Italian Nursery Rhymes | Mama Lisa's World Blog

Archive for the 'Italian Nursery Rhymes' Category

Discovering the Meaning of an Italian Nursery Rhyme about a Cat, Cream and Cheese

Question about an Italian Nursery Rhyme Game

A Grandmother’s Italian Rocking Song

Posts

Can Anyone Help with an Italian Song that Starts, “Cinque e cinquanta” to the tune of “Giro Giro Tondo”?
Monday, February 23rd, 2009

Nicholas emailed me asking for help with an Italian song…

My grandmother used to sing me a song, and I learned it but don’t know the correct words. It goes to the melody of Giro Giro Tondo. When I first heard Giro Giro Tondo, I thought perhaps it was another verse to my grandmother’s song which, as I remember it, (and not knowing if the words even make sense) goes:

Cinque e cinquanta,
Michallina canta,
La se la canta,
Case vuole marita.

If anyone knows if this is part of a larger nursery rhyme or song, please let me know.

Nicholas G. Licata

If anyone can also help Nicholas with the words to his song and/or an English translation, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks in advance!

Mama Lisa

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Italian, Italian Children's Songs, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Mama Lisa, Midis, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions | 12 Comments »

Does Anyone Know an Italian Nursery Rhyme about Sheep or Lambs Playing around a Well?
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

Grace wrote to me asking for help with a childhood rhyme…

Hi Lisa,

My name is Grace, and when I was little, my Nana used to recite me a nursery rhyme in Italian. I think it was about sheep or lambs that were playing around a well.

When she would recite it to me, she would circle my palm with her finger and then wiggle my fingers one by one. I have been searching the internet for what seems like forever and I can’t find anything about this, and it’s leading me to believe that perhaps she had made it up just for me. However, she has Alzheimer’s so she hasn’t been able to help me, and members of my family remember her doing this but they don’t remember the words, only what it was about. Thank you so much for your time, and I hope that perhaps you’ll be able to provide me with an answer.

Again, thank you!
Grace

If anyone can help Grace with any info about this rhyme, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks in advance…

Mama Lisa

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Countries & Cultures, Finger Plays, Italian, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Mama Lisa, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions | 8 Comments »

Can Anyone Help with an Italian Song That’s Similar to “This Little Piggy”?
Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Susan wrote that she’s looking for the Italian version of “This Little Piggy”, with “Giovanni” instead of the “piggy”. Here’s what she emailed me…

Hi,

I just came across your site and first I have to say it’s absolutely wonderful! I wanted to know if you’d be able to help me. I am looking for a song in Italian, the sound was similar to that of this little piggy went to the market etc. (the American rhyme). My father used to sing the song while doing the same thing you would for the American version on our toes. I don’t remember anything about a pig, but it started with Giovanni. I know my information is quite limited and reaching out to you is a stretch but I’ve searched all over the Internet and cannot find anything.

Thank you,
Susan

If anyone can help out Susan, please let us know in the comments below. She’d be most grateful!

Thanks!

Lisa

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Italian, Italian Children's Songs, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions, Toe Rhymes | 3 Comments »

Can Anyone Help with Some Italian Nursery Rhymes and Songs?
Thursday, January 10th, 2008

I get a lot of requests for help with Italian rhymes and songs. It seemed like a good idea to post a few together as the writers may even be able to help each other! Most of these are from the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Italian immigrants to the United States who remember being sung these by their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. These are special memories!

The Italian is mainly written phonetically below. Here are some of the emails I’ve received…

1) Hi Lisa,

My mother and my grandmother used to say a nursery rhyme to me when I was a little girl. They would put me on their lap, facing them like I was riding on a galloping horse. The rhyme is: (Keep in mind my spelling is all wrong)

Ki Ki Ki cavallo,
la mama vien al ballo,
da scarpieta sienna….

And it goes on. My mother and grandmother were from Trieste, so it could be in dialect. I’d just like to figure out the words and meaning of the rhyme to teach my granddaughter. Hope you can help me.

Many thanks,

Sue Henry

2) My great grandmother was from the Abruzzi Region and used to sing us a song that started out (phonetically):

Di say comati….

I don’t remember any of the other words but know that she used to rock us on her lap during the song and then at the end would say ‘di di di di deeeee’ lean over so we would fall back and up-side-down.

