Yes! For a week now, Danish fans of melodi grand prix [meloDEE gramPREE] have been in ecstasy. Lørdag den 18. maj in Malmö, Sweden, Emmelie de Forest won the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, as it is better known internationally. The girl from Randers in Jylland won the hjerter [YERter] (hearts) of fjernsynsseere (tv-watchers) all across Europa [eoowROHpaa], who voted Emmelie and Denmark ahead of the 25 other participating lande (countries). With bare tæer (bare feet, literally ”bare toes”) and a kjole [KYOLeh] (woman’s dress, gown) made from organic bomuld [BOMul] (cotton), Emmelie entered the scene [SEHneh] (stage) to conquer Europe with her song ”Only Teardrops”:

This is a great sejr [SIE-or] (victory) for dansk musik (Danish music). It is the third time in the history of the konkurrence [kongkooRANGseh] (contest) that Denmark wins. (The newspaper tells me that the first time was in London in 1963, when Grethe and Jørgen Ingemann sung ”Dansevise” [Dance Ballad]. The follow-up was ”Fly On The Wings Of Love” with the Olsen Brothers in Stockholm, 2000.)

When Emmelie arrived in Copenhagen i søndags (this Sunday, the most recent Sunday), people went crazy. Thousands of people fejrede hende (celebrated her) in Tivoli, Copenhagen’s famous amusement park. She had no choice but to give a second performance of her song!

The sad things for Danish-aficionados is, of course … that the song’s in English! To make sure you get your weekly fix of the odd-but-beautiful Danish language, here’s the Danish version of ”Fly On The Wings…”

Both texts, of course, are happy little things about kærlighed (love)!

But funnily enough, the meaning of the verses varies a lot between the two versions. Let’s look at the most famous part:

English:

Fly on the wings of love
Fly baby fly
Reaching the stars above
Touching the sky

Danish:

Smuk som et stjerneskud
som tiden går
smukkere ser hun ud
år efter år

I think the Danish text har more humor [hooMORe]. It approximately means:

Beautiful as a shooting star
as Time passes
she looks more and more beautiful
each and every year

When you want to tell the world where you are, prepositions come handy: I’m in the garden; we’re on the beach. (And so it is in Danish: Jeg er i haven; vi er på stranden.) However, very often some kind of adverb can do the job as well: I’m home; we’re out. Jeg er hjemme; vi er ude.

You’ll notice that a lot of these locational adverbs end in -e in Danish. In addition to hjemme [YEMMeh] and ude [OOtheh], you’ve got:

- inde (in, inside), as in Hun sidder inde i stuen (she’s sitting in the living-room)

- oppe (up), as in Vi var oppe hele natten (We stayed up all night)

- nede (down), as in Kartoflerne er nede i jorden (The potatoes are down in the earth)

- henne (”at a distance”), as in Han sover henne hos naboen (He sleeps [over there] at the neighbour’s place)

- omme (”at a closer distance”), as in Den ligger omme bag huset (It lies [right there] behind the house)

- fremme (in front), as in Ølflaskerne står altid fremme (the beer bottles are always on display [”in front”])

But what if you wanted to say you were going home rather than being home? In Danish there’s a really nice trick you can use to tweak the meaning of the above words into something more directional: You just remove the final -e:

- Gå hjem! (Go home!)

- Kom ud! (Come out(side)!)

- Hun går ind i stuen (She’s going into the living-room)

- Han står op (He gets up)

- De sætter sig ned (They sit down)

- Vi tager hen til naboen (We’re going to the neighbour’s place [in that direction])

- De kom om bag huset (They came to the back of the house)

- Kom frem! (Come forth!)

Neat, huh?

Muh! It’s finally forår (Spring), and all the Danish køer (cows) are dying to get out on markerne (the fields). Nattefrosten (the night frost) has left the jord (earth, soil), and our four-legged friends are endelig (finally) allowed to leave the stald (stable). It’s time for køernes forårsdans (the spring-dance of the cows).

I forgårs (the day before yesterday), my sister, I and at least 1000 other persons travelled to Raunhøj, one of several Danish farms that had decided to slippe køerne fri (let the cows loose) at the same time. I gamle dage (in olden days), this was, of course, a private, joyful event that took place independently at each bondegård (farm). Takket være (thanks to) the internet, it has recently become a public happening. This year’s magical moment was set to søndag 21. april klokken 12. Passionate cow-watchers could easily access a hjemmeside (homepage) and find the nearest farm.

Of course, the Danish mejerier (dairies) helped promote the event – which they’ve branded as Økodag. If you’ve ever been to a Danish foodstore, you know that Danes are crazy about økologisk mad (organic/biodynamic food – that is, food that has been grown without the farmers using poisonous fertilizers). So, ”Økodag” is a snappy way to say ”organic day” or ”biodynamic day”. And a ko (cow) that gives us her økologisk mælk and økologisk ost (organic cheese) is … an øko-ko.

økodag – the cows’ spring party (official logo from økodag.dk)

At the farm there were so many mennesker (humans) that it seemed like a rockkoncert. Politiet (the police) were even there! So many børn og voksne (children and adults) were looking at their watches and talking about the cows, that I’m sure they must have become quite nervous in their stable! But at last they ran out into foråret, jumping and dancing madly after their long imprisonment.

This is how it looked: