Our nursery rhymes are close to all our hearts. But what happens when those familiar tunes cross cultural wires, for instance in translation?

We all grew up with nursery rhymes and popular children's songs, and in a way they are "ours," and rarely questioned. Then one day we hear a song sung, and it sounds so familiar, but so strange... The melody is the same, but the lyrics are different, even in a different language.

While strolling with my daughter, here in Boston, I was vigorously singing a popular Dutch sing-along called 'k Heb de zon zien zakken, when someone behind me inquired what version of She'll be coming down the mountain that was. I was taken aback, but not so much because I thought I was alone in the street. I had heard and sung She'll be coming, but it had never struck me that "my" song was sung to the same tune!

'k Heb de zon zien zakken in de zee

'k Heb de zon zien zakken in de zee

'k Heb de zon zien zakken

de zon zien zakken

de zon zien zakken

in de zee

Yipee Yaya Yoopy Yoopy Yeay

Etc.

(I've seen the sun go down into the sea / I've seen the sun go down into the sea / I've seen the sun go down / I've seen the sun go down / I've seen the sun go down into the sea)

I should have known. Not long ago I was on the other side of this exchange. When I pointed out to my husband that his favorite Bengali nursery rhyme has the same melody as Yankee Doodle, he too was shocked: he has sung Yankee Doodle (along with the Pops and the crowds on the Fourth of July), but had not made the connection.

Laal jhuti kakatua

dhorechhey je bayena

Chai taar laal phite

chiruni aar ayena

(A red-tufted cockatoo / has got a whim / She wants a comb / and a red ribbon)

Such popular songs go back a long way and have gone through so many variations that it is often impossible to find the original version, or author.

We know that my husband's melody goes back to a 15th century Dutch harvesting song. Later it served the English nursery rhyme Lucy Locket, from whence it was picked up by Richard Schuckburgh, a British Army surgeon who in the 1750s put the famous Yankee Doodle lyrics to it. But where the Bengalis picked it up is anyone's guess.

As for She'll be coming and 'k Heb de zon zien zakken: I haven't been able to locate the origin of the melody or the history of either lyrical version.

But no matter. What is fascinating is that delicious surprise we get when we hear a song that we grew up with sung in a different language. It sounds so familiar, yet so strange... It is a sweet kind of shock, but for all its innocence, it resonates deeply.

Some songs, especially those that go all the way back to infancy, nursery rhymes, are full of such surprises.

Related articles:

Some nursery rhymes are just shocking!

When nursery rhymes promote old values

Should we revise nursery rhymes?