I realize that I’m not giving you much to work with! Any help would be appreciated.

3) My mother used to sing an Italian nursery song to my girls when they were young, but now my mother has Alzheimer’s and can’t remember the words to teach my daughter so she can teach them to her girls. It was “mane mane manutsa vene papa, boite gozi sini va….” something to that effect, general meaning: clap hands clap hands, daddy’s coming home and bringing presents…” something like that.

It’s all my daughter has of her grandma to pass on. Please help if you can. My grandmother was from Palermo and very poor, so the words and the dialect would be home Italian versus book Italian.

Thank you.
Nan Juday

4) I would like to know if anyone knows of a song my grandmother used to sing to me. I can only remember it as the Tick Tock Song. One line sounded like:

“Quando se qiere peccina bambina,
mia cuore tica tic, tica toc.”

Mind you, I have no idea if these are the actual words or if they are spelled right! I think it meant “when you need me my pretty baby, my heart goes tick tock. Thanks for your help.

Carmen Akridge

5) Hi

I came across your site while searching for a song my nonna used to sing to me when I was little. She died in 1971 when I was six. I would lay across her lap and she would tap her fingers on my back and sing something like this:

Lena lena
sopa sopa
cuanta pena tena ungoupe
en e mene mah cuanta su

There are sections missing. It was a guessing song. How many fingers do I have on your back… kind of thing. It was such a special memory for me. I wish I could find an accurate version. She was 84 when she died. She emigrated to the US in 1907.

Lisa Sebelle

6) Hello Mama Lisa. I wander if you could help me find this song… do you know who wrote it? or who sang it?

Sorridi alla tua mamma,
amore… sorridi a che te adato il cuor…
nina nana

It’s a very old song that my mother used to sing to me….

Thank you
Marisa

7) Hi,

I have just come across your website and was wondering if you could help me?

I am after an old Italian story that my father and grandfather used to tell us when we were little. I can only remember bits and pieces. Below is some of it in English……

Once upon time there was an old man who swept the church, he found some money…….bought some milk but the mouse drank it and the old man pulled off his tail…the mouse said, give me back my tail and the man said give me back my milk…….

Hope you can help me.

Thanks
Anna

8) I came across your website when trying to look for a song my grandma used to sing and hoped maybe you could help or could post this and maybe someone else would know. It’s an Italian children’s song along the same idea as “this little piggy went to market”, but it talks about a duck and as you pull each finger it says this one catches it, this one cooks it, this one eats it and so on. I can only describe the Italian as it sounds from my memory and I’m not sure of the actual spelling so if anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated. This is how I would sound it out in my head, but I would really like to know how it really goes.

Rina sta fundanelle
Ghista na ba ba della
Ghistan gop
Ghista schpen
Ghista sta goscha
Ghista sa manga
Chista digz
Bi bi bi bi nu boga min
Bi bi bi bi nu boga min

Thanks,
Dorothy

9) I have been looking for Manzoline de Fiore and can’t find it. Any help = my mother used to sing this song all the time when we were little.

Rose Montagner Bundra

10) Hi, Mama Lisa,

Do you know of an Italian Lullaby song with the words:

“Bolla, bolla,
pane e cipolla.
Cipolla cucinare;
(name) e sudare…”

Literally: “Dance, dance,
bread and onion.
Onion is cooking
and the cook is sweating!

My father-in-law sang it to all our children and we just want to know more information about it. Thanks!

AnnMarie

If anyone can help out with any of these questions, please comment below. Give the number of the question you’re addressing so it’s clear which is being answered.

Thanks in advance!

-Mama Lisa

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Italian, Italian Children's Songs, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions | 43 Comments »

Can Anyone Help with an Italian Rhyme Where You Caress the Cheeks (Possibly about a Mouse)?
Monday, October 29th, 2007

Miss Fanelli wrote:

Hello, I’m looking for any help I can find in possibly identifying what I think to be an Italian Nursery rhyme/ paddy cake game my Grandfather used to play with us kids. Our family has long since been uprooted from Italy, but being the eldest granddaughter I have felt responsible for holding onto what traditions we could. Now as I’m about to wed and most of my friends are having babies I realize we’ve lost something here. Anything you can think of would be great, places to look for more information, names of traditional paddy-cake style games that Italians play, anything at all would be much appreciated. The following is what I remember.

