(Once upon a time) => and they lived happily ever after

[marrajo]

I need to know the formulae in the title in as many languages as possible for a graphic project. I'm trying to find equivalent formulae for opening and ending children's stories. So, if you think there's no exact equivalent any traditional form would do it.

For example, in Spanish:
Once upon a time - Érase una vez
And they lived happily ever after - y vivieron felices y comieron perdices.

Thank you very much.

[Cãlin]

Hello there!

For "Once upon a time", follow this trend: viewtopic.php?t=6835

As for "And they lived happily ever after", I think there are several options in Romanian. The most frequent and the only ones that come to my mind right now are:

Şi au trăit fericiţi până la adânci bătrâneţi - And they lived happily until they were very old.

which may be followed or not by:

Şi poate mai trăiesc şi azi, dacă n-au murit aseară - And they may still be alive on this day, if they didn't die last night

This last phrase appears as a continuation of the previous one, and may point to the fact that such stories were being perhaps told every night, and thus, if the characters were still alive on the day before, the only options left were taht they were alive on that day too, or they had died the night before...

I don't know this phrase in othyer languages. If I find out anything, I'll let you know...
Good luck!

[Olivier]

And they lived happily ever after

In Hungarian, for instance:
Boldogan éltek, míg meg nem haltak.
= They lived happily until they died.
Még ma is élnek / Ma is boldogan élnek / Azóta is boldogan élnek, ...
= They still live even today / They live happily even today / Since then they live happily ...
... ha meg nem haltak. [unusual word order = like after "until"] = if they did not die.
-- Olivier

[marrajo]

Thank you very much.
I'm sorry I didn't find the other thread before, I think I didn't use properly the search feature.

Thanks again to you two.

m

[nuba]

"and they lived happily ever after" would correspond to german:

"... und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute."
(= "and if they havn't died, they still live today")

[Olivier]

in Romanian.
And they may still be alive on this day, if they didn't die last night

In Hungarian
= They still live even today ...
... if they did not die.

german:
"and if they havn't died, they still live today"

There seems to be a constant around Central Europe, is this known in other countries too?
-- Olivier

[Cãlin]

Today I'll take a look at H. C. Andersen's Tales in orginal version and see if I can find anything for Danish... (Although I have some doubts, this phrase is characteristic to folkloric tales...)

[didine]

In Finnish it is usually "Ja he saivat lapsia ja he elivät onnelisina elämänsä loppuun asti", which means literally "And they had children and lived happily until the end of their lives".

[Cãlin]

Well, I browsed H. C. Andersen's Tales and found nothing...
but
I met my Brazilian friend on the chat and asked her how it sounds in Portuguese, and here you have it:

Brazilian Portuguese: "e viveram felizes para sempre..." (lit. and they lived happily for ever...)

[vallisoletano]

Portugal

era uma vez ...

... e viveram felizes para sempre

[fantasia]

in russian:
в далёком царстве в далёком государстве - in the far-away relm, in the distant kingdom
и стали они жить поживать и добра наживать - and they continued to live and ... sorry there's a play on words and I can't reproduce it.

[sv]

in Russian
for 'once upon a time' usually 'давным-давно' [long long ago] or 'как-то раз' [once upon a time] are used.
for 'and they lived happily ever after' - 'и жили они с тех пор долго и счастливо' [and they lived since then long and happily]

though traditional russian fairytales usualy start with
жил(и)-был(и) [lit.: lived-was/were]
or: в тридевятом царстве, в тридесятом государстве ['in three (times) nine kingdom, in three (times) ten state'; 'three (times) nine/ten' meaning far far away - behind three times nine/ten countries].
those formulas could be combined, like, 'давным-давно в тридевятом царстве, в тридесятом государстве жили-были...'

traditional ending is:
и стали они жить-поживать да добра наживать.
[~and they started to live good and gain good]

[vanmartin]

I need to know the formulae in the title in as many languages as possible for a graphic project. I'm trying to find equivalent formulae for opening and ending children's stories. So, if you think there's no exact equivalent any traditional form would do it.

In french:

Il etait une fois ...


... ils vecurent heureux et eurent beaucoup d'enfants


Good luck for your research

[ann]

In french:
Il etait une fois ...
... ils vecurent heureux et eurent beaucoup d'enfants

with the accents.... Il était une fois...
ils vécruent heureux et eurent beaucoup d'enfants
or "ils vécurent heureux jusqu'à la fin de leurs jours" (it depends...)

in italian
"c'era una volta....
e vissero felici e contenti"

[Cubby]

H. C. Andersen didn't use it, but in Danish it is: og de levede lykkeligt til deres dages ende.

Norwegian: og så levde de lykkelig alle sine dager.

Swedish: och så levde de lyckliga i alla sina dagar.

Italian: e vissero felici e contenti.

Japanese: そしていつまでも幸せに暮らしましたとさ。(soshite itsumademo shiawase ni kurashimashitatosa).