Sunday 10 July 2011

A Lullaby for Theresa

Lullaby, and good night,
My darling delight

Bright angels stand around
My darling shall sleep

They shall keep
thee from harm
Thou shalt wake in
my arms

So lullaby, and good night
My darling delight.


My mother used to sing this lullaby to us when we were little. It is sung to the tune of Brahms' Lullaby, but I think Ma made up her own words ;) I was trying to teach Theresa the words while she was here, but I realise now that there aren't any particular words... just a mother's prerogative to lull her baby to sleep. And a baby's prerogative to hear what she likes... I always thought Mum was singing, "Thou shalt twake in my arms"... but my mother vehemently denies this; 'There's no such thing as Twake!" she says now...
Do you remember a lullaby from your childhood? Go on, hum it... I'm listening, and so is Theresa :)

6 comments:

steven said...

lovely! i sang to both my babies ... perhaps that's why they laugh when i sing to them now (they're both teenagers) . . . . steven

Sherry Blue Sky said...

So lovely, and I can picture your mom singing to her bright eyed babies.........sigh.

ds said...

Lovely. My mom sang Brahms' Lullaby to us, too--and I attempted it with my daughter...so soothing.

Tess Kincaid said...

"Twake" made me giggle!

Unknown said...

Oh, Shaista, I love your blog. Every time it pops up in my dashboard, I have to come see it. Here's my mom's lullaby, "My Best Girl" from the musical, Mame:

You're my best girl/You're pretty and brave and strong/I'm glad you belong to me/And if a day is rough for me/Having you there's enough for me.

And if some day a little boy comes along/It won't take him long to see/That I'll still be found just hanging around/My Best Girl

She also sang "You are my Sunshine"

Ruth said...

Sweet!

I sang a song I heard on an old Chuck Mangione album, of Esther Satterfield singing "Lullaby for Nancy Carol." Somehow I began singing it to each of my kids, separately, but in the same room, every night. I changed the end-name to theirs, of course. They called it "little girl" and "little boy." You can listen here I think.

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