All of the previous recordings in this blog of the Bukovina singer Lifshe Schaechter-Widman [LSW] are from the 1954 recordings done by Leybl Kahn. But her daughter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman recorded a few songs from her in the 1960s and early 1970s. This lullaby was recorded a few months before LSW died in 1973.
Lifshe Schaechter-Widman with her brother Luzer Gottesman. NYC ca. 1912
As usual, the transcription in English letters more accurately reflects her dialect than does the Yiddish transcription in the Yiddish alphabet in which we use standard Yiddish.
Spoken introduction by LSW: “Ikh fleyg dus zingen ven ikh bin nokh geveyn a kind mistame, finef, finef un zekhtsik yur tsurik. In dernokh hob eykh dus gezingen mane kinder. Kh’ob es gezingen Beyltsyen; Kh’ob es gezingen Mordkhen. Un hant vilt zikh es zingen…efsher veln mane eyniklekh es amul veln kenen.”
Shluf mayn feygele makh tsi dayn eygele.
Hay-da-lyu-lyu-lyu
Shluf mayn kroyndele, di bist a parshoyndele,
Shluf zhe, shluf lyu-lyu
Az di vest oyfshteyn fin deym zisn shluf
Hay-da-lyu-lyu-lyu
veln mir beyde geyn pasn di shuf.
Shluf zhe, shluf lyu-lyu
Oyf der khasene af daner, veln file mener
tantsn zinenyu.
Mir veln geyn oyf di beler, tantsn in di zele*
Shluf zhe, shluf lyu-lyu.
*(German: säle) the usual Yiddish plural of “zal” – a large room, ballroom would be “zaln”. LSW uses the more Germanic form, perhaps the local Yiddish Bukovina form, to rhyme.
TRANSLATION
LSW spoken introduction:
“I used to sing this when I was still a child, probably about 65 years ago. Then I sang it for my children. I sang it for Beyltsye. I sang it for Mordkhe. And today I feel like singing it…perhaps my grandchildren will want to know it.”
Sleep my little bird, close your eye.
Hay-da-lyu-lyu-lyu
Sleep my little crown, you are someone special.
So sleep, sleep lyu-lyu
When you wake up from your sweet sleep
Hay-da-lyu-lyu-lyu
We will both go to tend to the sheep
So sleep, sleep lyu-lyu
At your wedding many men will
dance, my dear son.
We will to the balls and dance in the halls
So sleep, sleep -lyu-lyu
When ballads have been presented on the Yiddish Song of the Week we have sometimes emphasized the parallels with other international ballads. This week we present a ballad type that is not to be found internationally, certainly not in the Anglo-British-American tradition – a ballad that describes the conversion of a child to the Christian faith; a shmad-ballad. The verb shmadn in Yiddish means to convert to Christianity.
This week’s entry has two versions of the same shmad-ballad. There are a number of others and judging by the geographic spread of the singers, we could conclude that it is at least as old as the 19th century.
1) The first version Zitst di mome (As Mother is Sitting) comes to us courtesy of the AHEYM (Archives of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memoirs) project at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. This project has been directed by professors Dov-Ber Kerler and Jeff Weidlinger. Special thanks to AHEYM project manager Anya Quilitzch who prepared the video clip.
The singer Zelda Roif of Kishinev (Chișinău), Moldova, sings in her Bessarabian dialect, marked especially by her toto-mome-loshn. Tate (father) in her dialect becomes tote, mame becomes mome and geshmadt becomes geshmodt (converted). Her version has a distinctly Romanian flavor since the daughter Sonyele falls in love with a shepherd (cioban).
In classic ballad form, the first few verses set the action then turn into a dialogue between mother and daughter, in which the mother tries to convince her daughter not to convert. The mother fails and the last two lines spoken by the daughter – “I can’t stand the Jewish faith” is quite a powerful (unhappy) ending.
2) The second ballad Bentsik der shoykhet (Bentsik the Ritual Slaughterer) is sung by Lillian Manuel of Suchowola in northeast Poland, and the recording and comments were provided by her grandson, the Yiddish linguist Dovid Braun.
By comparing the two ballads we see the similar dialogue structure though in different settings. The ending of Bentsik der shoykhet is also quite shocking.
The Yiddish shmad-ballad song type deserves a longer analysis than is possible here. Among other versions collected is one in Sofia Magid’s work printed in “Unser Rebbe, unser Stalin” edited by Elvira Grozinger and Susi Hudak-Lazic (Harrasowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2008) – “Rokhele” (pages 288-289) recorded in Volyn, 1928. The Magid version is a variant of the two presented today and recounts how Rokhele ran away with the priest’s son. In the longer text provided (page 555) a similar dialogue between parent and daughter can be found. A recording of the song is included in the DVD that comes with the volume.
Please find Yiddish texts at the end of this posting.
ZITST DI MAME (Performed by Zelda Roif, Kishinev, Moldova)
Zitst di mame un
arbet a zok.
Kimt men ir zogn,
az ir tokhter Sonyele hot zikh geshmodt.
