yes we have no bananas love

yes we have no bananas

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  • 'No bananas today, then?' 'Yes' is the correct response if you have no bananas today, surely. Mint list, btw.

    February 27, 2008

  • This is a great song. I knew someone years ago who taught it to me in Dutch.

    February 27, 2008

  • Did it go like this, c_b?

    'Ja, wij hebben geen bananen, wij hebben geen bananen vandaag!'

    February 27, 2008

  • In Dutch? Wow. Does it sound better than the English version?

    Edit: I think it does!

    February 27, 2008

  • And here it is in Swahili -

    'Ndio! Hakuna Ndisi, Hakuna Ndisi Leo!'

    February 27, 2008

  • And here it is in Serbo-Croat:

    Da, nemamo banana; danas nemamo banana.

    February 27, 2008

  • Keep it up, gangerh. I'm going to love this page! :) Just think: A one-page, go-to reference for "Yes, We Have No Bananas" in almost any language! That's what Wordie is FOR!

    February 27, 2008

  • The Finns do it this way: ' kyllä, meillä ei ole banaaneja, meillä ei ole banaaneja tänään ' .

    February 27, 2008

  • Don't encourage me c_b, I'm too encourageable.

    Here's a little Creole number ....

    'Nou n' a pa des banaan, pas des banaan ozordi!'

    February 27, 2008

  • And one for fun - which tongue is this?

    'Hai, banana wa arimasen; Kyo wa banana wa arimasen.'

    February 27, 2008

  • You have Mandarin oranges but do you have Mandarin bananas . . . . wait for it . . .

    是, 我们�?食用香蕉; 今天我们�?食用香蕉

    February 27, 2008

  • And in Italian:

    'Sì, non abbiamo banane; Non abbiamo oggi banane.'

    February 27, 2008

  • Holy crap, gangerh. This after an earthquake? You're still posting lyrics? (context for Wordieternity: see teutonic plates.)

    I love this page. :)

    February 27, 2008

  • Gangerh's been working overtime on Babel Fish! ;-) Unless you really know all these languages, g.

    February 27, 2008

  • Indonesian:

    Ya, tidak ada pisang, hari ini tak ada pisang.

    February 28, 2008

  • Yes, chained_bear, shaken, not stirred.

    March 1, 2008

  • En francais, non?

    'Oui, nous n'avons pas des bananes; Nous n'avons pas des bananes aujourd-hui'.

    March 1, 2008

  • So, the German for 'pineapple' is 'ananas'. Which seems to raise the possibility of a hilarious misunderstanding when singing the bananas song in German.

    March 1, 2008

  • 'Ja haben wir keine Bananen; Wir haben keine Bananen heute.'

    And don't step on any pineapple skins.

    March 1, 2008

  • Ja haben wir keine ananas, sionnach. Jawohl!

    March 1, 2008

  • And the Russians sang:

    'Da, u nas niet nikakih-to babanov, U nas niet nikakih-to babanov, cevodnia'.

    March 1, 2008

  • And this is what the Treorchy Male Voice Choir would sing:

    'Nagyw, does gennym banana; does gennym banana heddiw'.

    March 1, 2008

  • And in the bullrings of Spain they sing:

    'Sí, no tenemos plátanos; No tenemos plátanos hoy'.

    March 2, 2008

  • Egad, you guys must have way too much spare time! I don't even know how to say cricket in French!

    March 3, 2008

  • French cricket, cricket.

    March 3, 2008

  • And Luciano Pavarotti would sing:

    'Sì, non abbiamo banane; Non abbiamo oggi banane'.

    March 3, 2008

  • From another list.

    Yes, Ingrid. My first crush. Ingrid Bergman. Inn of the Sixth Happiness. She would have sung 'Ja, vi har inga bananer; Vi har inga bananer idag.' But not in this film. She sang 'Knick knack paddywhack give a dog a bone'. Still crushed.

    March 3, 2008

  • Wow, gangerh. My first crush was Annette Funicello. Maybe we should have a list...

    March 3, 2008

  • And in Portuguese it's:

    'Sim, nós não temos nenhuma banana; Nós não temos nenhuma banana hoje'.

    March 4, 2008

  • My Esperanto is a bit rusty, but I'm pretty sure it's...

    "Jes, ni havas neniom da bananoj, ni havas neniom da bananoj hodiau."

    March 14, 2008

  • So in Squidiolect:

    'Yesquee have squat squananas, squee have squat squananas today!'

    March 14, 2008

  • 'bout 3 weeks ago I asked:

    And one for fun - which tongue is this?

    'Hai, banana wa arimasen; Kyo wa banana wa arimasen'?

    Guess I have to tell you, it's more likely to be written:

    �?��?��?�?ナナ�?��?�り�?��?�ん。今日�?��?ナナ�?��?�り�?��?�ん。

    March 23, 2008

  • And in The Philipinnes they sing:

    'Oo wala na kaming mga saging, wala mang saging ngayon'.

    March 23, 2008

  • And on St Patrick's Day it went:

    'Seadh, níl bananaí ar bith againn; Níl bananaí ar bith againn inniu'.

    March 23, 2008

  • Australian - Yeah mate, no bloody 'nanas today.

    March 23, 2008

  • Now unavailable in Hindi:

    'Han, hamare pas kele nahin hain, hamare pas aaj kele nahin hain.'

    March 28, 2008

  • 'Tis time we were without again. This time in Flemish-

    'Ja, wij hebben geen bananen; wij hebben geen bananen vandaag!'

    April 24, 2008

  • Ah, ya bilby - 'pisang'. Bahasa Banana!

    April 24, 2008

  • How could I have missed this conversation so far?! Of course the "mysterious" language was Japanese!

    April 29, 2008

  • Emmo non amus bananas, non amus bananas òe!

