4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks, Judith, and all. I haven't decided between this one and "little girl, my little pearl." The rhyme "one / bun" is more sing-songy, but the "pearl" version emphasizes that it's about a girl. I do appreciate all the discussion and speculation about the background of the verse, especially Alexander Kuprianchuk's historical note. But, for my context, I don't actually want to load this with historical meaning. It needs to be 1) affectionately addressed to a little girl, 2) something that would stick in the mind of a psychologically blocked person. It comes at a complex moment in the narrative: the father, a tough guy with a harsh personality, has become quite ill and is in the hospital. The family is visiting. The guy can hardly speak, but he gasps out this rhyme which he always recites to his three-year-old daughter, who is terrified about her Papa lying in this strange hospital ward with five other men. The narration is from the standpoint of the little girl's slightly older brother, who is afraid of his father and angry at the man's abusive behavior toward his wife, the children's mother. Until this moment, the reader doesn't expect the father to express any spark of kindness or affection. That's why I was looking for a long-rhyme verse (because he might not have remembered it, otherwise), with some term of endearment addressed to his little girl. My only problem with "What's up..." is that it makes me think of Bugs Bunny. As for the repetition of "little," that doesn't bother me, probably thanks to "There was a little girl, who had a little curl..." I'm not making a glossary entry, since this is all very context-specific, and there are other settings in which some of the other suggestions would be good, too."