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The main themes of the "lyrics" of the songs
that they sing in theatre are
time-consuming. Great events, happenings,
which grab the attention of the great
audience, find their echo in the theatre
couplets. In the article of the previous
week, we gave an example of "lyrics" that
were written many years ago, and in which
the spirit of that time was playing out.
But the lyric did not deal with time-motifs
alone. Love, domestic peace, the boarder, a
mother's love, are excellent material for
this lyric.
These are all topics over which they can
tell jokes, are sentimental, with which they
can evoke a tear and a laugh.
The greatest success among Jews were those
songs in which tears and laughter were mixed
together. Here is an example of that
"lyric":
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"Ikh vel aykh dem emes
aroyszogen fray,
vayl ligen tsu zogen, denk ikh,
iz nit recht.
Leykenen iz nor nito vos derbay,
khasene hobn iz nit azoy shlecht.
A moid tsu farblaybn nor on
hri?at,
denk ikh, iz a bitere noyt.
Ikh volt beser 20 mol khasene
gehat,
eider eyn mol tsu blaybn a moyd.
Fun punim di royte farbn
Veren farvelkt un farvianet,
es krenkt un es nudiet tsum
shtarbn,
men zitst gantse teg un men
menh't.
Oy vey, gevald, s'iz a bitere
noit
tsu blaybn, tsu blaybn a kale-moid." |
"I will tell you the truth freely,
To tell a lie, I think, is not right.
Denying is just not there,
Getting married is not that bad.
To remain a maiden without getting married,
I think, is a bitter distress.
I would have been better off getting married 20 times
Than one time to remain a maiden.
Of faces the red colors
Be withered and spoiled,
It gets sick and it needs to die,
One sits for whole days and one answers.
Woe is me, it is a bitter need
To remain, to remain a bridesmaid."
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Refrain:
"Oy, altn moidn zucht men nit,
un in zayer gegend kricht men
nit.
Es helft nit keyn shum khrifut,
keyn vitz un keyn khnifut.
Oy, koyft aykh sharfe sherelekh,
un shnaydt oys di grahe herelekh.
Oy, mame mayn,
s'iz shlecht tsu zayn
an alte moid." |
Refrain:
"Oh, an old maiden is not sought
after,
And in their neighborhood people
do not crawl.
It does not help any sharpness,
No jokes and no flattery.
Oh, you buy sharp scissors,
And cut off the gray ears.
Oh, my mother,
It's bad to be
An old maid." |
These lyrics, written by L. Gilrod, was sung
by the actress Emma Finkel twenty-four years
ago in the play, "Rigoletto," in the Grand
Theatre.
"Donkey Monkey Business," however, is
different, at points, as appropriate for
such a lively soubrette as Bessie
Thomashefsky, who sang it in "The Green
Children":
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"Mayn frayndin line -- iz nit
keyn grine,
zi iz a moid, a gald.
Ver redt fun zingen, un oysters
shlingen,
tsu dem iz zi nit keyn yold.
Zi hot a feler -- pikniks un
beler
atendt zi on a shieur.
Zumer, oy, shvitst zi -- in der
gas zitst zi
mit ir khosn far der thir,
veyl zi shrekt zikh aleyn
baynakht aroyftsugen
muz er mitgen mit ir.
Dort shtehen zay a sheh oder
tsvey,
steytsh, in hol, vos far a
biznes hobn zay? |
My girlfriend Line --
she's no newbie, she's quite a
girl.
She sings beautifully, she gulps
oysters,
She's no sucker.
She has a sweetheart,
She goes to lots of picnics and
balls.
In the summer she sweats,
at night she sits With her "boy"
by the door,
because she's afraid to go alone
at night,
So he goes with her.
They stand there for an hour or
two,
Staying in the hall, what a
business they had? |
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Refrain:
"Dos
iz donki monki biznes,
di biznes is a gantz feyne far
linke biznes-leyt.
Dos iz donki-monki biznes,
eyder vayst az donki-monki
biznes iz do alrayt." |
Refrain:
"This is donkey monkey
business,
the business is quite fine for a
left-wing business.
This is donkey-monkey business,
Everyone knows that
donkey-monkey business is all
right." |
You can tell by the humor that the lyric is
Isidore Lillian's. Lillian has a special
passion for songs with "between the lines."
Here lies before me a lyric written for
Sigmund Mogulesco. I mean indeed that it was
written with his own handwriting.
Whether Mogulesco sang the song, whether he
first chose it to be and death did not
permit it, I still haven't been able to find
it. The lyric is called: "Cat, Wife and
Mother-in-Law."
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"Ikh bin mudh umturh yetst far
groys un kleyn,
az ehrlikh tmid in mayn katz
geven
a shaden ven ikh hob alayn in
shtub gemacht,
hob ikh shoyn a ligen far mayn
man oysgetract:
gezogt hob ikh im -- veyst, kayn
lieber shatz,
az altsding tsubrachen hot di
katz?
Far ches hot mayn man di katz
geshlogen zehr
biz zi iz avek un kumt nit
mehr." |
"I now must confess in full for
big and small,
That honesty has always been in
my cat
An injury that I did it to
myself at home,
I have already come up with a
lie for my husband:
I said to him, "You know, my
dear,
That everything broke down did
the cat?
