Lisa,

There is a nursery rhyme or song that my grandmother used to sing to me (she has been dead about 8 years now) that I can only remember a few lines to… it could be a Cuban nursery song, I’m not really sure… I am dying to find the lyrics to the entire song, I now sing the parts that I can remember to my daughter and wish i could remember it.

It goes something like this…

Quien es me morena que habre su boca, en ella le caben dos mil calabasas un saco de higo y otro de pasas.

I hope you can help me locate this

Thank you so much!!

Jeanette Duque

Here’s a similar version we found in Spanish, with an English translation by Monique Palomares of Mamá Lisa’s World en español…

Original Spanish Lyrics

Tiene Pinochito

Tiene Pinochito
tan pequeña boca
que en ella le caben
cien platos de sopa
trescientos pepinos
y mil calabazas
un saco de higos
y otro de pasas
a la pobre niña
le entró la viruela
calentura mala
y dolor de muelas
el médico le receta
sardinas a la parrilla
a ver si le engordan
esas pantorrillas.

Which means in English:

Little Pinocchio has
such a little mouth
that into it fits
a hundred plates of soup,
three hundreds cucumbers
and a thousand pumpkins,
a bag full of figs
and another one of raisins.
He caught the smallpox,
a bad fever
and his back tooth aches.
The doctor prescribes him
grilled sardines
to see if his calves
get bigger.

This is a jump rope song.

Monique said regarding the original question, “Jeanette’s grandma’s version must have been : ‘¿Quién es mi morena que habre su boca, en ella le caben dos mil calabazas un saco de higos y otro de pasas…?.’ The ‘quién es mi morena que…’ means ‘who is my little brown girl who opens her mouth, into it fits, etc.’ It could have been a version created by her grandma to fit the situation. Perhaps she could sing it to us to help us figure it out…”

Thanks to Monique for providing the English translation and for helping with this song!

Mama Lisa

I am looking for a Polish lullaby my mother used to sing…

Śpij laleczko moja mała, czas na ciebie już, ja cię będę kołysała, a ty oczka zmruz…

This is all I remember.

If anyone has all the words, I would be very grateful.

Theresa

A rough English translation of the above text is: Sleep my little baby doll, it is the time for you now, I will, I will rock, and you close your eyes.

This is the tune to the Polish Lullaby.

If anyone can help Therese with the original text of the lullaby and/or an English translation, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

UPDATE:

Here’s the text of a slightly different version of the lullaby, thanks to Agnieszka Magnucka:

ŚPIJ LALECZKO

Pod pierzyną czarnej nocy
W blasku srebrnych gwiazd
Gwiżdże swoje kołysanki
Rozśpiewany wiatr.

Księżyc wplata w warkoczyki
Kolorowe sny
Śpij laleczko moja mała
Śpij córeczko, śpij.

W płatkach herbacianej róży
Calineczka śpi
Nawet przemęczony świerszczyk
Zasnął w trakcie gry.

Wszystkie małe grzeczne dzieci
Już od dawna śpią
Dobra wróżka opowiada
Bajkę którą śnią.

Księżyc wplata w warkoczyki
Kolorowe sny
Śpij laleczko moja mała
Śpij córeczko, śpij.

Agnieszka Magnucka and I came up with this English translation…

SLEEP MY BABY DOLL

Under the blanket of dark night
In the glimmer of silver stars
It is whistling its lullabies…
- Singing wind.

The Moon is braiding in plaits
Colorful dreams
Sleep my baby doll
Sleep my daughter, sleep.

Between the tea rose* leaves
Thumbelina is sleeping
Also some overtired little cricket
Fell asleep while playing.

All the good little children
Are sleeping for so long
The good fairy is telling that story
They are dreaming of.

The moon is braiding in plaits
Colorful dreams
Sleep my baby doll
Sleep my daughter, sleep.

*Tea Rose is called Herbaciana which is a rose with peachy/yellow leaves that sometimes have a little pink or cream in them.

*****

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

PS Thanks so much for your help Agnieszka!

