“Baym tir fun gan-eydn” Performed by Mimi Erlich and Hasia Goldberg-Gering

Baym tir fun gan-eydn / At the door of Paradise
Sung by Mimi Erlich and Hasia Goldberg-Gering
Ehrlich recorded by Itzik Gottesman at KlezKanada, St. Agathe, Quebec, approx. 2007;
Gering-Goldberg recording from the Music Department of the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, recorded 1980.

Courtesy of the Yiddish Book Center

“Baym tir fun gan-eydn” sung by Mimi Erlich

For Hasia Gering-Goldberg’s version, please click here and listen from 42:54 to 44:06.

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

My interest in this song began when Mimi Erlich z”l, a teacher and accomplished musician, approached me while waiting for dinner outside the dining hall at the KlezKanada festival. She sang what she remembered from her mother. Erlich recently passed and and in her memory I put this blog together.  A video interview with her can be found at the Wexler Oral History Project at the Yiddish Book Center. 

A fine recording of the song by Hasya Gering-Goldberg is from the on-line holdings of the Music Department at the National Library in Jerusalem. It is more complete than Erlich’s though the second verse is cut-off. I have transcribed and translated the versions of Gering-Goldberg and Erlich. The music and words of one verse of a similar version can be found in Abraham Idelsohn’s monumental Thesaurus of Hebrew-Oriental Melodies (1914-1932), Volume 9, #724 (please see scans below). Several texts were sent to A. Forsher for his column “Pearls of the Yiddish Poets” in the Forverts newspaper (scans below). But so far the authorship of this song has not been found. In a poetry collection of Aron Kriwitzky he includes a longer, fuller text for the song (below).

So we have 6 variants of the song, all of them from Lithuania:

1) Idelsohn vol. 9, text and music.
2 & 3)  In the “Perl” column Jan. 23, 1972, second section page 13. there is a version by Paula Segal and one by Henye Shenkman.
4) Erlich, recording.
5) Goldberg-Gering, recording.
6) The extended version found in Aron Kriwitzky’s collection.

Thanks to Yiddish teacher and researcher Eliezer Niborski for finding the Goldberg-Gering recording and the text in Aron Kriwitzky’s poetry collection. Thanks also to Jill Horowitz, friend of Mimi Erlich, and  to Gila Flam, head of the Music Deptartment at the National Library, Jerusalem.

Verson of Hasia Goldberg-Gering (חסיה גולדברג-גרינג)

“Der gan-eydn” [ spoken: “Paradise”]

Baym tir fun gan-eydn
shteyen malokhim on a shir.
Mentshn viln arayngeyn reydn
nor men halt zey op bay der tir. 

At the door to paradise
stand many angels. 
People want to enter and speak
but they are stopped at the door.

Mikhoyl, Gavril haltn di bikher.
Me leyent zey for zeyer zind.
Un yeder eyner vil vos gikher
in gan-eydn arayn geshvind.

Michael, Gabriel are keeping the books.
They read their sins to them .
And everyone wants, as fast as possible,
to enter paradise quickly.

Nor me shtupt zey op mit beyde hent.
Men farmakht far zey di tir.
“Geyt in gehenem un vert farbrent.
Der gan-eydn iz nit far dir!”

But they are pushed away  with both hands.
The door is closed for them. 
“Go to hell and burn:
Paradise is not for you!”

Kumt tsu geyn a kheynevdike yidene
mit a horband a reytn,
mit korbn-minkhes* un mit  siderlekh farshidene
un mit a kop a bloyzn.

A charming woman arrives
with a red headband,
with korbn-minkhes* and various prayer books,
and with an uncovered head.

Avek fun danet du arura
Du host zikh gefirt fardorbn.

Away from here you cursed women.
You led a corrupted life

Korbn-minkhe* : a woman’s prayer book written in Yiddish.

בײַם טיר פֿון גן־עדן
.שטייען מלאכים אָן אַ שיעור
מענטשן ווילן אַרײַנגיין רעדן
.נאָר מען האַלט זיי אָפּ בײַ דער טיר.

