Di shteytishe meydelekh [kh’bin geboyrn a dorfsmoyd] The City Girls (I Was Born a Country Girl)
Sung by Lifshe Schaechter-Widman. Recorded by Leybl Kahn, 1954 NYC
Jewish girl from village outside of Zagreb, courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Di shteytishe meydalekh geyen shpatsirn Zey geyen geuremt mit sheyne kavelirn. In der puder aleyn Er makht zey di bekelekh sheyn.
The city girls go for a walk. They’re arm in arm with handsome suitors. And just the powder makes their cheeks pretty.
Ikh veyn in klug. Ikh ver nisht mid. Keyner hert mayn veynen nit. Of mir iz nebekh a noyt. Kh’bin geboyrn a dorfsmoyd.
I cry and lament. I don’t get tired. No one hears my weeping. I have, alas, a fault: I was born a country [village] girl.
Di shteytishe meydelekh trugn zikh net. Zey libn nisht keyn yidn; nor ales kadet. Nor af mir, iz nebekh aza noyt. Kh’bin geboyrn a dorfsmoyd.
The city girls are so elegant. They don’t love Jews, only cadets. But alas, I have a fault – I was born a country girl.
Ikh veyn in klug, Ikh ver nisht mid. Keyner hert mayn veynen nit. Oyf mir iz aza noyt. Ikh bin geboyrn a dorfsmoyd.
I cry and lament. I do not tire. No one hears my weeping. I have, alas, this fault – I was born a country girl.
COMMENTARY BY ITZIK GOTTESMAN
I could not find this song in any collection and it is not found in the play “Dos dorfs meydl” by Perlmutter and Wohl. It is probably from an old Yiddish musical play but whether the singer Lifshe Schaechter-Widman learned it growing up in Bukovina, or in NYC when she was living there from 1908 to 1914 is not clear (she went back to Europe in 1914, and did not return to live in the US until 1951).
די שטעטישע מיידלעך איך בין געבוירן אַ דאָרפֿמויד געזונגען פֿון ליפֿשע שעכטער־ווידמאַן
Kale lebn, kale lebn A badkhn parody sung by Dora Libson Recorded by Lionel Libson, 1977
Transcribed by Eliezer Niborski, English translation by Itzik Gottesman.
Kale-lebמ, kale-lebn Kale-lebn, kale-lebn, Meyn darfsti veynen un shrayen. Az zolst hobn aza velt azoy zis vi borsht fun klayen. Un zolst darfn geyn borgn un layen. Un zolst keyn mol nit aroys funem rov un funem dayen.
Dear bride, dear bride, You should cry and scream some more. You should have a world so sweet as borsht made with bran. You should rely on borrowing and lending. And may you never get out from the rabbi and his assistant.
Oy, a ber un a shver un a shlimazelnitse zenen dokh oykhet darbay. A ber hot a langn veydl un a shver hot lib a sheyn meydl. Un az a shlimezalnitse geyt in mark – fardripet zi dus kleydl.
Oy, a bear and a father-in-law and an unlucky woman are also present. A bear has a long tail, and a father-in-law loves a pretty girl. And when an unlucky woman goes to market she spatters her dress
Oy, a bukher un a meydl un a shlimezalnitse zenen dokh oykhet darbay. A bukher az er geyt avek heyst men zikh im nit (h)aylen. un a meydl, az zi geyt avek heyst men zikh ir nit zamen. Un az me shikt a shlimezalnitse nokh fleysh brengt zi plyamen.
Oy, a young man and girl and an unlucky woman are present as well. A young men when he leaves is told not to hurry and a girl, when she leaves is told not to wait. And when you send an unlucky woman to buy meat she comes back with stains.
In the spirit of Purim this week, we present a parody of a badkhn’s bazetsns. Before the ceremony of veiling the bride, the wedding entertainer, the badkhn, used to address the bride, reminding her of the youth that she leaves behind and how to lead an observant Jewish life with her husband. Sometimes the rhymes would be a stretch, almost non-sensical and that is at the heart of the parodies.
I believe the repeated lines in our parody “…are also present” are mocking the lines of the badkhn when he reminds the bride that although her parents or grandparents may have died, they are with her today at this happy occassion.
The badkhn parodies are usually of the bazetsns, the seating, and the badekns, the veiling; two emotional moments before the marriage under the khupe/canopy. The bazetsns is strickly a women’s ceremony, except for the badkhn, and a time of much weeping. I have added below two pages from Hayyim Schauss’s work The Lifetime of a Jew (1976) in which he discusses these moments at the wedding. Schauss was a Litvak from Lithuania so much of what he describes is particularly true of his region. It is worth reading.
This is a link to a “real” badekns, not a parody, as sung by Majer Bogdanski, born 1912 in Piotrkow-Tribunalsky, Poland, from the CD Yiddish songs / Yiddishe liders:
One can also see the badkhn perform in such Yiddish films “Yidl mitn fidl” “Uncle Moses” and “The Dybbuk”. The badkhn tradition has made a comeback in today’s Hasidic world and many examples can be found on YouTube. As far as I can tell, they have become mainly comics, and do not paricipate in other wedding ceremonies.
To get a feel for the type of music that might be played at the bazetsn, here is violinist Jutta Bogen playing an example (from Pete- this one has the structue of a Romanian doina):
Many such bazetsn/ badekn parodies were recorded on 78 RPMs in the 1910s- 1930s, and even later. Here is Henri Gerro’s Kolomeyer badchn. The badkhones parody begins at 1:00.
Further reading on the badkhn:
1) Article by Joel Rosenberg “Badkhones in Life and Cinema” on the website In geveb 2) “Badkhonim” in the YIVO Encyclopedia by Jean Baumgarten. 3) Book: הבדחן (in Hebrew) by Ariela Krasney
Special thanks this week to Eliezer Niborski who transcribed the recording.
Excerpt from Hayyim Schauss’s work The Lifetime of a Jew (1976):
“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.
Yiddish Song of the Week 