In a message dated 11/4/2005 6:14:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes:
Good morning.
Last year the fine historians on this list provided me direction on both flintlock guns and Dutch sailing sloops, both subjects part of an historical novel I'm writing dealing with slavery in Dutch New York.
Today I am asking for help finding a translation for this Dutch children's song:
“Trip a trop a tronjes
De varken in de boonjes.
De keojes in de klaver
De paardeen in de haver.
De eenjes in de waterplass
So grootmiess kleine joris wass.”
I have come up empty-handed on my own devices. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Susan Rosenberg
Delmar, NY
Hello Susan,
This "rhyme of the nursery" appears in The Early History of Saugerties- 1660-1825 by Benjamin Myer Brink, pg. 325. Brink states "Among the pleasing recollections of every one brought up from infancy in a home where the parents were able to speak Dutch there is one that ever haunts the memory with its strains. It is that of the rhymes of the nursery. Who that was ever trotted on the knee of such a father can forget "Trip a trop a troontjes?" This might be rendered into English:
Trip a trop a troontjes,
The pigs are in the bean vines,
The cows are in the clover blooms,
The horses in the oat fields,
The ducks are in the water-pond,
The calf is in the long grass;
So, tall my little baby was!
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Karlyn Knaust Elia
Ulster County Historian
11 Main Street
Saugerties, NY 12477
845-246-4754 (Office)
845-246-4754 FAX
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Please visit the Ulster County Website:
http://www.co.ulster.ny.us/