Party Vibe

I got my new e-bike yesterday (my original one from 2009 has done about 8 500 km and various bits of it are starting to act up to the point where it is a traffic hazard…) – as this new one has the correct Euro-plate (complete with “Great Britain” at the top of the label) it means I can eventually do my Euro-Tour (probably when I turn 45); starting at NL and then crossing to DE and maybe either AT or DK (depending which is easiest to get to, and whether e-bikes are allowed on trains for longer distances).

I am definitely going to try this route though the chorus means “I have nothing to whinge about even if anyone hassles me as because my tyres are well inflated so I can just cycle somewhere else” – although their “short” bike ride is 80km and crosses the border from NL to DE (at which point the singer isn’t sure to go left or right, at the time it was made Germany forbade google mapping) and then back to NL.

wie döt mij wat, wie döt mij wat wie döt mij wat vandage ‘k heb de banden vol met wind nee ik heb ja niks te klagen wie döt mij wat, wie döt mij wat wie döt mij wat vandage ‘k zol haost zeggen, jao het mag wel zo

‘k trap de fietse deur ‘t buulzand hen op ‘n zandpad langs de Duutse grens ik denk da’k dalijk even kieken gao in’t buutenland de gruppe over, op naor Schöningsdorf ik stao eben te kieken bij’n iemenkörf en ik stao hier even te denken wat za’k nou doen links of recht deur
it is also sung very fast in Gronings to the point that folk in Amsterdam cannot often understand it.

BTW if you go the correct way after crossing the border takes you back to NL via Groningen. The wrong way will lead you some kilometers into a very rural part of Germany; other than some houses for watching birds and the odd farm there seems to be nothing there other than a Vietnamese/Cambodian restaurant which advertises on its website only in Dutch with some English.

I had wondered how on earth they stayed in business, although I expect quite a few Dutch cyclists make the wrong turning; and at least the first generations of the restaurant workers know exactly what it is like to be lost several km into a foreign country , knackered and starving hungry :laugh_at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igXS7jcEXK0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP_CSQgBPpQ

translations of the first bit is below; although the second bit is harder and my Latin is half-forgotten 😥

O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.

O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,
obumbrata
et velata
michi quoque niteris;
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.

Fate – monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria,
est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria.
Hac in hora
sine mora
corde pulsum tangite;
quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite!

Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me![3]

Fortune plango vulnera
stillantibus ocellis
quod sua mihi munera
subtrahit rebellis.
Verum est, quod legitur,
fronte capillata,
sed plerumque sequitur
Occasio calvata.

** I think this bit has a double meaning; as some interpretations refer to the Goddess Fortuna having hair in front but bald and the back- although it could equally be interpreted as the choir (this bit is usually first sung by the male voices) weeping about their own ageing and the onset of baldness (it is a modern version of some middle age music rewritten by a German in the 20th century)

In Fortune solio
sederam elatus,
prosperitatis vario
flore coronatus;
quisquid enim florui
felix et beatus,
nunc a summo corrui
gloria privatus.

Fortune rota volvitur:
descendo minoratus;
alter in altum tollitur;
nimis exaltatus
rex sedet in vertice
caveat ruinam!
nam sub axe legimus
Hecubam reginam.