December 3rd, 2006 at 1:27 am
Happy New Church Year!
One of our favorite DVDs this time of year is The Wiggles: Santa’s Rockin’!. It’s a cute show for toddlers that has some good performances of some classic Christmas carols, such as “Silent Night”, “O Come All Ye Faithful”, and “Away In a Manger”, as well as some new songs. It doesn’t try to blend all the holidays around this time; because of this we were surprised when Disney decided to show Santa’s Rockin’ on the Disney Channel.
It does include two songs in Spanish: “Noche de Paz”, sung to the tune of Silent Night/Stille Nacht, and “Our Lady Guadalupe”. Both are sung by a mariachi trio.
On the left is the text of Our Lady Guadalupe, from the closed captioning of the DVD. A web search reveals similar results on the right:
| Wiggles DVD | Cancionero |
|---|---|
| La Virgen de Guadalupe Cuando va por la rivera. La Virgen de Guadalupe Cuando va por la rivera Descalsita por la arena Parece una lanchera. Descalsita por la arena Parece una lanchera. O niña espere, O niña espere espera. No te vayas mi lanchera Que te me vas a marear. |
La Virgen de Guadalupe cuando va por la rivera —(bis) descalciña y por la arena parece una rianxeira ——(bis) Ondiñas veñen, ondiñas veñen |
Translating this goes beyond my experience. If you want to see something funny, Google translates the texts like this:
| Wiggles DVD | Cancionero |
|---|---|
|
The Virgin of Guadalupe When she goes by the creek. The Virgin of Guadalupe When she goes by the creek Descalsita by the sand Seems a boatwoman. Descalsita by the sand Seems a boatwoman. Or girl hopes, Or girl waits for delay. Do not go away my boatwoman Who you you are going to me to be annoying. |
The Virgin of Guadalupe when she goes by the creek —(bis) descalciña and by the sand rianxeira seems one ——(bis) Ondiñas veñen, ondiñas veñen |
Whether or not one believes the occurrence of Our Lady of Guadalupe, this is a strange song for Christmas. Sure, it deals with the Blessed Virgin Mary, but Christmas isn’t the only time that she shows up in the life of Jesus.
“Noche de Paz” fares better in its application to Christmas. The mariachi trio sings the first and third verse as written in the Lutheran Service Book, #363. One small difference: in the fourth line of verse 1, “bella” is “viene” on the DVD. “Viene” means “it comes”, or you can say the light comes. Here are the LSB lyrics, easier to translate than Guadalupe:
| 1. Noche de paz, noche de amor, Todo duerme en derredor. Entre sus astros que esparcen su luz bella anunciando al niñito Jesús brilla la estrella de paz, brilla la estrella de paz. 3. Noche de paz, noche de amor, |
1. Night of peace, night of love All sleep around (more like, everyone around is sleeping) Enter your stars that scatter your light (I’m assuming you formal here, it could be its/theirs) Beautiful (light) announcing the little child Jesus Shines the star of peace, Shines the star of peace. 3. Night of peace, night of love |
I can see the use of “Noche de Paz” in a group of Christmas carols, but the jury is out on Guadalupe. Apparently it has additional local and cultural significance beyond the lyrics. There’s no tie apparent to the birth of Christ. I wonder why the choice was made to put it on a Christmas DVD.
Our condolences go out to Greg Page, the yellow Wiggle. Sam Moran, who is also on the DVD, is a great singing talent. I just hope they don’t try to pass Sam off as Greg Wiggle.
December 3rd, 2006 at 5:33 pm
I thought it was “entre los astros,” or between or among the stars. That’s how I remember it from Spanish class.
I also remember another song where the first line was something like: “The Virgin is washing diapers, and she is hanging them on the bush.”
I will miss Greg Wiggle too.
December 3rd, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Good catch. My mistake. It is “entre los astros” in LSB. Google translates that as “between the stars”. Thanks.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:46 am
Those translations made me laugh! I especially like the line that translated into “everyone is sleeping around.” That cracked me up! I’ll have to see if I can find those songs, because I’ve never heard them before. Unlike a lot of people, I chose not to take Spanish, and instead took French, most of which I don’t remember anymore. And I never learned any French Christmas songs.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Descalsita………Descalzo = without shoes; descalsita is a delicate way to say She was not wearing shoes
Que te vas a marear = You are going to get sea-sick
Noche de Paz is a very well known Christmas song in South America; but the Virgen of Guadalupe song is not.
The Cancionero is actually a Portuguese version.