Malka's Nigun: Bin Ikh Mir Ayn Furman

from Yiddish Silver Screen by ISLE of KLEZBOS & Friends

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    Our physical "Yiddish Silver Screen" CD comes in a beautiful six-panel illustrated gate-fold case, with cover art by Anya Ulinich and disc design by Lisa M. Kelsey. The eminently legible twenty-page booklet fits smoothly into notched tube insert, complete with detailed descriptions as well as full lyrics for all vocal tracks including original Yiddish plus both transliteration and complete English translations. Booklet and artwork layouts by Yiddish publications expert Yankl Salant, graphic designer for "Yiddish Silver Screen" (aka "zilberner kino" / זילבערנער קינאָ ). Illustrations include band photos as well as archival frame stills from numerous Yiddish cinematic works.

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about

The 1980 Belgian feature Brussels Transit is a Yiddish film largely thanks to director Samy Szlingerbaum’s audio oral history taken from his cherished refugee mother Malka, which forms much of the movie’s soundtrack. We have adapted this song heard in gradual portions with her idiosyncratic Lodzher accent as the cinematic journey unfolds. The lyric seems to reflect Malka’s reinterpretation of Yiddish verses recorded by Cantor Misha Alexandrovich in 1947 Leningrad, the same year that Malka, her husband, and Samy’s older brother (then a young child) reached Belgium on their arduous journey from Lodz through the ruins of postwar Poland. The melody to which she sings these words seems to be a new tune entirely, perhaps her own creation, distinctively repeating the arc from evocative contemplation of an allegorical coachman’s eternally transitory state toward the reviving impulse and vibrant determination to continue on. We may consider this form a vakh-lid—waking up the singer and listener, rather than a vig-lid (lullaby) putting people to sleep. All systems charge up to go, with Lodz-regional Polish colloquial horse-driving terms adding momentum. This remarkable film turned out to be Szlingerbaum’s only full- length work; he died of AIDS in 1986. He had planned to make a second film with Chantal Akerman (fellow queer Brussels-born filmmaker and child of Polish Jewish immigrants). For more, see <ingeveb.org> July 2022 edition: “Samy Szlingerbaum’s Heymish Avant-Garde Kino der Mamen: Mysteries, Music & Immigrant Life in Brussels Transit.”

lyrics

Bin ikh mir ayn furman,
Hob ikh mir tsvay ferdelekh,
Ferdelekh – udlerlekh tsvay.
Ayner ayn vayser,
Der tsvayter ayn gruer.
Shoyn veltn oysgefurn mit zay.
Mayn haym iz dos feld.
Mayn bet iz der vugn.
Mayn arbayt: tsu shmaysn,
Di ferdelekh zoln geyn.
In az di ferdelekh geyen, geyen,
Ti ikh mit di laytsn tsien,
Makh mit di lipn,
“Hetta, vyo, vishta, prrr!”
Zits ikh mir oyf di nare,
Shtil ba di kelnye,
Un glet mit mayn arim di hor.
Dan dakht zikh mir di zangen,
Farshitn shoyn di felder, Farshitn shoyn a mul
Un nokh ayn mul.

TRANSLATION:
I am a coachman, / I have two sweet horses,
Horses like two fine eagles.
The first is a white one, / The second is gray.
I’ve already traveled the whole world with them.
My home is the field. / My bed is the wagon.
My work: To crack the whip / To make the horses go.
And when the horses get on going,
I get to pulling on the reins,
And giving out the calls,
“Turn right, giddyap, turn left, whoa!” [Lodz horse terms]
I sit along the plank bed,
Quiet near my driving perch
And stroke my hand through the horse’s[?] hair.
Then it looks to me like the rows of corn
Stretch out covering the fields
Filling them up, spilling over, / On and on again.

(English translation by Eve Sicular)

credits

from Yiddish Silver Screen, track released November 24, 2023
composer unknown, lyrics by Boris Bergolts,
arranged by Shoko Nagai & Eve Sicular

Vocals: Yelena Shmulenson
Piano: Shoko Nagai
Drums: Eve Sicular

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Isle of Klezbos New York, New York

NYC-based ISLE of KLEZBOS approaches tradition with irreverence and respect. The soulful, fun-loving powerhouse all-women’s klezmer sextet has toured from Vienna to Vancouver since 1998. Repertoire ranges from rambunctious to entrancing: neo-traditional folk dance, mystical melodies,Yiddish swing & retro tango, late Soviet-era Jewish drinking song, re-grooved standards, & genre-defying originals. ... more

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