Can Anyone Help with a Russian Rhyme?
January 22nd, 2018

Brenna Aunalee wrote asking for help with a Russian rhyme…

Hello!

My name is Brenna and my great grandmother was a Russian immigrant. We have this little diddy that she used to sing to the family, and so now we all know it, but we don’t know what it means. I sent an audio file and was hoping you could help me out?

Thank you!

-Brenna

You can hear Brenda’s Recording of the Russian Rhyme here.

If anyone can help with the Russian lyrics and/or with a translation, please comment below.

Thanks in advance!

Mama Lisa

This article was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2018 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Countries & Cultures, Languages, Mama Lisa, MP3 Recordings, MP3's, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions, Recordings, Recordings of Nursery Rhymes, Russia, Russian. 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.

2 Responses to “Can Anyone Help with a Russian Rhyme?”

  1. Monique Says:
    January 25th, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    Maya wrote she knows this rhyme but hers goes “tra tra tra” instead of “opa opa”. Here is the long version of it:

    Тра-та-та, Тра-та-та,
    Вышла кошка за кота.
    За Кота-Котовича, за Петра-Петровича.
    Ходит кот по лавочке, водит кошку за лапочки.
    Топы-топы по лавочке,
    Цапы-цапы за лапочки

    transliterated as…
    Tra-ta-ta, tra-ta-ta,
    Vychla kochka za kata,
    Za kata katovitcha, za Pitra Pitrovitcha.
    Khodit kot po lavotchke, vodit kochkou za lapotchki,
    Topy-topy pa lavatchki,
    Tsapy-tsapy za lapatchki !

    and it means…
    Tra-ta-ta, tra-ta-ta,
    The she-cat married the tomcat,
    With Kotovitch* tomcat, with Piotr Piotrovitch.
    The tomcat is strolling on the bench, he holds the she-cat by the paw
    Top-top** on the bench.
    Tsapy-tsapy*** by/from the paws.

    *name based on “Kot” (cat)
    ** noise of the paws on the bench
    *** imitation of the cat movements as he scratches.

    Maya recited it for us, find the recording here.

    Thank you Maya!

  2. Dominic Phillips Says:
    February 5th, 2018 at 2:13 am

    There stands a forest,
    in the forest – a house,
    in the house – a stove,
    in the stove – a pot,
    in the pot – dough.
    What did I say before?

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