Yiddish Curiosities: a library of wonderful but forgotten Yiddish songs from the late 1920s and after (includes Polish Jewish Cabaret). Have a listen!

UPDATED to add a video made from our May 8 2022 concert. 

When my band Mappamundi was making the Cabaret Warsaw cd, we were looking for songs from the 1920s and 1930s which had both a Polish and a Yiddish version, and this song was one of them.

We wondered which came first until I found, at YIVO, Ben-Zion Witler's copy of this published sheet music for Nikodem with his own handwritten lyrics, in Yiddish, tucked inside. In my later research I've found several Polish songs which he re-wrote for his own repertoire.

The Polish version is about an obnoxious guy who thinks he's hot stuff. Witler's version is more interesting - it's about the anthropomorphized concept of Poverty as a sentient creature who comes to live with you and, sadly, like a leech of an uninvited guest, will not leave.
 

We recorded it for our Cabaret Warsaw cd: Der Dales and Nikodem by Mappamundi. We sing two of the three verses Witler recorded and then just the chorus of the Polish version (Nikodem) by Starski and Wars.

Here's my translation of the Yiddish lyrics. For a charming description of "Der Dales" (Mr. Poverty) see the bottom of this post.
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Labels: booze, humor & satire, making a living (poverty), modernity, songs for sale, warsaw, yiddish performers, yiddish song, yiddish theater song

UPDATE:Reposted to add (on the right) a brand new singalong version (I hadn't thought of that back in 2016 when I last posted this song). On the left, a live version from the very first time pianist Aviva Enoch and I performed the song. Maybe 2011? Ah, time flies.

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Yosele Kolodny, composer of this song, died in the Holocaust. Little is known about him. He was composer of another song in the Itzik Zhelonek collection - Dem Rebns Shirayim - which I have not been able to find (it's possible it was sung to a tune very much like this one, the scansion is similar). In the book The Jews of Pinsk, 1881 to 1941 Yosele Kolodni is mentioned as a young actor, a Pinsker, married to Ulia Rabinowitsch, performing in a comedy called Dolarn in 1923.

Zhelonek sold (and transcribed) a 78 made by Yossele Kolodni himself, but I haven't found it. Ben Bonus sang the song - as a cheery tango - and that's what I transcribed (download his version here). It's at the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive. At the Freedman catalogue you can find mention of quite few recordings of the song, which is sometimes called Khasidemlekh Tantsn and sometimes Khasidemlekh Zingen. These include a performance by Ben and Florence Belfer available online in the Florida Atlantic University collection: Khasidimlakh. Chava Kramer sent me the link.

Click the album cover below to hear and/or buy this track and all the others from our cd Nervez!

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The slippers and socks mentioned here are cited in Wikipedia:

Hasidim in the mid-19th century show a far more Levantine outfit (i.e. a kaftan lacking lapels or buttons) that differs little from the classical oriental outfit consisting of the kaftan, white undershirt, sash, knee-breeches (halbe-hoyzn), white socks and slippers (shtibblat). This outfit allegedly had a Babylonian origin before its later adoption by Jews, Persians and lastly the Turks, who brought it to Europe.

Here's my translation:
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Labels: booze, der rebbe, fun, humor & satire, nostalgia, religion, songs for sale, tango

In 2014 I posted a folk song called Dos Fleshele (Chort voz'mi) which was found in the Itzik Zhelonek collection of Yiddish theater songs beloved in Warsaw between the wars. I transcribed the tune from a cassette made by Itzik Gottesman when Jacob Gorelick sang the song in his living room in the 1980s. Gorelick said the melody was borrowed from the Russian folksong карие глазки (Karie glazki).

Recently Steven Lasky, proprietor of the Museum of the Yiddish Theatre, posted this lovely issue of Joseph Feldman's "Yiddish Theatrical Magazine" on Facebook. It contained lyrics and even a few bits of written music. One of the songs is this one, Chort vozmi.

The tune is very similar to the earlier one, but different enough I suppose that Feldman felt he could copyright it. While the other song's lyrics focus on how rotten it is to be a drunk, this version focuses on how rotten it is that a woman dumps you and forces you to become an alcoholic.

Earlier today the helpful band of Facebook yids (Marek Tuszewicki, Shane Baker, Michael Alpert, Eli Rosen, and Paula Teitelbaum) helped me with the word bridiage: it means vagabond or bum in Russian. Eleanor Reissa said she loved the words and would like to hear the song, so I decided to just jump in and record it.


Here are the words as transcribed in Feldman's magazine. Once again I want you to feast your eyes on the extremely non-standard transliteration. I would not have ever guessed a spelling like TSORT WAS MIE and as I've said many times before, if you can't guess the spelling you can't find it.

