The Moon In June Swoons Only On The Loon

For some reason, I got stuck into a re-run of Alan Jay Lerner's My Fair Lady, that most excellent musical based on GBS's Pygmalion. I have read both the musical and the play, thanks to my mother who was a fan of both (and my father, whose memory for trivia and ability to sing all the songs still amaze me to this day). But tonight, I was ambushed by 'The Rain in Spain' yet again.

For those who don't know, this song isn't one of the good ones in the musical. But it is certainly one of the great ones, because it is terribly addictive. It is one of those songs that inserts talons into your brain and refuses to let go. The key phrase in it is, "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." That phrase has the long 'a' sound repeated five times in some sort of phonetic exercise.

But what if the song is not sung in English? I used to worry about that a lot, and in the days before I learnt anything much more about languages (I was about 9 years old, I think), I had auditory hallucinations of phrases like, "La rana en Espana estana mana en la plana." Now of course I know that this isn't a proper translation of the original phrase. In fact, it probably (ungrammatically) means something like, "The frog in Spain is flowing into the flat." If you made it grammatical, it would probably be 'los ranas' or something, but wouldn't sound so beautiful.

You see the problem? Fortunately, Answers.com has... the answers, nicely assembled. I reproduce them here:

• Czech: "Déšť dští ve Španělsku zvlášť tam kde je pláň"
  
• Danish: "En snegl på vejen er tegn på regn i Spanien"
  
• Dutch (Version 1): "Het Spaanse graan heeft de orkaan doorstaan"
  
• Dutch (Version 2): "De franje in Spanje is meestal niet oranje"
  
• Finnish: "Vie fiestaan hienon miekkamiehen tie"
  
• French: "Le ciel serein d'Espagne est sans embrun"
  
• German: "Es grünt so grün wenn Spaniens Blüten blühen"
  
• Hebrew: "ברד ירד בדרום ספרד הערב" ("Barad yarad bidrom sfarad haerev")
  
• Hungarian: "Lent délen édes éjen édent remélsz"
  
• Icelandic: "A Spáni hundur lá við lund á grund"
  
• Italian (Version 1): "La rana in Spagna gracida in campagna"
  
• Italian (Version 2): "La pioggia in Spagna bagna la campagna"
  
• Norwegian (Version 1): "Det gol og mol i sola en spannjol"
  
• Norwegian (Version 2): "De spanske land har altid manglet vand"
  
• Polish: "W Hiszpanii mży, gdy dżdżyste przyjdą dni"
  
• Portuguese (Version 1): "O rei de roma ruma a Madrid"
  
• Portuguese (Version 2): "Atrás do trem as tropas vem trotando"
  
• Russian (Version 1): "На дворе трава а на траве дрова" ("Na dvorye trava a na travye drova")
  
• Russian (Version 2:) "Карл у Клары украл коралы" ("Karl ooh Klary ukral koraly")
  
• Spanish (Version 1): "La lluvia en Sevilla es una pura maravilla"
  
• Spanish (Version 2): "La lluvia en España los bellos valles baña"
  
• Swedish: "Den spanska räven rev en annan räv"
  

It's quite a beautiful list. I note with pleasure that my version of the Spanish line is much less meaningful but a lot more mellifluous than what exists. You may feel differently, though. Or 'think different', if you're the kind who prefers, "The apple in chapel taps happily a capella."