“Seyder nakht (Di fentster, zey lakhtn)” Performed by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath

Seyder nakht (Di fentster, zey lakhtn) / Seder Night (The Windows Illuminate)
A Passover song from the American Folkshuls. Words: Naftoli Gross. Music: Mikhl Gelbart. Sung and recorded April 12,  2022 by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Teaneck New Jersey

Naftoli Gross (1896-1956)

Di fentster zey lakhtn mit yontif in blendn.
Di tishn – mit gildene koyses in kares,
koyses in kares.
Di shtiber – mit kinder in vinder-legendn.
Zey zingen – fin gur ale vinklen in shpares.
vinklen in shpares

The windows illuminate with festival and dazzle.
The tables – with golden goblets and seder plates
goblets and seder plates
The homes – with children and wonder legends,
they sing from every corner and crevice,
corner and crevice.

Di tirn fin shtiber, zey shteyen breyt ofn.
Ver s’darf zol hant kimen tsi indz un zol esn,
kimen in zol esn.
Di kindershe oygn mit yontif in hofn.
Eliyohu vet kimen in keynem fargesn,
keynem fargesn.

The doors of homes are wide open.
Whoever needs to, should come to us and eat,
come and eat.
The childlike eyes with holiday and hope,
Elijah should come and forget no one,
Forget no one.

COMMENTARY by Itzik Gottesman

This song entitled “Seyder nakht”, with words by Naftoli Gross (1896-1956) and music by Mikhl Gelbart (1889 – 1962) was published in 1948. It was sung at the beginning of the Workman’s Circle and Sholem Aleichem folkshuls’ seders in the 1960s and probably earlier. Since I could find no recording of the song, I asked Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, who remembered it from Sholem Aleichem Shul #21 in the Bronx to record it.

Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath is a Yiddish poet and the chair of the League for Yiddish in New York City. Below the song as published in the Sholem Aleichem folkshul Passover Haggadah, circa 1968:

¨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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“Nodele” Performed by Martin Horowitz

Nodele / Little Needle
Words: Sara Barkan, music: H. Wolowitz. Sung by Martin Horowitz, recorded by Gertrude Nitzberg, Baltimore, 1979

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

Martin Horowitz

The singer Martin Horowitz of Baltimore passed away on Feb, 12, 2020. The obituary in the Baltimore Jewish Times (Mar. 25) writes that “He loved music, dancing, and was an energetic and graceful performer. He played guitar, accompanying himself on folk and Yiddish songs.”

This is another song from the Nitzberg Collection at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. This song, words and music, is included in the collection Zing mit mir published by Workmen’s Circle, NY, 1945 (third printing), edited by Mikhl Gelbart. We have attached the pages, Yiddish words and music.

The text was written by Sarah Barkan (also known as Barkan-Silverman), a radical Yiddish poet who was very much part of the Yiddish communist literary world before the Second World War. She contributed many poems to the leftist Yiddish schools in America, and “Nodele” is one of them. It is published in her book Gutfriling (NYC,1936) where it is titled “Tsu a nodl”.

Sarah Barkan

Barkan was born in Dvinsk (Daugavipils), Latvia, in 1884 and immigrated to the US in 1907. She died in NY in 1957.

The composer Hersh Wolowitz was active in the 1920s and 1930’s. His best known song “A fidler” begins with the line “S’hot der tate fun yaridl”. He published two collections Tsen kinderlider (1929) and Lider tsum zingen (1936).

TRANSLITERATION

Nodl, nodl, nodele,
Shtekh durkh dem gevant.
A fodem in dayn eygele
Loz durkhgeyn mayn hant.

Refrain:

Fal nit, fal nit nodele,
fun mayn mider hant.
Mir tantsn dokh a nodltants,
Af zayd un af gevant.

Ven der tog vet shlofn geyn,
rustu in mayn lats.
Nodl, nodl nodele,
nodele mayn shats.

Refrain

TRANSLATION

Needle, needle, little needle,
poke through this cloth.
Let pass a thread in your little eye
through my hand.

Refrain:

Don’t fall, don’t fall little needle
from my weary hand.
We dance a needle dance,
on silk and on cloth.

When the day will go to sleep,
you rest in my lapel.
Needle, needle, little needle,
little needle my treasure.

Refrain

A Second Melody for “Katshke grin” Performed by Abba Rubin

A Second Melody for “Katshke grin”
Performed by Abba Rubin, recorded by Rachel Rubin 1991.

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman.

The Yiddish children’s song “Katshke grin”, also known as “Geyt arum a grine katshke” and “Grine katshke”,  has been recorded but with a different melody. This week we present a previously unknown melody for the song. The singer, Abba Rubin, was recorded by his daughter Rachel Rubin at the same field recording session as the previously posted Burekes af Peysekh in 1991.

The words to Katshke grin were written by artist and writer Zuni Maud (1891 – 1956) and printed in Kinder Zhurnal, a monthly Yiddish children’s magazine published by the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute in NYC, where he often contributed poetry and drawings.

