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
Es dremlt in geto / The ghetto is sleeping A Holocaust song sung by Sara Rosen, recorded by Itzik Gottesman, 1989 NYC.
………[Es dremlt in geto]
Mir zenen farriglt mit drut un mit krad. Ikh hob a shtetele, s’iż azoy sheyn. Ven ikh derman mekh, es benkt zikh aheym.
…….[The ghetto is sleeping.]
We are locked in with wire and with chalk. I have a small town, it’s so beautiful. When I think of it, I long to go home.
Levune, levune, vus kiksti mekh un? Az ikh bin hingerik, dus geyt dikh nisht un. Ikh hob a shtetele, s’iz azoy sheyn. Ven ikh derman mekh, es benkt zikh aheym.
Moon, moon, why are you looking at me? That I am hungry: you don’t care. I have a small town, it’s so beautiful. When I think of it, I long to go home.
Az m’et kimen fin arbet, hingerik in mid, Ervart indz dus esn, kartofl mit gris. Ikh hob a shtetele, s’iż azoy sheyn Ven ikh derman zikh, es benkt zikh aheym.
When we’ll come from work, hungry and tired, Food awaits us: potato and grits I have a small town, it’s so beautiful. When I think of it, I long to go home.
Biography of the Singer Sara Rosen by Mickey Rosen:
Sara Landerer Rosen was born in Krakow, Poland in 1925 into a Chasidic family. She experienced an idyllic childhood until September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, initiating World War II. The war truncated Sara’s formal education at the end of eighth grade but it didn’t stop her thirst for learning. Sara took advantage of every opportunity available; in the ghetto, in British Mandate Palestine and later, in the State of Israel and finally in the USA. In 1977, Sara graduated from Fordham University with a BA in Philosophy.
Sara Rosen
Sara was a prolific write, publishing her memoir My Lost World in 1993. In 2008, she published Prisoner of Memory, the life story of Itka Greenberg. Itka saved about 50 Jews during World War II, with Sara and her mother being two of the fortunate survivors. In between these two books, Sara translated the songs of Mordechai Gebirtig from Yiddish to English. Sara loved speaking and singing in Yiddish and remembered many of poems and songs from her youth.
Sara emigrated to the USA in 1956 with her husband, Joseph and two sons. Her family grew in the USA with the birth of a daughter.
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman:
Es dremlt in shtetl
This song is a Holocaust adaptation of the popular 1920s-30s song “Ven es dremlt in shtetl” (also known as “Es dremlt/drimlt dos shtetl” or “Es dremlt dos shtetl”); text written by Yoysef Heftman (1888 – 1955), music by Gershon Eskman. There are several recordings of this song, among them by Sarah Gorby, Michele Tauber, Willi Brill, Violette Szmajer, Sheh-Sheh, Zahava Seewald. Here is a link to a recording by the singer Rebecca Kaplan and tsimbler Pete Rushefsky from their CD On The Paths: Yiddish Songs with Tsimbl.
Ruth Rubin recorded a version from a “Mrs. Hirshberg” in 1947. It is called “Es dremlt a shtetele” and here is the link to the song in the Ruth Rubin Legacy: Archive of Yiddish Folksongs at the YIVO Institute.
Es dremlt in turme
Before the war, there already was a “parody” version of this song about languishing in prison. “Es dremlt in turme” [The prison is sleeping]. The words and music are printed in the “Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs” edited by Sinai Leichter, scans of this song are attached.
Sara Rosen learned this song in Bucharest after she escaped from the Bochnia ghetto near Krakow. Though she forgets the first two lines, it is cleary an adaptation of “Es dremlt in shtetl”. There are several versions of this song using the same melody, but they all differ so significantly from each other, that to call them versions of the same song is a stretch. Meir Noy wrote down a version “Shtil is in geto” in his notebooks that can be found in the National Library in Jerusalem. Another version can be found in the collection “Dos lid fun geto: zamlung” edited by Ruta Pups, Warsaw, 1962. A scan of this version is attached. A third version was printed in the collection “We Are Here: Songs of the Holocaust”, edited by Eleanor G. Mlotek et al, 1983.
