I am having fun finding some nursery rhymes in old Latin textbooks and also in writing my own Latin versions of traditional rhymes... and of course I also need to recommend the brilliant book by Milena Minkova and Terence Tunberg: Mater Anserina, which has around 30 nursery rhymes done in Latin, plus an audio CD along with Soundcloud versions online. There are also used copies at Bookfinder!
I'll probably end up doing my own versions of many of the rhymes they have done, and it's fun to compare my version with theirs. In adapting rhymes like this, of course you have to take all kinds of liberties, which means that every version comes out differently! Years ago I created a collection of Latin Christmas songs, and I was amazed by the number of different versions of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, for example. In my opinion, we need all the versions of these songs and rhymes as we can get because they are so useful for language learners, making the Latin words both fun and memorable.
As you can see from the cover, the rhymes are accompanied by the famous Kate Greenaway illustrations; here is an 1890 Greenaway Mother Goose at the Internet Archive.
This is another one of the Latin nursery rhymes that I found in Arundines Cami, published in 1851. The English nursery rhyme "The North Wind Doth Blow" is not a famous one, but I really like it; I've included a YouTube recording below which includes additional verses:
This is another nursery rhyme that I turned into Latin; it is one of my favorite English nursery rhymes too! You can find out more about this rhyme at Wikipedia.
I was thinking about my "Puella in Sella" rhyme and wanted to give it more of a sense of ending, so I decided to add a happy ending (new part in bold):
Here's a little Latin nursery rhyme I wrote, inspired by "Little Miss Muffet," although the Latin came out differently: no tuffet (whatever that is!), no curds and whey, and no spider. Instead, I had the little girl dozing in the chair, surprised by a snake:
Cultures across Africa have riddling traditions, and there are some nice African riddle books for children. Here is one by Verna Aardema (who wrote several books of African folktales for children), with illustrations by the great Jerry Pinkney, and it's just a click away at the Internet Archive: Ji-nongo-nongo Means Riddles.
This book draws on riddle traditions from across Africa, with forty riddles as found in about a dozen different tribal traditions; you can find information about the sources used in the credits section at the front of the book. The title comes from the Kimbundu language of Angola, and refers to a traditional Angolan guessing game.
Lots of the riddles have to do with animals, just as so many proverbs are also about animals, and these riddles often have a proverbial value to them. For example:
Who has a house too small for guests?
The answer is..... the tortoise.
This Yoruba riddle plays with the physical fact of the tortoise's shell, but it also resonates with the greedy selfishness of the trickster tortoise in Yoruba culture; being hospitable is not one of the tortoise's qualities. And if the tortoise does invite you to dinner, you better be careful!
The illustrations are in Pinkney's beautiful, distinctive style; here's a page that accompanies some of the animal riddles:
And one of my favorite proverbs in the book gets its own full-page illustration:
What can the buffalo do that two strong men can not?
I'll put the picture here so that you can think about it; the picture gives you a clue, and you'll find the answer below the picture.
The answer: Grow horns!
And here's another one with a nice proverbial quality to it:
What is it that even the ostrich with its long neck and sharp eyes cannot see?
Again, I'll put the answer down below the illustration so you can ponder...
I'm working on Latin nursery rhymes, finding all the public domain ones that I can, and then I'm going to try writing some of my own too. Here's a familiar one to start with: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, although you might not know these additional verses (I didn't know them). More at Wikipedia about this rhyme, and for a wonderfully inventive set of variations see this article: Change Things Up! Ten “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” Variations.
My first is in bean but not in pea; My second you find in coffee and tea; My third is in both shell and sea. Who am I?reveal/hide answerbee My first is in both grass and grow; My second you see in learn and know; My third is there inside the dough. Who am I?reveal/hide answergnu My first's at the end of every song; My second is in both short and long; My third you find in ways and means; My fourth is in slants but not in leans. Who am I?reveal/hide answergoat
Where do frogs hang up their raincoats?reveal/hide answerIn the croak-room.
