“Shluf mayn kind, mayn treyst” Performed by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman

Shluf mayn kind, mayn treyst/Sleep my child, my comfort
An otherwise unknown alternate melody for Sholem Aleichemś lullaby from Chernovitz, Romania sung by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

There are several melodies for this song known commonly as “Sholem Aleichem’s lullaby”, words by the writer Sholem Aleichem (Solomon Rabinovitch, 1859 – 1916).

Sholem Aleichem

There are two popular tunes to this poem but Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (BSG) sings an otherwise unknown third melody that she remembers from her home town of Cernauti/Chernovitz, Romania.

BSG sings only two verses of a longer song. Sholem Aleichem first printed the poem in 1892 but only a few years later it was already published as a “folksong” in the Ginsburg and Marek collection of 1901.

The most commonly sung melody was composed by Dovid Kovanovsky. You can hear Ruth Rubin sing the Kavonovsky melody at this link. (from YIVO’s Ruth Rubin Archive). Also posted at the link is Feigl Yudin’s performance of the second most popular melody. Below is a version of the Yudin melody performed by vocalist Rebecca Kaplan Muranaka, accompanied by tsimblist Pete Rushefsky from their 2003 CD, Oyf di vegelekh – On the Paths (Yiddishland Music):

Both melodies plus transcribed words and translation have been printed in Ruth Rubin’s Jewish Folksongs in Yiddish and English (Oak Publications, 1965) (scans attached).

In Emil Seculetz’s Romanian Yiddish collection Yidishe folkslider, (Bucharest 1959) the compiler collected 5 versions of Shlof mayn kind, with music. Two of them (#21 and #22) are related to BSGs version. (scans are attached))

In BSG’s repertory she knows a completely different song to this second popular melody sung by Yudin: a lullaby about armed resistance which can be heard on her CD “Bay mayn mames shtibele” (2004).

There is much more to say about the history and transformations of Sholem Aleichem’s lullaby. See the article “America in East European Yiddish Folk Song” in The Field of Yiddish, 1954 by Eleanor Gordon Mlotek and the chapter on Sholem Aleichem in Perl fun der yidisher poezye, ed. Yoysef and Khane Mlotek, 1974.

Fans of Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman – be sure to watch this amazing online concert commemorating BSG’s 100th Birthday!

Shluf man kind as sung by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman

Shluf man kind, man treyst, may sheyner
Shluf man zinonyu.

Shluf man kind, man kadish eyner
Hayda-liu-lku

Shluf man kind, man kadish eyner
Hayda-liu-lku-liu

In amerike der tate,
dayner zinonyu.

Bist a kind nokh shluf lis-ate
shluf zhe, shluf liu-liu

Bist a kind nokh shluf lis-ate
shluf zhe, shluf liu-liu

From Emil Seculetz’s Yidishe folkslider, (Bucharest 1959), #21 and #22:

From Ruth Rubin’s Jewish Folksongs in Yiddish and English (Oak Publications, 1965):

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