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LULLABIES They're the first songs we remember from childhood - a link between generations. Click below to hear lullabies from around the world - then add your own.
My name is Saeeda Mahmood. I was born in Kandahar and brought up in the Hellmand Province of Afghanistan. When I was a child my mother used to sing me this very old lullaby. It’s a song that’s popular amongst the women of Afghanistan. I just remember a few words as I never learned it properly from my mother and the elders. I was too busy working. Yet I sometimes sing it for them even though they’re grown up now. They often complain that I didn’t sing enough for them when they were younger.
It says, ‘Sleep, sleep, sleep my son or my daughter. I wish that sleep comes to your eyes and you’ll sleep like a stone in the water. It doesn’t move. Let this kind of sleep come to your eyes and let nothing disturb you. You’ll sleep deep like a log.’
In Kandahar, babies were put to sleep in a cot. The mother would tie a rope to the cot and rock it as she sang the child to sleep. In other places, children sleep in the arms of their mother. She slowly touches the child and sings the song so that they’re more relaxed and will sleep more quickly.