In anger, my husband thought:
Until she is gone and will not
come again." |
Prose: "Oh, that dear cat, that pious cat.
Sosi, she is called; when I called her Sosi,
she replied: Oh, maybe she was called Gosi!,
she always responded. Well, why, am I
silent? Has anyone seen ... "
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"Un mit mayn man, vez ikh hob mikh
tsupatsht,
zayn pnim hob ikh tmid im tsukratst.
Oyf morgen hot derzen mayn shviger
bald
vi mayn man iz gut tsukratst, hot zi
gemacht a gevald:
Zindele, zog, ver hot dir gethan a
kratz?
Farshemt hot er oykh gezogt:
Di katz, nu-nu, hot di alte shlak di
katz ge'mm't't zehr,
biz zi iz avek un kumt nit mer. |
""And with my husband, whom I hated,
I always scratched his face.
On morrow my mother-in-law saw soon
When my husband was well cared for,
she made a fuss:
Son, tell me, who gave you a
scratch?
Ashamed, he also said:
The cat, well, the old man laughed
at the old cat,
Until she is gone and comes no more. |
Prose: "Oh, oh, not my cat. Such a kosher
soul: she did not eat tripe after all. I
understood that when she made a meow as a
child, she wanted to eat, and when she did
not make a meow, she always wanted to eat.
Why am I silent? Has anyone seen ..."
What kind of words should come next after
"Has anyone seen ...?" It is not clear from
the written lyric. Therefore it is evident
that Mogulesco himself did not know who sang
the lyrics -- a man or a woman. Over the
words "man, he, son," he used his pencil to
write "wife, she, daughter." If any of the
readers know in which play this lyric was
sung, he is asked to let us know.
Finally we come to the "philosophy" lyrics,
the lyrics in which the nonsense of our
lives is spoken about. These lyrics
constantly have a moral and preaches
goodness, humanity, pity, common sense -- it
addresses the temperament and inclination of
the lyricist.
"Little man, do you think you will live
forever?" is Boris Thomashefsky's lyric from
"The Pintele Yid."
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Menshele, meinst du vest vibig lebn,
du denkst an dayn ende gar nit.
Henug un geld -- dos iz dayn
shtreben,
hast keyn rakhmones,
fargist menshn blut.
Du boyst paleste mit blumen a sokh,
unz du denkst du blaybst eybig dort.
Du roybst dayne brider, vilst nar
zayn raykh,
du fargest nokh dos heylige ort --
vu kbrim bletelekh,
vu grine grezelekh
fardeken dayn eybige ruh.
In dayne gederimlakh
esen verimlakh.
Es helft nit dayn reybtum dertsu. |
Little man, do you think you will
live forever?
You do not think about your end at
all.
Pleasure and money -- this is your
pursuit,
you have no compassion,
You shed people's blood.
You are full of many flowers,
And you think you stay there
forever.
You rob your brothers, you just want
to be rich,
You still fprget the holy place --
where there are tombs with leaves,
where green grass
covers your eternal spirit.
In your gut
worms eat.
Your additional wealth does not. |
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Refrain:
"Hob nemones, menshele,
hob rakhmones, menshele,
dermon zikh on dayn ende dort.
Erlikh leb nor, menshele, tsdoke gib
nor menshele,
vest ruhig ligen dort, oyf dem
heyligen ort.
Un azoy vayter. |
Refrain:
"Have confidence, little man,
Have compassion, little man,
remember your end there,
live honestly, little man, give
charity, little man,
you will lie quietly there, in the
holy place.
And so on. |
The following lyric is a good example from
"Tears-Laughter."
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"An alter altn zehr raykh,
zayn vayb iz ersht tsvey vochen
toydt,
chatsh er hot kinder asa'kh,
geheirat hot er mit a moyd.
Un nokh der khasene brengt er areyn
dos vaybele in shtub,
di kinder redt der alter eyn
zi hobn vi a mame lib.
Di kinder blaybn troyerig shtehn,
un zogen tsu zikh aleyn: |
"An old,old man very rich,
his wife is two weeks dead,
although he has many children,
he married a girl.
And after the wedding he brings
the woman home,
the children speak to the old one,
they had a mother's love.
The children remain sad,
And say to themselves: |
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Refrain:
Oy, iz dos a mame, s'mazl oyf ir
tat'n,
Di cprh meg zi veren far a gantsen
palk soldaten.
Dem tate'n nokh a vayb macht
fargenigen,
kinder nokh a mame iz shver tsu
krigen.
Oy, iz dos a mame, s'mazl oyf ir
tate'n"! |
Refrain:
Oh, is this a mother, good luck on
her father,
the atonement may be made for an
entire nation of soldiers. The
father after a wife makes pleasure,
children after a mother are
difficult to have.
Oh, this is a mother, good luck to
her dad! " |
This song was written and sung by Sigmund
Mogulesco seventeen years ago in "The Jewish
Heart."
With that we end the lyrics of over fifteen
years ago. Are the current lyrics any
different from those? Are there any changes
in the composition or content of the lyrics?
About this in a future article.
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