CHILDREN'S SONGS

“Children find everything in nothing; men find nothing in everything.” - Giacomo Leopardi

What a night we had last night and what a morning… Even here in Melbourne we got the tail end of cyclone Yasi and we had heavy rains all night and all morning! The skies were leaden gray, the rain fell in heavy sheets and the roads flooded. A respite of showers and then more rain… It was definitely a day for staying inside and enjoying the pleasures of home.

For Song Saturday, remembering the past and the quality children’s songs of the now legendary radio program, Lilipoupoli (Lilliput City) curated by the great Manos Hadjidakis, which ran from 1976 to 1980. The lyrics were by Marianina Kriezi, while the young and fresh composer team of Dimitris Maragopoulos, Lena Platonos, Nikos Kypourgos and Nikos Christodoulou wrote the high quality music. Great singers like Spyros Sakkas, Savina Yannatou, Antonis Kondogeorgiou and Nena Venetsanou were the interpreters.

The program was much loved not only by children but also by intelligent adults, as it was fun, imaginative, wonderfully punning and with a great sense of wordplay, gently satirical, ecologically sensitive, with a social conscience and in the end it became quite political. The government of the day found it offensive, wishing to ban it!

Here is the Chrysalifoúrfouro song:



The Chrysalifourfoúro Flower

In the dales of Lilipoúpoli
Blooms a little flower
Called Chrysalifourfoúro
And looks like a little golden rose.

Blow the petals of the Chrysalifourfoúro
Blow them and Spring will arrive.
And they blow away like a feather,
Someone loves you and you don’t know it.

Golden coins hang below its petals
And in the zephyr’s toying breath
They tinkle like a golden bell,
Every now and then.

Blow the petals of the Chrysalifourfoúro
Which you hold in Spring in your hand,
And if it becomes dust, golden dust,
You love someone and he doesn’t know it.

**********************

Here is a catchy little green song about the Ball of the Peas where artichokes dance with zucchinis while spinach, okra and beans have great fun on the green swards of lawn.



Or how about the little yellow song of the Chinese swimmer wearing a yellow bikini who dives into a sea of mayonnaise, only to encounter a yellow ship that fires melon balls from golden cannons?



And the bossa nova of the pastry shop, where sweet fights with donuts, honey, marmalade, Turkish delight and showers of sugar drench all children…



The pink song of Rosa-Rosalie with her pink pet pig, under flamingo skies walking along a shell-pink beach. Rosa-Rosalie whom when kissed, will make a cherry tree bloom.