Nursery Rhymes: Tortillitas Para Mama

Tortillitas Para Mama and Other Nursery Rhymes

illustrated by Barbara Cooney

This post originally ran on the LBBC on September 22, 2008

Tortillitas Para Mama and Other Nursery Rhymes is selected and translated by several authors and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. There were a few rhymes that I was not familiar with when I first read the book, though I wish that I had been. Some are funny…

Soy chiquita, soy bonita.

Soy la perla de mamá.

Si me ensucio el vestido,

Garrotazos me dará.

(direct translation)

I am small, I am pretty.

I am my mother’s pearl.

If I soil my dress,

She will beat me,

(YIKES! I’m glad I didn’t know that one!)

And some are soft, and loving, such this little lullaby that I sang to my babies, just as my mother sang to me.

Duéremete, mi niña,

Duérmete, mi sol.

Duérmete pedazo

De mi corazon.

Go to sleep my child,

Go to sleep my sunshine.

Go to sleep little piece of my heart.

And others are just silly, like "Sana, sana colita de rana..." that I think are probably universal...
 
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