Handjes draaien
Handjes draaien
Turn Little Hands
Children's Song
Children's Song
(Dutch)
(English)
Handjes draaien, koekebakke vlaaie*
Handjes draaien, koekebakke vis
Je kunt toch niet geloven
Hoe lekker dat dat is Stokvis
Turn little hands, baking cake,
Turn little hands, baking fish,
You can't really believe,
How good it is: stockfish**.
Notes
*Regarding "koekebakke vlaaie" – these are slang words to rhyme. Dries wrote that "koeke" means "cookie", "bakke" means "to bake" and "vlaaie" is "cake, pudding". Even if every word taken separately has a meaning, the three of them put together in this construction makes no actual sentence, they're here for the rhyme and rhythm.
**Stockfish is fish, most often cod, that's dried out in the open air on wooden racks, in the sun and wind, without salt. It can last for years once it's cured this way.
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Kim Welkenhuysen for contributing this song, to Monique Palomares for translating it with a little help from Anna-Marie Arijs. Thanks to Dries Chaerle for her explanations about the text.
Dank u wel!