Special thanks for this post to Mickey Rosen, Rachel Rosen, Michael Alpert, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, her grandchildren the musicians Benjy Fox-Rosen, Avi Fox-Rosen.
I was introduced to Sara Rosen in 1989 by the Yiddish/Hebrew singer Tova Ronni z”l (d. 2006) who lived in the same Upper West Side apartment building in NYC. That same day she introduced me to another singer in the building, David Shear, who sings “An ayznban a naye” on this blog.
From Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs” edited by Sinai Leichter:
From Dos lid fun geto: zamlung, edited by Ruta Pups, Warsaw, 1962:
Zay zhe mir gezint, zay zhe mir gezint / Fare thee well, fare thee well. A version of “Di goldene pave”, sung by Lifshe Schaecter-Widman (LSW), recorded by Leybl Kahn, NYC 1954
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
This is LSW’s version of the old and popular song more commonly called “Di gildene/goldene pave”, the “Golden Peacock”. It seems that the song gave rise to the golden peacock as a symbol referring to Yiddish folksong and Yiddish artistic creativity in general.
Illustration by Shirley Knoring
The peacock, needless to say, has been a cross-cultural symbol for millenia. On her blog “Jewish Folk Songs” Batya Fonda discusses the various interpretations of the golden peacock and has transcribed and translated into English a couple of versions of the Yiddish folksong.
In YIVO’s Ruth Rubin Archive collection, Mary Michaels sings a version, recorded in 1956. Click here to listen.
More recently, Ruth Levin, accompanied by Alexei Belousov on guitar sings it on her recording Atlandish (2019):
LSW’s version makes no mention of the gildene pave, but a bird does remain as the central character along with the unhappy daughter/daughter-in-law. The line about having one hand appears in no other versions, and seems to me to be improvised at the moment of performance. The verses about “shver un shviger’s kest” and “a shlekhtn man” appear in all versions.
Interestingly, Moshe Beregovski pointed out the similarity of the melody of the song’s first line to a Ukrainian song (Old Jewish Folk Music, Slobin, p. 514) But LSW starts off the song with a different melody than other versions.
The song is included in many collections: to name a few with musical notation: Yidishe folks-lider, Beregovski and Fefer, 276-77; Die Schonsten Lieder Der OstJuden, Kaufmann, 80-81; Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies, vol. 9, Idelsohn, #33, page 12; Jewish Folksongs from the Baltics, Karnes, p. 20-21; Mir trogn a gezang, Mlotek, 106-107.Yiddish Folksongs from the Ruth Rubin Archive, Mlotek and Slobin, p. 45-46.; just text – Yidishe folkslider in rusland, Ginzburg and Marek, #264-265, p. 215 – 217
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Zay zhe mir gezint Sung by Lifshe Schaechter-Widman
Zay zhe mir gezint, zay zhe mir gezint mayn tayere mame, Ekh fur fin dir avek Say es vet mir git zayn, say es vet mir shlekht zayn Kimen vel ekh mer nisht tsirik. Say es vet mir git zayn, say es vet mir shlekht zayn Kimen vel ekh mer nisht tsirik.
Farewell, farewell, my dear mother. I am going away. Whether it will be good, whether it will be bad I will not be coming back.
Azoy vi s’iz biter mayn mame, miter A feygele oyf deym yam. A feygele oyf deym yam. Azoy i’ dekh biter, mayn mame, miter, az me hot a shlekhtn man.
Just as it is bitter mother dear, for a bird over the sea, so it is bitter mother dear to have a cruel husband.
Azoy vi s’iz biter, mayn tayere miter, a feygele in a fremd land. a feygele in a fremd land. Azoy iz biter mayn mame, miter az m’ot nor eyn hant. Azoy iz biter mayn mame, miter az men hot nor eyn hant.
