¨Dremlender yingele¨ Performed by Ita Taub

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.

דרעמלנדער ייִנגעלע

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

איך בין געשטאָרבן און זע דורכן טויט
.ווי דו, גאָר מײַן ערשטער, דער לעצטער פֿאַרגייט
?איז דיר באַשערט גאָר דער לעצטער צו זײַן
.דרעמלנדער ייִנגעלע, ייִנגעלע מײַן
.דרעמלנדער ייִנגעלע, ייִנגעלע מײַן

From H. Leivick’s “In Keynems land” (Warsaw, 1923):

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“Der internatsyonal” Performed by Martin Horowitz

Der internatsyonal / The International
Sung by Martin Horowitz, recorded by Gertrude Nitzberg, August 4, 1973, Baltimore, Maryland. 
From the collection of the Jewish Museum of Maryland

Der internatsyonal as sung by Martin Horowitz

Shteyt oyf ir ale ver nor shklafn
vos hunger laydn muz un noyt.
Der gayst er kokht un ruft tsum vafn
in shlakht undz firn iz er greyt.

Awaken you all who are slaves
who must suffer hunger and poverty.
The spirit boils and calls to arms
into battle it is ready to lead us.

Di velt fun gvaldtatn un laydn
tseshtern veln mir un dan.
Fun frayhayt, glakhheyt a gan-eydn,
bashafn vet der arbetsman.

This world of violence and suffering
will we destroy and then –
from freedom and equality
will we create a paradise.

Dos vet zayn shoyn der letster
un antshaydener shtrayt;
mit dem internatsyonal
shteyt oyf ir arbetslayt!

This will be the last
and decisive struggle,
with the International,
awake, all you workers!

,שטייט אויף איר אַלע ווער נאָר שקלאַפֿן
.וואָס הונגער לײַדן מוז און נויט
דער גײַסט, ער קאָכט און רופֿט צו וואָפֿן
.אין שלאַכט אונדז פֿירן איז ער גרייט

די וועלט פֿון גוואַלדטאַטן און לײַדן
צעשטערן וועלן מיר און דאַן ־ 
,פֿון פֿרײַהײַט, גלײַכהײַט אַ גן ־עדן
.באַשאַפֿן וועט דער אַרבעטסמאַן

דאָס וועט זײַן שוין דער לעצטער
.און אַנטשיידענער שטרײַט
מיט דעם אינטערנאַציאָנאַל
!שטייט אויף איר אַרבעטסלײַט

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

A couple of weeks late, but to commemorate May Day we present the Yiddish version of the song The International; words originally written in French by Eugene Pottier. The music by Pierre De Geyter was first performed in 1888. The “International” refers to the “First International”, an organization of workers that held a congress in 1864.

Judging by Martin Horowitz’s repertory as recorded by Gertrude Nitzberg, he attended a Yiddish folkshul, probably a Workmen’s Circle socialist school where he learned many of his songs including this one.

Horowitz sings the International almost exactly as it appears in the collection Yidishe folks-lider, by Moshe Beregovski and Itzik Feffer. (Kiev, 1938, p. 3 – 5 and in Albert Biter’s collection Zing-a-lid: 60 arbeter un folks lider, (NY 1940, p. 5). Scans of both, words and music, are attached.

 A different version of The International by the poet H. Leivick appears in 1938-39, in the Workmen Circle songbook Lomir zingen appeared, edited by Mikhl Gelbart. Michael Alpert sings another version as translated by S. Ansky on the CD The Upword Flight: The musical world of S. Ansky.

Horowitz sings only the first third of the song and that is how it was mainly sung in Yiddish. The German Yiddish singer Karsten Troyke recorded the entire Yiddish version of the International as it appeared in Beregovski/Feffer: 

Below are versions published in Albert Biter’s collection Zing-a-lid: 60 arbeter un folks lider (NY, 1940) and Moshe Beregovski and Itzik Feffer’s Yidishe folks-lider (Kiev, 1938):

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