The Songs Of Our Mothers; The Saddest Tunes Of Our Childhood

Lala Lala the cumin flower,

Your father has left to remarry

Your mother will die of sadness

Is how an obscure and sad section of one Persian lullaby translates into English. I stumbled across it as I was looking for the full transcription of the lullaby I used to hear as a child. It surprised me how sad the content of a piece sang to mere babes was. As I read more lullabies I noticed the recurring theme of the absence of a father throughout most Iranian old lullabies. They spoke of fathers who have left to remarry, travel, to fight, protect the family, or (in one especially dark case) to buy a 100 toman female slave. The unsuitable content of the lullabies surprised me and made me curious.
Doing a quick web search I found out, not to my surprise, that the lullabies tend to be quiet sad all over the world. Marder (2013) in an article regarding the same subject argues that it is the melody and rhythm that are effective in soothing a baby, thus the lyrics might be simply for the parent and used as a way for mothers to deal with their anxiety.
These sad and traumatic meanings embedded in lullabies may be just the result of postpartum depression, but they are also, not unlike any other form of culture, expressions related to the socio-historical experiences of the people who sing it. And in many cultures, the young women were at the bottom of the power hierarchies that defined their society.
Currently I’m not a student so I don’t have easy access to sources to look further into it. But it sounds an amazing subject to inquire further about. I would be interested in reading more about it, so if you are reading this and have any suggestions let me know.