What do you see when a shooting star goes by?

How often do you look up at the stars? In the garish neon lights of our cities, the stars have faded into insignificance – in some big cities, apparently, there are children who have never seen a star.  But whenever I am out in remote rural areas, I can’t help looking up at the night sky and be dazzled by what I see.

One of my favourite Romanian songs is O Stea (A Star) by Deepcentral … a duo from Bucharest who have had some big hits in English, notably In Love, which is here if you want to listen to it, but I prefer their Romanian work. O Stea  only made number 35 on the Romanian chart, but got decent enough airplay and inspired a number of YouTubers to do covers of it (see their attempts at the bottom of the post).

So, what’s it all about? Here are the Romanian lyrics and an (awkward) English translation from the website http://www.versuri.ro

Strofa 1:
Caut pe cer o stea, una doar a mea,
O cometă ce să-mi umple lipsa ta,
Numele tău să-i pun,
Să-i urez drum bun aşa cum n-am reuşit ţie să-ţi spun.

Verse 1:
Looking in the sky a star, one of my own,
a comet fills me your absence,
your name to ask,
to wish farewell as I failed to tell you.

Refren:
Te caut printre stele, alunec printre ele,
Aşteptând să te revăd până în zori,
De ce nu mi-ai spus oare că eşti stea căzătoare?
Pe al cui cer vei răsări, pe al meu sunt nori?

Chorus:
I’m looking for the stars, slip through them,
Waiting to see you until dawn
Why do not you tell me you’re really shooting star?
On whose heaven will rise, mine are clouds?

Post-refren:
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, o stea,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, a mea,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, o stea,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, a mea,
A mea.

Post-chorus:
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, a star,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, mine,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, a star,
Du ru ru ru ru ru ru, mine, mine.

Strofa 2:
Norii vin rând pe rând,
Rămân aşteptând cu speranţa că te voi zări cândva,
Fără tine am rămas, nu mai am nici glas,
Merg tăcut printre străini, maï fac un pas.

Verse 2:
Clouds come in turn,
Remain waiting in the hope that someday I will behold,
Without you I was, I have no voice,
I go silent among foreigners, a step.

The next video might be handy for those wanting to learn the language – it shows the lyrics in Romanian as they are sung.

This song has inspired a number of people to do covers of it on YouTube. Some of these people should have known better. But this chap Marinel E also makes a decent fist of it on acoustic guitar, and he has even gone to the trouble of putting o stea on the screen of his computer.