Words and translation after the jump.

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Labels: battle between the sexes, booze, folksong, love, nostalgia

UPDATE: I posted this originally in March, the day I finished writing the song (the same day Jim and Ken and I recorded it). As it turned out, I was selected as one of the "international finalists" for the Mexico City Der Idisher Idol competition (that's how they spell Der Yidisher Idol in Spanish). The competition organizers very kindly paid for my trip to Mexico City, which was fantastically fun, and ... I won! I am (ahem) the 2015 Grand Prize winner.

Pianist Roger Lynn Spears recorded a piano track for me to take with me and that's what you hear in this, the video from the actual competition. I didn't sing very well (I was very nervous) but at least I remembered the words.


UPDATE: Somebody just asked if they could purchase the sheet music etc for this song, sure! Click here:

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So below, find the original submission to the organizers. My personal motto is "I Can't Keep Up" and in this song I express my own actual feelings about modernity.

My thanks to Ken Bloom and Jim Baird for coming over one afternoon and recording this with me. I wrote it using the Stutchkoff thesaurus, his Yiddish rhyming dictionary, and the critical expertise of Sheva Zucker who told me what I couldn't say. This is what was left over...



Click to watch the video on youtube:


If you'd like the words and/or sheet music write me: jane@mappamundi.com

Labels: booze, modernity, nostalgia

Isn't this a wonderful cover? Menakhem Kipnis was a collector of Yiddish folksongs; his two books (60 folkslider and 80 folkslider) have been Yiddish singers' bibles for decades. I recently put them together into one book and indexed them all over again so it is easier to find the songs. You can buy it cheap: Menakhem Kipnis 140 folkslider at Createspace.

While I was re-indexing I was intrigued by this particular drinking song. It's a witty conglomeration of Hebrew and Yiddish and as you'll see after the jump, it tells us that everybody, from the high and mighty to the lowly, likes to get drunk. I had a lot of help working it out.

Click here for Eylu voeylu sheet music:

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Here's the animated music video I made:



Eylu voeylu tsoyakim bokh

Balebatim hayoyshvim beboseyhem
Vshoysim yayin bikeleyhem
Eylu voeylu tsoyakim bokh
A trunk bronfn vilt zikh dokh

Balebatim vos voynen in eygene hayzer
Trinken oys bronfn gantse brayzer
Eylu voeylu tsoyakim bekoyl
A trunk bronfn iz dokh voyl

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Labels: booze, gangsters, humor & satire, klezmer, yiddish song

Mollie Picon in "Yidl mitn fidl" was not the only short female star of the Yiddish theater to play a man. Nellie Casman, a very famous soubrette in her day, also wore the pants on stage.

This song was a big hit for Nellie, she sang it in Dos Khazndl (see right) and recorded it as Wu Sannen Meine 7 Gute Yohr? and you also see it as Vu zenen mayne zibn gute yor. David Meyerowitz wrote the song and I found it at the Copyright Office, under 1923, as Maine siber gite yur.

Evidently in Warsaw Nellie sang two verses of her own invention and tagged on a partial verse in what I have been told is fairly broken Polish. I skipped the Polish verse and added back the second Meyerowitz verse in which the singer complains about Prohibition: in the old days we could at least forget about our troubles by getting drunk and now that's forbidden!

In the Meyerowitz version the singer asks: "is my soul made of oakum?" Oakum is, according to the dictionary, "loose hemp or jute fiber, sometimes treated with tar, creosote, or asphalt, used chiefly for caulking seams in wooden ships and packing pipe joints."

Someone said he wanted to be able to sing along with these songs so as an experiment I've superimposed the Yiddish words on the choruses.




Here's me doing it on Youtube:


On the Mendele Yiddish list-serv somebody said the following about seven good years:

This is a reference to Pharaoh's dream in parshes mikets predicting seven good years and seven lean years. The implication is that if times are so bad, there must surely be seven good years somewhere.

I didn't like this song when I heard the 78. It was so slow and lugubrious I couldn't take it! I don't have that kind of attention span. This version is sped up, probably to an unacceptable degree, but when you learn it you can slow it down again.

The Yiddish transliterated words after the jump.

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Labels: booze, nostalgia, persecution, songs for sale, yiddish theater song

Now that the third Itzik Zhelonek cd (Nervez!) is finished, I just have a few more songs to record, and this was one of them. Zhelonek called it a hit for Nellie Casman, and I found her recording at the Robert & Molly Freedman Jewish Sound Archive at U. Penn.

