Yemeni Lullaby (Lala, Sleep Now)
Key: C~50 BPMGuitar & Piano chords
Across the Arabian Peninsula, mothers have long soothed their children with the gentle, repeated sound “lala,” and in Yemen this hush carries the scent of mountain coffee terraces and the stone towers of Sana’a’s old city, one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on earth.
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Verse 1
C F C
Lala, lala, sleep my love, the mountain terrace rests,
F C G7
coffee trees are quiet now, the birds are in their nests.
Verse 2
C F C
Lala, lala, close your eyes, Sana’a’s towers stand tall,
F C G7
stars are climbing up the sky above the old stone wall.
Play it
Chords — guitar & piano
C
Guitar
Piano
F
Guitar
Piano
G7
Guitar
Piano
Good to know
What this song means
Yemen’s own sung-poetry tradition from Sana’a is so significant that UNESCO named it a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, though, like much of this ancient craft, its specific cradle songs are still being gathered and documented today rather than widely archived. What is well documented is the gentle “lala” hush shared by mothers across the wider Arabian Peninsula, here paired honestly with real Yemeni imagery: the terraced coffee mountains and the towering mudbrick old city of Sana’a.
This lullaby is an original arrangement written as a respectful tribute to Yemen’s living oral heritage and its place within the broader Arabian lala cradle-song tradition, rather than a transcription of one specific archived Yemeni song.
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