Cinco de May – #BEDM day 5

 

“Arriba, arriba – underlay, underlay”

When I was younger I did wonder why mice went around shouting about the rarely seen side of carpet fitting.

Now I am older I know better.

Turns out ‘arriba, arriba, underlay’ (andale) means ‘upwards, come on!’.*

Still a bit confusing though. ‘Forwards’ I could understand, as the battle cry of a speedy mouse.

But ‘upwards’?

Mice can’t fly…

 

*I know this because I learnt to sing La Bamba when I was in Gospel Choir at University, and the choir master told us the meaning of what we were singing. It has some of the same words. And it was also, randomly, not a very gospelly song…