Just as it’s bitter dear mother for a bird in a strange land, so it is bitter mother dear, when you have just one hand.
Azoy vi s’iz biter mayn tayere miter a feygele un a neyst. a feygele un a neyst. Azoy iz biter mayn mame, miter shver un shvigers kest. Azoy iz biter mayn mame, miter shver un shvigers kest.
Just as it’s bitter my dear mother a bird without a nest, so it is bitter my dear mother to live with my in-laws.
Zay mir gezint mayn tayere mame, ikh fur fun dir avek. Say es vet mir git zayn, say es vet mir shlekht zayn. ikh vel nit kimen tsirik. Say es vet mir git zayn, say es vet mir shlekht zayn. Ikh kim nit mer tsurik.
Farewell, farewell my dear mother, I am going away. Whether it will go well for me, or go poorly, I will not be coming back.
“שיכעלעך/Shikhelekh/Shoes” – An early American Yiddish theater song that crossed the Atlantic and came back.First version sung by Gertrude Singer, recorded by Gertrude Nitzberg, Baltimore 1979 from the archive of the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Second version sung by Manya Bender, recorded by Ruth Rubin 1950, NYC, found at the Ruth Rubin Archive, YIVO.
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
“Shikhelekh” a song about a boy in an immigrant family desperate to get a new pair of shoes, is interesting because there are two versions: one with a sad ending and one with a happy ending.
The older version, 5 verses long, with the sadder ending was first printed in the 1897 compilation Di yidishe bine, ed. J. Katzenelenbogen, NY. (A scan is attached). In this version the boy complains he cannot go to school barefoot and asks his father to buy a pair of shoes in the store next to his school. The song concludes with the father, “powerless”, crying together with the boy. This version was reprinted with the title “Papa mit dem shikhele” no date, in American Yiddish Penny Songs edited by Jane Peppler, 2015. (scan attached). We have not yet found recordings of this older version.
The newer version ( approx. 1916) with a “happy ending” concludes with a verse that relates how that young barefoot boy is now a lawyer and the girl he is with, playing “fortepian”, is his bride. The final refrain is:
Nu, Papa do you remember how eight years ago, when I cried and begged you to buy me a pair of shoes. Now I am a lawyer, and will make you happy for all of your years.
The singer, Gertrude Singer (1900 – 1979), recounts how she sang it often on the ship coming to America from Warsaw. In the Ruth Rubin Archive at YIVO, Manye Bender who learned the song in Bessarabia “on the way to America.” also sings the new version. Click here for her performance, beginning with the line “In droysn iz fintster”.
The transcription, translation and Yiddish of both versions follows below.
It is not clear who the composer is of the older “unhappy” version. The Mloteks point out in their Forverts newspaper column that in the collection “Di yidishe bine” it is placed right after Morris Rosenfeld poems but it does not appear in his collected works. In the column on June 20, 1976, the music as remembered by a reader is also printed.
The later-adapted revision with the happy ending was the work of the singer Josef/Joseph Feldman around 1916. On a song sheet for “Shichalach” as sung by Moishe Oisher (no date), the words are credited to singer Joseph (Josef) Feldman (scans attached). But on page two, it is written “Version by Jos Feldman”, acknowledging his text as a revision of an earlier song. On a 78 rpm record (1916) Josef Feldman recorded it and one can hear it at the Florida Atlantic University “Recorded Sound Archives”
The happy vs. sad ending of “Shikhelekh” brings up an interesting point: could the generation after the original 1890s version no longer accept such a sad ending, and thus inspire the happy, nostalgic song conclusion of 1916?
Thanks this week to Jane Peppler, Steven Lasky and his Museum of the Yiddish Theater, the YIVO Sound Archives and the Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University.
TRANSLITERATION, TRANSLATION and YIDDISH
Shikhelekh sung by Gertrude Singer, recorded in 1979.
