"bright morning stars are rising / day is a breaking in my soul"

[larryhammer]

My current lullaby for TBD is a Chinese one, "Yao Yah Yao," translatable as "Rock-a-bye" -- yáo does indeed mean "to rock." We learned it from the linked recording, and currently sing it like this:

Yao yah yao
Yao yah yao
Sleep you're safe with me
Rock you till you're big
Rock you till you're strong
Baby grow up soon
Baby grow up soon

Pinyin lyrics found online (without tones, sorry, and my google-fu cannot find the hanzi): "Yao yah yao / Yao yah yao / Bao bao huai jung shuay / Yao ni jang da / Yo liao sheewang / Bao bao kuai jang da / Bao bao kuai jang da".

What's your favorite song for soothing the young to sleep? Any language.

---L.

Subject quote from "Bright Morning Stars," Anonymous.

Comments

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

I can't find any versions of the songs I sang on Youtube that don't make me cringe. They are too peppy, loud and upbeat in those versions to be a lullaby. You can get the melody though, and slow it down and soften it.

Ten In The Bed worked with my son.

"There were ten in the bed and the little one said, Roll over, roll over
So they all rolled over and one fell out.

There were nine in the bed and the little one said, Roll over, roll over
So they all rolled over and one flew out--"

And so on, with me changing how the one falling out of bed left. I changed the last verse too "There was one in the bed and the little one said, I'm lonely, come see me. So they all came back."

The other song I sang endlessly was Hush Little Baby. I alternated between Mama and Papa buying something with each verse. I made up a lot of things for Mama and Papa to buy too. If the rhymes were strained at times, my kids didn't care and I didn't get bored. :)

Kids like slow repetitive songs as you rock them to sleep. Twenty some years later, I still think of these songs in the same cadence and at the same speed as I rocked my son to sleep.

[larryhammer]

Both classics for a reason. I like alternating who buys the stuff.

---L.