Dremlender yingele / Dozing Boy Sung by Ita Taub. Recorded by Itzik Gottesman, Circle Lodge, Hopewell Junction, NY, 1987. Words by H. Leivick, music by Mikhl Gelbart.
Mikhl Gelbart (left) and H. Leivick (right)
Dremlinder yingele, yingele mayn, kukt nit tsu mir in di oygn arayn. Tifer in tifer in shlof grob zikh ayn. Dremlinder yingele, yingele mayn, Dremlinder yingele, yingele mayn.
Dozing boy, my boy, Don’t look me in the eyes. Deeper and deeper fall into your sleep, Dozing boy, my boy. Dozing boy, my boy.
Ikh bin geshtorbn un zey durkhn toyt vi du, gor mayn ershter, der letster fargeyt. Iz dir bashert gur der letster tsu zayn? Dremlinder yingele, yingele mayn, Dremlinder yingele, yingele mayn.
I died and see through death how you, though my first, is the last to go down. Are you really fated to be the last? [ in original poem: “Have you been sentenced (farmishpet) to be the last”] Dozing boy, my boy. Dozing boy, my boy.
COMMENTARY BY ITZIK GOTTESMAN
Ita Taub sings the first four verses of a seven verse poem written by the poet H. Leivick (Leyvik Halpern, 1888 – 1962). The complete poem “Dremlender yingele“ can be found in Leivick’s third volume of collected poetry “In Keynems land” (Warsaw, 1923). A scan of the poem is attached below.
I am not aware of any recording of Taub’s version with this melody of the poem. A version composed by the cantor Pinchos Jassinowsky was recorded by Sidor Belarsky on a 78rpm record. Sima Miller and Leon Lishner also recorded the song with Jassinowsky’s melody.
Chana and Yosl Mlotek in their folksong column in the Forverts newspaper “Leyner dermonen zikh lider”, June 3, 1987, print the words to the song and write that Mikhl Gelbart was the composer, not mentioning Jassinowsky. So it is fair to assume that Taub’s melody is the one to which they are referring, though I have yet to find it in Gelbart’s numerous publications.
You can hear the poet H. Leivick reciting the poem here:
Special thanks this week to Lorin Sklamberg and the YIVO Sound Archives and to Cantor Sharon Bernstein.
דרעמלנדערייִנגעלע
ווערטער: ה. לייוויק. מוזיק: מיכל געלבאַרט געזונגען פֿון איטע טאַוב .דרעמלנדער ייִנגעלע, ייִנגעלע מײַן .קוק ניט צו מיר אין די אויגן אַרײַן .טיפֿער און טיפֿער אין שלאָף גראָב זיך אײַן .דרעמלנדער ייִנגעלע, ייִנגעלע מײַן .דרעמלנדער ייִנגעלע, ייִנגעלע מײַן
Mentshn shteyt oyf gants fri / People, Wake Up Early A version of “Der gevisser may” by Yitskhok-Yoel Linetski
Sung by Avi Fuhrman, recorded by Itzik Gottesman at Circle Lodge camp, 1984
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
Yiddish songs written about May in the 1890s and 1900s, were, of course, related to May 1st and the worker’s movement. But Yitskhok-Yoel Linetski published this in 1869 in his collection Der beyzer marshelik, before May 1 acquired its social significance. So it’s a song about “the merry month of May”. Here is a version recorded I recorded from Avi Fuhrman at the Circle Lodge camp in Upstate New York in 1984.
Avi Fuhrman at Circle Lodge (photo by Itzik Gottesman)
This is now the third Linetski song on the blog: “Di mode” (sung by Lifshe Schaechter-Widman) and “Der shpigl mitn zeyger” (also sung by Furhman) were previously posted. The original song entitled “Der geviser may” [The well-known May] has thirteen verses plus the refrain. Furhman’s version includes verses one, five and nine and the refrain.
In the Ruth Rubin Archive singer Sam Gold from Lipkan, Bessarabia, sings a similar version: “Shteyt nor oyf mentshn gants fri“.His third verse is verse eleven in Linetski’s text. The link to that version can be heard here.