1 ) In droysn is fintster, in droysn iz nas, un du gey ikh borves, ikh ken nisht geyn in gas. Papa, ikh beyt mir far dir azoy fil mul. koyf mir a pur shikhelekh. Ikh ken nisht geyn in “skul.” Oy papa, di zolst dir oysbeytn a git yur. Koyf mir, papele, shikhelekh a pur. Oy, koyf mir, papele, shikhelekh a pur.
2) Der papa blaybt shteyn mit a troyern [troyerik] geveyn biz zayne trern faln afn kind aleyn. “Kind mayns, du veyst vi azey ikh hob dikh lib. Tsulib dayne shikhelekh vel ikh farpanen a kishn fun shtib. Oy kind mayns, mir zoln shoyn nisht hobn mer keyn noyt. Tsulib dayne shikhelekh hob [iz nishto] ikh nishto keyn broyt. Orem mayn kind iz nokh erger vi der toyt.”
3) In di tsayt flit avek un es iz shoyn akht yur Kik on [?] dem boychik, er vert shoyn a “loyer.” Dort zitst a meydele vos zi shpilt pian. Me zugt az dos meydele vet dem loyer’s kale zayn. Nu, papa, gedenkstu tsurik mit akht yur ven ikh hob dikh gebeytn far shikhelekh a pur. Yetst bin ikh loyer un ikh makh dikh glikekh af ale dayne yor.
1) Outside it’s dark; outside it’s wet, and I am walking barefoot; I can’t go in the street. Papa, I’ve asked you so many times to buy me a pair of shoes. I can’t go to school. Oy papa, may you succeed in praying for a good year. Buy me, papa, a pair of shoes Oy, buy me, dear papa, a pair of shoes
2) Papa remains standing with a sad weeping, until his tears drop on his child. “My child, you know how much I love you: because of your shoes, there is no bread. To be poor is worse than death.”
3) Time flies and it’s eight years later. Look at the boy [?] – he is soon to be a lawyer. There sits a girl who plays grand piano. They say that she will be the lawyer’s bride. So, papa, remember eight years ago when I begged you for a pair of shoes? Now I am a lawyer and I will make you happy all of your years.
שיכעלעך געזונגען פֿון גערטרוד זינגער רעקאָרדירט פֿון גערטרוד ניצבערג .אין דרויסן איז פֿינצטער, אין דרויסן אין נאַס
.און דאָ גיי איך באָרוועס, איך קען נישט גיין אין גאַס ,פּאַפּאַ, איך בעט מיר פֿאַר דיר אַזוי פֿיל מאָל .קויף מיר אַ פּאָר שיכעלעך. איך קען נישט קיין אין סקול .אוי, פּאַפּאַ, דו זאָלסט דיר אויסבעטן אַ גוט יאָר .קויף מיר, פּאַפּעלע, שיכעלעך אַ פּאָר “.אוי, קויף מיר, פּאַפּעלע, שיכעלעך אַ פּאָר
1) In droysn iz fintster, in droysn iz nas. “ikh hob nit kayn shikhelekh tsu geyn oyf der gas. Papa, ikh bet dir, azoy fil mol. Koyf zhe mir shoyn, koyf zhe mir shoyn shikhelekh a por. Koyf zhe mir shoyn, koyf zhe mir shoyn shikhelekh a por.”
2) S’iz avek gegangen a lange tsayt, Dos kind iz gevorn a groyser advokat. Er zitst mit zayn meydl, zey shpiln beyde pian. di meydl zogt, zi vil zayn kale zayn. “Papa, gedenkstu mit azoy fil yor tsurik. Ikh hob dir gebeytn shikhelekh a por? Un itst makh ikh dir gilklekh af ale dayne yor.”
TRANSLATION of BENDER
1) Outside it’s dark, outside it’s wet “I don’t have a shoes to go out in the street. Papa, I’ve asked you so many times Buy me, buy me a pair of shoes.”
