Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 16 - 09:30 AM

Second verse:

God will bless the mothers whose watch they are keeping
God will bless the babies so tenderly sleeping
Slumber my baby, slumber my baby,
Slumber my baby, aroo, aroo?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 09:14 AM

Azizi's post from Sept, 2009 explained that 'doux doux' meaning sweet, often accompanies 'darling.' Finally, after 40 years, I understand this deathless verse from the Kingston Trio:

Took me girlfriend home the other night,
Go meself in an awful fight.
She said, "Doux, doux darling, won't you please come in?"
Her old lady socked me a rolling pin!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: GUEST,Amanda Sutilla
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:57 AM

Buy not Sell

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: GUEST,aman
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:56 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: GUEST,Amanda Sutilla
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:52 AM

We did this song in middle school choir.

The English version went like:

They are selling shoes at the gate of heaven
for the barefoot angels who want to sell them
sleep now my baby sleep now my baby
aruu arru

Blessed are the babies who dream, blessed are the mothers that watch them
sleep now my baby sleep now my baby
arru arru

we did some in Spanish too, but at the time I hadn't really gotten into it, so I don't remember what those are but an above post has them in Spanish.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:47 AM

We did this song in middle school choir.

The English version went like:

They are selling shoes at the gate of heaven
for the barefoot angels who want to sell them
sleep now my baby sleep now my baby
aruu arru

Blessed are the babies who dream, blessed are the mothers that watch them
sleep now my baby sleep now my baby
arru arru

we did some in spanish too, but at the time I hadn't really gotten into it, so I dont remember what those are but an above post has them in spanish.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes
From: GUEST,Carolyn W. in Milwaukee
Date: 16 Jan 10 - 05:55 PM

Jim Dixon,

I just got around to checking my post from last September—thank you so much for verifying that I wasn't hallucinating about the existence of this song. My two-year-old grandson loves it, as he does "Little Owlet, Purple Owlet."

Carolyn W.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Nov 09 - 02:19 AM

Here's the MIDI Monique sent. Thanks, Monique.

---

Click to Play

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: Monique
Date: 29 Sep 09 - 10:15 PM

Guys, I found two scores of the song on "Niñez - Spanish Songs, Games and Stories of Childhood" by Virginia Nylander Ebinger - 1993 - Literary Collections - 80 pages

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 10:26 PM

Odd- In the Velasquez Spanish Dictionary, arrorró is given as Latin American for lullaby.
arrorró is not in the Diccionario of the Real Academia Española.
Confusing to one not conversant in the language.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: Monique
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 08:02 PM

Q- The imperative of the verb arrullar is "arrulla" for "tú" and "arrulle" for "usted" but you wouldn't say "arrulla" to the baby, you would to order someone to lull the baby to sleep. "Un arrullo" is a lullaby and "arrú" "arrurú" "arroró" the words the moms say to the babies. It seems that the verb and the noun are based on the onomatopoeia, not the other way round. Look:

arrullar.(De la onomat. ru, según el modelo de aullar y maullar).
1. tr. Dicho de un palomo o de un tórtolo: Atraer con arrullos a la hembra, o esta a aquel.
2. tr. Adormecer al niño con arrullos.
3. tr. Dicho de un sonido o de un ruido: adormecer.
4. tr. coloq. Dicho de los enamorados: Decir palabras dulces y halagüeñas. U. t. c. prnl.

"La palabra arrullo tiene su origen en el arrorró, vocablo onomatopéyico que desde tiempos inmemoriales sirve para adormecer a niñas y niños."

For the non-Spanish speakers:
arrullar (from the onomatopoeia ru, on the pattern of "aullar" (to bark) and "maullar" (to meow))
1: transitive verb. Said about a cock pigeon or a cock turtle-dove, to attract the female with cooing, or she to him
2: transitive verb. To lull a baby to sleep with lullabies
3: said about a sound or a noise: to make sleepy
4:transitive verb - colloquial - Said about lovers: to say sweet and flattering words. Also used in pronominal form.

"The word "arrullo" originates in "arrorró", an onomatopeic word that has been used from time immemorial to lull baby girls and boys"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A las puertas del cielo
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 01:28 PM

I have put a 'Lyr. Add' so that the song posted above by Monique may be picked up by Mudcat search.

Monique, correct me if I am wrong, but arrú would be the imperative of the verb arrullar, to lull babes, noun arrullo, lullaby. Of course Pyrenean Spanish may be different.
Just trying to get it straight in my mind.

Thanks for posting this lullaby. I have looked for it in some Latin American compendia, but haven't found it.

