The Queen of the Rubish Heap

I have a thing about soft toys that get thrown away.

Soft toys in particular are so nice to cuddle - so how does it happen that a child (or adult) fell out of love with such a lovable creature?

The other day - on Gulangyu island - I was walking around taking photos in the rain when I found this scene.

Obvioulsy, I wanted to photograph it, so I start walking around working out a composition that would tell the story. While busy finding my composition, I suddenly remembered an Afrikaans song from my childhood called "Die Lappop" (The Ragdol).

The song is about a ragdol that gets thrown on a rubbish heap, and how she fell that this is not the place for her. But then the other inhabitants of the rubbish heap (a rotten pumpkin, a broken shoe, a gramophone record, a single sock, an empty beer bottle, a wilted carnation, a patched tyre and an old newspaper) decided that they would not like to loose her so they crowned her as the queen of the rubbish heap.

The song was first published on an LP called Sal jy dit glo. As a child, we very ofthen listen to this song as well as some of the other songs such as "Almal Dra 'n Jas", "Opstaan" and "Eensame Krokodil".

Back home, I decided to try and find out more about the song; The song was written by Betty Misheiker. Betty has spent a long and successful career writing and producing a wide variety of educational material (Books, Music, Radio and TV Programmes) for children in South Africa and later in Israel. She passed away in 2015 at age 96.

Here is a link to Bettie's website as maintained by her daugter.

The version we listen to as children was performed by Doris Brasch. A later recording, performed by Carike Keuzenkamp was a favourite of my children.

Here is the words (in Afrikaans) of "Die Lappop".

Iemand het ‘n lappop op ‘n ashoop weggegooi,
sy was gedaan en stukkend,
verbleik en nie meer mooi nie.
Op die ashoop hoor sy stemme praat
en die verwelkom haar.
Maar o, ellende, toe sy kyk,
wat sien die lappop daar.

KOOR:
net ‘n vrot pampoen en ‘n stukkend skoen,
‘n grammefoonplaat en ‘n kous sonder maat,
net ‘n leë bottel bier en verlepte angelier,
‘n gelapte binneband en ‘n ou koerant.

Ag hoe droewig voel die lappop,
toe sy alleen daar le,
want sy weet dat niemand ooit vir haar
vir lappop weer wil he nie.
‘n Traan loop oor haar lappop wang
want dit begin te reen
en daar lê sy, sy ou lappoppie
op die ashoop so alleen.

(KOOR)

Ag nee wat sê die lappop,
ek soek ‘n ander oord.
Wat sal die wêreld van my dink,
want soort jy weet, soek soort.
Ag almal wil vir lappop troos
en soebat sy moet bly,
hulle sê dis die mooiste ashoop die
wat ‘n mens nog ooit kan kry.

(KOOR)

Al die goeters op die ashoop hou gou vergadering
en besluit om lappop te bekroon,
as die ashoop koningin.
Van toe af bly die lappoppie so trots tevrede daar
en al haar onderdane bedien getrou vir haar.

ja …….

(KOOR)

For my friends who do not understand afrikaans, here is a very raw google translate of the song - just do not try to sing it!

And obviously, I managed to find an original recording of "Die Lappop" performed by Doris Brasch on YouTube:

(I had an emotional struggle to walk away from this scene...)