Our Baby - Chinese Children's Songs - China - Mama Lisa's World: Children's Songs and Rhymes from Around the World - Intro Image

Notes

The Chinese title above is part of the first line in Chinese. The English title is different and comes directly from Headland's book.

Here's a translation I came up with, trying to make it more literal:

Grandma Zhang, Grandma Li,
Our family has a young baby,
Stands proud, sits up straight,
Instead of mama's milk, eats tasty cake.*

*I think even more literally, it would be: "Eats delicious cake, not breast milk." But the very slight change in meaning allowed me to make a soft rhyme, so that my translation basically rhymes, while still staying close to the meaning.

I welcome comments and criticisms on my translation! -Mama Lisa

Comments

If anyone can provide the Pinyin or the simplified Chinese text, please email me at lisa@mamalisa.com Thanks! -Mama Lisa

I also welcome comments about the translations and alternate, more literal translations if applicable.

Computerized Text

(We apologize if this doesn't display properly on your screen):

张奶奶

张奶奶李奶奶
俺家有个小婴孩
站得稳坐不歪
好吃饽饽不吃奶

Thanks and Acknowledgements

This rhyme and the English translation above are from the book, Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes, by Isaac Taylor Headland of Peking University (copyright 1900).

Many thanks to Yuan Ping for typing this rhyme in Chinese text for us!

M goi! & Xie xie!