小脚儿娘 - Chinese Children's Songs - China - Mama Lisa's World: Children's Songs and Rhymes from Around the World - Intro Image

Notes

Ray Lee sent the following literal translation with the note: "This is the general meaning... it sounds very weird…"

Little-Feet Girl

Little-feet girl likes to eat candies
No money to buy
Holding her little feet and start crying.

I made Ray's version rhyme a bit:

The girl with the small feet
Likes to eat sweets,
She has no money (for them) to buy,
She holds her feet and starts to cry.

Here's Yuan Ping's version:

The little lady with the small feet likes to eat sugar
But she has no money to buy it
And sits cross-legged and weeps for a good while.

The first English translation comes directly from Headland's book of Chinese Mother Goose rhymes. The translation is loose (it was done to sound like an English Mother Goose rhyme and was made to rhyme). The other translations are more literal.

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 and for a translation. Thanks to Ray Lee for his translation.

M goi! & Xie xie!