The Girl was unconsciously showing off her growing linguistic fluency the other day. Singing “Sto Lat,” she pranced around the kitchen, giving us quite a performance.
Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje zyje nam.
Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje zyje nam.
Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz, niech zyje, zyje nam.
Niech zyje nam!
One site gives the following translation:
Good luck, good cheer, may you live a hundred years.
Good luck, good cheer, may you live a hundred years.
Good luck, good cheer, may you live a hundred years.
One hundred years!
Even someone unfamiliar with the language realizes that there is only a repetition of two lines, not three. A more literal translation (i.e., word-for-word equivalent) would be:
One hundred years, one hundred years, may you live, live with us.
One hundred years, one hundred years, may you live, live with us.
Once again, once again, may you live, live with us.
May you live with us.
That “jeszcze raz” is the key. “Once again,” or as L might say, “Try again.”
And so the second time through the song, L mixed things up for us a bit and sang,
Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje zyje nam.
Try again, try again, niech zyje, zyje nam.