# Danish "bouncing" song **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695 "2003-06-23T04:12:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/1 "2003-06-23T04:12:01Z")
A friend of mine is looking for help with a Danish song that has been passed down in her husband’s family. They have the words memorized but no one knows the meaning. This is her description of the song: He sits with the kids stradled on his lap facing him and holding their hands. As he sings the song he kind of rocks them backwards. Then at one point he lowers them very low (a back bend). My version of his words… Sower dough De fear dough De fear skelly …dough yente eh yente … yente foota foughta may yente foota lowman (where they go way back) (With apologies for the undoubtedly awful transliteration) Can anyone help? She’s looking for the correct words in Danish, as well as an English translation. ---
**Author:** ![blinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@blinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinx)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/2 "2003-06-23T09:49:23Z")
😃 I am danish and I’m sitting here in my office giggling trying to imagine what those words are supposed to be, perhaps if I could actually hear it I might be able to identify it. The only song I can remember that involves bouncing on a knee is “Ride ride ranke” which goes like this: [http://www.ugle.dk/ride\_ride\_ranke.html](http://www.ugle.dk/ride_ride_ranke.html) (there are probably lots of variants) ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/3 "2003-06-23T12:02:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Helena \* > Sower dough > De fear dough > De fear skelly …dough > yente eh > yente … > yente foota foughta may > yente foota lowman (where they go way back) Hmm. The first line obviously is _Sover du?_ = _Are you sleeping?_. _yente_ could be _jente_ = _(little) girl_, although that sounds more Norwegian. The Danish word for girl is _pige_. ---
**Author:** ![blinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@blinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinx)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/4 "2003-06-23T12:31:01Z")
ahhh… **Mester Jakob** You can find the lyrics for it in a lot of languages here: [http://ingeb.org/Lieder/bruderja.html](http://ingeb.org/Lieder/bruderja.html) The danish version means: Mester Jakob, Mester Jakob Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Don’t you hear the bells? Bim, bam, bum, bim, bam, bum. (bell sound) ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/5 "2003-06-23T15:59:36Z")
Thanks! I’m sure that will help. Does anybody know the same version? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/6 "2003-06-23T16:27:53Z")
Sounds like [Frere Jacques.](http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-5353.html) ---
**Author:** ![yungmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b38774/32.png) [@yungmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yungmom)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/7 "2003-06-23T16:44:51Z")
Thanks Helena! I’m the friend! I’m pretty sure it is not any of these songs. I vaguely recall something about pennies and “penny for \_\_\_\_\_ who lives down the lane.” Does that help any? ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/8 "2003-06-23T16:49:10Z")
Checked with a friend who suggests it might be a Jutland dialect, southern or mid-western. We agree that the first bit is clearly “sover du”, and we think we maybe pieced together some more words. fear skelly =? forskellig = different yente eh yente =? en til og en til = one more and one more (suits for bouncing, “again, again!”) may = mig = me (fairly obvious) ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/9 "2003-06-23T16:52:38Z")
The little boy who lives down the lane? Thats baa-baa-black sheep, “one for the master, one for the dame, and one for the little boy who lives down the lane”. ---
**Author:** ![yungmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b38774/32.png) [@yungmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yungmom)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danish-bouncing-song/183695/10 "2003-06-24T00:17:34Z")
I was thinking maybe that was it Iteki, but then decided it wasn’t. It definitley has different “music”, but figured that a lot of things may have different tunes when going from country to country. The thing that got me was that according to DH’s translation it is pennies and the living down the lane line is next to last, not last. I sure appreciate your helping me you all. I’m putting my kids “heritage” in a scrapbook and this means a lot to me.