DER YIDDISH-VINKL November 28, 2003
In the latter half of the 20th century, Ruth Rubin was one of the major figures in promoting Yiddish folk traditions — in music. She was a performer, a recording artist and a translator of Yiddish songs into English. Much of her written work is preserved in “Jewish Folk Songs” (1950).
One of the songs in the collection is “Bulbes” (“Potatoes”). It is an effort to provoke a smile about the sad circumstance of Jews in the Old World who, in poverty, repeatedly had to fall back on potatoes as the boring food to keep body and soul together. Both the transliteration and the translation into English are by Rubin. If you, dear reader, find the repetition boring, just imagine how boring it must have been to eat those bulbes day in and day out.
Bulbes
Zuntik — bulbes
Montik — bulbes
Dinstik un mitvokh — bulbes
Ober shabes in a novine a bulbe kigele!
Un zuntik vayter, bulbes.
Broyt mit bulbes,
Fleysh mit bulbes,
Varimes un vetshere — bulbes
Ober un vider — bulbes.
Ober eynmol in a novine a bulbe kigele!
Un zuntig vayter bulbes!
Ober — bulbes
Vider — bulbes,
Ober un vider — bulbes,
Vider un ober — bulbes
Ober shabes nokhn tsholnt a bulbe kigele
Un zuntik vayter, bulbes.
Potatoes
Potatoes on Sunday,
Potatoes on Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday — potatoes!
Thursday and Friday— potatoes!
But the treat on the Sabbath is a pudding of potatoes!
And, on Sunday, once again, it is potatoes!
It’s bread with potatoes
And meat with potatoes
Breakfast and dinner — potatoes.
Morning and evening — potatoes.
But the special dish is always the pudding of potatoes!
And on Sunday, once again, it is potatoes!
Now — it’s potatoes
And later potatoes.
Tuesday and tomorrow — potatoes!
Week after week, it is potatoes.
But the best on the Sabbath is the pudding of potatoes!
And on Sunday once again we get potatoes!
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