TRANSLITERATION
Mentshn shteyt oyf gants fri.
Dervakht fun ayer geleyger.
Hert di sheyne harmoni
fun dem natirlekhn zeyger.
Vi di beymelekh royshn un feygelekh zingen. Melodis zingen feygelekh alerley. Heysheriklekh tantsn un shpringen
Un tsim takt iz du der solovey.
[REFRAIN]: Mentshn makht aykh fray. git iber ayere gedanken gur. Tsu deym may, deym zisn may di kroyn fun der heyliker natur
Batrakh nor, ikh beyt aykh, dem altn boym
Er iz naket un a blat.
Der may nemt im shoyn di mus
Un tit im un a grinem khalat. Batrakht nor atsinder dem altn shturmak
er hot dokh shoyn gur an ander punem.
Er bakimt shoyn oykh a bisl farb in der bak
Un shtipt zikh shoyn tvishn ale makhetunim.
[REFRAIN]
Leygt avek damen, mamzeln
fargenign fun zilber un gold.
Treyt nor ariber di shveln
in shpatsirt af der shtut bizn tifn vald.
Batrakht nor di royz, zi trugt kayn briliantn nit. Shener iz zi, akh’ lebn, [vi] a sakh fun aykh. Zi trugt nisht keyn perln un dimantn
un komplimentn hot zi mer fun aykh.
[REFRAIN]
TRANSLATION
People, arise real early.
Awaken from your beds.
Listen to the beautiful harmony
from the clock of nature,
how the trees rustle and birds sing.
The birds sing all kinds of melodies.
Crickets dance and jump
and in rhythm is the nightingale.
[REFRAIN]: People make yourselves free. Give over all of your thoughts to May, the sweet May, the crown of the holy nature.
Consider, I ask you, the old tree.
He is naked, not a leaf.
May takes his measurements
And dresses him in a new robe.
Consider now that old dotard.
He has a completely different appearance.
He is getting a little color in his cheek.
And pushes his way through among the in-laws.
[REFRAIN]
Put away, ladies and misses, your pleasure of silver and gold.
Step over the doorsteps
and take a walk through the city to the deep woods.
Consider the rose: it wears no diamonds.
It is more beautiful, I swear, than many of you.
It wears no pearls, no diamonds.
Yet she gets more complements than you.
[REFRAIN]
Below: Linetski’s original text “Geviser may” in Beyzer Marshelik (1869):
Ven di zun iz mir fargangen / When the sun has set A Chanukah Song sung by Avi Fuhrman
Recorded at Circle Lodge, NY, 1984 by Itzik Gottesman
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
Avi Fuhrman (aka Avrom, Avraham, Abraham)learned this Chanukah song from his father in the 1930s in Chernovitz (then Romania, today – Ukraine). We have yet not been able to identify the writer or composer.
Avi Fuhrman
“Maoz tsur” is usually translated as “Rock of Ages” but literally – “Stronghold of Rock”. The rock is usually interpreted as God.
In Fuhrman’s native Bukovina Yiddish dialect “maoz tsur” is pronounced “muez tsir”. But in this performance Fuhrman sings “Muez tsur” which does not rhyme with the intended rhyming words: “shir” “mir” “frier”.
Special thanks this week to Eliezer Niborski who helped with the transcription.
TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION
Ven di zin iz mir fargangen,
kalt in fintster iz di nakht.
Un di shterndlekh fun deym himl
hobn zeyere eygelekh farmakht.
When the sun has set for me, cold and dark is the night And the stars of sky have closed their eyes.
Ikh ken keyn veyg shoyn nit gefinen.
Ikh blondzhe, blondzhe un a shir.
Hob ikh mir a lekhtele ungetsindn,
dos lekhtele heyst dokh muez tsur.
I cannot find any path; I wander, lost without stop. So I lit a candle and the candle is called maoz tsur.
Un ikh lern mir bay dem lekhtele
bleter groyse, mit oysyes fil.
