“Tsar Nikolai” Performed by Fay Webern

“Tsar Nikolai”, a Yiddish bawdy ditty. Sung by Fay Webern, recorded by the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project.

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

My classmate from high school Eric Finkelman sent me this link to a video recording of Fay Webern from the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project saying, he had heard this song as a kid as well. Let this be the blog’s small contribution to the anti-Putin sentiment we all feel.

Tsar Nikolai, yob tvayu mat.*
Zey nor mit veymen di host khasene gehat.
A kurve, a blate, an oysgetrente shmate,
Tsar Nikolai, yob tvayu mat!

Tsar Nikolai, go f__ your mother.
Just see with whom you married.
A thieving whore, a used up [sexually] rag
Tsar Nikolai, go f__ your mother.

* In Cyrillic it’s ‘ëб твою мать’ (or the way she’s singing it – ‘ëб ваю мат’).

צאַר ניקאָלײַ יאָב טווײַיו מאַט
.זע נאָר מיט וועמען דו האָסט חתונה געהאַט
.אַ קורווע, אַ בלאַטע, אַן אויסגעטרענטע שמאַטע
.צאַר ניקאָלײַ יאָב טווײַיו מאַט

Special thanks this week to Eric Finkelman, Yelena Shmulenson, Psoy Korolenko and the Yiddish Book Center.