The Official Blog of Talk Russian Ltd - the UK-based Russian Translation Company

When I read both English and Russian nursery rhymes to my little son, I couldn’t help drawing parallels and comparing the folklore of these two countries.

Naturally, both English and Russian (or Soviet) short poems for babies and toddlers make a very vivid use of pets and animals. Some first lines are totally identical, e.g. “Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, where have you been?” and “Кисонька-мурлысенька, где ты была?” A bear is one of the favourite characters, with “The bear went over the mountain” and “Мишка косолапый по лесу идет”. Russians love their hares, foxes, wolves and goats while the English prefer lambs, mice, rabbits and frogs.

Both nations enjoy rhymes about birds: “”Two little dickie birds” and “Петушок” or “Сорока-белобока” spring to mind. Clapping often becomes part of reading. Russians love their “Ладушки” while English children eagerly clap to “If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands.”

Counting rhymes have a special place in both languages too. Many Russians will remember “Раз, два, три, четыре, пять, вышел зайчик погулять”, while English children will recite “One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive”.

I find some Russian lullabies a little disturbing though, my son got scared in particular by the one which says that if you slept close to the side of your bed, a wolf would come and take you to the woods. I know it is probably meant to stop toddlers from falling off their beds, but the emotional effect it can have on some sensitive children is the opposite to that a lullaby is supposed to make.

A few rhymes in both languages are used as a warm-up or refreshing exercise, e.g. “Heads and shoulders” and “мы писали, мы писали, наш пальчики устали”.

While all these similarities speak about the common ways these nations use to speak to their children, one thing stands out for me. Every now and then an English poem would make a reference to history or a cultural term. If we take “Humpty-Dumpty”, it mentions the King and his men or the story about a pussy cat I referred to above, says the cat has been to London to see the Queen. There is nothing like this in a Russian nursery rhyme and if there once was, it was eradicated when the Soviets came to power. Russia was no longer an empire and poems for older children were full of heroic plots and fable-style messages with one aim: to educate the younger generation.

Whichever the character in the first poem your child recites to you, it leaves you with a fascinating feeling of joy and tenderness, as you hear it from your child…

Yelena McCafferty, Registered Russian Interpreter and Translator.
Talk Russian Ltd, www.talkrussian.com

{ 0 comments }