I have been trying to find an old Hungarian lullaby that my grandmother sang to me and I sing to my kids. I do not know what it means and I do not know all the words. The verse is something like:

Boulah boulah, boulah, boulah boopin do ya.

I am sure I am misspelling everything.

Do you know it? Can you help me find the whole song and the meaning?

Thank you,

Nicole

If anyone can help Nicole with the original Hungarian words to this lullaby and/or an English translation, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

There are some lullabies in Japan that start with variations of the line, “Nenneko yo”. “Nenneko yo” is literally “Sleep, baby child”.

Here are some I found in an old book called “A Japanese Miscellany: Strange Stories, Folklore Gleanings, Studies Here & There” by Lafcadio Hearn (1901). They’re Japanese transliterations with translations.

Nenneko, nenneko,
Nenneko yo !
Oraga akabo no
Neta rusu ni,
Azuki wo yonagete,
Kome toide,
Aka no mamma e
Toto soete,
Aka no ii-ko ni
Kureru-zo !

Sleep, sleep, sleep,
Little one!
While my baby sleeps
I will wash some red beans
And clean some rice;
Then adding some
Fish to the red rice,
I will serve it up
To this best
of little babies.

*****

Nenneko! nenneko!
Nenneko yo !
Oraga akabo wa
Itsu dekita ?
San-gwatsu, sakura no
Saku toki ni :
Dori de o-kao ga
Sakura-iro.

Sleep, sleep,
Sleep, my child!
When was my
Baby made?
In the third month,
In the time of the blooming
Of cherry-flowers.
Therefore the color of the honorable
Face of my child is the color of the cherry-blossom.

*****

Nenneko, nenneko, nenneko ya !
Netara o-kaka e tsurete ina !
Okitara gagama* ga totte kama !

Sleep, sleep, sleep, my child !
If you sleep I will go home to fetch your mother!
If you stay awake the
Gagama* will catch and bite you !

* An Izumo name for some kind of Goblin.

Here’s a YouTube I found of someone singing a lovely Nenneko yo lullaby…

Here’s an English transliteration of the YouTube lullaby:

Yurika go no uta o

Nenneko, nenneko,
Nenneko yo.
Yurika go no uta o,
kanari ya ga uta u yo.
Nenneko, nenneko,
Nenneko yo.

Here’s an English translation I made with Ayako Egawa:

The Songs of Cradle

Sleeping, sleeping,
Sleeping, baby!
The songs of the cradle,
The canary sings
Sleeping, sleeping,
Sleeping, baby!

Here’s the Japanese text to this lullaby:

ゆりかごのうたを

ねんねこねんねこ
ねんねこよ
ゆりかごのうたを
カナリヤが歌うよ
ねんねこねんねこ
ねんねこよ

The lullaby in the video is only part of a longer song. We hope to eventually post the whole lullaby.

We’d be happy to receive the Japanese text to any of the above lullabies that don’t have it. You can email any info to me at lisa@mamalisa.com . Thanks in advance!

Many thanks to Linda Austin from Cherry Blossom Memories for providing the transliteration to the YouTube video! Thanks to Ayako Egawa for the Japanese text and for helping with the English translation!

Mama Lisa

I can remember my grandfather holding me on his lap an singing the following: (some in phonetics)

Spin, spin, spin, min dotter min
E meran kommer free and fran
dotter spun och tor en run
aldrigt kommer (free and fran?)

Does anyone remember the correct wording? My daughter, whom I sang this to when she was little, now has a little one and wants to sing it correctly. Can you help?

Wendy Copeland

If anyone can help with this song, please let us know in the comments below. Thanks!

Mama Lisa

Until mass media devices were available, songs were mostly passed down through generations by oral transmission. Some of them are known to have authors because we can track them back to a written document mentioning the authors’ names and how they wrote them. But most traditional songs are anonymous. Therefore, there were no set versions. People would adapt the songs to their own surroundings or would forget a word and sing another, swap verses or lines or add a new one. This is why there isn’t such a thing as “THE TRUE version” or “THE CORRECT lyrics”… when talking about anonymous traditional songs.

