In 2019 I posted an interview with the composer of the singing game, Ye Toop Doram, Marilyn Shepard.
In February of this year, I was contacted by a man about his grandfather, the Iranian poet Houshang Matian, who wrote the poem, Ye Toop Daram (“My Ball”). Recently I had a video interview with Matian with his grandson acting as interpreter and host. They were both SO charming and I am so thankful for their time and kindness in sharing more about the poem and song.
In 1955, when Matian was 12 years old and living in Tehran, he was encouraged by his uncle to submit a poem to a national publication—one that would go on to become a standard poetry collection of 30 poems used in schools across Iran.
Matian’s poem, Ye Toop Daram, was selected for publication out of hundreds of submissions by adult poets (and Matian). It became widely recognized and embraced, with generations of Iranian students growing up familiar with it. Later, it was broadcast on Children’s Radio Iran and, as Matian says, “Now people all over the world know this poem.”
The original poem translates to:
It is red, white and blue.
You hit it at the floor,
It goes up in the air.
I didn't have this ball before.
I did my homework well.
My Dad gave me a gift.
It was this ball that rolls and rolls.
Matian believes the melody was likely added later by the radio program. In 1983, American singer, songwriter and folk artist Mary Lu Walker published A World of Children’s Songs (Friendship Press), which includes Ye Toop Daram, credited with a “traditional melody” and “traditional Persian words.” This raises an intriguing question: how did Houshang Matian’s poem travel from Iran to the United States?
Amid the political and social upheaval of the Iranian Revolution, Matian emigrated to the United States in the late 1970s, where he has lived ever since. Over the years, he has published seven books of Persian poetry and remained active in the literary community, frequently reading at Persian cultural events in the Los Angeles area.
The timing is striking. Following the mass emigration of roughly two million Iranians in the late 1970s, Walker’s book appeared just a few years later, presenting the text as a song. Somewhere in that interval, the melody had been paired with a slightly altered version of Matian’s poem. As often happens with folk material, the tune and Matian's poem continued to evolve. In 1999, Marilyn Shepard created a simpler, more accessible melody along with a classroom game for American students after hearing students from Afghanistan and Iran sing a more elaborate version.
During our interview, Matian reflected that discovering how far his poem has traveled has inspired him to begin working on a collection of Persian children’s poetry and nursery rhymes. We also talked about ways to make this accessible to non-Persian speaking children, and I will be first in line to buy the book once it is published.
Many heartfelt thanks to Matian and his grandson. What a delight it was to speak with them—our conversation was warm, engaging, and full of joy, leaving me deeply appreciative of both their generosity and the remarkable journey of this beloved poem.
I will end this post with a charming video of Matian creating an on the spot poem for me - charming indeed!
