ISO a definition!

[Yurij Lotoshko]

You are right, it's game for small boys and girls
(chorovodnaja igra)

Edward Dumanis wrote:

> Devin P Browne wrote:
>
> > Privet all!  I recently pulled out an old "Russian Birthday Song" that my
> > cooperating teacher gave me many years ago.  However, there's a word in it
> > that I can't find in the dictionary and I have checked quite a few now.
> > The line is (in non-Cyrillic, unfortunately):
> >
> > Ispekli my karovaj
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> > Devin/Divan
> >
> > Devin P Browne
> > dpbrowne+ at pitt.edu
>
> It is not actually just a song.  It's a birthday party game where the guests
> form a circle (horovod) taking each others' hands and surrounding the person
> (who is the karavaj) whose birthday is celebrated (e.g., Yurij Lotoshko).
> They walk around the circle singing (the version is slightly different from
> Yurij's):
>
> Kak na Yuriny imeniny
> Ispekli my karavaj
>                                 (The motion around the circle stops at this
> moment
>                                 with the guests facing Yurij still holding
> each others'
>                                 hands; they continue to hold each others'
> hands all
>                                 the time during the game)
> Vot takoj vyshiny,
>                                 (the guests are raising their hands while
> holding
>                                 each others' hands as high as possible)
> Vot takoj nizhiny,
>                                 (the guests squat touching the floor with
> their hands)
> Vot takoj shiriny
>                                (the guests stand up and spread out from Yurij
>                                 trying to make the circle as wide as possible)
>
> Vot takoj uzhiny
>                                (The guests move towards Yurij trying to
>                                 squeeze him in the circle -a kind of hugging,
> a lot of fun!)
> Karavaj, karavaj,
> Kogo hochesh' vybiraj!
>                                 (The guests form the original circle,
>                                 and then karavaj-Yurij replies
>                                 naming one of the guests, e.g., Philippe:)
>
> Ja ljublju konechno vseh,
> Tol'ko Philippe bol'she vseh.
>
>                                                 (At this time, Philippe joins
> Yurij,
>                                                 and the guests who are left in
> the circle
>                                                 repeat the song with the same
> movements
>                                                 and both Yurij and Philippe at
> the center;
>                                                 the only difference is at the
> very end when
>                                                 only Phillippe is singing for
> karavaj and
>                                                 names the next guest (e.g.,
> Irina) to join
>                                                 them at the center, and so
> on.)
>
> The game continues until it is impossible to form a circle around karavaj.
>
> A small correction of some typos in Philippe's translation:
>
> FRISON Philippe meant:
>
> Try Ozhegov latest issue (1992), p. 271) your sentence would mean 'We
> baked a (round) loaf of bread.'
>
> 18 years ago my wife Nadya Dumanis wrote an English translation of this
> Russian song for our son's birthday party to play the game with his first
> grade friends.  If I find it, I will post it later.
>
> Edward Dumanis <dumanis at acsu.buffalo.edu>