Monday, November 29, 2010

Who's Copying Who?

Nadia was singing an English nursery song/rhyme the other day and I couldn't help but to be amazed at how similar the lyric of that rhyme with the Malay rhyme which I always sang when I was a little kid. Being a person raised with ONLY Malay nursery songs and rhyme, I admitted that that was really my first time hearing the English nursery rhyme in my whole life. After listening to her singing, I asked her to listen to the Malay version of the rhyme and she was astonished to notice the strong resemblance of the two too! Now, I wonder: Are we copying English's nursery rhyme to create our own nursery rhyme? Could this be a coincident? But what a very strong coincident it is, isn't it? Now you be the judge ;)..

Sing a Song of Sixpence

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye
Four and twenty black birds cooked in a pie
When the pie is opened the birds began to sing
Wasn't is a dainty dish to set before the king?

The king is in the counting house counting all his money
The queen is in the parlor eating bread and honey
The maid is at the garden hanging up the clothes
Then came along a black bird and snapped off her nose!


Lagu Tiga Kupang

Lagu tiga kupang saku penuh padi
Enam ekor burung masuk dalam kuali
Bila sudah masak burung nyanyi saja
Tentu sedap makan bagi pada raja.

Raja dalam rumah buat kira-kira
Suri dalam dapur makan roti gula, hey!

Dayang tepi kolam mahu jemur tepung
Datang burung hitam patuk batang hidung.

1 comment:

Leonora Halim said...

ekekkekekkk.... tak tau le malang ke idak, saya membesar dgn nursery rhyme omputih sumenya... feveret... jack n jill ngan humpty dumpty sat on the wall... ahahhaha... dah besar jadik humpty la sgt kannnnn... kruk krukkkkk