Lullaby

In this extract from the poem, a mother’s initial lullaby to her infant son is echoed as a lament on his subsequent death in battle at sea.

Although students reading this would need help with some words, there are many they will already know if they have covered a few basic topics (colours, age, parts of the body, weather, the word нема – ‘there is no ..’ etc.). The language of the extract is very simple, consisting of short lines, predominantly with nouns and adjectives in the nominative form. It could be used to introduce the nominative plural forms of adjectives. It also uses the internationally recognisable baby-rocking syllables ‘lulla-lullaby’.

The first two verses of the poem are quoted below, with a literal translation to illustrate the above points, as well as an attempt at rendering the prosodical features and flow of the verse.