Category Archives: Folk Song

Folk Song, Foreign Language, Painting, Song, Spanish Language

De colores

The Rainbow. Joaquín Sorolla. 1907.

De colores

 

De colores, de colores

Se visten los campos en la primavera.

De colores, de colores,

Son los pajaritos que vienen de afuera.

De colores, de colores

Es el arco iris que vemos lucir.

 

Y por eso los grandes amores

De muchos colores me gustan a mí.

Y por eso los grandes amores

De muchos colores me gustan a mí.

 

Canta el gallo, canta el gallo

Con el quirí, quirí, quirí, quirí, quirí—

La gallina, la gallina

Con el cara, cara, cara, cara, cara—

Los pollitos, los pollitos

Con el pío, pío, pío, pio, pí.

 

Y por eso los grandes amores

De muchos colores me gustan a mí.

Y por eso los grandes amores

De muchos colores me gustan a mí.

 

This Spanish folk song, and the painting by Spanish impressionist Joaquín Sorolla, are featured on Wrestle with the Angel in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15-October 15.

“De colores” (“Of Colors”) is a Spanish folk song celebrating the beauty of creation and its many bright colors. The chorus may be translated as “The great love of many colors is mine.” The melody has been popular in the Americas at least since the sixteenth century, having been brought to the Western hemisphere with Spanish colonization. There are many verses and variations now sung around the world, but these are the two verses I know best. You can listen to this folk song on YouTube. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJmwUYoJtVY>

Folk Song, Memory Box, Poetry, Song

The Oak and the Ash

Haymaking. Pieter Bruegel the Elder. 1565.

 

The Oak and the Ash

 

A north country maid up to London had strayed,

Although with her nature it did not agree.

So she wept and she sighed, and bitterly she cried,

“Oh! I wish once again in the north I could be!

Oh! the oak and the ash and the bonnie ivy tree,

They all grow so green in my own country.”

 

“While sadly I roam I regret my dear home

“Where the lads and young lasses are making the hay,

“Where the birds sweetly sing and the merry bells do ring,

“And the maidens and meadows are pleasant and gay.

“O! the oak and the ash and the bonnie ivy tree,

They all grow so green in my own country.”

 

“No doubt, did I please, I could marry with ease;

“Where maidens are fair, many lovers will come.

“But he whom I wed must be north-country bred

“And must carry me back to my north-country home.

“O! the oak and the ash and the bonnie ivy tree,

“They all grow so green in my own country.”

 

In this wistful English ballad, a country-maid who has gone to London longs to return to the northern home where flourishes “the oak and the ash and the bonnie ivy tree.” The above is one of several versions known as the “North Country Maid.” One of the earliest of these would have her hail from the Dalby Forest in the northern Yorkshire moors (today a popular location for cyclists). The oak and the ash still flourish there, as do cherry, birch, larch, and Scots pine.

I always find interesting when researching folksong the many variations in the lyrics (a consequence of the dynamic oral tradition). The full version of the song extend the maiden’s reminiscences of her home and her resolve to mary only a lad that is North Countrie bred.” <http://www.contemplator.com/england/oakash.html>

The chorus that gives the song its name is attributed to Martin Parker, a prolific writer of ballads whose work was often borrowed. Others (and especially the Scots) appropriated these two lines in numerous poems and songs. While the oak and the ash seem to be permanent fixtures, the third “bonnie” tree might be an ivy, elum (elm), rowan, willow, or birken (birch).

The north-country versions of the sung are sung to the tune “Quodling’s Delight,” which has been traced as far back as 1608, and is perhaps older.

You can listen to folk and pop singer Marianne Faithfull sing “North County Maid” at YouTube. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_awLg5mbMA>