Un dervarem mir derbay dem kerper, vayl es vert mir shreklekh kil.
And I study at my candle large pages full of letters. And it warms my body, because I feel so terribly cool.
Bald farges ikh mayne tsores
vos ikh trug arim oyf mir.
Un ikh zing mir in mayn goles,
zey, vus shvaygstu muez tsur?
Soon I forget my troubles that I carry around with me. And I sing in my exile: See, why silent maoz tsur?
Grekn zenen mir bafaln,
mit zeyere tume hent.
Farumreynikt undzer templ
undzer leybn hobn zey geshendt.
Greeks attacked me with their polluting hands. They made filthy our Temple; our life they defiled.
Zey hobn toyte shtume gotn ahin arayngeshtelt tsu mir. Ikh hob far veytik oysgeshrign:
“Zey, vos shvaygstu muez tsur?”
They placed dead, silent gods in there for me. From pain I shouted out: Look! Why are you silent maoz tsur.
Der barimter Makabeyer
Khashmonoyim mit zayne zin.
[Fuhrman speaks – “Vayter gedenk ikh nisht di verter”]
The famous Maccabee of the Hasmoneum, and his sons.
Zey hobn dem soyne bald fartribn,
dem templ reyn gemakht vi frier.
Ikh hob far freyd oysgeshrien,
Zey, vos shvaygstu muez tsur?
They drove the enemies away. The Temple they restored. For joy I shouted out: See, why are you silent maoz tsur?
Fuhrman: [spoken] Vus se feylt darfsti aleyn zikhn.
Eyns un tsvey / One and Two Performance by May (Menye) Schechter
Recorded by Itzik Gottesman, Circle Lodge Camp, Hopewell Junction, NY, 1985
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
To welcome the beginning of the school year we present a Yiddish children’s song written and composed in New York but sung by the children in Eastern Europe Jewish schools as well.
The singer May Schechter (Yiddish name “Menye”) was born in August 1920 in Soroki (Yiddish- Soroke), Bessarabia, then Romania. She died this year, February 2018.
May (Menye) Schechter 1920-2018
In an interview I conducted with her in 1986 at Circle Lodge, the Workmen’s Circle camp in Hopewell Junction, NY, Schechter explained that the children in Soroki performed this song as part of Zishe Weinper’s (Vaynper) children’s operetta Der bafrayter (The One Who Was Liberated).Der bafrayter was published by Farlag Matones in 1925, NY. We are attaching the Yiddish words and music (composed by N. Zaslavsky/Zaslawsky) as it appeared there. Yosl Kotler did wonderful illustrations for the publication.
Picture of Der Bafrayter by Yosl Kotler
May Schechter’s daughter, Naomi Schechter, wrote about her mother:
She liked to say “I came in singing and I’m going to go out singing” and she was able to do that almost to the end, sharing Russian songs with her caretaker Luba and Yiddish and other songs with me. She also loved to dance. She had many talents including being a world class seamstress able to make couture suits, drapery and just about anything, carrying on the tailoring tradition of her family…
May Schechter’s husband was Ben Schechter, the long time manager of the Folksbiene Yiddish theater in NY.
The poet Zishe Weinper (1893 – 1957) came to America in 1913. He was a central figure in the Yiddish left and a number of his poems appealed to composers, among them “Toybn” and “A pastekhl, a troymer”. His song Zingendik, music by Paul Lamkoff, was another American Yiddish children’s song that became popular in Eastern Europe.
The composer Nathan Zaslavsky (1885 – 1965) immigrated to the US in 1900 and composed a number of other Yiddish songs. Sarah Gorby recorded this song twice we are attaching the MP3 of the version on: Sarah Gorby – Yiddish et Judeo-Espagnole (Arton Records).
One verse of the song was also recorded by Masha Benye and Workmen Circle school children on the LP Lomir zingen lider far yidishe kinder. Since May Schechter and Sarah Gorby both came from Bessarabia one has to wonder whether the play Der bafrayter was especially popular there.