Zuni Maud’s frequent collaborator was artist/writer Yosl Cutler and together they created the first successful Yiddish puppet theater Modicut (1925 – 1933) in NY. According to Edward Portnoy who wrote on the radical Modicut troupe, Mikhl Gelbart and Moyshe Rappaport wrote much of the music for Modicut, so perhaps one of them was the composer of one or both of the melodies.

Mariam Nirenberg sings Grine katshke with another melody on her record Folksongs in the East European Tradition: Mariam Nirenberg (Global Village GV M117).  You can hear Niremberg’s version on iTunes. She only sings one verse and the duck has a red nose, not a broad one as in Rubin’s version. Nirenberg emigrated from her town Czarnawcyce, Poland (Yiddish = Tsharnovtshits) to Canada in 1932.

The song, with Nirenberg’s melody, become more popular recently thanks to the CD recording Di grine katshke/The Green Duck (Living Traditions, 1997).  There it is sung with four verses by Henry Sapoznik.

Thanks for their help for this week’s post go to Abba Rubin, Edward Portnoy and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. 

TRANSLITERATION

Katshke grin, breyte noz
un keyner veyst nisht vos iz dos.

Geyt arum a grine katshke,
geyt arum un trakht.
volt zi davenen shakhris
falt shoyn tsu di nakht.

Katshke grin, breyte noz
un keyner veyst nisht vos iz dos.

Geyt arum a grine katshke
geyt arum un kayt.
Volt zi brokn lokshn
hot zi nit keyn tsayt.

Katshke grin, breyte noz
un keyner veyst nisht vos iz dos.

Geyt arum a grine katshke
mit a breyter noz.
Volt zi shmekn tabak
hot zi nisht mit vos.

Kashke grin, breyte noz
un keyner veyst nisht vos iz dos.

TRANSLATION

Green duck, wide nose,
and no one knows what this is.

A green duck wanders,
wanders and thinks:
She would pray the morning prayers
but night has just fallen.

Green duck, wide nose,
and no one knows what this is.

A green duck wanders,
wanders and chews.
She would cut up the noodles,
but she doesn’t have the time.

Green duck, wide nose,
and no one knows what this is.

A green duck wanders,
with a wide nose.
She would smell tobacco,
but she doesn’t have with what.

Green duck, wide nose,
and no one knows what this is.

“Afn veg tsum zimergurtn” Performed by Beyle Schaechter Gottesman

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

This week we present a song about streetwalkers with three different melodies.

“Afn veg tsim zimergurtn” (On the Way to the Summer Garden) was learned by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman [BSG] in Chernovitz in the 1930s.

This field recording was done in her home in the Bronx in 2010, when BSG was 90 years old. The original poem is by A. L. [Aron Leyb] Baron (1886 – 1954), but does not appear in the only printed collection of his poetry, Di yidishe brodvey un and ere lider (New York, 1949).

The entire poem appears in one of Mikhl Gelbart’s collections of his own musical compositions, Gezangen [Songs] (1937) with the complete text and with Gelbart’s music. It is entitled “Meydlekh” [Girls].

There was a third melody composed by Bernard Maitlin, sung by Vera Rozanka “Di yidishe shikse”, entitled “In gortn” [In the garden].

On the Polish Jewish Cabaret website of Jane Peppler she sings Maitlin’s melody and prints the songsheet from 1936 which includes the original poem by Baron, in Yiddish. We are grateful to Jane for making available the songsheet page as well as her translation and transliteration and refer you to her website where you can hear her sing this version.

Afn veg fun zumer gortn geyen shtendik meydlekh tsvey
Keyn zakh yogt zey nit fun dortn, nit keyn regn, nit keyn shney (2x)

Zogt mir shvester hungrik, blase, vos hot aykh aher gebrakht?
Hunger, dales, kelers nase, oder gor an ander makht? (2x)

“Mikh der dales un der hunger,” entvert eyne ziftsn shver
“Mikh – a liber mentsh a yunger,” vayzt di tsveyte on: aher! (2x)

“Faynt hot er mikh gor deriber vos ikh bin gevorn alt
Itster kum, zay du der liber, kalt iz mir, brr, vi kalt.” (2x)

Afn veg fun zumer gorn geyen meydlekh fil arum
Blut fun hartsn gist zikh dortn, fun di lipn hert men: kum… (2x)

On the path from the summer garden, two girls are always walking.
Nothing can drive them away, not rain, not snow.

Tell me, hungry pale sisters, what brought you here?
Was it hunger, poverty, the damp of a cellar, or something else completely?

“For me, it was poverty and hunger,” answered one, sighing heavily.
“For me, it was my love, a younger man,” the other one points: here!

“He hates me just because I’ve grown old.
Now come, you be the beloved. I’m cold, brr, so cold.”

On the path from the summer garden girls wander.
The blood pours from their hearts there, from the lips you hear: Come…