Growing up my mother and grandmother used to sing a little lullaby to us that I'm sure came down from an Italian nursery rhyme or song or something. Our version was a bit of broken English and Italian mixed together...went a little something like this "Ninnananna, ninnananna, Baby's going ninnananna..." I have sung it to my children so much that my girls sing it to their dolls now! But until recently I did not know that "ninnananna" actually means "lullaby" in Italian. So sweet....
So I decided to do even more research, and I found a lullaby that goes to the tune of Brahm's Lullaby. Thanks to a great website, http://www.mamalisa.com/, for the following:
Fa la ninna, fa la nanna
(Italian)
Fa la ninna, fa la nanna
Nella braccia della mamma
Fa la ninna bel bambin,
Fa la nanna bambin bel,
Fa la ninna, fa la nanna
Nella braccia della mamma.
(English)
Go to sleep, go to sleepy
In the arms of your mother,
Go to sleep, lovely child,
Go to sleepy, child so lovely,
Go to sleep, go to sleepy
In the arms of your mother.
7 comments:
My Gram used to sing this to me. :)
my mother sang this to me every night when i was little =]
I love this lullaby. I'm not Italian, but I love the culture and the music, and the food, and EVERYTHING! So I will be singing this to my baby one day. Thank you for posting~
I can relate since every woman in my family sang this to me at one point in my childhood!! Any other Italian lullabies I'm missing?
I used to sing this to my daughter who is now about to have a baby, so wanted to check on the Italian words. I found the lullaby originally in a set of Child books that accompanied the set of Worldbook Encyclopoedias my parents had. There was a second verse about 'El Papa el tornara' (Dad will return) Thanks for helping with words for 1st verse.
BTW, the tune is NOT Brahms lullaby, only the first 3 notes are similar.... Thanks! JRA
Our version was a bit of broken English and Italian mixed together...went a little something like this "Ninnananna, ninnananna, lullaby-babies.co.uk
I sing this lullaby to my baby granddaughter now as it is one of the few things that puts her to sleep when she is unsettled.
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