Tapent, tapent, petites mains
Tourne, tourne, joli moulin,
Nage, nage, gentil poisson
Vole, vole papillon

Clap, clap, little hands,
Turn, turn, pretty mill,
Swim, swim, nice fish,
Fly, fly, butterfly!

We’d love for you to share a Pat-a-cake song from your country in the comments below or by emailing me.

Cheers!

Mama Lisa

PS I’m curious if there are Pat-a-cake Songs in Asia and Africa.

We added a song from West Sumatra in Indonesia where they speak Minangkabau.

We also added a Frisian Lullaby in the West Frisian language. The Frisian language is the closest language to English (after Scots – which some consider to be an English dialect as opposed to a separate language).

Here’s a link to our Languages A to Z Page – to access all of our languages.

We now feature 116 countries and cultures. Here’s a link to our Countries and Cultures A to Z Page – to access all of our songs and rhymes by country/culture.

Once again I would like to thank Monique Palomares’ tireless work in France helping me with the material and all the countless people out there who have contributed songs and time to the sites… also to my husband Jason Pomerantz for his technical support, to my kids for speaking quietly when I’m in the middle of a difficult translation (they’re very patient with me) and to my relatives who generally understand when I don’t call back right away because I’ve been lost in my work for hours or days. Merci à tous!

Hi. My grandmother used to sing a children’s song to me in Czech or Slovak. I believe it is about a little hunter. It went along the lines of (phonetically):

Ya simali nissli vechek…

Any ideas?

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

Thanks!

Lisa

I went to school in Chilton (England) when I was six (1972), in California now, and my class sang this song, but that is the only line I can recall, I even recall the melody…

“And when the journey was all over /
The ship sailed for the /
White Cliffs of Dover.”

Anybody? Was it maybe a song about a ship with two cats and the crew were all mice, and when they got home all that was left were two fat cats?

Dan

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

Thanks!

Lisa

Have you ever heard of a Korean song that school girls sing as they clap hands that goes like this:

Pong dong pong dong
dolel (stone) donjiora (throw)…

Thanks, Curtis

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

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

Here’s a nice recording of Frère Jacques in both French and English by Ezwa.

Here are the lyrics of the French and English versions of Frère Jacques. The version on the mp3 recording mixes these lyrics…

Frère Jacques,
Frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous?
Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines.
Sonnez les matines.
Ding, ding, dong.
Ding, ding, dong.

Are you sleeping?
Are you sleeping?
Brother John,
Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing.
Morning bells are ringing.
Ding, dong, ding.
Ding, dong, ding.

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

The Babe

On parent knees, a naked new-born child,
Weeping thou sat’st while all around thee smiled:
So live, that, sinking to thy life’s last sleep,
Calm thou may’st smile, while all around thee weep.

William Jones (1746-1794)

William Jones was a Persian scholar and linguist. He translated this poem from a Persian poem by an unknown author. This poem is sometimes called “The Babe”, sometimes “On Parent Knees”, and sometimes “Epigram”. An Epigram is a short, witty poem. It can also mean a paradoxical statement.

If anyone knows the original Persian version, please send me a copy at lisa@mamalisa.com and I’ll add it to this post.

Thanks!

Lisa

Rain, rain, go away,
And come again another day,
When I brew and when I bake,
I’ll give you a little cake.

Stay dry!

Mama Lisa

PS You can tell it’s raining where I am and that I’m considering baking something yummy!

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

So let’s have a little fun today… below is the original Pig Latin Musical Video, followed by the lyrics translated from Pig Latin into English, and then, if you’re really hooked, you can watch the video with the Pig Latin lyrics on the screen. It is sort of mesmerizing.

But first, here are the rules of Pig Latin…

Take the first letter off the beginning of each word and add it to the end of the word. Then put “ay” after that. So, the word “tomorrow” becomes “omorrow-tay”. If the first two letters of the word are two consonants making one sound, (like “st”, “sp”, “tr”, etc.) both letters get moved to the end of the word. Thus, “star” becomes “ar-stay”.

Enjoy the show!

Translated Lyrics…

Do you speak pig latin?
if you speak pig latin then you’re cool like me!
I love to mess with people cause I am dumb
I speak pig latin every day and you should too! x 2
I believe everybody has brains
I also believe only half get used
I may say that I am dumb, I am
but don’t think I don’t use my own brains, cause I do
are you ready to test your mind with Mr. Safety
REVERSE
RIDDLE*
Do you speak pig latin?

*If you can’t figure out the riddle (in the second part of the lyrics)… it’s not in the lyrics above… it’s a riddle… If you can’t figure it out yourself, you can pause the second video (below) at 1 minute 29 seconds for the answer.

aveHay unFay!

amaMay isaLay