2) A long time had passed. The child became a big-time lawyer. He sits with his girlfriend; they both are playing piano. The girl says she wants to be his bride. Papa, do you remember many years ago? I asked you to get me a pair of shoes. And now I will make you happy the rest of your days.
Di farfirte / The Woman Who was Led Astray
Words and (music?) by Morris Rosenfeld
Sung and recorded by Leo Summergrad
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
This poem appears in the first volume of Morris Rosenfeld’s (1862 – 1923) poetry. Leo Summergrad learned it from his mother and I have only found one reference to the song: a query in Chana and Yosl Mlotek’s Forverts column “Leyner dermonen zikh lider”. But the two compilers had never heard of the song.
Leo Summergrad’s mother, Minnie, and father, Abram Summergrad, on the right side. His in-laws Moishe and Esther Korduner are on the left.
Rosenfeld’s original poem is composed of three 14-line stanzas and we have printed it this way, though in Summerfeld’s handwritten transcription, which we attached, he has divided it into the more common 4 line stanzas. We are also attaching the printed version from Volume I of Rosenfeld’s collected works.
Though we are not sure who composed the music, we do know that Rosenfeld composed melodies to his poetry and sang them at readings.
Thanks to Leo Summergrad for contributing this recording.
1
Gedenkstu vi du host mir libe geshvorn,
gegrint hot der eplboym tsvishn di korn.
Der foygl hot ruik geblikt fun di tsvaygn
un ales arum iz gelegn in shvaygn.
O, ver hot es damolst gevust dayn kavone.
Geshtumt hobn himl un erd un levone.
Ven du host geshvorn far mir mit a fayer,
az eybik farblaybstu mayn eyntsik getrayer.
Du hot mikh farkisheft, du host mikh batrunken.
Ikh bin vi batoybt in dayn orems gezunken.
O, dan iz dayn umreyner vuntsh dir gelungen.
Du host in mayn heyliktum frekh ayngedrungen.
Mayn ere geroybt un mayn lebn tserisn.
Mikh biter baleydikt un endlikh farshmisn.
Do you remember, you swore your love for me. The apple tree was greening among the rye. The bird calmly watched us from the branches and everything around us lay in silence. O, who could then have known your intention. Silent were heaven and earth and the moon, when you swore to me with a fire, that eternally you would remain my one true one. You cast a spell on me; you intoxicated me. I was as if deaf when i lay in your arms. O, then you succeeded with your filthy desire; into my sacred shrine you insolently penetrated. You robbed me of my honor and tore my life apart. Insulted me bitterly and finally whipped me.
2
Bin orm un elnt vos darfstu zikh shtern?
Fleg ikh bay dir shtendik zikh betn mit trern.
Un du bist dokh raykh un gebildet un eydl.
Gey zukh dir a shenere, raykhere meydl.
O, zol mir der fayer fun elnt farbrenen,
fleg ikh tsu dir zogn du darfst mikh nit kenen.
Farges on mayn sheynkeyt, ikh darf nit keyn gvires.
O loz mikh in armut, ikh zukh keyn ashires.
Gedenkstu di nakht ven mir zaynen gegangen
der mond iz vi zilber in himl gehangen.
Fun goldene shtern bakranst undzer svive
vos hobn geshmeykhlt vi kinder nayive.
Gedenkstu yene nakht? O, du darfst ir gedenken.
Ikh shenk es dir, Got zol in himl dir shenken.
I am poor and alone, why bother yourself. I had always with tears pleaded with you. Yet you are wealthy, educated and gentle. Go find yourself a prettier, richer girl. O, let the fire of loneliness burn me up, I used to say to you, you should not know me. Forget about my beauty; I need no valor. Leave me poor, I do not search for riches. Do you remember the night when we walked; the moon was like silver hanging in the sky. Golden stars crowned our surroundings and smiled like naive children. Do you remember that night? O, you should remember it. I give it to you as a gift; God should give you it as a gift in heaven.
