Lyrics
Celotno besedilo pesmi »Baba sede v balon« z angleškim prevodom.
Baba sede v balon in se pelje v London, v Londonu kupi papriko, da se pelje v Afriko, v Afriki kupi kis, da se pelje v Pariz, v Parizu kupi čevlje, da se pele v Kočevje, v Kočevju pada dež, baba mokra kakor meš (miš).
#English translation
An old woman sits in a balloon and rides off to London, in London she buys paprika, so she can ride to Africa, in Africa she buys vinegar, so she can ride to Paris, in Paris she buys shoes, so she can ride to Kočevje, in Kočevje the rain is falling, and the old woman's wet as a mouse.
#Baba sede v balon at a glance
- Country of origin
- 🇸🇮 Slovenia
- Sung in
- Slovenian
- Words by
- Traditional
- First known
- not documented; an old rhyme known across the former Yugoslavia
- Best for ages
- 2–7
- Mood
- playful, traditional
- Last updated
- 27 August 2026
Meaning and origin
This is a rhyming chain of pure nonsense, the kind of rhyme children love precisely because it makes no sense at all. An old woman climbs into a balloon and goes whirling around the world — London, Africa, Paris, and finally Kočevje in Slovenia — buying something absurd at every stop: paprika, vinegar, shoes. Each destination is chosen only because it rhymes with whatever she has just bought, so the whole journey tumbles along on sound alone.
It ends with a good local joke: after all that glamorous globe-trotting, she lands in rainy Kočevje and gets soaked mokra kakor miš — “wet as a mouse”. The rhyme is not only Slovenian: it is known throughout the former Yugoslavia, in Croatian and Serbian as “Sjela baba u balon”, and a recent wave of remixes and videos made it briefly famous on social media. No author is recorded, and the shopping list and the order of the cities vary from version to version — the one quoted by Svet24 has her buying vinegar in London and paprika in Paris. The Slovenian writer Barbara Hanuš turned it into a picture book in 2024. It goes wonderfully fast, and the faster you say it, the funnier the old woman’s soggy homecoming becomes.
Common questions
- What is "Baba sede v balon" about?
- A whirlwind nonsense journey. An old woman ("baba") climbs into a balloon and flies to London (where she buys paprika), then Africa (vinegar), then Paris (shoes), then Kočevje in Slovenia — where it's raining, and she ends up soaked "wet as a mouse". Each rhyme leads absurdly to the next place.
- Why does "Baba sede v balon" jump from place to place like that?
- Because each destination is chosen purely to rhyme with what she buys — London with paprika-for-Africa, and so on. It is a rhyming chain of nonsense, the fun being in the ridiculous itinerary, not in any logic.
- Who wrote "Baba sede v balon"?
- No author is known. It is an old children's rhyme passed on by mouth across Slovenia and the other countries of the former Yugoslavia, where it is sung as "Sjela baba u balon"; the shopping list changes from version to version. A Slovenian picture book by Barbara Hanuš (2024) is built on it.
