Hey people! 🙂
Today I’d like to share with you a song by Y Bandana from their self-titled debut album. I’ve been able to write a translation for you and, surprisingly for me, it wasn’t all that difficult. Although perhaps it shouldn’t feel so surprising as I already understood most of it from listening and there were only two phrases that were new to me (for any fellow Welsh learners out there who might be curious, it was a novelty for me that “dim llawn llathan” (literally not a full yard) means that someone is not all there/crazy, and also that spanking is “chwip din”). Still, it’s entirely possible that there are some errors, so if you speak Welsh and see something odd, please do enlighten me or something.
If you’re not familiar with Y Bandana, they were a Welsh-language pop rock group made up of two brothers, Siôn and Tomos Owens, their cousin Gwilym Bowen Rhys and his friend Robin Jones. They were very successful on the Welsh-language music scene. This song is quite funny in the way that Y Bandana’s songs often are, but I think it’s also just a tad bit disturbing. Unless it’s just me who overanalyses things as is my habit or I’ve misunderstood/mistranslated something here. 😀 But it sounds like the lyrical subject is being quite badly bullied by a despotic older sibling, rather than – as I thought before attempting this translation, just having heard this song many times over the years – slightly smothered by an overprotective parent. Not fun. Makes me feel relieved that I don’t have older siblings and didn’t have to go through something like this as a teenager. It’s natural for parents to be protective, sometimes overprotective, of their offspring, but when a year older sibling treats you like a baby, that’s kind of humiliating.
Every time I go to the club I get kicked out
Although there are some who are older than me that are not quite all there
Don’t you dare say that I’m not responsible enough
‘Cause you’re only a year older
I’ve had enough
No, no, no, I’m not a baby anymore
Wa, wa, wa, not a baby anymore
No, no, no, I’m not a baby anymore
Wa, wa, wa, not a baby
You don’t have to hold my hand for me to be able to cross the street
And just because you’re older than me I don’t get to say anything
I don’t have to get a spanking if I break the rules
Well, oops, I’ve broken one and it won’t be for the last time
No, no, no, I’m not a baby anymore
Wa, wa, wa, not a baby anymore
No, no, no, I’m not a baby anymore
Wa, wa, wa, not a baby
No, no, no, I’m not a baby anymore
Wa, wa, wa, not a baby anymore
No, no, no, I’m not a baby anymore
Wa, wa, wa, not a baby
My Inner MishMash 