Special thanks to Naomi Schechter for this week’s post, as well as Lorin Sklamberg and the YIVO Sound Archive.
TRANSLITERATION
Eyns un tsvey, eyns un tsvey
eyns un tsvey iz dray.
Zun bahelt undzer velt.
Leybn iz keday.
Zum, zum, zum?
Zum, zum, zum?
freygt ba mir a flig.
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la
entfer ikh tsurik.
Tsvey un tsvey, tsvey un tsvey
tsvey un tsvey iz fir.
Vintl bluz afn gruz,
bluzt es oykh af mir.
Tri-li-li, tri-li-li
zingt a vaserfal.
Blyasket blendt, glit un brent.
Iber im a shtral.
Fir un fir, fir un fir
fir un fir iz akht.
Af a kark fun a barg
hot zikh ver tselakht.
Kha-kha-kha, kha-kha-kha
ver zhe lakht es dort?
Kha-kha-kha, kha, kha, kha
Me hert dort nisht keyn vort.
Finf un finf, finef un finf
finef un finf iz tsen.
kling klang klingt
Foygl zingt.
Vazt mir, vos er ken.
Foygl flit, taykhl tsit
Ikh tsi oykh mit zey.
Eyns un eyns, eyns un eyns.
Eyns un eyns iz tsvey.
TRANSLATION
One and two, one and two
one and two is three.
Sun light up our world,
It’s worth living.
Zum, zum, zum, zum, zum, zum?
A fly asks me.
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la
Is my reply.
Two and two, two and two
two and two is four.
Breeze blows on the grass
and so too it blows on me.
Tri-li-li, tri-li-li
sings a waterfall.
Shines and dazzles, glows and burns
A beam of light above.
Four and four, four and four
four and four is eight.
On the neck of a hill
someone was laughing.
Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha
who is laughing there?
Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha
Not a word is heard.
Five and five, five and five
Five and five is ten.
Kling-klang rings, the bird sings
Shows me what he can do.
Bird sings, river attracts,
and I am drawn to them.
One and one, one and one
One and two is three.
Since we start reading the book of Breyshis (Genesis) this week of Sukes, I thought it would be appropriate to post this recording of Ita (Eda) Taub singing a song about Adam and Eve and the snake. I recorded it from her in 1984 at the Circle Lodge Workmen’s Circle camp in Hopewell Junction, NY.
The words and music appear in Yiddish Folksongs from the Ruth Rubin Archive edited by Chana Mlotek and Mark Slobin. Wayne State University Press, 2007. Rubin recorded this song [tape 26] in 1962, and I recorded it again 20 years later at Circle Lodge, a camp for adults in upstate New York.The two versions are the same except for one or two words.
In the Rubin book she translates “Hot Got tsigenimen di reyd fun zayn layb” as “God perceived the needs of Adam’s body”. Literally, one should translate this line as “So God took away the speech from his body.” But I would think that the line once was “Hot Got tsigenimen di rip fun zayn layb” (God took out the rib from his body). This is supported by the version in Yiddisher folklor, ed. Y. L. Cahan (YIVO, Vilna, 1938), song #199 that is attached at the end (we’ve also included #200, for a similar melody).
The song, I believe, is very old and includes midrashim (interpretations or extensions) of the Biblical telling of Adam and Eve and the snake. Similar motifs can be found in the so-called “Women’s Bible”(the Tsene Rene) and the classic midrashic collections. The line “Eve, Eve what have you done? An entire world you did destroy” reflects the midrash that Eve had all the animals take a bit of the apple (except the immortal Phoenix bird) and therefore mortality was introduced into the world (see also Louis Ginzburg’s Legends of the Jews, Volume One).
Given the simplicity of the melody, almost a recitative, and the subject matter, my feeling is that the song evolved from a Yiddish woman’s prayer, a tkhine.
After the song Taub talks about the impression this song and her other song,Oy vey mame (also on the Yiddish Song of the Week Blog) left on her friend, the historian Raphael Mahler (who also recorded songs and nigunim for Ruth Rubin). She then tells us where she learned the songs.