Later I found the sheet music for it at YIVO. Herman Fenigstein recorded it for Syrena Grand Records as "Ausgespielt." David Meyerowitz copyrighted it in 1924 but did not renew it, so the song is in the public domain.

I like how the word play in the Yiddish here works well in English too. The last verse seems like it's aimed at getting the customers in a nightclub to buy more food and booze.

Since I'm a little burned out on recording right now, I decided to try something new. I stuck my old camcorder in the corner and sang this song live. What I learned from this: it's embarrassing to sing alone for a camera; I should have practiced the song first instead of just sitting down and reading it off the music. But, it's done. One more struck off the list!




Here's the sheet music if you want it:

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Here is my translation from the Yiddish:
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Labels: battle between the sexes, booze, fun, humor & satire, love, modernity, yiddish theater song

Click the picture to listen to and/or buy this track from our cd In Odess.


I wrote about this song on Itzik Gottesman's Yiddish Song of the Week blog: Dos fleshl/Tshort vos’mi performed by Jacob Gorelik. Mr. Gottesman, who is editor of the Yiddish Forward, had kindly dug through his cassette collection to find this recording for me.

The singer whose recording was cited in 35 letste teater lider was Simkhe Zaremba, about whom I have learned nothing. In Warsaw we saw the name Felix Zaremba mentioned as a freedom fighter in the Radosc group, and Felix could be considered a Latin rendering of Simkhe, but I don't know if they were related or perhaps the same person.

The words Jacob Gorelik sang were entirely different from the words sung by Simcha Zaremba except for the refrain. You can find my translation on the Gottesman site. Here is my rendition of Jacob Gorelik's tune, with the words as printed in Warsaw in 1929, with Ken Bloom playing guitar, and the link for buying the sheet music with translation etc.:

Here's the music video with the English translation as subtitles:


Transliteration and translation after the jump:
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Labels: booze, home, persecution, songs for sale

For me the ultimate version of this song will always be Michael Alpert's as he sang it on Pearls of Yiddish Song.

Here you can hear Alpert as a young man singing the first verse and a half (there are lots of other peoples' versions as well).



My transcription is from sheet music at YIVO, "From the I. Gershteyn collection; heard from B. Volfson, Homel"

As the Mloteks pointed out in Pearls of Yiddish Song, Mikhl Gordon (1823-1890) wrote this song. He was a member of the Enlightenment and in the song he pokes fun, as many of his peers did, at the copious drinking entwined into chasidic culture of the time. The words were published in 1868; the words and music were published anonymously
in "Ost und West" in 1918. This is the long version, the whole text; the song is usually shortened in performance.

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Here's my English translation of the Yiddish:

Whiskey, I'll hold you in respect, I'll respect you like an elder. I'll hold you in respect, whiskey, because I need your favors, tra la la la la...

When the matchmaker came to my grandfather to propose a match, they talked and talked in vain until a glass of whiskey was mixed in. Thanks to whiskey the match was agreed upon, and my father became my mother's bridegroom.

Soon came the wedding and there was whiskey all night. Everybody drank from big glasses, in honor of the bride and groom. It was thanks to whiskey my father took my mother, it was thanks to whiskey I came into the world.

I also remember my circumcision. The table was never without a glass of whiskey. The guests shouted congratulations! The child will grow up to be a rabbi! That's why I drink from a great big glass (rov-kos) - and I drink limitlessly

I remember when they took me to school, they celebrated late into the night. And the rabbi drank from the bottle, and it was from him in school I learned to drink a lot of whiskey

At my bar-mitzvah I gave a speech, that it's not bad at all to take a little whiskey one's own self. The czar is (pardon me) a great drunkard. Therefore, brothers, poor and rich, let's drink, all together.

I remember at the signing of my marriage contract everybody drank like the goyim. And the glass was broken and the whiskey never crept off the table. And I didn't notice I was a bridegroom and was pouring down my throat the whole time.

I remember when I was taken to the khupe. One took a bit of booze. And the rabbi said the blessings, and in the cup there was nothing left at all. And I stood like a fine young man and licked the cup with my tongue.

Soon after the wedding I began fighting with my wife. We went to see a good guy, he gave us an amulet so we could go to a new apartment. And in the new apartment I couldn't hear my wife and all the while I'm gulping it down...

My few years, when I've lived them out, I want to be taken to the grave, a flask of whiskey close by the wall, a big glass in my right hand. When the dead are raised I'll be here again and I'll soon be drinking whiskey, right away.

