Waltzing Matilda
André Rieu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_iwMnzpiww
Slim Dusty
Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known bush ballad, a country folk song, and has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia".[1] The title is Australian slang for travelling by foot with one's goods in a "Matilda" (bag) slung over one's back.[2]
The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker making a drink of tea at a bush camp and capturing a sheep to eat. When the sheep's ostensible owner arrives with three police officers to arrest the worker for the alleged theft (a crime punishable by hanging), the worker drowns himself in a small watering hole and goes on to haunt the site.
The original lyrics were written in 1887 by a poet and nationalist Banjo Paterson. It was first published as sheet music in 1903. Extensive folklore surrounds the song and the process of its creation, to the extent that the song has its own museum, the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, Queensland.
waltzing
derived from the German term auf der Walz, which means to travel while working as a craftsman and learn new techniques from other masters before returning home after three years and one day, a custom which is still in use today among carpenters.[9]
Matilda
a romantic term for a swagman's bundle. See below, "Waltzing Matilda."
Waltzing Matilda
from the above terms, "to waltz Matilda" is to travel with a swag, that is, with all one's belongings on one's back wrapped in a blanket or cloth. The exact origins of the term "Matilda" are disputed; one fanciful derivation states that when swagmen met each other at their gatherings, there were rarely women to dance with. Nonetheless, they enjoyed a dance, and so they danced with their swags, which was given a woman's name. However, this appears to be influenced by the word "waltz", hence the introduction of dancing. It seems more likely that, as a swagman's only companion, the swag came to be personified as a woman.
Another explanation is that the term also derives from German immigrants. German soldiers commonly referred to their greatcoats as "Matilda", supposedly because the coat kept them as warm as a woman would. Early German immigrants who "went on the waltz" would wrap their belongings in their coat, and took to calling it by the same name their soldiers had used.
(news from Wikipedia. For more details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltzing_Matilda )
(Qualche spiegazione in italiano tratte da “Canzoni contro la guerra”)
"Waltzing Matilda" e' una popolarissima canzone popolare australiana, dove e' considerata un secondo inno nazionale.
Canta la storia di uno "swagman", che ruba una pecora e, per sfuggire alla polizia, cade in un "billabong" e affoga. I billabong sono dei laghetti isolati che costituiscono cio' che resta di un fiume quando si secca o cambia direzione, come spesso avviene in Australia.
Gli swagmen australiani erano lavoratori vaganti, soprattutto tosatori di pecore, che giravano, per lo piu' a piedi, portandosi dietro lo "swag", una coperta arrotolata con dentro tutte le loro cose, che veniva portata tipo un fucile, a tracolla dietro la schiena.
Waltzing deriva dal tedesco andare "auf der walz" (grosso modo "vagabondare"), Matilda era il nomignolo che veviva dato allo swag.
Deriva anch'esso dal tedesco, dove Matilda (da Mechthild, "donna da battaglia") era il nomignolo con cui venivano chiamate le donne che seguivano i soldati durante la guerra per scaldare le loro notti. Venne quindi usata ad indicare l'uniforme grigia e quindi il fagotto.
"Waltzing Matilda" quindi si riferisce al vagabondare per l'Australia col fagotto sulle spalle offrendo lavoro.
La canzone si riferisce probabilmente ad un episodio avvenuto durante i giorni del violento sciopero dei tosatori nell'Australia occidentale del 1894.
Waltzing Matilda
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Up rode the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred,
Down came the troopers, one, two, three,
"Where's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?"
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
"Where's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?",
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong,
"You'll never catch me alive", said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me."
"Oh, You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me."
