Sarah Bailey wrote asking for help with a Japanese song from her childhood…
Hi Lisa,
When I was little, my Japanese Babysitter, who I considered my other Mom and still do, used to sing me a song. I would love to know the name of the song and the English translation are.
She passed away in 2002 and I would love to know the name and both the Japanese and English words for the song. It is a short little song, like a nursery song.
I am so sorry that I don’t know how to spell the words, but can type out how they sound…
“Nooo ee neh,
nu nihyi neh,
kimi oto oke ba,
nooo eee, kowaii,
no ee chi no weh nah, neh…
nooo eee, kowaii,
no ee chi no weh nah, neh.”
If you have any idea the name of this song and the actual lyrics I would be most grateful. I can definitely sing it.
Many Thanks!
If anyone can help with this song, please comment below or email me. Thanks!
Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2018 at 11:31 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Japan, Japanese, Japanese Kids Songs, Languages, Mama Lisa, Questions. 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 with a Japanese Song?”
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August 27th, 2018 at 2:59 pm
My husband is Japanese, I will check to see if he can help. I am not home right now😊
August 27th, 2018 at 7:25 pm
kawaii means lovely, but he cannot figure out the other words. He wonders if it is a regional dialect. Does she know what part of Japan her babysitter was from? Also would help if he could hear the melody we have Japanese friends. so will also ask around.
November 25th, 2019 at 6:28 am
Maybe try to post a video of you singing it, there are many ways to transliterate sound into English making it harder to understand which sound you are trying to transliterate it as. Plus, if we could hear it sung we might at least recognize the tune if the pronunciation is a little off.
March 22nd, 2020 at 2:49 pm
Kimi means you, oto could mean sound, okeba could mean raising (the sound, i,e, if you cry). Kowai means scary.
It might be something like our Russian lullaby which goes like “don’t cry, baby, or the scary thing will come and take you away”.
I’ve been studying Japanese children’s songs for a little while, so I was glad to find this website with its game songs and videos. Thank you)))
Fabianne.