3
Ikh hob zikh bay dir mit rakhmones gebetn.
O, rays mikh nit oys vest mikh shpeter tsetretn.
O, loz mikh! ikh vel mir tsvishn di mashinen
an erlekhn man, a gelibtn gefinen.
A shapmeydl bin ikh, vos hob ikh tsu klaybn.
Bin orem geborn, vel orem farblaybn.
Dokh, du host mit zise un kuntsike verter
geshvorn az du nor muzst zayn mayn basherter.
Tsu sheyn bin ikh, hostu gezogt, tsu farvyanen
far mir iz a beseres lebn faranen.
Gedenkstu di nakht tsi iz lang shoyn fargangen
der vint hot koym vos geshoklt di zangen.
Arum di natur hot gekukt un geshvign
o, ver hot gerekhnt du zolst mikh batribn.
With compassion I pleaded with you. O, don’t tear me out; stomp on me later. O, leave me, so that among the machines I will find an honest man, a lover. I’m a shopgirl, what is my choice – I am poor and will remain poor. Still, with sweet and artful words you swore that you must be my destined one. Too beautiful am I, you said, to every wilt. For me there is a better life awaiting. Do you remember the night or is it far in the past? The wind barely moved the stalks. The nature around watched and was silent. O who would have thought you would sadden me so.
4
Atsind zogstu vilstu mikh mer nit bagegenen
ikh hob derkegn, ikh kum zikh gezegenen.
Ikh veys az du gist zikh an anderer iber.
Nu, vintsh ikh dir, mazel-tov, mazl mayn liber.
Du bist keyn bal-khayim, dayn shem iz genezn
Di shuld zi iz mayne, yo, mayne gevezn.
Ikh hob nit gegloybt az du vest mikh baroybn
Ikh hob nit gevust nokh dem umglik fun gloybn.
Ikh hob nokh di mentshn genoy nit bagrifn.
Ikh hob nit gevust az di tsung iz geshifn.
Neyn, du bist nit shuldik; Ikh kum dir fartsayen
Ikh vil dikh farlozn, ikh vil dikh bafrayen.
Vi kum ikh, an oysvorf, in elnt geshlosn
farlangen mayn maysters a zun far a khosn?
Now you say you no longer want to see me. I, to the contrary, come to bid farewell. I know that you now love another: so I wish you good luck and good fortune my love. You are a living creature, your name will recover. Guilty am I, yes I was the guilty one. I did not believe that you would rob me. I did not know of the tragedy in believing. I did not know that the tongue is sharpened. No, you are not guilty; I come to ask your pardon. I want to leave you; I want to liberate you. How could I, an outcast, trapped in loneliness, ask my boss’s son to be my groom?
Manger’s Eynzam/Lonesome (The Chernovitz Version)
Recorded and sung by Beyle Schachter-Gottesman, 1970s.
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
February 21, 2019 marked fifty years since the passing of the Yiddish poet Itzik Manger. He was born in Chernovitz (then Austria-Hungry) in 1901 and died in Gedera, Israel in 1969.
To honor this date, I found a recording of Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (my mother) singing Manger’s song Eynzam(Keyner veyst nisht vos ikh vil) with a different melody than is most commonly sung. Unfortunately, she is interrupted before the end of the song, and does not complete it.
My mother told me that when she sang the song once at a gathering in New York, Yetta Bickel, wife of the critic Shloyme Bickel, said to her “that is the melody of the song that Itzik Manger himself had sung in Romania.”
Attached are scans of the words with the more commonly heard melody as found in the Mir trogn a gezang song collection compiled by Eleanor (Chana) Gordon Mlotek, NY 1972, pages 162-163. This includes transliteration and lyrics in Yiddish.
I have not yet found another recording of this Chernovitz version.
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.
