melk met brokken.
Tien slaat de klokke;(ten strikes the clock)
En als de klokke tien slaat, (and when the clock strikes ten)
Dan komt de klapperman op straat. (the “klapperman” comes in the street)
Elf, elf uren, (eleven, eleven hours)
De meisjes moeten schuren, (the girls have to grind)
De jongens moeten water halen, (the boys have to fetch water)
Achter bij de buren. (behind at the neighbors’)
The whole song is filled with archaic language: Overtoom is not the other side, as people suggested, but it is an installation to drag a boat (by hand) across a dyke. The most well-known one doesn’t exist anymore, but was just outside of Amsterdam. Later a whole neighborhood developed around the “overtoom”, and now — though the overtoom itself doesn’t exist anymore — it is just a neighborhood in amsterdam. This is what it looked like: http://www.debinnenvaart.nl/binnenvaarttaal/afbeeldingen/landzaken/kunstwerken/overtoom.jpg
I think “klapperman” refers to someone who read the news in the street; he used to come in the morning, signalling his presence with a “klapper”, a sort of ratchet, designed to be noisy.
“bestje” is a really old word for grandmother, short for bestemoeder. I never heard of the word, but found it in a historical dictionary.
“Schuren” means to grind or to sand (with sanding paper). I have no idea what it refers to here.
This version of the song, and some others, can be found here: http://cf.hum.uva.nl/dsp/ljc/anoniem/vloten/1-09.html
This is from a collection of traditional songs published in 1895(!).
September 30th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Try this URL for a version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk75pXnDNxs