The footnote in the printed Rubin version adds that the last verse refers to biting the umbilical cord, but this is not clear to the listener I believe.
Additionally, Michael Alpert and Julian Kytasty have recorded the song on their wonderful album Night Songs From a Neighboring Village (Oriente, 2014). You can hear it at the beginning of this video:
LYRICS TO TAUB’S VERSION:
1) Az got hot bashofn mentshn af der velt
oy, mentshn af der velt.
Oy, udem harishen tsum ershtn geshtelt.
2) Udem harishen iz shpatsirn gegangen in vayngurtn aran.
Oy iz im a vab in zin aran.
3) Hot Got tsigenimen di reyd fin zan lab,
Un hot im gegegeybn Khoven far a vab.
4) Oy Khove mit Udem zenen shpatsirn gegangen in vangurtn aran.
Iz Khoven an epl in der rekhter hont aran.
5) Iz tsigekimen di beyze shlong “Khove, Khove,
gib a bis dem epl, vesti zen vi zis er iz.”
6) Oy hot zi genimen un gegebn a bis deym epl.
Oy hot zi gezen vi zindik zi iz.
7) Hot zi genemen a blot kegn der levone,
un hot zikh tsigedekt dos zindike punim.
8) Hot zi genimen a blot kegn mist,
un hot zikh tsigedekt di zindike brist.
9) Khove, Khove vus hosti getrakht?
A velt mit mentshn imgebrakht.
10) “Nisht ekh hob es getun, nisht ekh hob es getun
di beyze shlong hot es tsigetrakht.”
11) “Zibn yur zolsti trugn, shver un biter zolsti hubn.
Af di skoles zolst dikh rasn, un ven di vest es hubn, zolst es tsebasn.”
Dialogue After the Song:
Dus iz take epes zeyer, zeyer originel. Vu’ zhe iz – hot er [Raphael Mahler] gevolt nemen di tsvey lider, un nokh tsvey lider, ikh gedenk shoyn nisht vus. Ober di zenen geveyn di ershte. Az er vil nemen un mekh arimfirn iber di kibutzim. Zol er zey vazn vus se meynt originele ekhtkayt. Un az zey farshteyn nisht di shkutsim, vel ikh zey shoyn derklern. Ikh vel shoyn derklern vus dus iz. Zey veln dus zeyer shtark upshatsn, zugt er. ___kibutz.]
Gottesman: Fin vanen kent ir dus lid?
Taub: Fin vanen dus lid? Dus lid gedenk ikh fin der heym ___ Dortn vi me hot geneyt. Es fleygn zan a pur meydlekh un zey fleygn zingen. Dus ershte lid [Oy mame ikh shpil a libe] hot gezingen man miters a shvester. Zi iz geveyn farlibt, hot zi demlt gezingen dus lid.
Gottesman: Vi hot ir dus gezingen?
Taub: In Skedinits, mayn shteytl.
Gottesman: Ven hot ir dus gehert, ven zi hot gearbet?
Taub: Zi hot gemakht di breyte kleydlekh vus di poyertes trugn. Fleyg zi neyen far zey. Iz zi gezesn bay a mashin un hot geneyt un ikh hob es zikh oysgelernt.
Gottesman: Tsi hot zi gezingen andere lider?
Taub: Ir veyst vifl yurn di ale zikhroynes…dus iz tsulib aykh vus ikh grub aroys ikh zol zikh dermanen. Ober ikh ken nisht gedenken.
TRANSLATION:
When God created people in this world
O, people in this world,
O, Adam was the first one he made.
Adam went walking into the vineyard,
O, then a wife came into his head.
So God took out his speech from his body,
and gave him Eve for a wife.
O, Adam and Eve went walking in the vineyard
And a red apple came into Eve’s hand.
Then the evil snake came over – “Eve, Eve, Eve
Take a bite out of the apple,
So you will see how sweet it is.”
O, then she took a bite out of the apple,
and realized how sinful she is.
Then she took a leaf against the moon,
and covered up her sinful face.