Ikh bin a tsigaynerl a kleyner / I am a Small Gypsy (Rom) Lad Pre-war version from Chernovitz, Romania.
Sung by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman [BSG]
Recorded by Itzik Gottesman at the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center, Bronx 1980s.
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
The more popular song version of this poem by Itzik Manger (1901 – 1969) was composed by Hertz Rubin (1911 – 1958) and has been recorded by at least thirteen artists. According to Chana and Yosl Mlotek in Songs of Generations, the singer Masha Benya received that version from Manger’s widow Genia Manger after the second world war in NY.
Itzik Manger in his Chernovitz days, 1920s
But this earlier version has a different melody, and slightly different words without the “Ekh du fidele du mayn” refrain. BSG learned this song in Chernovitz, which was Romania between the world wars and is now in the Ukraine.
Manger’s lyrics carry a number of commonly-held negative stereotypes about Romany (Gypsy) culture. However, considering the time in which he was writing, through first-person narration, Manger creates a sympathetic window into the challenges faced by Roma including poverty, oppression, and a sense of otherness as a minority community. The ever-wandering Manger, no doubt, felt like a kindred spirit.
In the Ruth Rubin Legacy: Archive of Yiddish Folksongs at YIVO, Sore Kessler sings this Chernovitz version and explains she learned it from the Yiddish poet M. M. Shaffir in Montreal. Shaffir was also from the Bukovina region (not Bessarabia as Kessler says in her spoken introduction), and a friend of BSG. Some of Kessler’s text differs and she sings a verse that BSG does not:
Shtendik zaynen mir af vegn, mir af vegn. Say bay nakht, un say in regn.
Always are we travelling,
travelling [on the roads.]
Both at night
and in the rain.
Accordionist Mishka Zignaoff (who was a Yiddish-speaking Russian Rom musician based in New York) recorded the melody as Galitzianer khosid (Galician Hasid) in a medley with the famous Reb Dovidl’s nign.
I am posting this song to mark Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman’s 5th yortsayt (1920 – 2013) which falls on the second candle of khanike.
Beyle and Itzik Gottesman looking over Yiddish field recordings, 1970s.
TRANSLITERATION
BSG Spoken: [Itzik Manger] iz geveyn maner a landsman, un hot geredt Yidish vi ekh. Vel ikh zingen in durem-yidish azoy vi er hot geredt. “Ikh bin a tsiganerl a kleyner” un di lider vus ikh zing zenen a bisele, tsi mul, andersh vi ir zingt zey, val ikh ken zey nokh fun der heym.
1) Ikh bin a tsigaynerl a kleyner, gur a kleyner
ober vi ir zeyt a sheyner.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la
Ikh veys nisht vi ikh bin geboyrn, bin geboyrn.
Di mame hot mikh in steppe farloyrn
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
2) Dem tatn hot men oyfgehongen, oyfgehongen
Vayl er iz ganvenen gegangen
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Burves, hingerik un freylekh, ober freylekh
Fil ikh zikh vi a ben-meylekh.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
3) In mayn lidl kent ir hern, kent ir hern
Mayn tatns zifts, mayn mames trern.
Tra-La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
S’kost in gantsn nor a drayer, nor eyn drayer.
S’iz mayn veytik gurnisht tayer.
Trala-la-la-la-la-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
TRANSLATION
BSG Spoken: “[Itzik Manger] was from the same city as me and spoke Yiddish as I do. So I will sing in the southern Yiddish that he spoke. “Ikh bin a tsiganerl a kleyner” and the other songs that I will sing are a little different than the way you sing them because I learned them form home.”
I’m a small Gypsy lad, a very small Gypsy lad,
But as you see good-looking.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
I don’t know where I was born, was born.
My mother lost me somewhere in the Steppes.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la
Refrain: Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la
They hanged my father, hanged my father
Because he went thieving.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la
Barefoot, hungry and merry, always merry.
