h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

To the tune of Silent Night:


Nighty night time

Nighty night time

It's past time

For a girl

To go to sleep for the night

Mommy wants to sleep all night

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace


It sounds much better than it reads

Or maybe that's only because I'd not gotten a decent night's sleep since Wimpy... Thomas and Patty have headed home today, though, so Faith'll be back in her own room again

Guess who's seeing the third LOTR for her birthday?

Do you think you'll be able to stay awake through it? I hear it's kinda long...

Should be able to--it's later now than it will be when the showing we're going to will be over (going to the drive-in)

awww...sweet lullaby...you are poet, Amy!

There's already a poet named Amy.....Amy Lowell.

You can be Amy Loll.

there more Pauls in the world so you can Paulidrome

What an appauling notion.

or you can be next Pope ..Pope Paul

I don't think the world is ready for a pope with a sense of humor.
Can you imagine the havoc that some of my puns might cause?

world thru ter

Always look on the bright side of life.

yeah! revolution A999543

My very dear Amy, big

How super that you sing little Faith to sleep. The secret is to have a very soporific melody that "lulls" the little one to sleep. but not quite so soporific that you also are lulled to sleep!!.

I had a lovely French lullabye which went something like this


Fait dodo, (Colin) mon petit cheri,
Fait dodo, t'auras du lolo.
..................
etc.


I am always appalled when I hear the English one called

"Rock a bye baby,
On the tree-top.
When the wind blows.
The cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks,
The cradle will fall,
Down will come baby,
Cradle and all"

What a wicked way of putting your baby to sleep, threatening that s/he will fall out of the tree.!!! It seems that every single language in the world has a few really nasty lullabyes to supposedly put the babies to sleep. I wonder what that is all about!!.


I send you much and affection for the New Year. I do hope that you all had a happy Christmas. I guess Tom must have been very busy, as well as his wife!!

Also Ran 1

Brahms's lullabye has words, but I don't remember what they are.

I wrote a lullabye a few years ago. There is nothing nasty in it.

Here's one translation of Brahms's lullabye:

Lullaby and good night
With roses bedight
With lilies bespread
Is baby's wee head
Lay thee down now and rest
May thy slumbers be blessed
Lay thee down now and rest
May thy slumbers be blessed

From stuff people've said, I think everyone's assumed that the lullaby actually *worked*

Nope.

I love Paul's lullaby there. Mostly though we sing one I made up.

Nasty lullabies? I think us Afrikaners have the rest of the world beat. Here's the translation of the popular lullaby 'Siembamba':

Siembamba, mommy's child,
Siembamba, mommy's child,
Wring his neck and throw him in a ditch,
Tread on his head, then he is dead.

And here's a little baby poem:

Who's little eyes are so bright, bright, bright?
Who's little tail stinks, stinks, stinks so bad?
Throw him away, throw him away, the little rubbish.

I'd say Willem's right... Those are a lot worse than Rock-a-bye Baby...

Are the tunes at least nice to hum?

'Siembamba' has a very nice tune. The other one is a poem, not a song. But anyways we do have nicer lullabies as well. One that we're singing a lot to my nephew Christiaan is 'Lamtietie Damtietie' which goes like this:

'Lamtietie Damtietie doedoe my liefstetjie
Moederhart rowertjie dierbare diefstetjie
Luister hoe fluister die wind deur die boompetjie
Heen en weer wieg hy hom al oor die stroompetjie
Doe- doe- doe bladertjies,
Slapenstyd nadertjies.
Doe- doe- doe blommetjies,
Nag is aan't kommetjies.
So sing die windjie vir blaartjies en blommetjies.'

An attempt at translation would run like so:

'Lamtietie Damtietie sleep-sleep my dear little one,
Little stealer of Mommy's heart, dear little thief,
Listen how the wind whispers through the little tree,
One way and the other it sways it over the little stream.
Sleep- sleep - sleep little leaves,
Sleeping-time approaches.
Sleep- sleep- sleep little flowers,
Night is on its way.
So the little wind sings to the little leaves and flowers.'

That's just the first verse. There are about fifteen verses!

There's another very nice little lullaby, 'Slaap Piekannienie':

'Slaap Piekannienie ons vees in die kraal,
Almal ons skapies en bokkies.
Môre-vroeg kry jy van soet pap 'n maal,
En 'n paar spierwitte sokkies.
Doedoe, Doedoe.'

Translation:

'Sleep Piekannienie we feast in the 'camp',
All of us, we little sheep and little goats,
Early tomorrow you will get a meal of sweet porridge,
And a pair of snowy-white socks.'