“Toss a coin to your witcher” - after the release of the “The Witcher” series from Netflix, this song sounded from every iron. Seriously, only a very lazy musician did not try to cover her. All of YouTube was just in a fever.The motive of the song is rather sticky, but the words are also curious. Today we will analyze interesting phrases from the song and try to understand the meanings that they reveal to us. So ... Buttercup, fucking!“Toss a coin to your witcher” - lyrics and translation
First, listen to the song and give the words along with the official translation into Russian:Who cares, under the spoilerfull lyrics in English.When a humble bard graced a ride along
With Geralt of Rivia along came this song
From when the White Wolf fought a silver-tongued devil
His army of elves at his hooves did they revel
They came after me with masterful deceit
Broke down my lute and they kicked in my teeth
While the devil’s horns minced our tender meat
And so cried the Witcher he can’t be bleat
Toss a coin to your Witcher
O’ Valley of Plenty
O’ Valley of Plenty
O’
Toss a coin to Your Witcher
O’ Valley of Plenty
At the edge of the world fight the mighty horde
That bashes and breaks you and brings you the morn’
He thrust every elf far back on the shelf
High up on the mountain from whence it came
He wiped out your pest got kicked in his chest
He’s a friend of humanity so give him the rest
That’s my epic tale a champion prevailed
Defeated the villain now pour him some ale
Toss a coin to your Witcher
O’ Valley of Plenty
O’ Valley of Plenty
O’
Toss a coin to your Witcher
And friend of humanity.
And in Russian
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(Lyrics of the song from the official dubbing (Pythagoras studio))Now we’ll start the analysis of the song. We will analyze interesting words and phrases of the song, non-obvious references and also explain why it can not be called a ballad in the medieval style with which it pretends to be.Graced with
When a humble bard graced a ride along
With Geralt of Rivia along came this song
Graced with - decorate, honor, reward.The semantic load of the phrase is large, but here it is important to correctly understand the nuances."Graced smth with smth" means "decorate something with something." Moreover, the order of this “something with something” is very important and it cannot be changed. That is, Buttercup said that he decorated his path with Geralt of Rivia. Not the other way around.Therefore, the “humble bard” (humble bard) sounds in this phrase as a good irony and, in the case of Buttercup, a perfect oxymoron.Ride along
When a humble bard graced a ride along
With Geralt of Rivia along came this song
Ride along - take with you, ride with someone.This is a slang phrase that became common in the 20th century. “Ride-along” also means a passenger seat in a carriage of the police, ambulance or fire service in order to interest the teenager in working in these services.Of course, in the figurative sense and in the context of the song, it means something like: "Buttercup took Geralt with him to look at the work of the bard."But the use of modern slang in a song with a medieval style is a completely different matter.Silver-tongued devil
From when the White Wolf fought a silver-tongued devil
His army of elves at his hooves did they revel
Silver-tongue is an eloquent, flattering, boneless language.This is what they say about a person who can chat and attract anyone, convince him of something, and interest a woman (or a man).The phrase "silver-tongued devil" describes a person who masterfully speaks, but who, to achieve his goals, does not hesitate to brazenly lie, flatter or denigrate another.Here the phrase interestingly echoes the events of the series, because earlier Geralt was hired to kill the “devil” who stole grain from the villagers and who later turned out to be a sylvan named Torquay.
Ranunculus somewhat embellished the events, calling Torqua "silver-tongued devil." And in general, he also greatly exaggerated the battle with the army of elves.Revel
From when the White Wolf fought a silver-tongued devil
His army of elves at his hooves did they revel
Revel - revel, revel, enjoy, revel, have fun.Not the most common word, so let’s explain.“Revel” is not just “party”, but “fun to the fullest” when they walk as if tomorrow will never come.Remember the movie American Pie? This is where "revel" is.Come after
They came after me with masterful deceit
Broke down my lute and they kicked in my teeth
Come after - go after, chase, chase, get to.The phrasal verb is quite ordinary, but mostly students learn “come in” and “come back”, which are used in the daily language, and they do not pay attention to others.In this context, “come after” means precisely “to pursue in order to catch or attack”.Mince
While the devil's horns minced our tender meat
And so cried the Witcher he can't be bleat
Mince - chop, chop, chop, chop.Interestingly, the verb “mince” is most often used precisely in the sense of “chop meat”. As a noun, “mince” means “minced meat” or “finely chopped meat”.In the context of the song, the meanings “tormented” and “tore up” will also be relevant, since you won’t especially chop or cut the horns.By the way, with this word there is a hoo linguistic meanness. If just “mince” means “stuffing,” then what do you think “mince pie” means? "Meat pie"? And no! “Mince pie” is a traditional Christmas sweet (!) Fruit pie.
