The first part of this Bakhtiari poem is sung to a baby when it has woken up crying; the mother rocks the cradle whilst she sings. The second part is sung when the baby has gone to sleep – there is one version for boys, another for girls. The lullaby actually consists of more than 100 lines, but only the opening is given here.
Lala, lala, lalahi.
You are all in a sweat. Inshallah, my child, you won’t catch cold.
The old long-toothed wolf, if he comes, will eat you; you know that yourself.
La la la, come and carry him off. Don’t eat his head, eat from his breast.
Lala, lala, lalahi.
You are all in a sweat. Inshallah, my child, you won’t catch cold.
On the top of a mountain I made complaint,
I called on the Commander of the Faithful:
‘Commander of the Faithful, O King of men,
Who makest happy the hearts of the unhappy.’
[To the child:]
Sometimes you are asleep, sometimes you are all sleepy.
Lala, lala. lalahi.
You are all in a sweat. Inshallah, my child, you won’t catch cold.
Friday night, which is the chief of nights,
The sorrow of the world rests on the shoulders of the bachelors.
O God, may those who have pretty wives see no good (days)!
For always they bear malice against the bachelors. . .
With kind permission, from: Lorimer, DLR 1963 “The Popular Verse of the Baḵẖtiāri of S. W. Persia –III: Further Specimens” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 64-65