Does Anyone Know the Dutch Song, “”Klap eens in je handjes, blij blij blij”"?
Nancy wrote:
Dear Lisa,
Do you know this Dutch song? My mother used to sing it to our children in the 1960’s:
Klap eens in je handjes, blij blij blij…
Appreciate if you can let me know the rest of it and any background history you may have.
Thanks,
Nancy Reimers
If anyone can help out with this song, and an English translation if possible, please comment below.
Thanks!
Lisa
March 19th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
I found the song! A woman from Belgium had sent it to me (without an English translation). Here it is in Dutch…
If anyone can help out with an English translation, that would be great!
Lisa
March 20th, 2007 at 3:25 am
I tried to translate it and put one line on google: “bolleke” is spelled “bolletje” = little round bread, and I remembered about “In a Little Station”, one version goes “stationneke” and the other “stationnetje”, then I deduced from that that in some parts of the Dutch speaking area, the diminutive is “tje” and in some parts it’s “ke”. So it’d be, literally:
Clap your hands, happy, happy, happy
Up on this demon’s little round bread (head), them both
Little hands up, little hands on the side
Up this demon’s little round bread (head), them both
You can see a short video here
http://www.kinderliedjes.nu/0-2-jaar/klap-eens-in-je-handjes/
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I’ve been singing this song for a week to my 13 months old little girl. I’m wondering who’s having the most fun, me or her ;)
Allow me to bring a few corrections:
‘Boze’ comes from the word ‘boos’ which means angry. ‘Bolletje’ indeed refers to the head. Thus ‘On the angry little head’.
PS: In the short-video they sing ‘liefje bolletje’ which means ‘lovely head’.
The song ends with: ‘Zo varen de scheepjes voorbij!’ which means ‘So sail the ships away!’
The diminutive ‘ke’ is used in Belgium while ‘je’ and ‘tje’ are used in The Netherlands.
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I was looking for the lyrics to a Dutch song and am amused to find the first hit leading me to an American site. I sing this quite often to my daughter. The translations above are almost there. Here is my translation:
Klap eens in je handjes,
blij, blij, blij.
Op je lieve/boze bolletje,
allebei.
Handjes in de hoogte,
Handjes in je zij.
Zo varen de scheepjes voorbij.
Zo varen de scheepjes voorbij.
Clap in your (little) hands,
Happy, happy, happy.
On your sweet/angry head,
both of them.
(little) Hands in the air,
(little) hands on your hips.
That’s the way the (little) ships sail away.
That’s the way the (little) ships sail away.
April 3rd, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Thanks for all your help!
Could anyone help with an English translation for this Dutch song?
Thanks in advance! -Lisa
May 15th, 2007 at 4:00 am
Hi Lisa,
I’m an Australian who has lived in the Netherlands for 15 years. I don’t
really know this song and never sang it to my sons when they were little
but I do know that Holle Bolle Gijs is a big garbage can at the Efteling
(a fairy-tale theme park) here in the Netherlands and basically he’s a guy
who was quite chubby but always hungry and no matter how much he
ate he was STILL hungry! Anyway here’s a translation for you, and hope
it helps:
Have you ever heard of the Hungry Chubby Wagen
That Hungry Chubby Gijs was sitting on
He could gobble great big chunks:
a cow and a calf, a horse and a half
an ox and a bull, seven tons of beer
a wagen full of sheep
and Gijs was SO hungry that he still couldn’t sleep!
Kind regards,
Debbie van Baalen.
May 15th, 2007 at 4:02 am
Hi Lisa,
Wagen should actually be spelt wagon (with an “o” not an “e”)
sorry ’bout that……
Debbie
August 20th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I sing Klap eens in je handjes often to my ten month old here in Oz after a month long visit from his Oma. It’s a gorgeous song, but I only knew a the first part (slightly varied). Thanks to Anchar for the extra lyrics. And thanks to you, Lisa, for this great resource. I’ll be sending a few of the other lyrics back to my mum so she can record them for me and I can learn those too.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:02 am
[...] Zo varen de scheepjes voorbij… That’s the way the little ships sail away… Translation by Anchar [...]
