“Farges dem tsar” Performed by Sara Nomberg-Przytyk

Farges dem tsar/Forget Your Sorrows
Music by Johannes Strauss ll (1804 – 1849), sung by Sara Nomberg – Przytyk
Recorded by Wolf Krakowski, Way’s Mills, Quebec, Canada, 1986

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

For the next three weeks Yiddish Song of the Week will feature field recordings of the singer Sara Nomberg-Przytyk, videotaped by Yiddish singer, songwriter and musican Wolf Krakowski in 1986. Click here for Krakowski’s reminiscences about about Nomberg-Przytyk. This week we present “Farges dem tsar” [“Forget Your Sorrows”].

Nomberg-Przytyk was born in Lublin, September 10, 1921 and died in Israel in 1996. She is known for her Holocaust memoirs, translated into English as Auschwitz: True Tales From a Grotesque Land. In Auschwitz she was an attendant in Dr. Mengele’s hospital and worked with him on a daily basis.

For a more detailed article in English on her life click here; an article on her life and song in Yiddish is here.

As she says to introduce this song, she learned Farges  dem tsar from her friend who was in the Vilbig (Vilner yidishe bildungs-gezelshaft) Vilna Jewish Education Society) chorus in Vilna which was conducted by Avrom Sliep (1884 – 1942)

Vilbig Choir, 1929, E. Cejtlin/YIVO Archives

The video includes a translation, but the second line should be translated as “Don’t look how the skies are black”.

TRANSLITERATION

Oysgelernt di lid – S’iz oykhet a lid Farges dem tsar fun Vilbig. Un di ale lider hob ikh gehert fun mayns a khaverte, mit velkher ikh bin gezitsn tsuzamen far der krig in tfise far politishe teytikaytn.  

Zi’s geven a mitgliderin fun dem khor un zi hot di lid far undz gezingen.

Farges dem tsar, der tsar fargeyt.
Mir darfn leybn nor far freyd.
Bafrayt zikh ale glaykh
Dos lebn iz far aykh.

Nisht kuk vos s’iz der himl shvarts.
Di zun geyt oyf, derfray dis harts.
un brengt indz ale mut
in der royshnde yunge blut.

Kuk zikh um sara prakht.
Alts arum iz shtil fartrakht
zingt mayn harts gur alayn.
Akh vi sheyn iz dus leybn vi sheyn.

Zey vi se blit, Zey vi es glit.
Zol zhe klingen indzer lid.
Iber berg, iber tol
Lebn mir nor ayn mul, nor ayn mul.

The Israeli Yiddish song collector and researcher Meir Noy included this song in one of his notebooks of Yiddish songs located in the music department at the Israeli National Library in Jerusalem. Below is attached that page which has the melody, the words in Yiddish and an additional verse. Noy notes that the melody comes from three Johann Strauss ll works: “Wein, Weib und Gesang” “Wiener blut” “Morgenblatter Waltz””:

Merke Levine Performs “Mayn harts, mayn harts”

Mayn harts, mayn harts / My heart, my heart
Sung by Merke (Mary) Levine, recorded by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman
Bronx, July 6, 1991

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

The singer Merke (Mary) Levine was from Belarus and came to NY after the first world war. She lived in the Bronx and was active in the Yiddish left, and later in life was a board member of the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center in the Bronx. Her husband Tevye Levine was a teacher in the Arbeter ordn folkshuln.

Merke (Mary) Levine

This love song Mayn harts, mayn harts is found twice in the YIVO Ruth Rubin on-line collection. There it is sung both by Golde Fried and her husband Israel (Sruli) Freed with the same melody and only minor textual differences.

In terms of  Yiddish folksong poetry, what stands out is the line “Mayne gedanken – ahin, aher”, which I translated as “My thoughts – any way you look at it”.  The expression “ahin-aher” or “hin-her” can also mean “after long discussion”, or “to get to the point”

TRANSCRIPTION

Mayn harts, mayn harts veynt in mir.
Ikh darf zikh sheydn itst mit dir.
Mayne gedanken – ahin-aher.
Mit dir tsu sheydn iz mir shver.

Vu forstu mayn zis lebn?
Vu forstu fun mir avek?
Vu vel ikh dir darfn zukhn?
Zog zhe mir in velkhn veg?

Fun yedn shtetele, fun yedn derfele,
a brivele shraybn zolstu mir.
Betn, bet ikh dir mayn zis lebn,
nit fargesn zolstu mir.

TRANSLATION

My heart, my heart cries in me.
I must now part with you.
My thoughts – anyway you look at it: [lit: this way, that way]
to leave you is hard for me.

Where are you traveling my dear love?
Where are you traveling and leaving me?
Where will I have to search for you?
Tell me in which way?

From each town, from each village
you should write me a letter.
I ask of you, my dear love,
please not to forget me.