Der shir hashirim fun Mendl Pumshtok

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English Lyrics

Nu-zhe, kum-zhe, ikh un du,
Ven der ovnt shteyt uf kegn dem himl
Vi a leymener goylm af Tisha b'Av

Lomir geyn zikh
Durkh geselakh vos dreyen zikh
Vi di bord fun dem rov

Oy, Bashe, freg nisht keyn kashe,
A dayge dir

Oyf der vant fun dem koshern restorant
Hengt a shmutsiker betgevant
Un vantsn tantsn karahod

In tsimer vu di vayber zenen
Ret men fun Marx un Lenin

Ike ver alt...ikh ver alt...
Es vert mir in pupik kalt

Zol ikh oykemen di hor, meg ikh oyfesn a floym?
Ikh vel tskatsheven di hoyzn
un shpatsirn bay dem yam,

Ikh vel hern di yam-moydn
zingen khad gadyo

Ikh vel zey entfernv
borukh-habo.

Translation

from http://savethemusic.com/yiddish/kumzitz/question002.html : It appears in a paper by Ruth R. Wisse entitled "Language as Fate: Reflections on Jewish Literature in America", a paper published in the 1996 Studies in Contemporary Jewry (Vol. 12), pages 129- 147, Oxford University Press. The volume is subtitled Literary Strategies: Jewish Texts and Contexts. Ruth Wisse (b'sheim omro) says that she got these lines from Lucy Dawidowicz, who got them from Chaim Raphael, who got them from Daniel Bell. Alas, I could not find the original in any of SaulBellow's papers on deposit at the University of Chicago library. Bellow assisted Isaac Rosenfeld in its composition, and I could not find the original in any of Rosenfeld's books. Thus this is, as Ruth Wisse says, an oral tradition that she finally recorded on paper.

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Added February 13th, 2002