Besides the songs in Konkani which Victor Rangel-Ribeiro gave us in their English translation (could he post the original versions, please?), there were also the following verses, sung in Portuguese: "Santo Antonio de Lisboa, deita chuva em toda Goa" (St. Anthony of Lisboa, pour rain throughout Goa). (Santo Antonio de Lisboa - or, as he was called in our language, "Sant Anton firngealo - is the same as St. Anthony of Padua. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and died in Padua, Italy).
Jorge ----- Original Message ----- From: Victor Rangel-Ribeiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 3:29 AM Subject: [Goanet]Re: Besides, 'Dol Mojea Bai..' what else you remember?? > JoeGoaUk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Come on all mothers, Grandmas, Dads, Grandpas, uncles, aunties etc etc > Youngsters, you just consult your elders and you can join too. > What ever you recollect, just fire it away on Goanet. > OR if you can't recollect anything that relates to kids then fire away any > thing like 60s or 70s memories. > > > In answer to Joe's challenge, and prodded also by Domnick's > reminiscences, I now send in a passage from my novel Tivolem, which is based > on my recollections of Goa as it was in the mid 1920s and early 1930s (1933 to > be exact): > > "When the first rains failed to arrive even by the eighth of June---they > should have started on the sixth, Angelinh' Granny had agreed---the voices of > Little Arnold and his friends could be heard as they went singing in scraggly > procession through Tivolem's winding lanes: > > Saint Anthony where the bamboos sway > Cast rain upon our fields, we pray. > > Carefully avoiding the ruts, down the narrow bone-dry lanes the children > went, carrying symbolic rocks and small flat stones on their heads, calling > repeatedly on the miracle worker for help: > > Saint Anthony in the bamboo grove, > Send showers to us from heaven above. > > Was the saint really in the bamboo groves, Little Arnold wondered, and if so, > what was he doing there? Finding no ready answer, he and his friends continued > to sing, turning this time to a second, also powerful ally: > > Saint Isabel, good queen of the poor, > Full knee-deep water we implore. > > Francisco Xavier Antonio Candido Pires, now in the seventh month of his > assignment as curate of the parish of Tivolem, heard the children singing, saw > them come down the lane, and stopped in his tracks when they ran up to him and > crowded around to get his blessing...." > > Because I was writing in English for an English-speaking audience, the two- > line rhymes I have included are free translations of the Konkani original that > we sang; some of the Konkani versions have already been posted here by others. > > How many remember that children in those years were supposed to run up to a > priest whenever they saw one, and get his blessing? > > My novel Tivolem is based not only on my own memories but on research I did in > the Panjim Central Library----I read every issue of two of the leading > newspapers that were published in Goa in 1933. So if readers want to know what > Goa was like before they were born, a peek into Tivolem will enlighten them. > Alas, the book is currently out of print, but it is likely that copies will be > available before long. > > Best regards, > Victor Rangel-Ribeiro, Porvorim and New Jersey > >
