Folk Song-Lullaby-Persian

Nationality: Persian
Age: 60
Occupation: Manager
Residence: Santa Ana, CA
Performance Date: April 15, 2011
Primary Language: Persian
Language: English

Persian Lullaby

????? ???? ? ???? ??? ??

??? ???? ?? ? ?? ???? ??? ??

???? ?? ???? ??? ?? ??? ????

?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ???????? ??? ???? ?? ???????

Lalai gooyamo khabet konam man

Ali gooyam mano sad salat konam man

Elahi sad saleh shavi ey noore einam

Ke har rooz man tora dar chashmhaye khod beenam ey nazaneenam

Lullaby I am saying sleep to you I make I

Ali I say one hundred years to you I make I

Hopefully one hundred years you become oh light of my eyes

That every day I you from my eyes mine see oh darling mine

I am singing a lullaby to put you to sleep

I ask Ali that I may raise you to be one hundred years old

Hopefully you will become one hundred years old, oh light of my eyes

That I may see you with my eyes every day my darling

            “Mommon used to sing this to me when I was little, and I sang this to you to put you to sleep. I guess she learned it when she was little from this lady in Aghasht who was really good at singing and she used to sing it to her kids all the time, but hers probably had an accent and sounded like this (imitate accent while singing the song). Hahaha!”

            Mommon is what we all call my grandma. It means “mom” in French, I believe, and it is something many people adopted in Iran as a name for “mom.” Her children and grandchildren call her by this name. She lives with us, and she would take care of all the family’s grandchildren when both parents would be at work. She would sing me to sleep with this song, and my mom would as well. My mom was raised in Tehran, but would spend her summers in Aghasht. She moved to the United States in 1976. In 1986, she brought her parents to live with her in America.

            My grandma learned this song from a woman in her village, Aghasht, which is maybe one hour by car outside of Tehran, Iran. This village speaks in a dialect, but my grandma speaks standard Farsi with no accent, because she moved out of this village to Tehran when she got married and because her family would speak standard Farsi in the house. She sang this song to me as I have written it and as my mom has recorded, in a standard Farsi, which I’m sure is a variation of the one she heard in the village so often.

            I have not seen this lullaby anywhere else. My mom says it’s very old, and I think it might be regional.