Deep Forest - While The Earth Sleeps

This is one of my all-time favorite songs, and it's time to get to the bottom of this. ANY help is appreciated.

1. Is this song in Macedonian or Bulgarian?

Some websites say it's in Macedonian, others say Bulgarian; others say it's taken from a Bulgarian folk song. Here's the lyrics:

Дали знаеш, мила мајко,
Што сум несреќна?
Цел ден дома сама седам,
Надвор не смеам

(Dali znaesh mila majko
shto sum nesrekjna
Cel den doma sama sedam
Nadvor ne smejam)

2. Is the translation correct?

This is the translation online:

Do you know, (my dear) mother,
How unhappy (unlucky) I am?
All day I sit at home (alone),
I am not allowed outside

3. What are the rest of the lyrics?

This is the part I would really, really like help with... nowhere online do they post the lyrics for what Peter Gabriel sings in the song (or maybe it's out there, but I can't find it). There's a link here to the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqKYj2WSggQ

At 1:38 & 2:28, he says something. It actually sounds like he says, "Hold the rest and let them go... no, no, let them go", but I'm not so sure it's English.

Then, from 3:08-3:36, he sings something that I cannot understand at all. After that, he repeats something up until 4:07 that I don't understand either.... I mean, I assume he's singing in whatever language the song is in.

Finally, from 5:28-6:12, he sings it again.

If someone can answer number 3 for me, I would be very thankful. I know I'm not the only person who has wondered what he's saying.

1. it's Macedonian. ќ is a letter that they only have in Macedonian.

2. yes, looks good.

3. i can't understand it, sounds kind of like english, but i can't understand it. "on and on and on" something something "rain falling" "on the road" "let the something something" *shrugs*

i've heard this song before several times, but it was only reading the lyrics that i realised it was macedonian and that he was singing something i understand. haha.

but i'm from hungary, not macedonia, so maybe a real macedonian would understand it better. but he pronounces the words funny, all the vowels are wrong.



for what it's worth, Alanis Morisette sung in Hungarian once and I couldn't understand that either, her accent was so bad.

Köszönöm! I never thought he might be singing Macedonian so badly that no one can understand it. (I'm afraid of sounding like that when I speak Russian.)

The singer who sings in "While the Earth Sleeps" is Bulgarian, her name is Katya Petrova. She recorded the folk song for a Dutch radio station, and it caught Peter Gabriel's attention.

As for the rest of the lyrics - no idea. It's supposed to be English, but I can't understand a word of it. One thing is for sure: it's neither Bulgarian nor Macedonian. =)