'Old MacDonald' in German

July 27, 2004 1:51 PM

old macdonald had a farm - i need it in german.

hi there folks i really need the german translation of 'old macdonald' , for reasons best left obscure .
yes , i also tired googling.
If there is a site than can translate english phrases into german pdq i'd love it.

posted by sgt.serenity to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

Altes MacDonald hatte einen Bauernhof.

According to Babelfish.
posted by dobbs at 2:06 PM on July 27, 2004

Altes macdonald hatte einen Bauernhof.
posted by quonsar at 2:06 PM on July 27, 2004

damn. :-)
posted by quonsar at 2:06 PM on July 27, 2004

I couldn't get any of the many ways of translating the phrase "old MacDonald had a farm" to actually turn up a translation of the rest of the song, though.
posted by reklaw at 2:09 PM on July 27, 2004

Well, I can do the chorus for you..

Eeee iiiii eeee iiiiii ööö....
posted by dness2 at 2:19 PM on July 27, 2004

und auf seinen Bauernhof hatte er ein Kuh...

Eeee iiiii eeee iiiiii ööö!!!!

Mit ein mü mü hier und ein mü mü da,

EEEE IIIII EEEE IIIII ÖÖÖÖÖ!!!!!


And my high school German teacher thought I wasn't paying attention....
posted by dness2 at 2:23 PM on July 27, 2004

This page has a few straight translations -- including "Der alte Bauer hat einen Hof", which fits the tune, unlike "Altes MacDonald hatte einen Bauernhof". Judging by that page, there seems to be a German adaptation called something like "Onkel Tom hat einen Bauernhof" -- number 50 in this songbook. Someone called "Andrea" says:

Meine Tochter hat vor einiger Zeit Old MacDonald" in einer englischen Spielschule gelernt. Ich habe früher als Kind zu dieser Melodie Onkel Tom hat einen Bauernhof gesungen.

(very rough) translation: My daughter learned "Old MacDonald" some time ago in an English playschool. When I was a child, I sang "Onkel Tom hat einen Bauernhof" to that tune.

So, as far as I can make out, you can either try to find that version, or accept someone's cod-German version of the English "Old MacDonald". Who'd think this sort of thing would be so complicated?
posted by reklaw at 2:27 PM on July 27, 2004

Here are some lyrics to the "Onkel Tom" version.

Another version is roughly the same, only with "Onkel Jörg". Judging by Google, it's (marginally) more popular.

Onkel Jörg hat einen Bauernhof, heia, heia, ho.
Und da laufen viele Hühner rum, heia, heia, ho.
Es macht tuk-tuk hier, es macht tuk-tuk da,
tuk-tuk hier, tuk-tuk da, tuk-tuk überall.

There are lots of verses to that here.
posted by reklaw at 2:44 PM on July 27, 2004

One note on the babelfish translation: since the farmer is male, it would definitely not be "Altes MacDonald" -- probably "Alter MacDonald" or "Der Alte MacDonald"

But the ones that fit the tune are probably better anyway.
posted by dagnyscott at 8:47 AM on July 28, 2004

Don't forget that the animal sound words are different between English & German. For instance, I know that the Germans get a huge kick out of "cock-a-doodle-doo".
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:18 AM on July 28, 2004