December 4, 2007
A Yiddish Lullaby
It's been quite a while since we posted a video here so when I saw this on Jewlicious I thought it was perfect timing.
The above video is a “Yiddish lullaby.” It's a ballad written by one of the greats of Yiddish poetry, Itzik Manger, whose work has been set to music by two Israeli jazz musicians, Arik and Aviv Livnat. The Livnats also worked with Helen Beer, a Yiddish language researcher at University College London, to help with the songs. You can learn more about the project at http://www.itzikmanger.com/.
For those of you who may not be familiar with Manger's work, he was one of the most successful Yiddish writers of the 20th century.
He's been described as the “Shelley of Yiddish” and “drunk with talent.” Born in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine), Manger also lived in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York and Tel Aviv. His most productive years came during the decade or so before the Second World War. Living in Warsaw during the height of Yiddish culture, Manger gained fame and recognition for his fiction, poetry and criticism. In 2002, Yale University Press published an anthology of his work, “The World According to Itzik: Selected Prose and Poetry
He left for Paris in 1938 and later bounced around from Marseilles to Tunis to Liverpool before landing in London. Manger made aliyah and moved to Israel in 1958. He stayed in Israel until his death in 1969.
Hat tip to froylein at Jewlicious for brining this to our attention. Thanks, froylein!
Do you really think of this as a lullaby? I agree that the lilting music is certainly moving and relaxing but the words are so melancholy – so ambivalent and full of tears. I’ve always thought this was a sad song.
I’d assumed so because that’s what it was called on http://www.Jewlicious.com.
I’ll go there and ask the original poster if they could elaborate.
Ilana,
froylein responded to my question over on Jewlicious. You can find her answer at this url: http://www.jewlicious.com/?p=3956
im looking for the name and song of this lullaby for my girlfriend, it was played to her as a baby
please excuse any spelling errors thankyou.
aya pompaya
zumer kumder maya
ven (name)-shlofen geyen
muzic bevy gele shtayen
zaigelemah tik tak tik tak
shlof mayen taier (name)
thankyou guys!