Jen wrote:
Hi lisa –
i am looking for the words to a slovak nursery rhyme called “stary baba.” it is basically the slovak version of “this little piggie” but is about an old woman who made porridge and then gave it to her children in a cup, a dish, a ladle, etc.do you know of this rhyme? any help would be greatly appreciated! my great aunt margaret used to tell it to me when i was a child. now that i just had a daughter of my own named after her, maggie, i would love to keep this tale alive.
thank you!
jen mcconnell
If anyone can help Jen with the original rhyme and/or a translation, please let us know in the comments below.
Thanks!
Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Countries & Cultures, Languages, Mama Lisa, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions, Slovak, Slovak Nursery Rhymes, Slovakia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
8 Responses to “Can Anyone Help with a Slovak Nursery Rhyme called “Stary Baba”?”
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March 17th, 2010 at 5:34 am
Hi, I don’t know about a folk song called “Stary baba”, but it’s gramatically incorrect, so I guess you maybe remember the song “Jedna stara baba” = One old lady/grandma?
The lyrics are as written here: http://www.videorohal.com/text/jedna-stara-baba/430
For more Slovak folk songs, look here: http://www.slovak-republic.org/folk/#songs
Hope this helps…
July 6th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Hi there,
My mom would tell me a similar tale. However, it was not called “stara baba” (old lady), but the name was “Varila misicka kasicku”, which means “the little mouse was cooking porridge”. Below is a translation of the poem for you, my guess is that your aunt would say
January 12th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
My Slovak Grandmother (Mama Stara) would do this version, circling the child’s palm with her index finger, then holding the child’s thumb and each finger, then tickling up the arm to the neck. I think she started by kissing the child’s palm. My spelling is phonetic. “Vareela” also sounds like “Vadilla.”
“Vareela, vareela, Mama kashichku.”………….(She cooked, Mama,
…………………………………………………………..pudding (kasha).
“Tomto dala na lozichku.”………….(To this one she gave on a spoon.)
“Tomto dala na mistichku.”………..(To this one she gave on a little dish.)
“Tomto dala na ryenichku.”………..(To this one she gave on a little pan.)
“Tomto dala.”…………………………..(To this one she gave (some).)
“Tomto nedala.”,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,(To this one she gave not (any).)
“A tomto keeeeeeekal, keeeekala, keeeekala!”……(And to this one tickle, ……………………………………………………tickle, tickle!) in a high voice…
January 23rd, 2011 at 7:17 pm
thank you arlene! this seems pretty close to what i remember. :)
May 8th, 2013 at 11:41 am
Can anyone help with this question below?
“I’m trying to find an Slovak rhyme that says something like: Hojda Hojda padla myska z pojda…
I would like to find a CD that has this chidrens rhyme and the lyrics if possible.
Please contact me if you have it or if you know where I can find it.
Thak you very much for your great help.”
May 8th, 2013 at 2:43 pm
You can hear “Hojda, hojda…”
if you click on the picture of the stave at the bottom of that page:
http://www.alinka.sk/c/hry-ii-2-825.html
Hojda hojda
Hojda, hojda, hojda,
spadla mačka z pôjda.
spadla na koláče,
teraz v kúte plače.
Hojda, hojda, hojdice,
plačte všetky mačice.
April 25th, 2018 at 12:21 am
Yes, I have this written in my grandmother’s handwriting. If you still want it, I can look for it. It’s about making bread and cutting it, I was told.
July 24th, 2019 at 7:09 pm
Hahah I found this forum while looking for a song my grandmother still sings, sometimes—that HER mother used to sing. I think it might be a variation of this song or maybe some other lullaby/child’s rhyme that she changed the lyrics to. My grandmother only ever knew it phonetically (she doesn’t really speak Slovak besides a word or saying here or there & the spelling of words is always a challenge). She says the rough translation is/was “Old Lady Music: if she’s not farting, she’s peeing” (HAHAAH!), but it sounds, phonetically, like “stada baba moo-sick-a, yedna [less certain about this part] perd-sky tashee-ka” but I already know that it’d be closer to accurate to spell it like “stary baba [maybe] misicka, jedna…”.
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Or was my great-grandmother just kinda switching the lyrics of a common lullaby to something comical & slightly vulgar to make fun of her own “if she’s not farting, she’s peeing” state? (it DEFINITELY was self-referential, that’s part of the family lore/history that was passed on to me—it was like a self-deprecating joke-song she’d sing while doing housework.