DER YIDDISH-VINKL January 23, 2004
A regular feature of the Forverts is a column titled “Leyener Dermonen Zikh Lider” (“Readers Recall Songs”). In a recent issue, one reader, Masha Benye-Mets, submitted a song dealing with a subject rarely mentioned in Jewish literature: wife-beating.
Leyener dermonen
A gutnr ovnt, Brayne! A gutn ovnt, Brayne,
Di beste shkheyne mayne,
Dos harts vert in mir farbrent
Zint ikh hob dem merder derkent.
Petrishke hob ikh fargesn koyfn,
Fleysh hot mir mayn mamele gebrakht
Di yoykh vet mir oysloyfn —
Hot zhe mir a gutinke nakht.
Nekhtn hot er mikh geshlogn
Broyn un bloy hot er mikh gemakht,
S’iz afile a bizoyen oystsuzogn —
Hot zhe mir a gutinke nakht.
Kh’volt zikh mit im avade getn,
Dos kind volt ikh im ibergelozt,
Bin ikh ober shreklekh elnt
Khotsh gey un leyg zikh in gas.
As is typical in folk songs, the author is unknown. The transliteration from Yiddish is by Goldie Gold. The English version is by Gus Tyler.
A Reader Remembers
Good evening, Brayne! You are really blessed,
Of all my neighbors you’re the very best.
My heart burns as if on fire
To kill my husband is my desire.
Parsley I forgot to bring,
My mother brought some meat
It really was a miserable thing —
I’ll tell you more next time we meet.
Yesterday, my man beat me
His fists left me black and blue
I’m ashamed to say how he did treat me —
I shouldn’t now be telling you.
I’d really like to be divorced,
And leave him with our little child,
Alone, however, I am lost
Like some poor creature running wild.
Although folk songs about wife-beating are fairly rare in Yiddish, the lyric above is not the only one of the genre. Our Goldie Gold recalls a folk song entitled “Hot a Yid a Vaybele,” in which a husband beats his wife because she forgetfully burned the kugel, with these lines:
Vi es iz gekumen shabes tsum esn,
Hot zi dem kugel in oyvn fargesn
Hot er genumen a grobn shtekn
Un hot angehoybn dos vaybel tsu dekn.
When on the Sabbath it was time to eat
The kugel had been burned in oven’s heat
The husband rose in anger to his feet
And with a stick his helpless wife he beat.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
