Caroline sent a lovely Russian lullaby with a story about her childhood:
I like your site Russian songs for children.
I don’t have a Cyrillic keyboard so I’ll do my best to transliterate.
Bayou-bayoushkji-bayou,
Seedjit kotjik na kriyou,
On nje bedjin nje bahat,
Oo njevo yestj m’noho rebjat
Vcje pah lallichkum seedjatj
Kashou smasljetsum yedjatj.
Bayou-bayoushkji-bayou.English Translation:
Hush-a-bye, Hush-a-bye,
Sits a kitty on the edge,
He’s not poor nor is he rich,
He has many brothers,
They’re all sitting in a row (or on a shelf)
Eating porridge with butter.
Hush-a-bye, Hush-a-bye.Just to paint picture from my child’s mind’s eye… My Mom, Babushka and Prababushka sang this song to us.
We had a beautiful fluffy grey tabby cat with a white bib and mustache. His name was Bowchie. So his name was often inserted in place of “kotjik”. It is a winter night. The windows are swirled in frost.
Bowchie (and his imaginary brothers are sitting in a ring around a bowl of warm oatmeal kasha, smothered with melted butter and brown sugar). Bowchie is slightly to the side busy cleaning melted butter from his whiskers. The bowl is in the warmth near the wood stove.
My Prababushka is sitting in a rocking chair braiding a rug and crooning this Bayou-bayou. (Apparently that is an olden phrase for the soothing that comes over a baby from a gentle rocking of its cradle). The tune mimics that rocking.
My Mom and Babushka are sitting at the table discussing, in a low gentle voice, something terribly philosophical. They are sipping sweet “chai” and eating still warm homemade “Pishkji” (pieces of sweet yeast dough fried in butter and shaken with sugar inside a now greasy brown paper bag.)
Us kids are lying on the floor near the stove, watching Bowchie and licking sugared butter from around our own lips.
Very rich! I hope you like this and it reaches you.
Caroline Juric
Thanks Caroline for sharing such a wonderful song and story!
Mama Lisa
This artilce was posted on Friday, May 7th, 2010 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Languages, Mama Lisa, Questions, Russia, Russian, Russian Children's Songs, Russian Lullabies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 22nd, 2010 at 6:25 pm
If I don’t get it wrong, it’s that or at least some part of the lullaby below is what Caroline posted.
Баю-баюшки-баю,
Живёт мужик на краю.
Он не беден, не богат,
У него много ребят.
У него много ребят,
Все по лавочкам сидят.
Все по лавочкам сидят,
Кашку масляну едят.
Кашка масленая,
Ложка крашеная.
Ложка гнётся,
Нос трясётся,
Сердце радуется.
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Thanks Monique! I don’t think this is the same one (maybe a version of it, because when you put it through a couple of translators and came up with this – it’s a bit different (usually it would be closer):
Lullaby-Bayushki-hush,
A peasant lives on the doorstep.
He is not poor, not rich,
He has a lot of children.
He has a lot of children
All sit on a bench.
All sitting on a bench
They eat pap.
Pap is greasy,
Spoon colored.
The spoon bends
The nose shivers
The heart rejoices.
Can anyone help with this translation?
And/or if anyone can provide the text for the 1st lullaby, please let us know.
Thanks in advance!
Mama Lisa
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:18 pm
There seem to be many of these lullabies. Here’s another…
Баю – баюшки – баю
Баю – баюшки – баю,
Не ложися на краю.
Придет серенький волчок,
Он ухватит за бочок.
Он ухватит за бочок
И потащит во лесок,
Под ракитовый кусток.
К нам, волчок, не ходи,
Нашу Машу не буди.
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:27 pm
According to wikipedia, this last one is a traditional lullaby. It gives this as a translation:
Baby, baby, rock-a-bye
Baby, baby, rock-a-bye
On the edge you mustn’t lie
Or the little grey wolf will come
And will nip you on the tum,
And will nip you on the tum
Tug you off into the wood
Underneath the willow-root.
It didn’t have all the lines. Here are the last two (roughly):
Do not go to us,
Do not awaken our Masha.
Here’s a partial transliteration:
Bayu-bayushki-bayu,
Bayu-bayushki-bayu,
Ne lozhisya na krayu.
Pridyot serenkiy volchok,
On ukhvatit za bochok
On ukhvatit za bochok
I utashchit vo lesok
Pod rakitovy kustok.
There are more versions in Russian at:
http://mama.ladycity.ru/doc/2135/
We have part of this lullaby on our Russian pages. I prefer the translation at the link.
June 20th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
We still need the text for the original one at the top. If anyone can help, please do! Thanks! Mama Lisa
September 16th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Баю – баюшки – баю,
Сидит котик на краю,
Он не беден, не богат,
У него есть много ребят,
Все по лавочкам сидят,
Кашу с маслицем едят.
Баю – баюшки -баю.
November 1st, 2011 at 7:19 pm
http://winrus.com/screen_e.htm
that website is a Virtual Cyrillic keyboard. Its pretty cool. It helps me out alot. Hope it helps you!
November 1st, 2011 at 7:28 pm
That is cool! Thanks Jessica.