January 18th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
here’s how we sang it as a kid:
Klap eens in je handjes, blij, blij, blij.
Op het boze bolletje, allebei.
Handjes omhoog,
Handjes omlaag.
Handles in de zei, en het neusje voorbij
——————————————
Clapping in your hands, gay gay gay
On you angry head, both of them
Hands up in the air,
Hands down below,
Hands on the side, and beyond the nose
Then while singing you move the hands of the baby up, down, on the head, in his side and past his nose….
January 26th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
HI! My Oma sang me this song when I was little (about 18 yrs ago) and I remember the beginning and some of the actions – always wondered what it meant! THANK YOU!
Korynn in Regina SK Canada
March 30th, 2008 at 4:04 am
My opa used to sing this song to me. I would sit on his knees. At the end, when the ship sails away, he would sway me from side to side, then open his knees to let me fall through before catching me at the last second… – vital for making the little ones laugh I would think!
May 1st, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Hello,
I’m not sure how old this request is but this is how we use to sing Klap eens in je Handjes when we were little.
I now sing it to my own grandchildren.
Klap een in je handjes blij, blij, blij (action:you clap your hands)
Op je boze bolletje allebei (action:you put your hands on the side of your head)
Zoooooooo varen de scheepjes voorbij
(translation: this is how the ships sail by)
(Action:you make a swaying motion with your hands still on your head)
Zoooooooo varen de scheepjes voorbij
Klap eens in je handjes…….etc
It is interesting how everyone has their own version. Our grandchildren love the song.
Yoka
July 30th, 2008 at 10:10 am
My family sings this song as well, but its a longer verse. It’s the same as Yoka’s version, only after the “ships sail away” (Zo varen de scheepjes voorbij) there is a line about all the windmills turning together.
If anybody is familiar with this version, and has a translation, it would be great.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:26 am
I made an english version to the song to sing to my daughter after the dutch version.
It matches the tune and the meaning but it’s not a word for word translation.
Remember the actions!
Clap once with your hands for fun, fun, fun
put them on your big (boof) head everyone,
put your hands up high,
put them by your side,
sway like the ship’s mast sailing by.
May 27th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
why does everyone sing dutch songs to their kids? you crazy north American people!
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:05 am
I do not know if you can help, Debbie van Baalen is a friend from Australia and I have been trying to reconnect with her. We lost contact about 5 years ago and noticed she left a comment on your site. Do you have an email address that you could forward to me or could you forward mine onto her. I hate to be bother, but she is not on facebook and this the only reference I can find on Google. Regards, Belinda
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:04 pm
I forwarded your comment Belinda.
June 1st, 2010 at 7:48 am
My dutch Grandmother sang this song to her children,grandchildren,and greatgrandchildren. Now I have my first grandson and she is gone, I sing it to him. One month old,and he loves it. Really he smiles when I sing it to him. ;)
I was never sure of meaning either. Always figured it as happy,happy,happy. Why is the baby happy. Hands on his head. Hands on his side. lol. We sing it Blij,blij,blij. Vat is de baby blij? Hends en hes head, and hends en hes side. Phonetically spelled of course because sadly Nanny never taught us any dutch really.
I really miss her accent :) and humor.
June 18th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Thank you for posting these lyrics and translations. My Mom is from the Netherlands and she (and my Oma, Opa, Tantes and Ooms) used to sing this to us as kids. Nowadays, everytime there’s a baby in the room, I’m compelled to sing the song to them because it produces such terrific giggles. I only know the song phonetically and never knew the actual words. At the end of “That’s the way the (little) ships sail away” my family always adds “Toot! Toot!” with a pumping gesture. Good times :)