The do do in the old school book cited may have been to make it less strange to English-speakers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: Monique
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 11:09 AM

I found the original version and it goes

A las puertas del cielo

A las puertas del cielo
Venden zapatos
Para los angelitos
Que andan descalzos

Duérmete niño (x3)
Arrú arrú

A los niños que duermen
Dios los bendice
A las madres que velan
Dios las asiste

Duérmete niño (x3)
Arrú arrú

You can find it on "48 berceuses du monde" from Arb Music and you can listen to a sample here or there, it's #7 on the second cd.

Literal translation so you can see the differences between the original and the translation from the book

At the gates of heaven (the sky)
They sell shoes (not "little shoes")
For the little angels
that go/walk shoeless (not "tattered" which is "harapientos")

Sleep, baby,
Lullaby, lullaby

The children who sleep
God bless them
The mothers who watch (meaning "watch over them")
God assists them.

So this "do do" thing has been introduced in English to translate "arrú" (same use of "arrurú" etc) but has no direct relation to the original lyrics. Now, what would be interesting would be to know who translated the Sp. idiom "arrú" into a Fr. idiom "dodo" for an Eng. translation!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 10:20 AM

Hello,Monique!

Thanks for that information. I wondered why this French word/phrase was part of a Spanish song-unless the editors mislabeled it.

It occurred to me that the song was in a book that was titled Songs of the Pyrenees. Being geographically challenged, I decided to google the word "Pyrenees" and I visited its Wikipedia page.

Here's an excerpt from that page:

"The Pyrenees (also spelled Pyrenées... are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain.... They separate the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe, and extend for about 430 km (267 mi) from the Bay of Biscay (Cap Higuer) to the Mediterranean Sea (Cap de Creus).

For the most part, the main crest forms a massive divider between France and Spain, with the tiny country of Andorra sandwiched in between. Catalonia and the Basque Country have historically extended on both sides of the mountain range, with small northern portions in France and much larger southern parts in Spain[1][2]".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenees

**

Having read that, I'm wondering now if this song is both a Spanish and a French song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: Monique
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 09:59 AM

"dodo" is French baby talk for "sleep", "le dodo" = "the dodo" means "the bed" e.g. "Je vais au dodo" = "I'm going to bed" and "faire dodo" (lit. "to do dodo") means "to sleep" Cf. "Fais dodo, Colas mon p'tit frère", "Dodo, l'enfant do". Moms lull their babies to sleep chanting "dodo, dodo do" the same way as Spanish speaking moms would chant "arrurú"/"arroró", English speaking moms would chant "lullaby" etc
The Dictionnaire historique de la langue française (Historical Dictionary of the French Language) gives it to go back as early as 1465 and to be based on the onomatopoeic root "dod-" expressing swinging with a probable influence of the beginning of "dormir" = to sleep, "dors!" = "sleep!"
The form "faire dodo" has first been attested in Charles d'Orléans's works (1394 - 1465)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 08:14 AM

Hmm.

In re-reading the words of the song, it's probably more likely that "do do" here means "sleep".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do-do (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 08:00 AM

Hello, Jim.

Thanks for posting this song. I don't know it, but wanted to add something about the word "do do".

In the context of that song, the phrase "do do" probably means something like "dearest one" or "sweetheart" (referencing a child and not a lover).

See this entry from http://www.wiwords.com/word/doo+doo West Indian dictionary:


"doo doo Noun
Sweetheart

Usage: From the French "doux doux", "doux" meaning sweet.
Usually paired with darling - doux doux darling."

-since-

There's a discussion about the phrase "do do" in this Mudcat thread:
Lyr Req: Yeller Gals - Doodle or Do Not?

-snip-

But "do do"="dearest" shouldn't be confused with the similarly spelled Creole word for "sleep".

http://www.wiwords.com/word/doe+doe gives "sleep" as the meaning for "doe doe".

Also, Urban Dictionary has this entry (among other meanings) for the phrase "do do":

"Dodo   
To sleep, or go to sleep; from the Cajun French "fais do do." Used generally in the New Orleans area only (and surrounding smaller cities in Louisiana)"

Mom: Go dodo dahlin'
Daughter: G'nite Mama!
-sniouo00sn

Subject: Lyr Add: DO-DO (Spanish lullaby) 'Little shoes...'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 12:06 AM

This was requested in another thread.

From The Elementary School Teacher, Volume 3 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, May, 1903) page 644:

DO-DO.
Spanish Lullaby.

Little shoes are sold at the doorway of heaven,
And to all the tattered little angels are given;
Slumber, my darling, slumber, my darling,
Slumber, my darling baby. Do-do, do-do, Ave Maria, do-do.

[from] Sturgis and Blake, Songs of the Pyrenees. Boston: A. P. Schmidt, [1877].