When I was younger my Grandfather would play a version of ‘paddy-cake’ with me. He would take my hands into his, and while reciting some poetry (of what might very well have been gibberish), he would move my hands so that I caressed my cheeks, then I would caress his. Back and forth he would move my hands until a part in this ‘poem’ where he would say “Ah no!”, at this part my hands would always land on his face – followed by a line where he would say “Ah gooy gooy gooy gooygooy!” and I would wind up gently patting myself on the cheeks. As a child the delight was that I could never win; if my hands where over his this time, or if we started on his cheeks instead of mine, I was always the one getting my cheeks patted.

My Grandfather was Italian and from what I know his Grandfather was the one to move our family to the states from Italy. As I said above this might just be a poem in gibberish, but my father and members of his generation believe it might have been an Italian nursery rhyme about a little mouse. We have no clue as to the spelling of any of this so for the moment I’ll take my best shot at it phonetically. It sounds like this…

Ah moo-zha-zhill.
Ah-gazhty- a- ta
Ah-goosh-ti-ta.
Ah- ya-tia-ta.
Ah no
ah gooy gooy gooy gooy gooy

Like I said this is a rough English phonetic spelling of something that as far as I know was in Italian. Then again Grandpa made it harder still by always changing the words or adding a line or two so that I always wound up clapping my own face. The long and short of it is this is about all I know…. any suggestions?

Thank you for your time
Miss Genevieve C. Fanelli

If anyone can help with this nursery rhyme, or if you have any suggestions to help find it, please comment below.

Thanks!

-Mama Lisa

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Countries & Cultures, Games, Italian, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, Patty Cake Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions | 14 Comments »

Can Anyone Help with an Italian Song With the Line “”Trita, bedita…”"
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007

Doug Sapetti wrote:

Mama Lisa

I am writing to see if you know, have heard of, or can translate a nursery rhyme/song that has been sung to kids in my family since I was old enough to remember. The words are Italian, and I don’t know if I am spelling them correctly or not. The song/rhyme goes something like this:

Trita, bedita, kamisine yonka fitea, fite to da mama ting, vidi vidi vidi, cootaling!

Now, I obviously don’t know the correct spelling of each of the words, but have done my best to spell it as I know the words to be pronounced. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I have known this song since I was a young boy and now sing it to my daughter, but have no idea what it means. My father’s parents were from Torin, Italy in the northwest mountains, if I am correct.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Doug Sapetti

If anyone can help with this song, please comment below.

Much appreciated!

Lisa

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Italian, Italian Children's Songs, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions | 1 Comment »

Can You Help with the Italian Rhyme, Nona Nona coca coca”?
Monday, February 12th, 2007

Bina wrote:

I am searching for an Italian rhyme that goes: Nona Nona coca coca, doani vieni papa.

That’s all I know but would like the rest of it. Thanks.

If anyone can help with this rhyme, please comment below.

Thanks!

Lisa

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Countries & Cultures, Italian, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions | 5 Comments »

Discovering the Meaning of an Italian Nursery Rhyme about a Cat, Cream and Cheese
Friday, November 24th, 2006

Jeanne Klein wrote to me yesterday asking about the meaning of an Italian rhyme. While trying to answer Jeanne’s question, I thought it might be interesting to write about the process we go through when we work out the meaning of non-English rhymes. Italian rhymes can be particularly hard to decipher since there are so many Italian dialects.

Here’s what Jeanne wrote…

My ninety three year old mother is looking for an English translation for an old Italian rhyme said to babies (kind of like patty cake). Here’s what we have (probably misspelled)…

Mascha masilla,
Panna cazelle,
Panna ricotta,
Tofala botta!

Any thoughts?

Happy Thanksgiving

Jeanne Klein

I asked my colleague Monique of Mama Lisa’s World en français if she was familiar with this rhyme and here’s what she wrote…

It looks like this one I found on www.Filastrocche.it…

Micio micello
Pane e cacello
Pizze e ricotte
Buffete botte!

So Mascha masilla would be Macia macilla = Micia micella = feminine for micio micello: micio is kid talk and means pussy cat, micello is a diminutive = pussy cat, little pussycat.

