Post A Childhood Nursery Rhyme/Lullaby

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When we were all little kiddies we were read stories and nursery rhymes or lullabies. I'm kinda interested to know what nursery rhymes or lullabies were read to people from different places around our wonderful world.

Here's one from me (our teacher used to get us to sing this during home-time wait):


My Highland Goat
My highland goaty-oaty-oaty-oaty-oat
Was feeling finey-iney-iney-iney-ine
He ate three shirty-irty-irty-irty-irts
Off my back liney-iney-iney-iney-ine
I took a sticky-icky-icky-icky-ick
And gave a whacky-acky-acky-acky-ack
And tied him tooey-ooey-ooey-oo
A railroad tracky-acky-acky-acky-ack


The whistle blewy-ewy=ewy-ewy-ew
The train drew nighy-ighy-ighy-igh
My highland goaty-oaty-oaty-oaty-oat
Was sure to diey-iey-iey-iey-ie
I took a knifey-ifey-ifey-ifey-ife
And cut that ropey-opey-opey-opey-ope
And set him freey-eey-eey-eey-ee
My highland goaty-oaty-oaty-oaty-oat.
My highland goaty-oaty-oaty-oaty-oat.

My favorite is called "You Are My Sunshine". My mom used to sing it to me all the time, and I like to think of it as my mom's special song to me. I get jealous when she sings it to my nieces and nephews.

You Are My Sunshine

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know, dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away

The other night, dear, when I was sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms
But when I woke, dear, you were not with me
So I hung my head and cried

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know, dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away

We used to use that as a marching song when I went through basic training in the Army Air Corps in 1944.

When I was a bit older than a kiddie we used to play games where we chose up sides and one of the choosing words was:

Inchi, minchi, dominochi hump bump hooli gooli out goes Y O U my mother says that you stink.

Since some of the kids were Catholic I assume the nonsense words were meant to ape the Latin spoken in their church.

Another out counter was more in English.

One potato two potato three potato more, this one makes potato four.

Here's a rhyme I used to like read to me. The idea of birds in a pie used to scare me a little, but I was glad when it opened and they began to sing.

Sing A Song of Sixpence

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocketful of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing.
Wasn't that a dainty dish
To set before the King?

The King was in his counting house
Counting out his money;
The Queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey;
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes,
Down came a blackbird
And snapped off her nose.
But there came a Jenny Wren
And popped it on again.

That one I heard with a magpie instead of a blackbird. I always wondered what a magpie was since I grew up in New York City. Here in Helsinki they are all over the place. Also I never before heard about Jenny wren who restored the nose.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world, so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are.

these little eyes
see soft clouds in the skies
these little ears
lovely bird songs will hear
this little nose
smells the bottom of the rose
these pretty lips
sweet fruit nectars will sip

these little fingers
on this little hand
hold fast to mine
for help when you stand.
walk in the garden
on these little feet
nature will share with you
treat after treat.

This was my favorite. My grandma used to sing it to me when I was little. She was singing some more lullabys but it is the only one I remember whole. Perhaps thats because I also wanted to get a star from the night sky one day?

Idzie Nocka borem, lasem
Ma w fartuszku pełno gwiazd
Gwiazdki wyglądają czasem
Czy już dzieci poszły spać

Dzieci gwiazdki zobaczyły
I nie chciały dalej spać
Kaprysiły, grymasiły
Żeby im po jednej dać

Gwiazdki nie są do zabawy
Tożby Nocka była zła!
Zaraz przyjdzie kot kulawy,
Cicho, dzieci. Cicho, sza.

My translation:

The Night goes through bush, forest
Her apron is full of stars
The stars look out from time to time
If children are asleep already

Children seen the stars
And they didn't want to sleep anymore
They yammered and nagged
To give one to each of them

Stars are not to play
Since the Night would be angry!
A hobbling cat will come soon
Silent, children. Silent, shh.

The only magpies I knew were Heckle and Jeckle. I also grew up in NYC---still live there, in fact.

Oh, I got one more. Funny thing is it is also speaking about getting a star from the sky:

Aaa... Aaa...
Były sobie kotki dwa.
Aaa... Aaa...
Szarobure, szarobure, obydwa

Ach, śpij, bo właśnie
Księżyc ziewa i za chwilę zaśnie
A gdy rano przyjdzie świt
Księżycowi będzie wstyd,
Że on zasnął, a nie ty

Ach śpij kochanie
Jeśli gwiazdkę z nieba chcesz - dostaniesz
Czego pragniesz daj mi znać
Ja ci wszystko mogę dać
Więc dlaczego nie chcesz spać?

Ach, śpij, bo nocą,
Kiedy gwiazdy się na niebie złocą
Wszystkie dzieci, nawet złe,
Pogrążone są we śnie
A ty jedna tylko nie...

My translation:

Aaa, aaa,
there were two kittens
Aaa, aaa
Grey-brown, grey-brown both of them

Ah, sleep because
The Moon yawns and is about to fall asleep
And when the morning comes
the Moon will be embarrassed
That he fallen asleep and not you

Ah, sleep, my honey
If you want a star from the sky - you will get it
What you want just let me know
I can everything give to you
So why you don't want to sleep?

Ah, sleep because during the nighttime
When stars shine in the sky
All children, even bad ones
Are sleeping deeply
And you are the only one who doesn't...

You have such a good memory for lyrics, Kiriae...and excellent translating abilities.

Yes, I always had good memory to lyrics. Once I hear a song a few times I am able to play it in my head as if it was recorded there. It's a kind of "photographic" memory. All I have to do is write down/sing what I hear inside and it comes out by itself. I was always surprised on music lessons why other children have to read lyrics while singing. For me lyrics was nothing but disturbance since written words don't have melody so they couldn't fit with the melody in my head (I sing using melody but I read monotonously).

But my translate abilities are not so good. I can't keep the rhythm and rhymes and since English is not my mother language I have to think a lot and use a dictionary for some less common words.

That's what translators do, look in dictionaries.

It's exceedingly difficult to replicate the "song" of a poem in one language and translate it to the other.

When I was a kid my mother new all kinds of sing-alongs that we would sing around the campfires in the summer. We would even sing a song about The Titanic, years before I even knew all about the Titanic, and before that movie came out that some people don't know is based on a real tragedy. It was also pretty upbeat for a song about something so terrible, and even threw in some dark humor:

When they built the ship Titanic to sail the ocean blue
They thought that they had built a ship that the water wouldn't go through
But the good lord raised his hand, he said that ship would never land
It was sad when that great ship went down.

(chorus)
Oh it was sad, so sad
It was sad when that great ship went down to the bottom of the sea...
(Husband and wives, little children lost their lives, it was sad when that great ship went down)

Oh, they were forty miles from shore when they heard that mighty roar,
And the rich refused to associate wit the poor,
It was sad when that great ship went down.

(repeat chorus)

So the moral of this story is plain to see,
Always where a life preserver whenever you're at sea.
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives, it was sad when that great ship went down...

KER-PLUNK!
IT SUNK!
WHAT A ROTTEN PIECE OF JUNK!!