Mother is sitting and
mending a sock,
when they come to tell her
that her Sonyele has converted.
Loyft zi zi zikhn,
tsvishn ole shkheynim.
In ir tokhter Sonyele
iz nishtu bay keynem.
So she runs to search her among all the neighbors. And her daughter Sonyele is not found by anyone.
Loyft zi zi zikhn tsi tshubanes tir. In ir tokhter Sonyele shteynt akeygn ir.
So she runs to look for her at the door of the shepherd. And her daughter Sonyele is standing across from her.
Sonyele, Sonyele kim tsu mir aheym. Ikh vel dir gibn vus di vi’st aleyn.
Sonyele, Sonyele Come home to me. I will give you whatever you want.
Ikh vel dir gibn kleyder un dan.. in a yidish yingele far ayn man.
I will give you clothes and then.. and a Jewish boy for a husband.
Bay mir bisti ‘gan mit shikh un kaloshn. Vest khasene hobm far tshuban (In Romanian= cioban) vesti oysgeyn far a groshn.
At my place you wore shoes and boots. If you marry the shepherd you will die for a penny.
Bay mir bisti ‘gan mit a vas, zadn kleyd. Vest khasene hobn far Tshuban vesti vashn yidish greyt.
With me, you wore a white, silk dress. If you marry the shepherd you will wash Jewish laundry.
[Spoken] Hot zi geentfert der miter: She answered her mother:
Trabt avek man miter ikh ken zi nisht ladn. Di yidishe nemune Ikh ken zi nisht farladn.
Drive away my mother, I can’t stand her. The Jewish faith I can’t stand it.
BENTSIK DER SHOYKHET (sung by Lillian Manuel, known in her shtetl Suchowola, NE Poland, as “Libe Yankl dem shvartsns”, to her grandson David / Dovid Braun, in the Workmen’s Circle Home for the Aged, Bronx, NY, ca. 1988) *see comments by David/Dovid Braun at the end of this translation.
Bentsik der shoykhet mitn zaydenem khalat;
Feygele zayn tokhter hot zikh opgeshmadt.
Bentsik the [kosher] slaughterer with his silken robe; Feygele his daughter has converted to Christianity.
Bentsik der shoykhet shpant ayn ferd-un-vogn kedey er zol kenen zayn Feygelen deryogn.
Bentsik the slaughterer hitched up his horse and wagon, So that he could catch up to his Feygele.
Bentsik der shoykhet geyt arayn in a kvartir. Gefunen hot er Feygelen bam kloyster fun tir [in kloyster bam tir].
Bentsik the slaughterer goes into an inn. What he’s found is Feygele in church by the door.
“Kum aher mayn tokhter, kum tsu mir aheym. Ikh vel dir gebn vos du vilst aleyn.”
“Come here my daughter, come home to me. I will give you whatever you want.
Ikh vel dir gebn gelt un nadan un tsu dertsu a sheynem yungn-man.”
I will give you money and dowry and on top of that a handsome young man.”
Bentsik der shoykhet, er falt tsu di fis un im af tselokhes dem sheygets a kish.
Bentsik the slaughterer, he falls to their feet and to spite him, [she gives] the gentile boy a kiss.
Bentsik der shoykhet, er falt tsu di tishn [griber] un im af tselokhes tseylemt zi zikh iber.
Bentsik the slaughterer falls to the tables [graves, pits], and to spite him she crosses herself.
Feygele iz gegangen in zaydene zokn. Az zi vet peygern vet klingen di glokn.
Feygele was wearing silken socks/stockings. When she croaks, the [church] bells will ring.
Af morgn bay tog: a yomer, a klog! Bentsik der shoykhet iz geshtorbn in mitn tog.
The next afternoon: alas and alack! Bentsik the slaughterer died in the middle of the day.
Notes by David Braun:
In the Yiddish original, I have placed in square brackets [ ] a few words Mrs. Manuel sang on an occasion a few years earlier when in better health and with a yet crisper memory. It is clear how those words make better sense and/or form a more satisfactory rhyme. Also, the final two stanzas were reversed in that earlier rendition, which makes more sense: walking neither with shoes nor barefoot but in socks or stockings is a sign of mourning. So first her father Bentsik has died, then she has donned traditional Jewish mourning garb, and finally we are warned that when the end comes for her, the apostate, mourning will be signaled by church bells.
After first becoming acquainted with this song in her repertoire, I compared her version to others in the folkloristic literature and discovered that in some, the gentile youth who is the object of Feygele’s romantic interest is named. With that information, I jogged her memory and ended up eliciting this additional stanza that she doesn’t sing on the recording – it clearly belongs after the stanza following Bentsik’s promise of dowry and all other good things. Feygele insists:
Kh’vil nit kayne kleyder, kh’vil nit kayn nadan. Aleksandern hob ikh lib un er vet zayn mayn man.
‘I don’t want any clothes, I don’t want any dowry. Alexander is who I love and he will be my husband.’