What seems to be for each of us “the true, genuine, correct…lyrics ” is the version we learned, generally when we were a child. So it’s “always” been that way for us in our heads.

Unless a song has an author who left a copy of his work, when a song/rhyme has variants, there is only a” MOST KNOWN/SPREAD version”. Some songs have tens of versions… so imagine all the nursery rhymes or finger plays that every mom sings to her baby, multiplied by all the mothers out there, multiplied by all the times they may sing them differently according to their sense of humor, the babies’ sense of humor…! (Check out the many versions of Ride Ride Ranke and you’ll see what I mean!)

Monique Palomares has translated most of Mama Lisa’s World into French and Spanish. You can see her translations on Mama Lisa’s World en français and Mama Lisa’s World en español.

My grandmother is dying of cancer. When I was little she used to sing a Swedish lullaby to me about a little bird and sweet milk. It goes something like this:

Tsat tun lit and forglit and paratntray…
quilint and vockor lisit…

….spornot mot, ….reset…sit and milk made sovary
silk and sank till savory…

daiska lilla …mot
por into por rese

My mom has asked me to track this down so we can sing it to her. She may not have long to live…days.

Please help me if you can. Does anyone know what this song is?

Much love!
Lesley

If anyone can help Leslie, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks so much!

Mama Lisa

Hi Lisa,

I was surfing and stumbled upon your site and I’m hoping you can help me. My Mother learned a song from her Grandmother. In fact, she remembers the song being sung to her every night as a child. My Great-Grandmother spoke little English and my Mother did not speak Swedish, so she never really got a translation. I’m also certain that my Mom is not really singing the words correctly either. I would love more than anything to find the words and translation for her because my Mother is now trying to teach the song to my children.

I’m going to type it out the first two lines as I hear it – I don’t know any Swedish at all…

Ocher (Aucher?) Lit Lit
Er bord sen tieden

Another option is that I record the tune as I know it and send it.

I know this is a total long shot. Thanks for taking a look.

My Best,

Kristin

If anyone can help Kristin with the lyrics to this song and/or an English translation, please let us know in the comments below.

Kristin, if you’d like to email me the tune, that might help! Thanks!

-Mama Lisa

Dodo Titit
(Haitian Creole)

Dodo titit*
Si ou pa dodo,
krab la va manje ou
Dodo titit,
krab lan kalalou**

Sleep Little One
(English Translation)

Sleep little one,
If you don’t sleep,
The crab will eat you
Sleep, little one.
Crab in Okra Gumbo**

*Alternatively, this line can be “Dodo ti titit” – “ti” means “small”. Sometimes “mamman” or “papa” is at the end of the line – making it “Sleep mommy’s little one” or “Daddy’s little one”.
**Kalalou means both “okra” and “gumbo”. Kalalou in the Caribbean often have okra and crab in them. Kalalou is sometimes spelled: “calalu”, “calalou”, or “calaloo”. The word comes from Africa.

You can find variations of this lullaby at: Caribbean Living – Dodo ti pitit manman and The Lullabologist – Dodo Titit – with recording.

If anyone would like to share their version, and/or a recording, feel free to in the comments below or by emailing me at lisa@mamalisa.com .

Thanks and enjoy!

Mama Lisa

Hey Lisa,

I don’t know if you can help me out. My name is Sabrina, I am 29 years old and I was married to a Dominican man who unfortunately passed away of cancer last year. I am originally from Germany, so my Spanish is rather horrible, also I always wanted to learn this beautiful language…

I remember my husband singing a Spanish lullaby or children’s song for me from time to time. If I remember right, this song was about a bug/beetle who lost a leg or a wing. Searching for the lyrics and melody of this song through the internet I found your homepage. Can you help me to find this song? I am grateful for every hint or tip.

Thanks so much, SABRINA.

If anyone can help with the lyrics to this lullaby, and/or and English translation, and/or the tune, please let us know in the comments below…

Thanks!

Mama Lisa