We return this week to Liudmila Shor from Vinnitsa, Ukraine, who sings a haunting song that she learned from her mother. "Fun Vigl biz in Keyver" was written by Anshel Schorr with music composed by Yosef Rumshinsky. The sheet music was published in New York by the Hebrew Publishing Company in 1911. Although Liudmila is unaware of the song's origins or authorship, "Fun Vigl biz in Keyver" is a theater song, written for Rumshinsky's operetta "Shir Hashirim - Dos Lid der Libe" ("Song of Songs - The Song of Love"). The operetta "has been described as the first [Yiddish] stage musical about love" (Mark Slobin, Tenement Songs, 128.)
Below is Liudmila's version of the lyrics. The words differ slightly from the original, as the song went through a process of folklorization before reaching Vinnitsa. While there are a number of Yiddish songs about growing old and searching for one's youth (see, for example, Mordechai Gebirtig's "Hulyet, hulyet kinderlekh," and the folk song "Avek di yunge yorn"), this piece is perhaps the most somber in tone, coming to the rather hopeless conclusion that "It is but a short stride from the cradle to the grave." The melodramatic nature of the song can be attributed to the fact that it comes from an operetta, a famously melodramatic genre in Yiddish culture.
I have lived just eighty years.
How quickly, how quickly it has flown by.
White as snow is my blond hair.
My back is bent in three places.
My childhood years will not be forgotten,
How they were formed.
How my mother sat by my cradle,
And sang me a song.
The whole world is a black dream,
And everything is vanity of vanities.
It's but a short stride from the cradle to the grave,
And everything is no more than a dream.
I was not a child,
Oh how quickly and swiftly,
And the grave is already waiting for me.
We return this week to Bella Chirkova from Vinnitsa, who speaks this time about folk remedies. When asked if she knows how to ward off the evil eye, she begins by saying that she can tell what's wrong with a person by using an egg. (See also this post about using eggs in folk remedies.) She then gives an example of one way a person can be healed without conventional medicine -- Bella suggests drinking your own urine to cure a cough.
The suggested treatment is but one example of what is known as "babske refues" -- or old wives' medicine. As Lisa Epstein notes in the YIVO encyclopedia, "The approach of the East European Jewish population to health care made no distinction between what would now be considered “scientific” medicine and “folk” medicine.... Among Jews, a rich oral tradition of folk remedies for physical, as well as emotional, ills existed." The cures could be found in various recipe books, but by the time Bella was learning them, they were primarily transmitted orally, from one woman to another.
Bella Chirkova from Vinnitsa describes the process of lighting the Sabbath candles and talks about the personal prayers she usually says while lighting the candles.
Bella was born in 1912 in Krasni, in the Vinnitsa region. Her father was a rabbi and her grandfather was a cantor. In the clip, you can see the clear distinction Bella makes between men's and women's religious roles -- she initially is hesitant to tell the interviewers how she blesses the candles, because she insists that only women can perform this function (and the interviewers are male).
When the interviewers ask Bella what blessing she says over the candles, rather than reciting the traditional formula, she explains that she asks G-d for what she needs, engaging in a very personal style of prayer. She speaks in Yiddish, asking for G-d's help, for her children's health, and so on. See also this post for a similar way that Avrom Gelman's mother prayed over the Sabbath candles in Kamenets-Podolsk.
In 2002, AHEYM interviewed Liudmila Shor, an amazing singer in Vinnitsa, Ukraine. Liudmila informally directs the Jewish Women's Choir in Vinnitsa, sharing with the group her rich repertoire of Yiddish songs. When singing solo, Liudmila exhibits a beautiful, authentic Yiddish singing style.
The song in this clip, "Der Furman" -- "The Coachman", composed by Khazn (Cantor) Pinkhos Jassinovsky, is about a poor wagon driver who drinks away his horses and wagon in a tavern. The song has been recorded by well-known Yiddish singer Sidor Belarsky, among others; Yiddish folklorist Chana Mlotek has written about it in an article on two songs about coachmen in the Yiddish Forward (12/16/1988). Liudmila learned the song from her father.
The lyrics are very reminiscent of another Yiddish song, "Shprayz ikh mir", (lyrics by Sh. Kahn, music by Eliyahu Teitelbaum) about a man who goes to the fair to buy a horse but stops by a tavern on the way and drinks away all his money. The song has been recorded by numerous artists; perhaps the best-known version appears on the Klezmatics album "Possessed", performed by Lorin Sklamberg. Unlike "Shprayz ikh mir," which has a very upbeat tempo and cheerful melody, "Der Furman" is a much more melancholy song, as you can see in Liudmila's rendering.
Below you will find the lyrics of the song in Yiddish, transliterated in Liudmila's Southeastern dialect, and translated. Check out our Youtube channel aheymproject for more of Liudmila's songs, as well as clips from a private performance of her choir.
I ride out in my own buggy, Four little horses bridled across. Outside there's a blizzard, outside it is raining, It's dark, you can't see the road.
Giddy-up, my little horses! Giddy-up, my eagles! Lift your little heads up high! Giddy-up, my little horses! Giddy-up, darlings! Giddy-up! Kick up some dust already!
One says, "Hey, Mister, please go faster!" “I have to get to the tsadik's house!” The second one says, "Oy, Mister, slower! My hemorrhoids!"
Giddy-up, little horses! Giddy-up, darlings! Can't you hear what the folks are saying? Giddy-up, little horses! Giddy-up, darlings! Giddy-up! The tavern is not so far!
Arrived in the tavern on Friday night. Had a glass, considered a second. Drank away the horses, drank away the buggy. All I had left was the whip.
Giddy-up, my little wife! Giddy-up, my dove! There's not a penny for the Sabbath. Don't worry, my little wife, don't worry, my dove! Giddy-up! It's a good thing I still have the whip! And it's good that I'm still here!
Fur ikh mir aroys mit mayn eygener bayd, Fir ferdelekh geshpont in der breyt. In drusn iz a vyuge, in drusn iz a reygn, S’iz fintster, me zeyt nisht deym veyg.
Oy vyo vyo vyo ferdelekh, vyo vyo vyo udlerlekh, Heybt zhe di kepelekh hoykh, Vyo vyo vyo ferdelekh, vyo vyo vyo tayere, Vyo! Geyn zol azh bold a roykh.
Oy eyner zugt, “A, reb yidl, fur gikher!” Er darf zikh tsun a gitn yidn. Der tsveyter zugt, “A, reb yidl, pameylekh! “Oy, mayne meridn!”
Vyo vyo vyo ferdelekh, vyo vyo vyo tayere, Ir hert nisht vus zugn di layt? Vyo vyo vyo ferdelekh, vyo vyo vyo tayere, Vyo! Di kreytshme iz shoyn nisht vayt.
Gekimen in der kreytshme, fraytik tse nakhts, A koyse genemen, di tsveyte fartrakht, Fartrinken di ferdelekh, fartrinken di bayd. Geblibn bin ikh bay der baytsh.
Oy vyo vyo vyo vaybele, vyo vyo vyo taybele, Af shobes kayn groshn nishtu. Nisht gezorgt vaybele, nisht gezorgt taybele, Vyo! Git vus di baytsh iz nokh du. In git vus ikh bin nokh du.