Panna cazelle may be pane e cacello = bread and cheese. But cacelle may be a dialectal form. Unless it’d mean panna e cacelle. Panna is milk cream, the type you get on top of the milk when you milk a cow then let the milk rest for a few hours. It’s delicious on top of a blueberry tart… and stays on your hips for months (at the least).

Panna ricotta: Panna = see above. Ricotta: I think you have ricotta cheese in the US, the word means “cooked twice”. So this panna ricotta may mean “cream cooked twice” – I’d chose this one – or panna e ricotta = cream and ricotta cheese. Otherwise, it might be pane e ricotta = bread and ricotta cheese.

Tofala botta = tofa la botta : tofa is dialectal form of standard tufa from the verb tufare that means to dive, to plunge, to dip. La botta may be a dialectal form of il botte that means a cask = “the cask dives” = “the cask sinks”.

This rhyme is sung while the kid is sitting on the adult’s lap and at the end, the adult spreads his/her knees and the kid “falls down” or “sinks”.

I can’t help more than that. Maybe an Italian person from the Regione this lady is from would know more.

Thanks for your help Monique!

I wonder if the last line could be reversed in English and changed to “Dive in the cask”. Meaning the cat is diving in the cask that the cream or cheese is being made in. That seems to make sense in the context.

So, putting that all together, you might get something like…

Macia macilla
Panna e cacelle
Panna ricotta
Tofa la botta!

Little Pussycat
Cream and Cheese
Cream and Ricotta
Dive in the cask!

If anyone can help out more with this rhyme, or can confirm the meaning in English, please comment below.

Thanks!

-Lisa

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Countries & Cultures, Italian, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, Questions | 2 Comments »

Question about an Italian Nursery Rhyme Game
Monday, January 16th, 2006

Maria wrote me…

My father was from Volpago, Italy. His mother died when he was quite young. Rso, my Zia became the surrogate mother to the three younger siblings.

I remember her petting the palm of my hand from heel to fingertip and saying these words…

Manina bella
fata panella
dova sen data
date la nona

…and she would tickle the palm of my hand and say, Giddie, giddie, giddie!.

I’m sure my spelling is way off but, perhaps you can decipher it. I would so appreciate any help so, I can play with my great grandchildren as Zia did with me.

Thank you so much.

Maria

If anyone is familiar with this rhyme, or can offer any help, please comment below.

If you’re interested in other Nursery Rhymes and Songs from Italy, come visit the Mama Lisa’s World Italy Page.

Thanks!

Lisa

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Countries & Cultures, Italian, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Mama Lisa, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions | 4 Comments »

A Grandmother’s Italian Rocking Song
Thursday, September 29th, 2005

Michele Schroeder wrote me…

My grandmother (Noni) Julia Iacobitti Grimani, was from Gioia dei Marsi (East of Roma in the Abruzzi Mountains). She came to America after most of her family was killed in the 1915 earthquake.

Noni sat us on her lap, face to face and rocked us back and forth while singing…

S’taccia, S’taccia

S’taccia, S’taccia (sift, sift)
Pane bianco le faccia (bread white) (make? face?)
Le faccia con la riccota (make with riccota)

Bucca na botta! (hole?) (napotta-cup?)
Bucca na botta!!

S’taccia, Staccione
mi fa camicciola
una bianca, una rosa

Bucca na botta!
Bucca na botta!!

Of course we can only guess at the spelling since it came to us verbally. This is as close as I, my two sisters and my 84-year-old mother could come to the SOUND of the original.

My mother insists that “faccia” (said facce’) does NOT mean “face”, but “make”. She didn’t know what “bucca na botta” meant, but says it’s definitely “na” between the words. When we looked in the Italian dictionary, all we could find was the word “napotta” meaning cup. The closest word to “bucca” we found, was spelled “buco” which means “hole”. The meaning of the phrase then could be “hole in the cup” since they were making bread.

Thank-you for keeping the nursery rhymes alive, I hope this is helpful to others as well. Maybe someone reading your web-site will recognize my grandmother’s little rocking song and be able to help with the translation.

Sincerely,

Michele Schroeder

Please write me if you can help with this song. Thanks! -Lisa

For other Italian rhymes and children’s songs, visit Mama Lisa’s World’s Italy Page!

Share on Facebook and other services:

Posted in Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Italian, Italian Children's Songs, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Languages, Questions | 8 Comments »