The Songs My Father Sings
TYPE
PoemWhen I shut my eyes
and go to sleep,
I think of all sorts of things,
I hear songs, and bits of songs –
songs that my father sings.
How does he know all of these songs?
Where has my father been?
Who sang the songs that he now sings
and what do all the songs all mean?
“Et hop Pipo, Pipo”, from France,
“Simsalabim bamba saladu daladim”, from Germany,
“Avanti o popolo”, from Italy,
“Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack”, from America,
“Linten adie, toorin adie”, from Scotland,
“Mamita mia”, from Spain,
“Kalinka, kalinka, kalinka moya”, from Russia,
“With a hey and a ho and a hey nonny no”, from England
and
“Un di fidldike fidlers
hobn fidldik gefidlt,
hobn fidldik gefidlt hoben zey”,
from his Zeyde.*
when I shut my eyes
and go to sleep,
I think of all sorts of things,
I hear songs, and bits of songs –
songs that my father sings.
*Zeyde = grandfather
© Michael Rosen, from On the Move: Poems About Migration, Walker, 2020