מיכאל, גבֿריאל האַלטן די ביכער
.מע לייענט זיי פֿאָר זייער זינד.
און יעדער איינער וויל וואָס גיכער
.אין גן־עדן אַרײַן געשווינד.

נאָר מע שטופּט זיי אָפּ מיט ביידע הענט
.מען פֿאַרמאַכט פֿאַר זיי די טיר.
גייט אין גיהנום און ווערט פֿאַרברענט”
“!דער גן־עדן איז ניט פֿאַר דיר

קומט צו גיין אַ חנעוודיקע ייִדענע
.מיט אַ האָרבאַנד אַ רייטן
מיט קרבן־מינחהס און סידערלער פֿאַרשידענע
.און מיט אַ קאָפּ אַ בלויזן

!אַוועק פֿון דאַנעט דו ארורה
.דו האָסט זיך געפֿירט פֿאַרדאָרבן

Version of Mimi Erlich

Bay dem tir fun gan-eydn
shteyen yidn on a shir.
Yederer vil epes reydn

Men shtupt zey avek
mit beyde hent.

Gey in gehenim un ver farbrent!
Der gan-eydn iz nit far dir.

At the door of paradise,
many people are standing.
Everyone wants to say something

They are pushed away
with both hands.

Go to hell and burn.
Paradise is not for you!

בײַם טיר פֿון גן־עדן
.שטייען מענטשן אָן אַ שיעור
יעדער וויל עפּעס ריידן

מען שטופּט זיי אַוועק
.מיט ביידע הענט

!גיי אין גיהנום און ווער פֿאַרברענט
.דער גן־עדן איז נישט פֿאַר דיר

From Abraham Idelsohn, Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies (1914-1932), Vol 9, #724:

• 

• 

From A. Forsher’s column “Pearls of the Yiddish Poets” in the Forverts, Jan. 23, 1972, second section, page 13. Presenting versions from Paula Segal and Henye Shenkman:

From Aron Kriwitzky’s Collection (published in Israel):

“Zey, mayn kind” Performed by Khave Rosenblatt

Zey, mayn kind / See, my child
Performance by Khave Rosenblatt.
Recorded by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, 1974, Jerusalem

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

This curious song, I would venture to guess, comes from a musical play of the turn of the 20th century. It starts off as a critique of money (“Dos shtikele papir” – “that little scrap of paper”) but then becomes a quick review of how to keep a kosher home. It seems to address two separate aspects in the plot of a play.

100 Karbovantsiv note from the short-lived Ukrainian National Republic, 1917. Note the Yiddish text at bottom. 

Khave Rosenblatt is a wonderful singer and her style of performance reinforces the probable theatrical connection with this song. She sings in her Ukrainian Yiddish dialect that is called “tote-mome-loshn” [father-mother-language], because the “a” sound becomes “o”. For example in the first line she sings “faronen” instead of “faranen”.  As always in this blog her dialect is reflected in the transliteration, not the Yiddish transcription.

A reader asked Chana and Yosl Mlotek about this song in their Forverts column Leyner demonen zikh (Readers Remember) on June 23, 1974 but they could find no additional information. The reader remembered only the first four lines beginning with “Her oys mayn zun” (“Listen my son”).  In the original recording, Rosenblatt says before she sings that “the song is known, but I have never heard anyone sing it”.

Rosenblatt also sang this song for Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and that recording is found on the website of the National Library of Israel (listen for the first song at 2:16).

Special thanks for this week’s post to David Braun for help in deciphering the text.

TRANSLITERATION

Zey, man kind, s’iz faronen af der velt
a shtikele papir.
Se git a numen urem in gevir.
Se makht groys far kleyn
narunim far yakhsunim.
shoyte far klige
in khakhumim far meshige.

Derkh dir harget eyner ’em tsveytn.
In derkh dir kriminaln, arestantn in keytn.
derkh dir geyt eyner di moske farkert.
Di oygn farglentst
in di pleytses farkrimt.
In vus far a maskirn iz alts tsulib dir
kedey ustsirasn bam tsveytn
dus shtikele papir.

