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:
A badekns/Veiling the Bride
Sung and composed by M.M. Shaffir, recorded in the Bronx, 1974
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
In his Yiddish poetry collections, the Montreal poet M. M. Shaffir occasionally included folksongs, rhymes and jokes that he remembered from his home town in Romania, Suceava (“Shots” in Yiddish). This original badekns, words and music, was printed in his collection of Yiddish poetry Ikh kum aheym, and follows very closely the traditional badekns that the badkhn (wedding entertainer) would deliver at the veiling of the bride. The printed pages with the Yiddish words and music are attached as pdfs.
M.M. Shaffir, photo by Itzik Gottesman
Shaffir did not clearly indicate that the music is his composition and not a traditional tune remembered from Suceava, but since he did compose other melodies for his poetry, I am leaning toward crediting him as composer the music as original.
Shaffir’s badekns, as is typical of the genre, addresses mainly the bride, then al the women, telling her of her wonderful future and how a pious religious Jewish life will assure her a place in heaven.
Listening to Shaffir sing this song in the Bronx are Beyle and Jonas Gottesman, the Yiddish writer Vera Hacken and her husband, the composer Emanuel Hacken.
Because the song is longer than usual, we are alternating transliteration with translation.
TRANSLITERATION/TRANSLATION
Kalenyu, tsat tsi der khipe geyn –
bam khusn hosti deym zibetn kheyn.
Gefin azoy kheyn oykh ba Got un ba lat.
Az dan shem zol zikh trugn noent un vat.
Dear bride, time to go to the khupe. The groom is enamored of you. May God and all people see this charm, so your reputation, will be heard near and far.
A shem-tov iz beser fun gutn eyl,
vi s’vert in di heylike sfurim dertseylt.
Far vur, er iz shener fin alerley tsir,
un er hit fin shlekhts deym erlekhns tir.
A good name is better than good oil, as it is written in the holy books. Indeed, it is more beautiful than all kinds of ornaments. and protects from evil the honest one’s door
Nushim tsidkuniyes, beydns tsad –
aykh kimt hant der ershter vivat.
kalenyu, kik tsa di babes aher –
zey, vi zey shmeykhlen un lozn a trer.
Pious women on both sides – you deserve the first praise. Bride, look over to the grandmothers – see how they smile and drop a tear.
Shtel zikh, kale, ba zey in rey,
un her mayne shloyshe dvurim tsvey –
az dort, vi mitsves hobn an ort,
iz shulem-bayes oykh do dort.
Bride, stand with them in row, and hear my few words – – there where mitsves find a place, there is also peace at home.
Mitsves brengen di brukhe in hoyz,
in trabn fin dort deym dales aroys.
Zey bentshn mit gite doyres dus pur
in mit khayim- arikhim, gezinte yur.
Mitsves (good deeds/fulfillment of God’s commandments) bring blessings to the home, and drive out poverty from there. They bless the pair with good generations and with a long and healthy life.
Fin mitsves hot men i du deym skhar,
un i s’iz af yener velt git derfar.
Vayl mitsves un maynsim toyvim nor
nemt mit der mentsh iber hindert yur.
From mitsves you receive both here a reward, and in the word to come it will be good. Because mitsves and good deeds lasts for someone a hundred years.
Fin intern kisey-hakuved afir,
fin hinter a zilberner lekhtiker tir,
kimt di neshume arup of der erd,
aran inem gif, val azoy iz bashert.
From under God’s throne, from behind a silver, illuminated door, comes the soul down to earth, and into the body for which he is destined.
Zi darf zikh du mitshen a lebn vist
un nisht vern farzindikt, nisht vern farrist,
un kimen tsirik far Got tsi geyn –
azoy vi geboyrn, tsikhtik un reyn.
It [the soul] must suffer here a life long and not sin, not be torn away. and return to God the way it was born – pure and clean.
In gan-eydn shteyen shtiln gegreyt
in shan fin der shkhine, mit vasn geshpreyt,
batsirt un bahungen mit gildene tsikh –
in rifn di reyne neshumes tse zikh.
In paradise two chairs are prepared, in the light of the shekhine, covered with white, decorated and hung with a golden cover. and call for the pure souls to come.
Un der vus hot af der zindiker erd
mitsves getin un gits geklert –
der zitst in gan-eydn oybn un
in bigdey-sheynkeyt ungetun.
And he who on this sinful earth did mitsves and good deeds, he sits in heaven at the head of the table, and dressed in beautiful clothes.
In zkhis fin dan tsitkis, kalenyu kroyn,
zol zikh ekn der gulus bald un shoyn –
me zol zoykhe zan take gor in gikh
tsu hern dem shoyfer shel moshiakh.
Because of your piousness, dear bride, may the exile soon end. May we deserve right away to hear the Messiah’s shofar.
Melukhim un surim zoln varfn fin shrek
tsin indzere tsures zol nemen an ek.
in Got zol mit zan rekhter hant
indz firn tsirik in heylikn land.
Let angels and seraphim shutter from fear, our troubles should come to an end. and God should with his right hand, lead us back to the Holy Land.