I feel like a prince.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la
Refrain: Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la
In my song you can hear, can hear
My father’s sigh, my mother’s tears.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la
It will only cost you three kopecks.
My suffering doesn’t cost much at all.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la
There has been much written about the once popular Yiddish song לייג איך מיר אין בעט אַרײַן (Leyg ikh mir in bet arayn / I Lay Me Down in My Bed) and its transformations, but I cannot find one LP/CD recording of the “original” Yiddish song and so I’m glad to have Montreal Yiddish singer Janie Respitz’s version (video recorded in October of 2017).
The Yiddish text, transliteration, translation and music to this song appears in Chana and Joseph Mlotek’s collection Pearls of Yiddish Song (see below) and there it is identified as a poem by Joseph Rolnick / Rolnik (1879 – 1955) and music written by the Yiddish poet Bertha Kling (1886 – 1979).
A translation of Rolnik’s autobiography זכרונות (Zikhrones / Memories) from Yiddish by Gerald Marcus is available in English entitled With Rake in Hand: Memoirs of a Yiddish Poet, 2016. There he writes that that this poem, adapted from a folksong, became very popular after Kling composed music for it; but he was ashamed of how the poem, which he considered unimportant, had become a hit. He walked out of a room if they greeted his entrance by singing it.
The Rolnik poem has inspired two new musical compositions. The first is by the Pulitzer prize and Grammy winning modernist minimalist composer David Lang (“Bang on a Can”) entitled I Lie.
The second has been composed by UK-based Yiddish singer Polina Shepherd, and is here sung by Yana Ovrutskay:
Shepherd currently performs this song with the group “Sklamberg and the Shepherds” (also featuring Lorin Sklamberg of The Klezmatics and clarinetist Merlin Shepherd). Both Shepherd’s and Lang’s compositions include the fourth verse of the original poem which is included in the Mlotek booklet but not sung in the folklorized versions.
From Chana and Joseph Mlotek’s Pearls of Yiddish Song:
Kegn gold fun zun (Toward the Golden Sunrise) Performance by Chaim Berman
Recording by Rabbi Victor Reinstein
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
The words and music for the Soviet-Yiddish song Kegn gold fun zun have been published in Ruth Rubin’s Treasury of Jewish Folksong and Chana and Joseph Mlotek’s Songs of Generations (see below). The words were also included in Sam Liptzin’s collection Zingen mir (1974). Apparently it was a well-known song in the 1930s- 1960s; however, the only recording of the song that we are aware of is on Ruth Rubin’s 1940s 78 rpm recording Ruth Rubin: Jewish and Palestinian Folksongs and among the field recordings in Ruth Rubin’s collection (tape 81) found in YIVO and other archives.
The composer is unknown, but the text was written by the Soviet Yiddish poet Shloyme Lopatin (Lopate). According to Chaim Beider’s Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband, (pp.194 – 195) Shloyme Lopatin was born in Belinkove, Ukraine in 1907. He settled in a Jewish colony in the Kherson area for several years and became a colonist. In 1929 he came to Odessa to further his studies. He published his first songs in 1928 in the Kharkov Yiddish journal Prolit, and among these first published writings was the poem Ikh, der yidisher muzhik (I, the Jewish Russian Peasant). Beider writes that this poem “immediately became so popular that people began to sing it as if it were a folksong, and it was then included as such in anthologies”. Lopatin died fighting on the Russian front in 1941.
This week’s recording of folksinger Chaim Berman (d. 1973) was made by Rabbi Victor Reinstein in the 1970s. Berman’s words vary from the printed texts in the second verse, where he repeats the first two lines from the first verse.
Leo Summergrad’s mother, Minnie, and father, Abram Summergrad, on the right side. His in-laws Moishe and Esther Korduner are on the left.
Itzik Manger in his Chernovitz days, 1920s
Beyle and Itzik Gottesman looking over Yiddish field recordings, 1970s.
Yiddish Song of the Week 