Help with three Slovak songs

[Francoise Rosset]

On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:50:45 -0800
  "Krafcik, Patricia" <KrafcikP at EVERGREEN.EDU> wrote:
> Dear Francoise--
> I consulted again with Marta Botikova, Chair of the Department of 
>Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Comenius University. She 
>applauded Martin Votruba's translation of the songs, but had the 
>following corrections to the overall discussion--corrections which 
>emerge from her many years of researching women and women's issues and 
>culture in Slovakia (she is, in addition,a fluent speaker of 
>Hungarian):
> 
> --kytla/kytlicka: a white linen over-skirt.
> --obrancovat': This verb, meaning "to pleat" does come from 
>Hungarian, as Jan Zielinski says, but "ranc" in connection with 
>clothes and especially a skirt refers to a "pleat." Pleating the skirt 
>was a way to keep it in proper and accepted shape. Both Hungarian and 
>Slovak women engaged in this activity. Pleats were made by running 
>one's fingernails down small sections of material after the skirt was 
>washed. This was a difficult and time-consuming task requiring 
>precision, and it could be supposed that the girl in the song was, as 
>David Cooper suspects, lazy, and would not make these pleats properly 
>or at all. Marta and I hope that this explanation clears up the issue. 
>We also thought that we had communicated with you about these songs 
>last year.
>
> All the best. Pat Krafcik
> The Evergreen State College 



Ah: that information about pleating skirts does tie things
together very nicely, and clear up several questions: the
mystery word and the reference to laziness. So the line can
now be:

"She didn't even pleat her skirt"  OR
"She didn't even bother / to pleat her skirt"

As for last year, that wasn't me/us: I've never seen these
songs before. BUT somebody must have approached you, because
it seems they're popular musical pieces for Chorus. (One of
the other responders mentioned translating them before for
another party.)

Thank you so much; please thank professor Botikova as well.
-FR
  

Francoise Rosset, Associate Professor
Chair, Russian and Russian Studies
Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts 02766
Office: (508) 285-3696
FAX:   (508) 286-3640

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