Ikh heyb of mit a tfile dem bekher mit van
az halevay zol es nokh beyomeyni zan.
in ir, khusn-kale, in ir groys un kleyn –
zugt mir nokh af a kol un in eynem: “omeyn”
With a prayer I raise the goblet of wine, that this should happen even in our own time. And you, bride and groom, and you big and small, say with me out aloud and together – “amen”
Zets zikh avek bay dem “kitchen table”
Performance by Izzy Young, Stockholm, Sweden
Recorded by Itzik Gottesman, May 2014.
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
Izzy Young (born 1928) is a well-known figure in the history of the American folk music revival. His “Folklore Center” in Greenwich Village, established in 1957, often served as the first performance space for up and coming singers such as Bob Dylan.
He later moved to Sweden, and in 1973 he opened a “Folklor Centrum” in Stockholm. In May 2014 I recorded him in his storefront singing Zetz zikh avek bay dem ‘kitchen table’ to the melody of Hob ikh mir an altn daym. He explained that his father had owned a kosher bakery in the Bronx and this song was composed during a baker’s strike in the late 1920s or 1930s. Izzy Young’s mother Pola Young used to sing Yiddish songs and even performed them once in the 1960s at a folk music concert.
The melody of the Yiddish drinking song Hob ikh mir an altn daym itself borrows the melody of George Enescu’s “Romanian Rhapsody n. 1”, Op 11:
The words to “Hob ikh mir an altn daym” can be found in many Yiddish song books including the Mlotek’s collection Mir trogn a gezang.
Zets zikh avek bay der “kitchen table”
Tra-la-la-la-la
Esn a broyt mit der “union-label”
Tra-la-la-la-la
Take a seat at the kitchen table.
Tra-la-la-la
Eat some bread with the union label.
Tra..tra…tra..
International union broyt
makht di bakn sheyn un royt.
tra-la-la-la-la….
International Union bread
makes the cheeks nice and red.
tra..tra…tra..
Spoken (possible second verse that Izzy Young tries to remember):
“And if you buy Union bread
may you live a long time…”
In this week‘s entry the reader will get four Yiddish songs for the price of one. What connects them is the same melody. I am not the first to write on the popularity of this tune. The Israeli Yiddish song-researcher Meir Noy wrote an article זמר סובב עולם [The tune that circles the world] in the Israeli publication אומר, April 13, 1962. I could not find the article yet, so am not sure what he includes.
The first song and perhaps the oldest is a beggar song – Vu zenen mayne vugn un ferd? (Where are my wagon and horse?); the second song Yosele mit Blimele (Yosele and Blimele) is a typical lyrical love song. These are sung by Lifshe Schaechter-Widman (LSW, 1893 – 1974), recorded in 1954 in NYC and originate from her Bukovina repertoire that she learned in the small town of Zvinyetchke in the 1890s-early 1900s. I have found no variants of the beggar song, and one of Yosele mit blimele (Oy vey mame, in the Pipe-Noy collection, see below, page 270-71 with music). The first line as my mother remembers it sung was “Vu iz mayn vugn, vu zenen mayne ferd?” which fits better into the melody; it does indeed sound as if LSW forgot a syllable or two when she sings it here, and forces it into the melody.
In the interviews that Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett of New York University recorded with LSW in the early 1970s shortly before her death, LSW said that much of her repertoire, particularly the songs about life‘s difficulties, was learned from the older, married women in town, while the younger unmarried women taught her the hopeful love songs. Vu zenen mayne vugn un ferd would fall into the category taught by the married women (vayber) while Yosele mit blimele would be a typical song performed during the Sabbath afternoon walks that the unmarried girls took into the woods. In terms of style, the beggar song is sung slower and more mournful, while the love song is more playful.
LSW sings other versions of Yosele mit blimele including a second verse:
Az du vest kumen, tsum dokter bay der tir, zolst im gebn a vink, azoy vi ikh tsu dir. Zolst im gebn a tuler in der hant. Vet er shoyn visn vus mit dir iz genant
When you come to the doctor’s door, you should give him a wink, like I give to you. you should give him a dollar in his hand; so he will know what embarrased you.
A verse which implies an abortion! But in such a light-hearted song it seems quite incongruous.
The third song – In a kleynem shtibele (In a Small Room) – is sung by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (born 1920) and was recorded May 13th 2011 (last week) in the Bronx. She learned this song in one of her afternoon Yiddish classes in Chernovitz, (then Romania) either at the Morgnroit school (Socialist Bundist) or the Yidisher shulfareyn, a Yiddish cultural group, in the 1920s, early 1930s. Basically the same version was collected by the folklorists Shmuel-Zanvil Pipe and his brother Oyzer Pipe in their hometown of Sanok (in yiddish- Sunik), Galicia, then Poland. Dov and Meir Noy published the Pipe brothers collection in Israel (Folklore Research Studies , Vol. 2, Jerusalem 1971), and a copy of that version is attached with the music. See the footnote to the song by Dov and Meir Noy (p. 326) for other songs with this melody, and the reference to Meir Noy‘s article mentioned above.
