Performed by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (BSG)
recorded by Itzik Gottesman, Bronx 1991.
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
From 1947 to 1951 Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (BSG) lived in displaced persons camps in Vienna. Two of them were Arzberger and Rothschild Hospital where her husband, Jonas Gottesman was the chief physician. She arrived there after two years in Bucharest. Since she was born in Vienna in 1920 (but grew up in Chernovitz) she could legally leave Bucharest at that time, while her husband, mother and brother had to cross into Austria illegally.
In Vienna circa 1949, from left: Lifshe Schaechter-Widman (mother), Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (daughter), friend Mitsi Weininger.
BSG believed she learned this song in Vienna during this time and wrote down the words in a notebook. In 1991 we found that notebook and I asked her to sing the songs she had written down in it.
The first line of the refrain “Sheyn bikh ikh sheyn, sheyn iz oykh mayn nomen” and text of the second verse are better known with a different melody in a children’s song. Ruth Rubin includes it in her print collection Jewish Folk Songs and recorded it. More recently it can be heard on the CD “Voices of Ashkenaz”, featuring the singing of Svetlana Kundish and Deborah Strauss.
TRANSLITERATION:
Af mayn tatns dakh hengt a gildener krants
hant oder morgn, vu’zhe darf ikh zorgn?
Sheyn bin ikh sheyn, sheyn iz mayn numen,
Vel ikh nemen a khusndl fun same rabunim.
Bay di rabunim iz di Toyre groys,
ikh vel zan a kalele – a bliendkie royz.
Sheyn bin ikh sheyn, sheyn iz mayn numen,
Vel ikh nemen a khusndl fun loyter rabunim.
Holtz in der kamer, a vaser in hoz.
Ale mise bukhirim fun shteytele aros.
Sheyn bin ikh sheyn, sheyn iz mayn numen,
Vel ikh nemen a khusndl fun loyter rabunim.
Eyner vet zan maner, a sheyner, a faner,
Zetst zikh nor nit leybn mir, bist nokh nit mit mane.
Sheyn bin ikh sheyn, sheyn iz mayn numen,
Vel ikh nemen a khusndl fun loyter rabunim.
Got vet dir bashern vesti mane vern,
Vesti zetsn leybn mir, vet keyner dikh nisht shtern.
Sheyn bin ikh sheyn, sheyn iz mayn numen,
Vel ikh nemen a khusndl fun loyter rabunim.
Fli feygele fli, fli zhe tsi man khusn!
Vet er mir shikn a halbn livyusin.
Sheyn bin ikh sheyn, sheyn iz mayn numen,
Vel ikh nemen a khusndl fun loyter rabunim.
TRANSLATION:
On my father’s roof hangs a golden wreath.
Today or tomorrow: so why should I worry?
Pretty, I am pretty and pretty is my name.
I will only choose a groom from among the rabbis.
For the rabbis the Torah is great:
I will be a bride – a blossoming rose.
Pretty, I am pretty and pretty is my name.
I will only choose a groom from among the rabbis.
Wood in the shed, water in the house
All ugly boys – get out of town.
Pretty, I am pretty and pretty is my name.
I will only choose a groom from among the rabbis.
One will be mine – a handsome and a fine one.
But don’t sit next to me – you’re not mine yet.
Pretty, I am pretty and pretty is my name.
I will only choose a groom from among the rabbis.
God will destine it for you and become mine.
If you will sit next to me, then no one will bother you.
Pretty, I am pretty and pretty is my name.
I will only choose a groom from among the rabbis.
Fly, birdie, fly, fly to my groom.
And he will send me half of the Leviathan.
Pretty, I am pretty and pretty is my name.
I will only choose a groom from among the rabbis.
Yiddish Song of the Week 