Oy, zey man kind, zolst dikh firn bikshire.
Zolst nit zan keyn gozlen
in keyn yires-shomaimdike tsire.
In zolst nisht klopn “ushamni”
in nit tin vu’ di vilst.
Zolst nisht farglentsn mit di eygelekh
in zolst nit ganvenen keyn gelt.

Derof  shray ikh gevold
a’ dus iz user
Eyder tsi makhn fin treyfe kusher
in fin kusher treyfes.

Tepl in lefl tsim ruv gey derval
oyf deym ribl freygt keyner keyn shales.
Fleysh veygt men oys
in me zoltst es oys.
A ey mit a blitstropn varft men aroys.
Derim darf’n oykh dem ribl  oykh git boydek tsi zayn
Se zol in deym ribl keyn fremder blitstrop aran.

TRANSLATION

See my child, how there is in this world
a little piece of paper.
It marks the poor and the wealthy.
It turns  great ones into small ones,
foolish ones into privileged ones,
idiots into brilliant ones,
the wise into crazy ones.

Because of you one kills the other,
and because of you criminals, convicts walk in chains.
Because of you one’s mask is upside-down,
the eyes are rolled up, the shoulders hunched up.
And any masquerading is all because of you –
to tear away from another
that little piece of paper.

Oh, see my child, that you should lead a proper life.
You should neither be a robber,
nor walk around with a God-fearing mug.
Don’t beat your heart “we are guilty”,
and don’t do whatever you want.
Don’t roll your eyes,
and don’t steal any money.

Therefore I shout help
that this is forbidden;
to make something kosher from unkosher,
and from kosher something unkosher.

For a spoon in a pot go ask the Rabbi,
but about the heating stove, no one ever asks any questions.
Meat should be soaked and salted.
An egg with a blood drop should be thrown out.
But the heating stove should be well inspected
So no outside blood drop should fall into it.

“In kheyder keseyder” performed by Clara Crasner

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

This is the third song we have posted by Clara Crasner, b. 1902 in Shargorod (a town near Vinnitsia, Ukraine). As she says after she sings the song, she learned this song in Romania approx. 1919-1920, where she waited for two years to get papers to come to America. Freedman recorded the song again, and this time she says that she learned it from a 5 year old boy.

Robert Freedman (Crasner’s son-in-law) recorded the song in 1972 and sent it to Chana and Yosl Mlotek for their Yiddish Forward newspaper column Leyner dermonen zikh lider – Readers Remember Songs. Below is a copy of the column with the Mlotek’s response, where they identify a number of published variants (click the image to enlarge):

With its uneven verse lines and “un-Jewish” melody, In kheyder keseyder sounds as if it could be a newer Yiddish theater song of the time.

Ven ikh bin a kleyn yingele geveyzn.
Hob ikh zikh gebudn in taykh.
Ven ikh bin a kleyn yingele geveyzn
hob ikh zikh gebudn a sakh.

When I was a small boy,
I bathed in the river [or lake].
When I was a small boy
I often bathed.

Gebudn, geplyusket, gelofn aheym
Hot mir der rebbe derzeyn.
Un hot mikh mekhabed geveyn.

I bathed, splashed and ran home,
but the rebbe spotted me.
And “honored” me [meant ironically – beat, punished]

Freyg ikh im farvus?
Farvus kimt mir dus?
Entfert er mir dus:

So I ask him why?
Why do I deserve this?
And this is how he answers me:

In kheyder keseyder,
a yingele darf zitsn dort.
In kheyder keseyder,
Sha! Un redt nisht keyn vort.

Always in kheyder [traditional elementary religious school]
is where a boy should sit.
Always in kheyder
Quiet! And don’t say a word.

Ven di volst in kheyder gegangen,
volsti di toyre derlangen.
Volsti geveyzn a yid, a yid.
Volt dir geveyzn gants git, gant git.

If you were to attend kheyder,
you could attain the Torah.
Then you would be a Jew, a Jew
And you would feel real good, real good.

In kheyder keseyder….