Can Anyone Help Translate an Urdu Rhyme from India?
June 21st, 2010

We received this Urdu rhyme without a translation…

Abulal babulal

Babu ka topi lal

11 kantae kachha kurma

Pakka chor.

Submitted by Nasrin

I’m not sure if it’s one or two rhymes

If anyone can help with an English translation, and/or let us know how many rhymes it is, please comment below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

This article was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 10:32 am and is filed under Countries & Cultures, India, Indian Nursery Rhymes, Languages, Mama Lisa, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Urdu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

4 Responses to “Can Anyone Help Translate an Urdu Rhyme from India?”

  1. Katherine Says:
    June 23rd, 2010 at 6:33 am

    Hi there – can anyone help me to find out in which language the following song text is in and what it translates to in English?
    Many thanks
    Katherine

    MAKETUME TUME PAPA

    MAKETUME TUME PA

    AI KUKUE KUKUE PAPA

    AI KUKUE KUKUE PA

    IAMA IAMA IAMA IE

    IAMA IAMA IAMA IE

  2. Monique Says:
    June 23rd, 2010 at 8:28 am

    It’s an African song from what this document states. I couldn’t find any translation whether in English or any other language that I know (nor don’t know either!)
    Though the instructions translate as:
    Let’s pretend to hold a towel and dry our back with both hands.
    Ditto but swapping arms -right arm down left arm up
    Let’s dry our hands holding them up on the right
    Let’s dry our hands holding them down on the right
    Pretend to remove whatever water would still be on your hands. Four steps rightwards, four steps leftwards.

    The sites I could find the lyrics were Spanish or French sites and all related to schools/children/teenagers

  3. Lisa Says:
    June 23rd, 2010 at 9:49 am

    I found a YouTube of it…

  4. Shalini Says:
    January 10th, 2012 at 3:35 am

    I’ve not heard this before, but it sounds like it is one rhyme and it is a “nonsense” rhyme. Roughly translated:

    Abulal babulal
    Father, Father

    Babu ka topi lal
    Father’s hat is red

    11 kantae kachha kurma
    11 thorns unripe/uncooked (not sure about kurma due to anglicized spelling; maybe korma curry??)

    Pakka chor.
    absolute thief

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