Yep, there's an English translation of the ever-famous Pinoy vegetable hymn. The very same Bahay Kubo song that makes American toddlers Youtube-famous by singing the Filipino version in full foreign diction!
Source URL: http://jameellamellannyes.blogspot.com/2010/10/famous-bahay-kubo-veggies.html
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Elementary Filipino students nationwide (which I also did way back ) commonly learn the song from schoolteachers, who for some strange reason do not even bother to explain all those 18 vegetables to curious, raw minds. I am already working now, and I still don't even know what kundol and patani look like without Googling it.
Me: What's linga?
Friend: You don't know linga?
Me: ?
Friend: Sesame seeds!
Me: Ohhhhh.. Sesame seeds! Well maybe that's a Tagalog word, linga.
Friend: No idea. What's sesame seeds in your Visayan dialect by the way?
Me: Uuhh.. [long pause] Sesame seeds? =P
English translation by Roberto Verzola
My Humble Hut Bahay Kubo
My humble hut Bahay kubo,
may look tiny, kahit munti,
but the veggies around it, ang halaman doon,
sure are many. ay sari-sari.
Yam beans and eggplants, Singkamas at talong,
winged beans and peanuts, sigarilyas at mani,
string, hyacinth and lima beans. sitaw, bataw, patani.
Winter melon and loofah, Kundol, patola,
bottle gourd, squash, et cetera. upo’t kalabasa,
There is more, amiga, at saka meron pa, (Amiga? Arriba!)
radish, mustard, yeah! labanos, mustasa. (Ahahaha nice one, Yeba!)
Onions, tomatoes Sibuyas, kamatis
garlic and ginger. bawang at luya.
If you look all around, Sa paligid-ligid
sesame seeds abound! ay puno ng linga!
I still can't figure out the criteria they used in picking the said veggies for the song, as some of them are quite unfamiliar, and why kangkong (swamp cabbage), malunggay (horseradish), sayote (vegetable pear), and ampalaya (bitter gourd) did not make it in the audition.
Sa paligid ligid,
ay puno ng kangkong!..
Well, the song is still one epic Filipino heritage - one of the things that most (if not all) Pinoys share in common. And I still firmly believe Ampalaya in the song would have been a bitter hit.
Yeah, bitter hit!
Sa paligid ligid,
ay puno ng kangkong!..
Well, the song is still one epic Filipino heritage - one of the things that most (if not all) Pinoys share in common. And I still firmly believe Ampalaya in the song would have been a bitter hit.
Yeah, bitter hit!
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