    (Sardu)

    May 4, 2008

  • Right on the banana, 'gus - Japanese.

    I've just noticed we're out of stock in Catalonia:

    'Sí, no tenim plàtans; no tenim plàtans avui.'

    Ole!

    May 10, 2008

  • Seadh, níl bananaí ar bith againn; Níl bananaí ar bith againn inniu. Is Gaelic (Irish).

    May 13, 2008

  • Ja, nimamo banan; danes nimamo banan. As a Slovene might say.

    May 13, 2008

  • They're hungry in Hungary because:

    Igen, nincs banánunk, ma nincs banánunk.

    May 26, 2008

  • 그렇다, 우리�?는 바나나가 없다; 오늘 우리�?는 바나나가 없 다

    - as sung in Korea.

    June 8, 2008

  • And you may hear a Pole singing -

    Tak, nie mamy zadnych bananow; nie mamy zadnych bananow, dzisiaj.

    June 8, 2008

  • Interlingua:

    Si, nos ha nulles bananas!

    June 21, 2008

  • Shouldn't that be banana's - grocer's apostrophe?

    June 21, 2008

  • Arabic: Na'am, la 'aindana mauzan, la mauzun al-yaum.

    October 15, 2008

  • And in north Cameroon they sing in Fulfuldé: Oho, min wala kodon, wala kodon handé.

    October 15, 2008

  • Persian: Bale, mouz ra nedashtim, emruz hitsh mouz.

    Many thanks to Larissa (not a Wordie) for the last three translations.

    October 16, 2008

  • Well, without bananas you'll have to think of another technique to accelerate the ripening of your avocados.

    November 25, 2008

  • I wonder if a banana would float?

    November 26, 2008

  • Not in the current bananking system.

    November 26, 2008

  • C'mon, haven't you ever heard of a banana boat?

    November 26, 2008

  • Yes, I haven't.

    November 26, 2008

  • So....if you can make a boat from bananas, then bananas are...

    November 27, 2008

  • • Hows of warship, yesterday

    • The sun was shrunk and also shrining

    • Bananafish spoke, "Tell us, pray,

    • "Give us a sliver'd silver twining

    • "Far be we to disappoint

    • "We're sure as shore that queensland hemp'll

    • "By the shorn did we anoint

    • "A bulletpoint through the right temple

    November 27, 2008

  • We have no bananas, but we do have a Carmen-singing orange:

    fruity Carmen

    November 28, 2008

  • Bananaphone!

    November 28, 2008

  • Wholly oranges, 'nachman! Read her her Miranda wrongs!

    November 29, 2008

  • And use the Batnanaphone!

    November 29, 2008

  • 'I think the best popular songs of our time belong to the middle twenties. I cannot give exact dates to "Ma, he's kissing me," "Why did I kiss that girl?" and "Maggie! Yes, Ma? Come right upstairs!" but they all belong around 1925.

    But the three great smash-hits were: "Yes, we have no bananas" (1923), "T'ain't gonna rain no more" (1924) and "Show me the way to go home" (1925). The first two of these, at any rate, went round the world like an influenza epidemic and were sung even by primitive tribes in the remotest forests of Asia and South America.'

    - George Orwell, Songs We Used to Sing, 1946

    December 1, 2008

  • 'Ere 'tis.

    March 21, 2009

  • For when you're out of stock in Georgia:

    დი�?ხ, ჩვენ �?რ გვ�?ქვს ბ�?ნ�?ნები; დღეს ბ�?ნ�?ნები �?რ გვ�?ქვს.

    (diakh, chven ar gvakvs bananebi; dghes bananebi ar gvakvs.)

    September 17, 2009

  • Oooh.... niiice!!

    September 17, 2009

  • And you can sing it!

    September 17, 2009

  • Those sure are pretty bananas. :-)

    September 17, 2009

  • This is probably more than you wanted to know, but what the hay!:

    "Words and music by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn (1923). One of the most successful nonsense songs of the 1920s. The writers got their idea by overhearing a Greek fruit peddler tell a customer: "Yes, we have no bananas." Frank Silver and Irving Cohn introduced their song in a New York restaurant, but it failed to catch fire. Then, in 1923, Eddie Cantor saw the song in manuscript while Make It Snappy (a revue in which Cantor was then starring) was playing in Philadelphia. Held over in that city for an extended run, the show needed some new material, since people were coming to see it a second time. Cantor decided to interpolate "Yes, We Have No Bananas" in one of his routines, one Wednesday matinee. The audience response was so enthusiastic that Cantor had to sing chorus after chorus; the show was stopped cold for over a quarter of an hour. Cantor now made the song a permanent part of his act, and he always brought down the house with it. His Victor recording became a best seller--one of many successful releases of this number. By the end of 1923 everybody was singing it throughout the country. In the Music Box Revue of 1923 it was ridiculed in a performance in which it was presented in the grand-operatic manner of the Sextet from Lucia de Lammermoor--the performers being Grace Moore, John Steel, Joseph Santley, Frank Tinney, Florence Moore and Lora Sonderson. It was interpolated in the motion-picture musical Mammy, starring Al Jolson (Warner 1930); Eddie Cantor sang it on the soundtrack of the motion-picture musical The Eddie Cantor Story (Warner 1954)"

    --American Popular Songs, David Ewen, Random House, 1966

    October 12, 2009

  • Your the top banana, 'boros!

    October 13, 2009

  • Yes we have no World War II scarcities

    October 24, 2009

  • Hah! Look what I found.

    יאָ מיר האָבן קיין bananas

    In Yiddish, apparently.

    October 13, 2010

  • Yes We Have No Bananas (1923) is now in the public domain! I'm surprised nobody seems to be celebrating.

    January 3, 2019