Go to asleep my tiny baby,
Try to sleep and get asleep
Till the white dawns break the day.
Then wake up as a grown child.
Till tomorrow at the (white) dawns.

I wonder who invented this song,
I guess it was firstly uttered by a tiny mouth of a baby
When his mother left him sleeping
And found him singing.

Abua – bua – bua,
Abua, your mother will gently kiss you
Don’t be afraid of dragons in the forest
Your mother is forever protecting you.

My baby with tiny eyes like dark blackberries
Your mother will go to forest
She’s going to bring woods from the trees
And make biscuits just for you.

Culcă-te, puiuţ micuţ,
Scoală-te mărişoruţ.
Culcă-te şi te abuă
Până mâine-n dalbă ziuă.
Şi te culcă şi adormi
Până mâine-n dalbe zori.

Doina din ce s-o făcut?
Dintr-o gură de mic prunc.
L-o lăsat maica dormind,
L-o aflat doina zicând.

Abua, bua, bua,
Abua, ţucu-l maica,
Nu te teme tu de zmei,
I-a goni maica pe ei.

Puişor cu ochi de mure,
Maica-i dusă la pădure,
Ţi-a aduce gătejoare
Şi ţi-a face scovergioare

About Get asleep my tiny baby
This is an old lullaby from Western and Central România (Cluj, Bihor, Năsăud ) still sung by mothers living in the countryside. It can be heard in different versions. It is also mentioned in the school textbooks as sung by a great Romanian folk singer, Maria Tănase who lived between 1913-1963 and made a great contribution to the aknowledgement of the Romanian folklore abroad. In this lullaby, the mother is fondling and telling endearments to her baby and wishes him to sleep all night in order to be a grown up child at dawn. Her words seem to be spontaneous, telling about the creator of the most well-known Romanian song ‘doina’. The mother concludes that this is so old and pure that it can have as the origin a baby’s genuine and naïve singing. Then, the mother encourages her baby not to be afraid of the bad creatures in the forest because she is going to protect him forever. In the last stanza, the mother compares her little baby’s eyes to blackberries, which is a very suggestive image and makes us think of the steady love of people for nature in the countryside. Following are some characteristic expressions used in this lullaby: Abua – onomatopoeia/ mimetic word expressing the idea of getting asleep; doina – old traditional song; ţucă-l maica – a regional expression/ phrase meaning the wish of a mother to kiss her child or any child; gătejoare, scovergioare - old, regional, archaic and diminutive words, e.g. scovergioară is a diminutive from scovergă (a small cheese biscuit with a curly or twisted shape, cooked in oil).

About Nani, Nani, Your Mother’s Baby
This is another very old cradle song which has its origin in one of the south regions of Romania, Oltenia.

It is short and only repeats specific words for inducing peace and sleep to the baby: nani is a typical mimetic word very often used in a lullaby; maica means my mum. In Romanian, it is common to address a baby by the words my mum to show affection.

Haia, haia, mică baia,
Cuculică, fată mică,
Douăzăşi şi unu
Dă-m şi mie unu.

Lululică-n cuculică,
Haia mică, fată mică
Hai, hai, hai, hai, hai, hai,
Hai, hai, moş Mihai, hai.

Haia, haia, mică baia,
Haia, hai, hai, câţi copii ai ?
Douăzăşi şi unu,
Dă-m şi mie unu

Nani, nani my sweet tiny baby
Nani, nani my sweet tiny baby
Till tomorrow at noon
Till tomorrow at noon

Be you grow bigger and stronger
Be you grow bigger and stronger
Dearest tiny baby of thy mother
Dearest tiny baby of thy mother.

Nani, nani puişor,
Nani, nani puişor,
Până mâni la prânzişor,
Până mâni la prânzişor.

Tu să creşti mai mărişor,
Tu să creşti mai mărişor,
Dragul mamii puişor,
Dragul mamii puişor.

About Nani, Nani My Sweet Tiny Baby!
This anonymous lullaby is also very old and sung in all the regions of Romania.

It begins with the typical words for suggesting ‘sleep’ to the baby: nani, nani, and with the diminutive words for ‘midday’: prânz, prânzişor.