What goes dot-dot-croak, dot-dash-croak?reveal/hide answerA Morse toad. What is green and makes a noise you can hear for miles?reveal/hide answerA frog-horn. What's the difference between a cold canine and a sleeping amphibian?reveal/hide answerOne's a frozen dog, and the other's a dozin' frog. What's the difference between a frog and a cat?reveal/hide answerA frog croaks all the time; a cat croaks nine times. What do you get when you cross a frog with a calendar?reveal/hide answerA leap year. What kind of shoes do frogs wear?reveal/hide answerOpen-toad sandals. Why doesn't a frog jump when it's sad?reveal/hide answerBecause's it's unhoppy. What game do little frogs like to play?reveal/hide answerHop-scotch. What happens when a frog is illegally parked?reveal/hide answerIt gets toad away.
There are fields beyond measure and cattle beyond counting; horned is their shepherd and their lord abounds in gold. Who are they?reveal/hide answerThe fields are the sky, and the cattle are the stars, the moon is their shepherd and the sun is their lord.
I sit on the stove but I am not burnt; I climb the wall and can sit on the ceiling; I go through a keyhole without having to squeeze. Who am I?reveal/hide answerI am sunlight. You welcome me each day, but you cannot look me in the face. Who am I?reveal/hide answerI am the sun. How can you make the moon dance?reveal/hide answerToss a stone in water where the moon is reflected. There is a giant who has two eyes: one sees by day and the other by night. What are they?reveal/hide answerThe giant is the sky; one eye is the sun and one eye is the moon. How many balls of string would it take to reach the moon?reveal/hide answerOnly one; it just needs to be a very very very big ball of string. I am the biggest house in the world, but I have no walls. What am I?reveal/hide answerI am the sky. At night they come without being summoned, and by day they run away. Who are they?reveal/hide answerThe stars. I've existed as long as the earth, but I am one month old at most. Who am I?reveal/hide answerI am the moon. What holds the moon in its orbit?reveal/hide answerMoon beams.
Why is an elephant large, grey, and wrinkled?reveal/hide answerBecause if it was small, white, and smooth, it would be an egg.
Why did the elephant cross the road?reveal/hide answerIt was the chicken's day off.
How can you lift an elephant without using anything mechanical?reveal/hide answerPut the elephant on an acorn and wait for it to grow into a tree. Why do elephants have short tails?reveal/hide answerSo they won't get stuck in revolving doors. How do elephants talk to each other?reveal/hide answerElephants talk on the elephone. What do you get when you cross an elephant with AI?reveal/hide answerA five-ton know-it-all. Why did the elephant paint its toenails red?reveal/hide answerTo hide upside down in the strawberry jam. Never seen an elephant in the jam? That's because it works! What's the difference between an elephant and a flea? reveal/hide answerAn elephant can have fleas, but a flea can't have elephants. Would you rather an elephant attacked you or a gorilla?reveal/hide answerI'd rather the elephant attacked the gorilla. Why are elephants so wrinkled?reveal/hide answerBecause they're hard to iron.
This is a fun little riddle/rhyme from The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang. You can find out more at Wikipedia, which explains that while the answer is only ONE was going to St. Ives (the speaker), but if the creatures that person met were all added up it would be: 2,802, i.e., the narrator, the man and his seven wives, 49 sacks, 343 cats, and 2,401 kittens!
So, this one looks like a math riddle, but it's really a gotcha riddle!
As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives; Every wife had seven sacks, Every sack had seven cats, Every cat had seven kits: Kits, cats, sacks, and wives. How many were there going to St. Ives?
What do you get when you cross a stray cat with a crocodile?reveal/hide answerAn alley gator.
What do you get when you cross an elephant with a skin doctor?reveal/hide answerA pachydermatologist.
What do you get when you cross a hungry cat with a canary?reveal/hide answerA cat who isn't hungry anymore. What do you get when you cross a butterfly with a PBJ?reveal/hide answerPeanut flutter. What do you get when you cross a rooster with a wolf?reveal/hide answerAn animal who howls at the rising sun. What do you get when you cross a duck with a roadrunner?reveal/hide answerA quick quack. What do you get when you cross a snake with an architect?reveal/hide answerA boa constructor. What do you get when you cross a pumpkin with a duck?reveal/hide answerA quack-o-lantern. What do you get when you cross a parrot with a woodpecker?reveal/hide answerAn animal who talks in Morse code. What do you get when you cross a moth with a firefly?reveal/hide answerAn insect who can see inside a dark closet.
I'm going to be including riddles here in this "crazy wisdom" project because riddles are a great example of foolish wisdom, a skewed way of looking at the world which gives us new insights: the harder the riddle, the better the insights.
In this post, I'll be collecting riddles about time.
