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~ Poetry by me ~

This antique Nordic lay has just been discovered on a palimpsest by restaurators.
The song survived the centuries in Sweden in the mundane and slightly corrupted version
we all know today as "Money, Money, Money" by Björn Ulvaeus and B. Andersson from the band ABBA...

Mani, Mani, Mani                          Original ABBA lyrics
                                                    Listen to ABBA performance (ext. links)
He works all night, he hides all day
The selfsame duty, selfsame way
Ainīt it sad
Sends Sunnaīs light, but he stays gray
And may not keep a single ray
Thatīs too bad
In his dreams he has a plan:
Take off and get a healthy tan,
No longer have to work at all
Just be a happy, shiny ball!

Mani, Mani, Mani
Itīs not funny
in a pitch-black world!
Mani, Mani, Mani
Never sunny
in a pitch-black world!
aha, aha,
All the things he could do,
oh so wistfully thought Mani,
in a brighter world.

A moon like him is hard to find,
but he canīt get it off his mind
Be less sad
If he should happen to break free,
go someplace where the Norns donīt see?
Not too bad
And so he left to spend his time
upon the beach of Ljossalfheim
They toss him at their volley game
His life will never be the same

Now WE say:
Mani, Mani, Mani
Itīs not funny
in a pitch-black world!
Mani, Mani, Mani
Never sunny
in a pitch-black world!
aha, aha,
All the things we canīt do
Oh we miss you badly, Mani -
Please come back again!

Created by Michaela Macha under the terms of Parody and Fair Use.

License: This poem may be freely distributed, provided it remains
unchanged, including the copyright notice and this License:

This work by Michaela Macha (www.odins-gift.com) is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives License.