A la ru y la ru ri ta,
A la ru, duerma chiquito,
Y a la ru ru,
Y la ru ri ta.
A la ru y a la ru ri ta…
That’s how I put Edgar to sleep last night. For some reason he was more restless than usual and even though he’s hitting that age where it’s no longer cool to let your parents put you to sleep, I could tell from his tossing and turning that last night he actually wanted a little acurrucada before falling asleep. My own mother’s caresses as a boy would always send me into such a peaceful and relaxing place where I would dream for hours and wake up feeling refreshed and renewed.
I don’t know that my singing has the same effect, but I gave it my best shot anyway.
This morning when I went to look for the correct lyrics to this Spanish-language lullaby, to my surprise, the song is actually titled A la roro niño. Either my memory is off – very likely – or the version my mother used to sing us was an abbreviated version of this song. Either way it worked!
Just in case you want the correct lyrics to A la roro niño here they are:
A la roro niño
A lo roro ya
Duérmete mi niño
Duérmete mi amor.
Este niño lindo
Que nació de mañana,
Quiere que lo lleven
A pasear en carcacha.
Este niño lindo
Que nació de día
Quiere que lo lleven
A la dulcería
Este niño
Que nació de noche
Quiere que lo lleven
A pasear en coche.
Este niño lindo
Se quiere dormir,
Y el pícaro sueño
No quiere venir.
Este niño lindo
Que nació de noche
Quiere que lo lleven
A pasear en coche.
13 thoughts on “Putting Bilingual Children to Sleep in Spanish: Un Lullaby”
I can’t remember any Spanish lullabies from my childhood. I’ve started going to a Spanish play group with my son to try to learn songs and rhymes to do at home. We only speak to him in Spanish so it feels weird singing itsy bitsy spider and twinkle little star, but I figured it was better than nothing. Thanks for sharing the song and lyrics
Michelle, quite literally… I think this is the only lullaby I actually know, and at that not even correctly apparently 🙂 It was funny because I was actually attempting to write something else and then when I started singing the song I was like “duh! I should write about this!” I’m glad you liked it.
So sweet!
I do what I can 🙂 LOL!
My mom used to sing me the same llullaby but I could have sworn it said something like
a la roro nina,
a la roro nina
, duermete mi nina
, de mi corazon,
And then it would say something like
Si tu no te duermes……………….and something would come get you (all in the pretty tune)………………either I completely changed the lyrics in my memory or my mom REALLY wanted me to go to sleep! Ill have to call her and ask what she was singing to me……….
Are we both thinking of a different song Bonny? I could have sworn the song I was singing had more lyrics… and I was entirely sure these were them. Hmm, now I’m curious again! Let me know what your mom says.
I am the English parent, but my son’s dad did sing that lullaby to my boy. But more often he sang this one…(Cri Cri song)
Buenas noches,
Hasta mañana,
que Juan Pestañas
ya va a venir.
¡Ponte tu pijama
métete a la cama,
porque ya es la hora de dormir.
🙂
I love that version of the song! Much more a song than my singing 🙂 Thanks for sharing it with me… the Cri Cri song!
Michelle, at our house we sing both “itsy bitsy spider” and “araña chiquito subio subio subio”. If not for CDs from Juan-Luis Orozco and Cri Cri, I’d have no clue.
Juan, you’re awesome!!!
My hubby sings a lullaby rarely and it comes out something like “momete cabroncito, duerme mi demonio…” All I can say is knowing mi suegra I believe she sang something just like that to him as a baby… LOL!
I only knew the first verse. Thanks!
I remember ru ru, too.
http://folklife-media01.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW04511.pdf
Duermete mi niiro,
Duermete solito,
que cuando te despiertes
te doy atolito.