come, let's go to the game

About a week ago I blogged about a Chassidish version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." In that post, I mentioned that I was singing "Take Me Out..." in Hebrew. Someone posted a comment, asking why I was singing it at work, where I got it, and if it's on a CD somewhere. Taking those questions out of order: I am not aware of any CD recording of it. I was singing it at work because I sometimes absent-mindedly sing while I walk or do work. It's not like I was at a board meeting or anything. I can see that:

CEO: Brockmore! What are the projections for the Fleeblefop file?

Brockmore: (softly) You ain't nothin' but a hounddog. Crying all the time.

I also sing (hum, actually) in the dentist chair. But that's another story.

Anyway, I came upon the Hebrew version quite on purpose. I used to go to a lot of baseball games. Since they sing "Take Me Out..." during the seventh inning stretch, I thought it would be funny to sing it in Hebrew. I originally thought of doing that with "The Star Spangled Banner" at the beginning of the game, but quickly decided that that was too disrespectful.

I enlisted the help of a friend at work who knows Hebrew -- though he grew up writing English, he's become womething of a Hebrew poet. He's been published. I understand he's quite good, though I am ill-equipped to judge. Together we went through the song and translated it line by line. Of course, there are places where the translation is loose, but that's reasonable.

Following are: the Hebrew version written in Hebrew (spelling may be off -- sorry), the Hebrew version transliterated into English, and the Hebrew version translated back to English:

First, in Hebrew:

בא, נצא למשחק

בא, נצא להמון

קנה לי בוטנים ו'קרקר ד'קס

אין אכפת לי אם אף פעם לא נחזור

נשיר הידד לפועל

אם לא מנצחים זה חבל

באחת, שתיים, שלוש מפסידים באצטדיון

Next, transliterated into English:

Bo, netzeh lamischak
Bo, netzeh lahamon
K'neh li botnim v'cracker jacks
Ain Echpat li im af pa'am lo nachzor
Nashir heidad lapo'el
Im lo m'natzchim zeh haval
Be'achat, shta'im, shalosh mafsidim ba'etztadyon

Finally, translated back to English:

Come, let's go to the game
Come, let's go to the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks
It doesn't matter to me if we never et back
We'll sing hooray for the team
If they don't win it's a shame
With one, two, three misses at the stadium