With this stanza, we’re enlightened as to what’s behind Feygele’s conversion from yiddishkayt, and religious philosophy doesn’t seem to be the motivating factor.
A Pastekhl (A Shepherd), is known from several cantorial recordings, including that of Zinoviy Shulman, and was sung by Hirsh (Grigoriy L’vovich) Reles in his family’s version. Hirsh Reles (1913 – 2004) happened to be the last Belarusian Yiddish author of the older generation. He was born into a rabbi’s family Chashniki, Vitebsk oblast. Reles started his career as a Yiddish literature teacher at a Jewish school. After Jewish schools had been shut down by Stalin, Reles started teaching Russian literature, but he never stopped writing in Yiddish. Having had been raised in a traditional Jewish environment, Hirsh Reles remembered quite a lot of songs and life facts from the pre-war time till his very last days in Minsk.
Hirsh Reles
This recording made in 1997 was the beginning of my systemic research of Jewish music in Belarus. Several years later Dr. Nina Stepanskaya, Z”L, and I recorded two video interviews with Hirsh Reles, which I hope will be published some time soon.
The song, though being sung mainly on behalf of a narrator, also involves a dialog between the shepherd and G-d. Like in many other Yiddish and, specifically, cantorial songs, the theatric element is represented here as well. Although not a ballad, this song clearly shows a story-like plot, tending to correspond with many niggunim’s texts and therefore it might be considered as somewhat a musical midrash.
Musically, the song demonstrates one of very typical structures often seen in Yiddish songs as well as cantorial compositions. It has three verses, each beginning with a non-metrical part followed a metrically organized chorus (pizmon). Having had been inspired by this recording of Reles’s singing, I later recorded this song with Minsker Kapelye for the Tutejsi (Di Ortike/The Locals) album, adding my own rap rhymes to the folk ones.
Editor’s Note: Anyone doing research on Yiddish song, particularly discographic information on LPs, should be aware of the Robert and Molly Freedman Jewish Sounds Archive. For instance, if you wanted to research who else had recorded this week’s song contribution, you could browse by the first line “Iz geven a mol a pastekhl” and find numerous recordings of the song. Then you could go to the Judaic Sound Archives of Florida Atlantic Universityand see if they have any recordings on line of the song that you could listen to (I searched a little by title and couldn’t find it, but searching by singer after finding the names in Freedman’s website, in this case, would be easier). More Yiddish song resources on-line in future posts. – Itzik Gottesman, Editor
Iz geven amol a pastekhl, a pastekhl,
Iz ba im forlorn gegangen a shefele, a shefele.
Geyt er, zet er: fort a fur mit shteyndelekh, mit shteyndelekh.
Hot er gemeynt a’(z) dos iz fun shefele di beyndelekh, di beyndelekh.
Zogt er: “Adeyni! Adeyni! Oy Adeyni!
Tshi nye bachyu ty, tshi nye vidzyeu ty ovtsy moi?”
Makh er, “Nyet.”
Byeda-byedu, ovtsy nishto!
A yak zhe ya damoy pridu?
A yak zhe ya damoy pridu?
Once upon a time there lived a shepherd. It happened once that he lost a sheep. Off he went and saw a wagon with stones. It seemed to him they were his sheep’s bones. He says, “My Lord, my Lord, my Lord! Have you seen, have caught sight of my sheep?” God says, “No!” “Woe is me! My sheep is gone. How shall I come back home?”
Geyt er, zet er: fort a fur mit dernelekh, mit dernelekh.
Hot er gemeynt a’ dos iz fun shefele di hernelekh, di hernelekh.
Zogt er: “Adeyni! Adeyni! Oy Adeyni!
Tshi nye bachyu ty, tshi nye vidzyeu ty ovtsy moi?”
Makh er, “Nyet.”
Byeda-byedu, ovtsy nishto!
A yak zhe ya damoy pridu?
A yak zhe ya damoy pridu?
Off he went and saw a wagon with turf. It seemed to him these were his sheep’s horns. He says, “My Lord, my Lord, my Lord! Have you seen, have caught sight of my sheep?” God says, “No!” “Woe is me! My sheep is gone. How shall I come back home?”
Geyt er, zet er: fort a fur mit niselekh, mit niselekh,
Hot er gemeynt a’ dos iz fun di shefele di fiselekh, di fiselekh.
Zogt er: “Adeyni! Adeyni! Oy Adeyni!
Tshi nye bachyu ty, tshi nye vidzyeu ty ovtsy moi?”
Makh er, “Nyet.”
Byeda-byedu, ovtsy nishto!
A yak zhe ya damoy pridu?
Off he went and saw a wagon with nuts. It seemed to him these were his sheep’s hoofs. He says, “My Lord, my Lord, my Lord! Have you seen, have caught sight of my sheep?” God says, “No!” “Woe is me! My sheep is gone. How shall I come back home?”
Yiddish text below from “Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs”, Volume 3, Vinkovetzky, Kovner, and Leichter, Jerusalem, 1985, pages 132 – 135.
Yiddish Song of the Week 