In a kleynem shtibele is a worker‘s song, text written by the writer and ethnographer A. Litvin (pseudonym of Shmuel Hurvits 1863 – 1943) and the complete original text (Di neyterkes) can be found in M. Bassin‘s Antologye: Finf hundert yor yidishe poezye, volume one 258-259, NY 1917.
The fourth song with the same melody is In shtetl Nikolayev (In the Town of Nikolayev). The Freedman Jewish Sound Archive has information on three recordings: a version by David Medoff (1923); Kapelye (the album „Future and Past‟, sung by Michael Alpert); and the German group Aufwind (from the album „Awek di junge jorn‟). We have included a link to the Medoff performance. See Mark Slobin and Richard Spotwood‘s article on Medoff (David Medoff: A Case Study in Interethnic Popular Culture in American Music, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 261-276.
AUDIO RECORDINGS:
Song 1:Vu zenen mayne vugn un ferd? (Where are my wagon and horse?). Performance by Lifshe Schaechter-Widman, recorded in 1954 by Leybl Kahn.
Song 2:Yosele mit Blimele(Yosele and Blimele). Performance by Lifshe Schaechter-Widman, recorded in 1954 by Leybl Kahn.
Song 3:In a kleynem shtibele (In a Small Room). Performance by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, recorded May 12, 2011 by Itzik Gottesman.
Song 4: In shtetl Nikolayev (In the Town of Nikolayev). Performance by David Medoff, recorded 1923.
TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
Song 1:Vu zenen mayne vugn un ferd? (Where are my wagon and horse?). Performance by Lifshe Schaechter-Widman, recorded in 1954 by Leybl Kahn.
Vu zenen mayne vugn un ferd?
Az ikh bin aroysgefurn, hot getsitert himl un erd.
Hant bin ikh urem; shtey ikh ba der tir.
Kimen tsu geyn di sholtikes un lakhn (up?) fin mir.
Where are my wagon and horse?
When I first drove out, heaven and earth shook.
Now that I am poor, I stand at the door.
So the scoundrels come by to mock me.
Vi iz mayn tsiring vus ikh hob gebrakht fin vin?
Vus mayn vab un kinder zenen gegongen ongetin?
Hant az ikh bin urem, shtey ikh far der tir.
Kimen tsu geyn di sholtikes un lakhn up (?) fin mir.
Where is the jewelry that I had brought from Vienna?
That was worn by my wife and children.
Now that I am poor, I stand by the door.
So the scoundrels come by to mock me. Song 2:Yosele mit Blimele(Yosele and Blimele). Performance by Lifshe Schaechter-Widman, recorded in 1954 by Leybl Kahn.
Yosele mit Blimele zey zitsn af a bank.
Oy vey Blimele, ikh bin azoy krank.
Kh‘hob aza krenk, ikh shem zikh oystsuzugn,
Der dokter hot mir geheysn khasene-hobn.
Yosele and Blimele are sitting on a bench.
Oh dear Blimele, I am so very ill.
I have an illness, I am embarrased to reveal –
The doctor ordered me to get married.
Khasene hobn – es geyt dir nor in deym.
Khasene hobn – ken men glaykh ven (?) me vil aleyn.
Khasene hobn – darf men hubn gelt.
Ken men opfirn a sheyne velt.
Getting married – is all you can think of.
Getting married is easy if you want to do by ourselves.
Getting married – you need money for that,
and then you can have a beautiful world.
Yingelekh un meydelekh hot shoyn nisht keyn moyre.
Khasene hubn – es shteyt dokh in der toyre.
As der shnader shnadt – shnadt er mit der mode
un az der rebe vil a vab, meygn mir avode.
Boys and girls, you no longer have to fear.
Getting married – It says so in the Torah.
When the tailor tailors, he cuts according to the fashion
and if the Rebbe wants a wife, then we may too of course.
Song 3:In a kleynem shtibele (In a Small Room). Performance by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, recorded May 12, 2011 by Itzik Gottesman.
In a kleynem shtibele, bay a langn tish. Zitsn dortn meydelekh un dreyen mit di fis. Zey dreyen di mashindelekh fun fri biz nakht Un azoy vern tutsnvayz hemdelekh gemakht.
In a small room, at a long table, There sit girls and turn with their feet. They turn the machines from early to night. And thus by the dozens, shirts are produced. Girls, so small, tell me why are you pale?
Meydelekh ir kleninke, zogt vos zent ir blas? Hemdelekh ir vaysinke, zogt vos zent ir nas? Meydelekh un hemdelekh, zey reydn nisht keyn vort. Nor di mashindelekh zey geyen imer fort.
Shirts so white, tell me why are you wet? Girls and shirts, they do not speak a word. But the machines, they keep going forever.
Song 4: In shtetl Nikolayev (In the Town of Nikolayev). Performance by David Medoff, recorded 1923.
Transliterated lyrics courtesy of the German klezmer band Aufwind may be found on the Zemerl website by clicking here.
M.M. Shaffir, photo by Itzik Gottesman
Yiddish Song of the Week 