Be bleat
While the devil's horns minced our tender meat
And so cried the Witcher he can't be bleat
Bleat - bleat, moo, whine, whine.Interestingly, the phrase “be bleat” as a phrase is meaningless. But here the authors of the text resort to one interesting trick - in rhymed texts there is an opportunity to shorten a long phrase so that the missing words can be thought out independently.In fact, the full phrase will sound like “he can't be forced to bleat”, the meaning of which is “this guy is so strong that no one will make him cry in pain”.Toss a coin
Toss a coin to your Witcher
O 'Valley of Plenty
O' Valley of Plenty
Toss - toss, toss, throw, toss lots.Smoothly approached the main phrase of the song about the Witcher :)Toss a coin - is "toss a coin." But what matters is how this is done. “Toss” - toss with a fingernail, as if tossing lots. Like this:But to be honest, it was this phrase in addition to the sticky motive that made the song a cult. It seems that she is loved much more than the series as a whole.Yes, from the replacement of "toss" with "throw" in the sense almost nothing would have changed. But it was the unusual “toss” that became the anchor that catches the attention of the audience.Elf on the shelf
He thrust every elf far back on the shelf
High up on the mountain from whence it came
Elf on the shelf is a very explicit reference to an interesting Christmas American tradition. She says that shortly before Christmas (a few weeks) from the North Pole to every house where there are children, they send an elf who will monitor the behavior of the children.
Every night, this elf moves to the North Pole and reports to Santa Claus how the children behaved.There are two rules in the elf on the shelf tradition:- You can’t touch the elf, otherwise all his magic will be lost and he will not be able to return to the North Pole, and the children in the house will not receive gifts.
- An elf moves only when the children go to bed. In the afternoon he sits motionless, but remembers everything.
The tradition dates back to the 1970s, but the Americans liked it so much that ten years later, more than half of families with children began to put elves on the shelves. A good way to prevent your child from “getting off the coils” from waiting for Christmas and gifts.But there is one question. Why is this a reference in The Witcher? After all, the elves in it appear in their majority as not too positive characters. Yes, and they do not relate to Christmas at all. Quite strange, in our opinion.Wipe out
He wiped out your pest got kicked in his chest
He's a friend of humanity so give him the rest
Wipe out - cut down, destroy, exterminate, eradicate, kill.A fairly simple phrasal verb with a clear meaning. The translation closest in meaning is “wipe off the face of the earth”.By the way, “Wipeout” is also a popular American show, which was released from 2008 to 2014. However, for some reason, Russian localizers translated the name as “Total Destruction”.The heroes of the show were to run along an obstacle course without falling into the water. There were not so many participants who were able to do this without a single drop.
Give him the rest
He wiped out your pest got kicked in his chest
He's a friend of humanity so give him the rest
One of the subtle nuances in which the article plays a huge role. And this is exactly the moment that the English grammar-Nazis really dislike.“Give the rest” translates to “give the rest.”And for the phrase to get the meaning “give a rest”, you need to say “give a rest”.For nativists who know the language well, they bomb it. What, the rest? What does buttercup mean? And somehow it’s not clear whether this phrase has a double meaning or is it just a banal oversight, because the editors do not read the lyrics. Most likely, the second, but who knows.In general, the rhythm of the song already suffers - the trochee turned out to be some kind of floating and fuzzy, but we will not discuss the shortcomings on this side. The bottom line is that despite them, the song has become a real hit.Maybe it will inspire you to a more thoughtful study of the language?EnglishDom.com online school - inspire you to learn English through technology and human care
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