Labels: battle between the sexes, booze, der rebbe, humor & satire, klezmer, love, nostalgia, religion, songs for sale, weddings

The original Elimelech was a well-known second generation Hasidic rebbe. I'm not going to bother singing a version of this song as there are dozens, if not hundreds, of versions already available. The sheet music with chords and transliteration of all the verses (not just the ones in Zhelonek) is available here:

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Beloved as a children's song, Der Rebbe Elimelech was written by quite a wild character. In a Yizkor book Bar-Dawid Moshe writes that at the age of 13, in 1898, the composer Moshe Nadir, whose real name was Isaac Reiss (Yitzkhok/Itzik Rayz), emigrated with his family to New York. In 1915, he issued a booklet of "strange and erotic poems" called Vilde Royzn - illustrated by the fascinating Zuni Maud - under his new pseudonym "Moshe Nadir" and that it "caused a lot of tumult among readers and writers alike."

Nadir was a communist until 1939. He wrote prolifically and was very popular. Bar-Dawid concludes: "His birth town Narajow, came along with him everywhere in his work, like a little loyal dog." Nadir died in New York in 1943.

As my Yiddish teacher Sheva Zucker reminds us, "rebbe" refers to a Chasidic leader - a teacher or mentor who may or may not be a rabbi. A "Rav" is a rabbi and "Reb" is a term of respect that does not imply any religious title. You should also remember that among the not-very-religious Jews of the time, Chasids were stereotyped as heavy drinkers.

Here's my translation of the Yiddish lyrics:

When the rebbe Elimelekh became very happy
he took off his tefilin and put on his glasses
and sent for two fiddlers.

And the fiddling fiddlers fiddled.

And when rebbe Elimelekh got happier
he made havdalah with the sexton, Rabbi Naftali
and sent for two drummers.

And the drumming drummers drummed.

And when the Rabbi Elimelekh became extremely happy
he took off his ritual garment and sent for two tsimbalom players. [The tsimbl or cymbal is the Eastern European hammered dulcimer]

And the tsimbling tsimblers tsimbled. (x2)

And when the Rabbi Elimelekh was extremely happy
he yawned and said, "that'll be enough!"
and he sent the band home.

The drunk band from Rabbi Melekh Elieh
gave poverty the finger.
The happy band jumped to the ceiling
and they traded percussion instruments.

The fiddling drummer fiddled like a tsimbl
whiskey flowed with wine
The cheerful musicians with bottles under their arms
caroused till it was bright daylight.

Labels: booze, der rebbe, humor & satire, klezmer, songs for sale

Here is the version of Mikhl Gordin's song "Di Mashke" which was printed in Itzik Zhelonek's book. My off-the-cuff translation is below.

Ikh vil dikh mashke erlikh haltn
kh'vel shteyn far dir vi far an altn
ikh vel dikh erlikh haltn mashke
vayl ikh darf in dayne laske

tra la la la la la la la tra la la la la la la la
tra la la la la la la la tra la la la la

Beshas der shadkhn iz gekumen tsu mayn zeydn
Dem tatn mit der mamen a shidukh redn
Hot men geredt un geredt umzist
Biz dos glezl mashke hot zikh arayngemisht
Tsulib der mashke iz der shidukh geshlosn
Der tate iz gevorn der mames khosn

M'hot take bald khasene gemakht
Un getrunken mashke a gantse nakht
Mit groyse glezer hobn getrunken ale
Lekoved dem khosn un lekoved der kale
Durkh mashke hot der tate di mame genumen
Durkh mashke bin ikh oyf der velt gekumen

Ikh gedenk nokh bay mayn bris
Iz dos glezl mashke nisht arop fun tish
Der oylem hot geshrien: Mazl tov!
Dos kind zol vaksn un zayn a rov
Ot deriber trink ikh a rov-kus
Deriber trink ikh on a mos

Ikh gedenk as m'hot mikh in kheyder gebrakht
Hot men gehulyet biz shpet in der nakht
Un der rebe Reb Kheshl
Hot getrunken fun gantsn fleshl
Un bay im in kheyder hob ikh gekrign a pule
Tsu trinken mashke gor a fule

Oyf mayn bar-mitzve hob ikh gezogt a droshe
Az nemen a bisl mashke iz gor nishkoshe
Az aleyn bekovedu vebeetsmu. Der kayser
Iz dokh bimkhile a shiker a groyser
Derfar, brider, orem un raykh,
Lomir trinken ale glaykh

Ikh gedenk oyf mayne tnoyim
Hobn ale getrunken vi di goyim
Un men hot tep gebrokhn
Un di mashke iz fun tish nisht aropgekrokhn
Un ikh hob nisht gekukt, vos ikh bin a khosn
Un ale vayle arayngegosn

