האַנט אין קאַלטן וואַסער נישט אַרייַנגעטאָן‎

[sovay]

Until about fifteen minutes ago, I had no idea that anyone in the U.S. had performed or recorded any of Shraga Friedman's Fidler afn dakh prior to the NYTF in 2018, but "Ven ikh bin a Rotshild" is a really distinctive translation. Jan Peerce recorded it in 1967, along with versions of three other songs from the musical (the one that differs the most has די תורה instead of טראדיציע, which makes me really curious if there's a recording of the original 1965 Israeli production to compare with) and an assortment of Yiddish folk songs, including "Oy dortn, dortn." The latter is technically what we call a schmaltzy arrangement, but I don't care, because if an entire string section can't ruin that last verse of eyes like black cherries and lips like rose-colored paper and fingers like pen and ink—you must write often to me—either it's bulletproof or I don't want to find out what could. What I really can't figure out is how I missed discovering him at Brandeis. It's not like I didn't listen to his brother-in-law. His Yiddish is slightly Southern, which makes it sound familiar to me. [edit: I make an exception for a song from Vilna. That one's supposed to have all those weird vowels.] This encore medley of Fiddler, in English, from a live concert with Roberta Peters in 1976, is adorable.

Comments

[sovay]

I kept forgetting to say the words to Shtiler were different in 1969! I am more familiar with -- vi di Vilye ageschriedet, how the river screams -- but that is not what Alberstein says in that verse and I am not good enough to get it down at a workday-appropriate volume.

You're right! She sounds like she's singing:

Di Viliye a geshmidte
Hot oykh geyokht in payn
Yogn kries ayz durkh Lite
Itst in yam arayn

Which looks more or less like:

The hammered Vilye
Is also weighed down in pain
Ice floes rush through Lithuania
Now into the sea

I keep wanting to translate געשמידטע as in irons because of the blacksmithing, but I am not sure that is textually as opposed to poetically supported, especially since it would render superfluous the image of the burdened—literally, yoked—river in the next line. Being sure of קריִעס me nuts. I finally resorted to the print dictionary I have owned since grad school. Which is Weinrich's, from 1967, for YIVO. Whose else?