http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYJwnCsMBfo

This is funny because it is a true image of what most Swedes consider Russia to be like. But what are they singing? Here’s the lyrics in English, Russian and even with a little bit Swedish:

Погриманский на здоровье [‘Pogrimanski’ (?) to your health]
Глобоский гротески [‘Globoski groteski’ (?)]
Наступающим! [with the coming!]

(Tingaling, tingaling)

(Tingaling, tingaling)
Tingeling, tingeling, come on baby shake that thing
(DJ Trexx in the house, pump the bass, hey!)
Tingeling, tingeling, let me see your booty swing
(Now, come on party people, let me see you shake!)
Tingeling, tingeling, from Bombay we shake that thing
(Come on baby, pump that bass, DJ Trexx is in your face)
Tingeling, tingeling, let me see your booty swing
(Are you bass-looking party animals, lets do it!)

Tingaling, tingaling
Скрапиo баска я гин [‘Skrapio baska ja gin’ (?)]
На здороьве, Ленин! [To your health, Lenin!]
Наступающим! [With the coming!]
Tingaling, tingaling
До свиданья, Путин! [Goodbye, Putin!]
На здоровье глобоский [To your health, ‘globoski’ (?)]
Наступающим [With the coming!]
Hey, hey, hey!

Tingeling, tingeling, come on baby shake that thing
From the Globen to Beijing, let me see your booty swing
Tingaling, tingaling, Booty Russia rock it rip
But on the dancefloor who is king?
DJ Trexx is tingaling
Jag har en önskan, en önska jag har [I have a wish, a wish I have]
(Come on baby, pump that bass, DJ Trexx is in your face!)
Jag har en fråga, som kräver ett svar! [I have a question, that demands an answer!]

Tingaling, tingaling
Скрапиo баска я гин [‘Skrapio baska ja gin’ (?)]
На здороьве, Ленин! [To your health, Lenin!]
Наступающим! [With the coming!]
Tingaling, tingaling
До свиданья, Путин! [Goodbye, Putin!]
На здоровье глобоский [To your health, ‘globoski’ (?)]
Наступающим! [With the coming!]
Dancing Bear!

(Hey, hey, hey
hey-hey-hey!)

Союз нерушимый [Unbreakable union]
республик свободных [of free republics]
сплотила навеки [has welded to forever stand]
великая Русь! [the great Rus’!]

Tingaling, tingaling
Скрапио баска я гин [‘Skrapio baska ja gin’ (?)]
На здороье, Ленин! [To your health, Lenin!]
Наступающим! [With the coming!]
Tingaling, tingaling
До свиданья, Путин! [Goodbye, Putin!]
На здоровье глобоский [To your health, ‘globoski’ (?)]�
Наступающим! [With the coming!]

Tingaling, tingaling
Don’t I need anything
My darling, I beg you to stop you that thing
Tingaling, tingaling
Was it only a fling?
Or you want a ring on your fingaling?
(One more time for the Motherland!)

Tingaling, tingaling
Скрапиo баска я гин [‘Skrapio baska ja gin’ (?)]�
На здоровье, Сталин! [To your health, Stalin!]
Наступающим! [With the coming!]
Tingaling, tingaling
До свиданья, Путин! [Goodbye, Putin!]
На здоровье глобоский [To your health, ‘globoski’ (?)]
Наступающим! [With the coming!]
На здоровье глобоский [To your health, ‘globoski’ (?)]
Наступающим! [With the coming!]
Tingeling (Hey!)

As a practising and almost professional филолог [philologist] I must admit that these lyrics are very difficult to interpret in a correct fashion. At first it seems to be nothing but nonsense, but then you look closer and study the semiotic nature of the song, and think to yourself: Может быть, всё-таки песенка носит в себе глубокий смысл? [Maybe, the song after all carries in itself a deep meaning?] Could the names of Lenin, Putin and Stalin be viewed as a hidden political message? (i.e. the author, or “лирический герой” [lyrical hero] as we philologists like to say as to prevent any interpretation to turn out to be a direct interpretation of the author as a private individual, is a communist?) Or is it solely Russian names that most Swedes know and that they just happen to rhyme with the word ‘tingaling’? The word глобоский [‘globoski’] is most likely a referance to Globen, the public arena in Stockholm where the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest’s finale took place. На здоровье has the obvious explanation of being a phrase that anyone – it doesn’t matter if they heard it in Russia, in a movie or from a Russian – knows to be connected with vodka, and vodka is the national drink in Russia. (Let’s ignore the reality of сок [juice] being a more popular, not to say the least more common on a daily basis, beverage in Russia today.] But what on Earth does Скрапиo баска я гин [‘Skrapio baska ja gin’ (?)] mean? Anybody out there with a guess? Here the philologist must surrender in front of the author and confess that she does not comprehend at all. Could it be that it sounds almost like the word Владивосток [Vladivostok] and the гин rhymes with ‘tingaling’ and is perhaps a reference to yet another kind of alcohol: gin? Tingaling is obviously a re-make pronouncation of the Swedish name Tingeling for Tinker Bell, but what does that mean? That the song is not political at all, that the ‘lyrical hero’ does not intend at all to say ‘goodbye’ to Putin, but purely wants to hide an innocent tribute to Peter Pan? I think that a further analysis of the song would clear up that in reality it is a song about love, and perhaps the object of love is a Russian girl, and that the ‘lyrical hero’ intends to travel to Russia – therefore the constant “наступающим” – but realizes that his knowledge of Russian and Russia is so small that it might never happen. Closer to the end we are also informed that the ‘lyrical hero’ wonders if it is only a ‘fling’ or if the girl wants ‘a ring on her fingaling’, which is best comprehended when you contemplate the words sung in Swedish (with a slight Russian accent) by a woman saying that she has a ‘question’ that demands ‘an answer’. Now the philologist has revealed the true meaning behind the so-called ‘nonsense’: it is a song about a Swedish man who recieved a marriage proposal from a Russian girl but does not know what to answer as all he knows in Russian is how to make a toast. The song is a tragic reflection of love across borders, love between cultures, and the ‘lyrical hero’ is aware that he is not fit for this Russian woman, as he even hasn’t updated his knowledge on her country since the perestroika: that Medvedev is president, not Putin, and that the Motherland’s national anthem starts with the words: “Россия — священная наша держава, Россия — любимая наша страна.” Clearly, this song was written in agony, it is a clear and distinct крик души [scream of the soul] that may never find a solution.

And whoever said “филология – не настоящая наука” [philology is not a real science]?! Without philology this song would not have been taken seriously, and we would never have uncovered its real, deep meaning.