'n Lied vir BEGINNER-STUDENTE van Afrikaans
GERTJIE Wanneer kom ons troudag, Gertjie, Gertjie? Hoe's dit dan so stil met jou? Ons is so lank verloof al, Gertjie, Gertjie; dit is tyd dat ons gaan trou. Glo tog, Gertjie, ek sal nooit nie, nooit nie nog langer aan jou sleeptou bly nie, bly nie. Jy dink miskien ek kan nie dood nie, dood nie; maar die jare gaan verby. Words of unknown origin. Melody borrowed from G.F. Root's "Just before the battle, Mother" which was written during the American Civil War. troudag: wedding day verloof: engaged tyd: time trou: marry nooit: never nog langer aan jou sleeptou bly nie: still longer be kept on a string by you. A "sleeptou" probably refers to some technical term used by people who inspan wagons with oxen. kan nie dood nie: cannot die. The noun for "death" here is also used as a verb. (Alternate word for "doodgaan" is "sterwe" which is linguistically related to the English word "starve" but is just a more dignified alternative to "doodgaan." The word "starve" in Afrikaans would be "hongerly, uithonger." my jare: my years, the years of my life gaan verby: go by, pass This song has five verses. The conversation is between a man called Jan, who is asking a girl named Gertjie when she is going to agree to marry him. The girl does not seem too enthusiastic, mentioning the fact that she has heard rumours of his dallying with other girls. She also mentions the names of men in her life. More-over, she points out that a certain couple, formerly so in love, have now split up. Eventually, despite his pleas for a kiss, she tells him to forget her, because she wants to go her own way. Since only the first verse is well-known to most people, I spent my entire life in confusion as to the gender of the person who is talking, and the gender of the person who is being addressed. "Gertjie" the dimunitive form of "Gert" is as far as I know exclusively used in SA for males. So I grew up thinking that the somebody proposing here was either a girl talking to a man, or a man talking to another man. Thus I was subtly prepared for the sexual revolution at the end of the 20th century. Gloudina Bouwer