“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

“Vus tisti du sheyn meydele?” Performed by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

The ballad “Vus tisti du sheyn meydele?” (“What are You Doing Here Pretty Girl?”) performed in this field recording of Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (my mother) is another Yiddish variant of the international ballad known generically as “Impossible Tasks.” See the previous Yiddish Song of the Week posting for another Impossible Tasks ballad sung by Josh Waletzky.

Schaechter-Gottesman learned this version in Chernovitz before the second World War from her friend Moyshe (Moshe) Barasch (1920 – 2004), who came from a Bessarabian family. Moshe Barasch later became an internationally known art critic and historian in Israel.

The melody is similar to the song “Hey, di, di / Rik zikh tsi, rik zikh tsi mir /Az du vilst a libe shpiln,/ shpil zhe es mit mir” (still looking for a printed version…).

I recorded my mother singing “Vu tisti du sheyn meydele?” at home in the Bronx in March 2011.

Vus tisti du sheyn meydele?
Vus tisti du baym brinem?
Gey, shoyn gey, un gey shoyn gey,
Fun vanen bist gekimen.

“What are you doing pretty girl?
What are you doing at the well?”
“Go, already, go,
Wherever you came from.”

“Fun vanen kh’bin gekimen,
zolsti mir nisht traybn.
Khap zhe mir a ber fun vald
un lern im oys shraybn.”

“Where I came from,
do not drive me there.
Better catch a bear from the woods
and teach him how to write.”

“A ber fun vald vel ikh dir khapn,
un im oyslernen shraybn.
Makh zhe mir zibn kinder,
a meydl zolsti blaybn.”

“I will catch a bear from the woods,
and teach him how to write.
“Then you should have seven children,
yet a maiden remain.”

“Zibn kinder vel ikh dir makhn
a meydl vel ikh blaybn.
Makh zhe mir zibn vign,
un tsvekes in un laystn.”

“I will have seven children,
and I will remain a maiden”
You should then make me seven cradles,
without nails,  with no wood strips.”

“Zibn vign vel ikh dir makhn,
un tsvekes in un laystn.
Makh zhe mir zibn hemder
un nodl in un zadn.”

“Seven cradles, I will make for you
with no nails, no wood strips.
Make for me seven shirts
without needle, without silk.”

“Zibn hemder vel ikh dir makhn
un nodl in un zadn.
Makh zhe mir aza min leyter
er zol kenen in himl shtaygn.”

“Seven shirts I will make for you
without needle, without silk.
Make for me a ladder
that can reach into the sky.”

“Aza min leyter vel ikh dir makhn
er zol kenen in himl shtaygn.
Ikh a nar in di a tsveyter,
lomir beser shvaygn.”

“Such a ladder I will make for you
that will reach up into the sky.
I, a fool, and you – another one,
So let us both be silent.”