Sider

De glemte sider

mandag den 15. december 2025

Kokosnødder eller ej
Poetry Monday :: Coconut or not

Dagens tema er Kokosnød. Men når jeg tænker på et vers om kokosnødder dukker der en af to sange op i mn hjerne. Enten:  Far, jeg kan ikke få hul på kokosnødden ... eller den nyere: A coconut is not a nut... Lige meget hvad er det ikke til at skrive et digt. Derfor en lille tosset historie i stedet.

Far, jeg kan ikke få hul på kokosnødden er en af de allerførste sange, jeg nogensinde hørte på grammofon. Vi havde en samling gamle plader og en sjov pladeafspiller, der havde en indretning, så man kunne stable op til ti plader ovenpå hinanden. Så faldt den ene ned, når den anden var færdig og så videre indtil man havde hørt dem alle. Så måtte man fylde op igen, enten med nye plader eller bare ved at vende dem om. Vi havde - ud over den der med kokosnødden -  En sang - garanteret hamrende politisk ukorrekt - der handlede om lange vinternætter på Grønland. Green Door, White Christmas, To mennesker med Ved kajen på den anden side - drivende sentimentale kærlighedssange, og et par stykker til - alle sammen omkring 30 år gamle hvis ikke mere, men det var sjov at se pladerne falde ned og afspille sig selv, så det gjorde vi med jævne mellemrum


..  --- 🥥   🥥 --- ..

When I think og vriting a poem with coconuts one of two songs surface in my brain. Either the Danish version of I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts - the Danish version is totally nuts (!) and tells the story of a child, telling his dad about his trying to open a coconut, making ever growing disasters, breaking the hammer, hurting himself, and mum, ruining the table, the doors ...  in the end blowing up the house with dynamite. Every verse ending with the refrain "... but the coconut looks just like its old self."

The new one is known to most of you, I think:

The coconut nut is a giant nut
If you eat too much, you'll get very fat
Now, the coconut nut is a big, big nut
But this delicious nut is not a nut

It's the coco fruit
Of the coco tree
From the coco palm family

It's the coco fruit
Of the coco tree
From the coco palm family


Neither of these songs are conductive to poeming anything, so I ask to be excused today.

4 kommentarer:

  1. I've heard the song, but not this version, and I think the Danish version must be very funny.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. The Danish version is funny. I found it funnier as a child, but isn't it always so.I have now read the English version, and see that I never really grasped the words as a child - blame it partly on old scratchy records, partly on my not so good English back then, we began learning English at around 12 years of age. I heard:
      I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts /
      Every one I throw will make me rich (How, by magic? why don't you throw them, then?)
      There stands my wife / The owner of my life (Mirroring the comic strips back then)
      Singing rola-pola-pol and peeling a peach (Just standing there singing nonsense verses and eating peaches while the poor man worked with those, maybe magical, coconuts).
      All in all a very strange song, but songs back then were often meaningless, at least to us kids.

      Slet
  2. You are easily excused since I couldn't possibly make a poem either. I remember my stepfather singing "I've got a lovely bunch of Coconuts" when he came home drunk, he sang other songs too and then usually just fell asleep at the table. He was a "happy" drunk, never violent.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Drunks are never nice, not even happy ones. The ones in my family were unhappy drunks, also not violent, just drinking till they passed out.

      Slet

Jeg bliver altid glad for en kommentar, og prøver at svare på alle kommentarer .

I am grateful for all comments, and try to reply meaningfully to all of them.