Then she took a leaf against her waste,[?]
and covered up her sinful breast.
Eve, Eve what were you thinking?
A whole world full of people you’ve condemned to death.
“It was not I who did it, it was not I who did it –
the evil snake thought it up.
” Seven years you should be pregnant,
hard and bitter should your birth be, on the cliffs may you climb,
and when you give bith, you should bite it to death”.
Dialogue after the song:
Gottesman: Where do you know this song from ?
Taub: Where do I know this song from? This song I remember from home. ____ The place where we sewed. There used to be a few girls who used to sing.
The first song [Oy mame ikh shpil a libe] was sung by my mother’s sister. She was in love so she sang that song.
Gottesman: Where did you sing it?
Taub: In Skedinits (Stidenitse, Ukraine), my shtetl.
Gottesman: When did you hear it, when she worked?
Taub: She made the broad dresses that the peasant women used to wear.. She used to sew for them. So she sat at the [sewing] machine and sang.
Gottesman: Did she sing other songs?
Taub: Do you know how old these memories are?…For your sake I am digging them out and remembering them. But I can’t remember them.
As published in Yiddish Folksongs from the Ruth Rubin Archive edited by Chana Mlotek and Mark Slobin (Wayne State University Press, 2007):
As published in Yidisher folklor, ed. Y. L. Cahan (YIVO, Vilna, 1938):
In connection with my uncle Mordkhe Schaechter‘s (MS, 1927 – 2007) yortsayt a couple of weeks ago, I am featuring a short children‘s song, “Oy, kh‘bin gegangen eyns‟ (“Oy, I Went One”) that he sang for the collector Leybl Kahn in 1954. (see the earlier post of another song performed by him).
Mordkhe Schaechter at Yiddish Vokh, Circle Lodge, NY 1985.
Photo by Itzik Gottesman
A longer version of this cumulative song involving animals “Tsimba-rimba‟ was recorded on the CD Di grine katshke (Living Traditions 1801) in 1997 produced by Living Traditions. Lorin Sklamberg is the lead singer and according to the notes, he learned this song from “Inna Slavskaya, a Soviet immigrant singer now living in Berlin, Germany. Inna learned the song from her mother‟.
Unfortunately, MS only sings three verses because, as he says later in the recording for Kahn, he only wanted to make sure he got the melodies down before he forgot them, and wasn‘t concerned with the words.
It is possible that in a 1953-54 issue of Der seminarist, a journal of the Yidisher lerer-seminar in NYC, he printed all the words. I hope to find the issue and if the words are found, we will add them to the blog.
S’iz a kinderlidl vos ikh hob fartseykhnt fin a froy fin zlotshev, mizrekh-galitsye.
It’s a children’s song that I recorded from a woman from Zlotshev, Eastern Galicia (Today, in Ukraine – Zolochiv).
Oy, ikh bin gegangen ayns, far vuz zhe nisht keyn tsvay?
ikh hob gezeyn a hin. Vi azoy zhe makht di hin?
dun de de dundun makht di hin.
Oy, I went one, so why not two?
I saw a chicken. What sound does a chicken make?
Dundedundun makes the chicken.
Oy ikh bin gegangen tsvay, far vuz zhe nisht keyn dray?
Ikh hob gezeyn a hun, vi azoy zhe makht der hun?
kikariki makht der hun.
dun de de dundun makhe di hin.
Oy, I went two; so why not three?
I saw a rooster; What sound does a rooster make?
Kikariki makes the rooster.
Dundedundn makes the chicken.
Oy, ikh bin gegangen dray, far vuz zhe nisht kayn tsvay? [fir?]
ikh hob gezen a ganz, vi azoy zhe makht di ganz?
SPOKEN un azoy vayter, un azoy vayter.
Oy, I went three, so what not two?
I saw a goose. What sound does the goose make?
SPOKEN etc. etc.
Avi Fuhrman at Circle Lodge (photo by Itzik Gottesman)
May (Menye) Schechter 1920-2018
Yiddish Song of the Week 