Ikh gedenk az men hot mikh tsu der khupe gefirt
Hot men genumen a bisele shpirt
Un der rov hot gezogt di brokhes
Un in bekher iz geblibn a kadokhes (malaria, nothing at all)
Un ikh bin geshtanen vi a fayner yung
Un gelekt dem bekher mit der tsung

Bald nokh der khasene
Hob ikh zikh mit der vayb ongehoybn krign
Zenen mir geforn tsu a gutn yidn
Hot der guter yid undz gegebn a shmire
Mir zoln ariber oyf a naye dire
Un oyf der nayer dire
Hob ikh dos vayb nisht gehert
Un ale vayle arayngekert

Mayn bisele yorn, ven ikh vel oyslebn
Vil ikh men zol mir in keyver mitgebn
A fesele mashke noent bay der vant
A groyser gloz in der rekhter hant
Tsu tkies-hameysim bin ikh vider do
Un trink bald mashke in der ershter sho



Whiskey, I'll hold you in respect, I'll respect you like an elder
I'll hold you in respect, whiskey, because I need your favors

When the matchmaker came to my grandfather to propose a match
They talked and talked in vain until a glass of whiskey was mixed in
Thanks to whiskey the match was agreed upon, and my father became my mother's bridegroom.

Soon came the wedding and there was whiskey all night. Everybody drank from big glasses, in honor of the bride and groom. It was thanks to whiskey my father took my mother, it was thanks to whiskey I came into the world.

I also remember my circumcision. The table was never without a glass of whiskey. The guests shouted congratulations! The child will grow up to be a rabbi! That's why I drink from a great big glass (rov-kos) - and I drink limitlessly

I remember when they took me to school, they celebrated late into the night. And the rabbi drank from the bottle, and it was from him in school I learned to drink a lot of whiskey

At my bar-mitzvah I gave a speech, that it's not bad at all to take a little whiskey one's own self. The czar is (pardon me) a great drunkard. Therefore, brothers, poor and rich, let's drink, all together.

I remember at the signing of my marriage contract everybody drank like the goyim. And the glass was broken and the whiskey never crept off the table. And I didn't notice I was a bridegroom and was pouring down my throat the whole time.

I remember when I was taken to the khupe. One took a bit of booze. And the rabbi said the blessings, and in the cup there was nothing left at all. And I stood like a fine young man and licked the cup with my tongue.

Soon after the wedding I began fighting with my wife. We went to see a good guy, he gave us an amulet so we could go to a new apartment. And in the new apartment I couldn't hear my wife and all the while I'm gulping it down...

My few years, when I've lived them out, I want to be taken to the grave, a flask of whiskey close by the wall, a big glass in my right hand. When the dead are raised I'll be here again and I'll soon be drinking whiskey, in the first hour

Labels: battle between the sexes, booze, humor & satire, religion

Update: This song is no longer lost. Itzik Gottesman found it for me and there is a new post about it here.

застольная народная песня Черт возьми?

DOS FLESHELE 1.24

Geven bin ikh a mentsh eyner
Bakant geven in der gantser velt
Haynt iz far mir alesding tsu
Tsulib dir, mayn fleshele, okh! Tshort vosmi!

Gehat hob ikh a kale Gitele
Antlofn iz zi, der tayvl veyst zi vu
Zi hot mir geton mayn lebn derkutshn
Tsulib dir, mayn fleshele, okh! Chort vozmi!

men varft mir shteyger nokh in di gasn
shlogt im - shrayt men - dem bosyak
zogt mir, menshn, farvos tut ir mikh hasn?
Tsulib dir, mayn fleshele, okh! Chert voz'mi!

Vu iz mayn foter? Vu iz mayn muter?
Vu iz mayn heymat, zogt mir vu?
Fun vandern iz mir shoyn mayn lebn far'mies't
Tsulib dir, mayn fleshele, okh! Chort vozmi!

S'vert mir erger in di letste tsaytn
Kh'bin shoyn alt un krank un farshmakht
Un, ikhg shtarb avek! mayne libe laytn
durkh dir, mayn fleshele, oy, a gute nakht!

Labels: booze, persecution

That's our version of this song. Way back when I wrote this post, our cd Cabaret Warsaw Yiddish and Polish Hits (hear full tracks and download had barely been issued yet when and already Beth's translation of the song, Upic sie warto, had been posted at youtube on another video, without attribution. Sigh.

We have a huge digital booklet for download - almost 20 pages of the texts, our translations, comments on the singers and composers, and pictures. It will be available for free to anybody who buys the cd online or as a real hold-it-in-your hand product.

Labels: battle between the sexes, booze