LL0210 - Pelyte Little Mouse

Hi there, this is Jack and I'm Romas and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where we offer the world the Lithuanian Language.

You might notice that we're not recording in our normal studios today, a lot of echo here, but we'll just have to deal with it.

According to Wikipedia, Antanas Mockus, of Bogota, Colombia, is the former mayor of that city and he is the son of Lithuanian immigrants. His full name is Aurelijus Rutenis Antanas Mockus Šivickas and as of 2010, he's running for president of Colombia. He's the frontrunner in recent polls and has a very good chance of becoming the next president of this South American country.

Today's episode was inspired by listeners James of Kansas City and Ebed-Melech who both posted references to this nursery rhyme which is similar to the English, "this little piggy." Thanks for the posts on the Lithuanian Out Loud blogpage, guys!

First, I want to mention we just went over half a million downloads of Lithuanian Out Loud episodes. We've started using a program that allows us to see where Lithuanian Out Loud is being downloaded. Sadly, we don't have very good statistics for the first half million downloads, and I suspect the number of downloads could easily be double that, but the results are interesting. Just in the last four days we've had downloads from, the United States, Sweden, Ireland, United Kingdom, Estonia, China, Lithuania, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Norway, Mexico, Australia, Poland, Taiwan, Russian Federation, Turkey, Iceland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, and the Palestinian Territory. Thanks for listening, guys!

Now, I asked our friend Eglė to work with us on this nursery rhyme. Keep in mind that we recorded this without a script or a rehearsal and Eglė didn't know I was going to spring this on her. So, she slowly steps us through the nursery rhyme and as she's speaking she's writing the words.

Every time she says, "tam davė" she touches a new finger. So, if you have a Lithuanian friend, recite this to them, starting with their thumb and on down to the small finger or "pinkie." Then, as you say, "bėga, bėga, pelytė..." recite this part quickly with alacrity, make your fingers run up your friend's arm and tickle under their armpit. I doubt your friend will be able to resist laughing. Not only that, but they'll be really impressed with your Lithuanian.

Alright, enjoy the program and thanks for helping us, Egle!

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...pelytė košytę...ai, virė, virė, pelytė košytę, virė, virė, pelytė košytę, ta...yes, I know this, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko, bėga, bėga...

it's virė, virė, pelytė košytę, virė, virė, pelytė košytę, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko, bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį...bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti.

and this is for children

yes, uh, huh,

and how do you play this game with a child?

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,

bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti

I understand, that's good, so,

we call this, "pinkie"

pinkie

mmm, pinkie, so, you end with the pinkie, okay,

could you read this again how you would read it to a child?

okay,

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,

bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti

that's good!

Let's do a loose translation of the words and then we'll go over them in detail. This is not an exact translation but you should understand the idea.

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

cooked, boiled, the little mouse a little porridge

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

cooked, boiled, the little mouse a little porridge

tam davė, tam davė,

to this gave some, to this gave some,

tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,

to this gave some, to this gave some, but for this one there wasn't any,

bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti

ran, ran, the little mouse to the well to bring water

The meaning of this last line, of course, is that the little mouse needed more water so it could cook more porridge.

Now let's break down the words of this childrens' game.

to cook, to boil

virti

I cook, I boil

verdu

you cook (tu)

verdi

he/she cooks

verda

I cooked

viriau

you cooked (tu)

virei

he/she cooked

virė

a mouse

pelė

a mouse (diminutive)

pelytė

porridge

košė

porridge (diminutive)

košytė

to give

duoti

I give

aš duodu

you give tu

duodi

he/she gives

jis/ji duoda

I gave

aš daviau

you gave

tu davei

he/she gave

jis/ji davė

and what is this, "tam davė?"

I gave to that one

I gave to that one

tam

tam

to run

bėgti

I run

aš bėgu

you run (tu)

tu bėgi

he/she runs

jis/ji bėga

a well (water)

šulinys

a well (diminutive)

šulinėlys

a water well (dim.)

vandenėlio šulinėlis

to carry nešti

to bring atsinešti

Now Eglė will say the rhyme for you three times

pirmą kartą (first time)

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,

bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti

dar kartą (once again)

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,

bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti

ir dar kartą (and once again)

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

virė, virė, pelytė košytę,

tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, tam davė, o tam ir neliko,

bėga, bėga pelytė į šulinėlį vandenėlio atsinešti

Alright! That's it for today! Thanks for the download! If you got anything out of this lesson please leave us a review on our iTunes page. We no longer have voice mail.

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Thanks to CCMixter.org, Ditto Ditto and Vieux Farka Toure for the podcast music. Thanks for tuning in, tell your friends about us, we'll see you on the next episode of Lithuanian Out Loud. I'm Jack and I've never met a Lithuanian I didn't like. Viso gero! Sudie!

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Antanas Mockus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanas_Mockus