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Jingkli Nona

Jingkli Nona is a portuguese song that my grandma, dad, aunt and uncle used to sing to me when I was a kid. Well, not directly to me… But they usually sing it when I was around. I loved that song because the meaning of the song was funny. My father’s side of the family are very fluent in Kristang. I never had the chance to learn it, but I know a few words (Esply. the bad ones :P ) Hehe.

The song Jingkli Nona goes (anyone who is familiar to this song according the portuguese way, is free to correct me) :

Jingkli nona, jingkli nona yo kereh kazah,
Jingkli nona, jingkli nona yo kereh kazah,
Kaza nteh porta nteh kai logu pasah.
Kaza nteh porta nteh kai logu pasah.
Teng, kantu teng, kontu teng, falah nteng
Teng, kantu teng, kontu teng, falah nteng

According to my grandma (whom I asked when I was about 9) it means :

Dancing lady, dancing lady..
I want to marry you
I have no house
I don’t even have no door
How would we live?
Even if you don’t have or you have,
Its better you say don’t have..

There’s even a dance to it. I don’t think anyone would teach me that. Heee. Neways, I love to embrace this culture but, you know.. I’ve lost the person who could teach me. So yeah, I’ll just hope I’ll go to Malacca soon. Or find someone who is willing to teach me Kristang and the culture.

This entry was posted on November 20, 2007 at 10:22 pm and is filed under Life . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “Jingkli Nona”

  1. Sibuk Says:
    November 21, 2007 at 7:20 pm

    Soul searching eh?

  2. sunmenghao Says:
    August 20, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    thanks! nice song!

    I learned to sing this song when Im in standard 3 or 4 at school!! I think so :P

    Then need to sing this song infront of my classmates. Grr.. can yu all imagined it? Standard 3 or 4? :P

    BTW this song is great! :D

    ~~Memories remains~~

  3. -DUNKIN- Says:
    September 29, 2008 at 1:34 pm

    where can i dwl dis song? used 2 sing dis song when i was as young as i can remember… music family so this was lyk 1 of our theme songs since my grandama was portuegese…

  4. Sam Says:
    October 15, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    Hello, a great song, been looking for it. This brings back a lot of memories. My late grandma used to sing it. Never knew the title of the song, just called it “the song that nanny(grandma) always sang”

  5. Kevin Says:
    December 8, 2008 at 11:28 pm

    the danceform is known as the branyok, of which there are 3 forms.

  6. Yolanda Says:
    January 21, 2009 at 6:25 pm

    Hello from London,
    I am carrying out research about the Malacca and the Portuguse for a book I am writing. Any other childhood stories or songs or games you can remember will br gratefully received!!!
    If you check out my website you will see that I am a professional artist and under the section ‘Biography’, I have Portuses forebears who orginiated from Macau, south China.
    You may also find that my website is temporarily under re-construction.
    Cheers,
    Yolanda

  7. jerome Says:
    May 12, 2009 at 4:26 am

    do you have full verses of this song… it seems there are more to it.

    obrigado!

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