Well, I can’t quite explain why, but I need Peter, Paul, and Mary’s Going to the Zoo in German or its German equivalent (if there even is one.) All I really need is the chorus. It’s an easy song to translate and I’ve already found the English lyrics, but I was wondering if anyone knew of a similar song in native German. I mean, *Wir gehen nach den Zoo, Zoo, Zoo/Wie [well something, once I can figure out what I need to translate “about”] du, du, du?" isn’t too hard, but fitting “You can come to, to, to” into the meter with the annoyances of the German verb system isn’t going to be easy. Any ideas?
Tough one. Do you have a link to the original English lyrics?
Also, I don’t think that ‘Zoo’ and ‘du’ make good ryhmes. It is an ‘oh’ sound and an ‘oo’ sound.
:smack: Good point. However I could probably get away with it–it’s just for class after all. Here’s the link, I think. Not sure, because I can’t reconnect with the server to make sure.
Anyway, the chorus is “We’re goin’ to the zoo, zoo, zoo/How about you, you, you/You can come too, too, too/We’re goin’ to the zoo, zoo, zoo.”
Well, maybe I’ll have to talk the group out of using it. Or just eating the problem with the syllable sound.
Just wanted to point out that it should be “in den Zoo” rather than “nach den Zoo”, although that’s a minor point.
If you go with ‘Zoo’, then ‘du’, maybe you could then use a different sound in the third line, like ‘da, da, da’ (although that starts to sound like another song).
I wouldn’t try to literally translate ‘How about’. You probably want to keep it as a question so that you can answer it in the next line, so maybe something like “Warum nicht du?” but that doesn’t seem the best fit.
On the other hand, the question’s not really necessary. In the original, the two lines are both pretty much invitations, and I think the integrity of the sentences doesn’t matter as much as the fun rhymes. You could come up with a line that invites someone, and then another line of filler (maybe something about going to the zoo together, or what it’ll be like).
Maybe you’re right. Man, I knew translations are hard, why did I volunteer? In den Zoo, huh? Well, I’ll give a shot.