Azizan
Persian nursery rhymes and finger games: atal matal tootooleh and li li li li hozak
Two traditional rhymes do most of the work in Persian toddlerhood: Atal matal tootooleh, a counting-out chant played by tapping legs, and Li li li li hozak, a finger game about a little bird that falls into a pond in the palm of your hand. Both are anonymous folk verse, both are half nonsense by design, and both are printed below in the versions that at least three independent sources agree on. They need no toys, no screen and no reading, which is why grandparents on a video call can play them. Azizan (azizan.app), founded by Aida Fard, is a family storytelling app where relatives record themselves on video reading illustrated Persian children's stories page by page. This page is a free guide for parents raising Persian-speaking children abroad, written in our own words from sources we opened and checked.
Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.
Atal matal tootooleh: the words
The chant is nonsense held together by rhyme, and nobody in the sources we read tries to make the opening line mean anything. Here is the text as the three collections print it, with the small spelling differences smoothed out.
| Persian | Say it like | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| اتل متل توتوله | atal matal tootooleh | (rhyming sounds, no meaning) |
| گاو حسن چه جوره | gāv-e Hasan che jureh | How is Hasan's cow? |
| نه شیر داره نه پستون | na shir dāreh na pestun | It has no milk and no udder |
| گاوشو بردن هندستون | gāvesho bordan Hendestun | They took his cow to India |
| یک زن کردی بستون | yek zan-e Kordi bestun | Take a Kurdish wife |
| اسمشو بذار عم قزی | esmesho bezār Am-Ghezi | Call her Am-Ghezi |
| دور کلاش قرمزی | dowr-e kolāsh ghermezi | Red around her hat |
| هاچین و واچین | hāchin o vāchin | (rhyming sounds, no meaning) |
| یه پا تو ورچین | ye pā to varchin | Pull one foot in |
The last line is a command, and it is where the game happens.
How the atal matal game is played
- Everyone sits in a circle with legs stretched out in front of them (one printed version has the players sitting with knees together instead).
- One person leads. On every syllable of the chant they tap one leg, then the next, going round the circle.
- Whichever leg the last syllable, chin, lands on is pulled in and out of the game.
- The chant starts again with the remaining legs. The last leg still out wins; in the knee version, that child becomes the next leader.
A toddler can play it alone with a parent: two legs out, the parent taps and chants, one leg goes in, the chant runs again. Iranian game collections note that the rhyme works as a one-person game exactly this way. The point for language is the rhythm: nine lines of Persian stress patterns, repeated until a two-year-old can finish the last word.
Li li li li hozak: the finger game
Hozak is a little hoz, the pool in the middle of an Iranian courtyard. In the game the pool is the child's palm, and the fingers are five characters. Iranian collections print three versions; the Swiss publisher of a picture-book edition by the Iranian illustrator Reza Dalvand describes it as a well-known traditional game that every child in Iran knows. This is the version for small children, the one in which everyone helps:
| Persian | Say it like | Meaning | What you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| لی‌لی‌لی‌لی حوضک | li li li li hozak | Li li li li, little pool | Circle a fingertip in the child's palm |
| گنجشکه اومد آب بخوره، افتاد تو حوضک | gonjeshke umad āb bokhoreh, oftād tu hozak | The sparrow came to drink and fell in the pool | Tap the middle of the palm |
| این یکی درش آورد | in yeki daresh āvord | This one pulled it out | Fold the little finger |
| این یکی آبش داد | in yeki ābesh dād | This one gave it water | Fold the ring finger |
| این یکی نونش داد | in yeki nunesh dād | This one gave it bread | Fold the middle finger |
| این گفت: کی هلش داد؟ | in goft: ki holesh dād? | This one asked: who pushed it? | Fold the index finger |
| این یکی گفت: منه منه کله‌گنده | in yeki goft: mane mane kalleh-gondeh | This one said: me, me, big-head | Wiggle the thumb, then tickle |
Every source agrees on the order: start with the little finger and end with the thumb, who is the culprit. In a second common version the third finger kisses the bird and the fourth strokes its feathers before big-head arrives. A third, older version has the fingers plotting to steal the king's golden basin; it is printed in the same collections and many adults remember it, but it is not the one for a two-year-old.
Why these two rhymes work for a child abroad
- No reading, no props. A grandmother can play atal matal on a video call by chanting while the parent taps the child's legs, and li li hozak needs one palm on each side of the screen.
- The last word is the child's. Both rhymes end in a word the child shouts: varchin, kalleh-gondeh. A child who cannot yet speak Persian in sentences can own that word.
- Touch and rhythm carry the language. The tap on each syllable is how the stress pattern of Persian gets into a child's body, long before grammar.
- Then move to stories. When the rhymes are known, a short illustrated story read by the same relative is the next step. On Azizan the grandparent records it page by page, so the child hears the same voice at bedtime that played li li hozak with them; see how to teach Farsi to kids abroad.
Related guides
- Persian lullabies for babies: traditional lyrics and meaning
- Count to ten in Persian for kids
- How to teach Farsi to kids abroad
Questions
What does atal matal tootooleh mean?
Nothing. The opening line and the line hachin o vachin are rhyming sounds, and the collections that print the chant say so. The middle lines tell a nonsense story about Hasan's cow being taken to India; the last line, ye pa to varchin, means 'pull one foot in' and is the game instruction.
How do you play atal matal?
Players sit with legs out. The leader taps one leg per syllable round the circle; the leg the last syllable lands on is pulled in. The chant repeats until one leg is left. A toddler can play with two legs against a parent's chant.
What is li li li li hozak?
A Persian finger game. The child's palm is a little pool (hozak), a sparrow falls in, and each finger from the little finger to the thumb does something: pulls it out, gives it water, gives it bread, asks who pushed it, and the thumb confesses. It is traditional and anonymous.
Which version of li li hozak should I use with a toddler?
The rescue version, in which the fingers pull the bird out and feed it, is printed in every collection we opened and is the one in Reza Dalvand's picture book. An older version in which the fingers plan to steal the king's golden basin also exists; keep it for when the child is older, if at all.
Are these rhymes the same in Afghanistan and Tajikistan?
We verified the texts in Iranian collections and in two English-language sources that describe them as Iranian. We did not check Afghan or Tajik versions and make no claim about them; ask your own relatives what they chanted.
Are Persian nursery rhymes copyrighted?
The traditional chants are anonymous folk verse and belong to everyone. Particular picture books, recordings and cartoon versions are copyrighted; this page prints only the traditional words.
Does Azizan have nursery rhymes?
No. Azizan is for illustrated Persian stories read on video by relatives. The rhymes on this page are for the floor and the lap; the stories come after.
Open Azizan — record a story for your childUpdated: 2026-11-03 · By Aida Fard
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