Ninna Nanna, Ninna Oh

“Ninna Nanna, Ninna Oh” starts with a familiar Italian sound for rocking a child to sleep, then asks a strange question: who will look after this little one? In this short traditional version, the answer is the bogeyman. An old lullaby could sound soothing while its words told an unsettling little story.

What do the Italian words mean?

Ninna nanna is a lullaby or a soothing bedtime refrain. Say it roughly as NEEN-nah NAHN-nah, holding the doubled n sounds briefly. Bimbo means a little child. Un anno intero means a whole year. L’uomo nero is a folkloric figure who frightens children; “the bogeyman” captures that role in English.

Why do the words vary?

This is the short opening documented as an Italian folk lullaby in Imparando a stare nel disordine. Other traditional versions use a conditional (“if I give him”), name figures such as the Befana, or end with the singer keeping the child. For bedtime, the first two lines also work on their own as a quiet, repeated refrain.