Aaron Lebedeff was a Yiddish vaudeville performer whose prime was 1920-40. Born in Russia in 1873, he arrived in the US in 1920. His American career was launched by the great Yiddish actor/impresario Boris Thomashefsky – the grandfather of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. Lebedeff’s performances were filled with almost maniacal energy and zany intensity. This is best exemplified in his singing of his most famous song – ‘Roumania, Roumania’ which he composed and recorded three times. The version below is the last of these three (1947). The transliterated Yiddish words and their English equivalents are below. They, however, give just an approximation of the nonsense that is going on. For sheer verve and propulsion this is hard, no impossible, to beat. It’s a vestige of a vanished world. Lebedeff died in 1960.
Basically, the song says that life in Roumania was pretty good, especially the food and wine. So if things were so good there why did Lebedeff’s nostalgic audience leave? Human beings sometimes resemble cats in that they’re always on the wrong side of every door. Also, the memory of pain is very short.
Yiddish
Ech! – Roumania, Roumania, Roumania, etc.
Geven amol, a land a zise, a sheyne.
Ech! – Roumania, Roumania, Roumania, etc,
Geven amol, a land a zise, a fayne.
Dort tsu voynen iz a fargenign,
vos dos harts glust dir vost kenstu krign:
a mameligele, a pastramele, a karnatsele, – un a gleyzele vayn, aha!
In Roumania iz dokh gut, fun keyn dayges veyst men nit,
Vayn trinkt men iberal, Me farbayst mit a kashtaval –
Hay digge digge dam – digge digge digge dam
Hay digge digge dam – digge digge dam.
In Roumania iz dokh gut, fun keyn zorgn veyst men nit,
vayn trinkt men iberal, me farbayst a kastrovet –
Hay digge digge dam – digge digge digge dam
Hay digge digge dam – digge digge dam.
Oy vey g’vald ikh ver meshige, Ikh lib nor brinze, mamelige,
Ikh tants un frey zich biz der stelye ven ikh es a pat-lo-zhe-le,
Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam – Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam –
Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam – Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam –
Ay, s’iz a mekhaye, beser ken nit zayn,
Ay, a fargenign iz nor rumeynish vayn.
Yokum purkon min sh’maye – – shteyt un kusht di kechene, Chaye
ongeton in alte shkrabes – – macht a kugel likoved shabes,
Zets! Tai didl di dam,- zets! tai didl di dam, – zets! tai didl di dam,
Ay, s’iz a mekhaye, beser ken nit zayn,
Ay, a fargenign iz nor rumeynish vayn.
English
Oh! Roumania, Roumania, etc.
Once there was a land, sweet and lovely.
Oh! Roumania, Roumania, etc.
Once there was a land, sweet and fine.
To live there is a pleasure,
What your heart desires you can get
A mamalige (polenta), a pastrami, a karnatzl (meats),
And a glass of wine, aha!
In Roumania life is so good, No one knows any cares.
Everwhere they are drinking wine, And having a bite of kashtaval (also meat).
Hay digge digge dam – digge digge digge dam
Hay digge digge dam – digge digge dam.
In Roumania life is so good, No one needs to worry.
They drink wine, though it is late, And have a bite of kastrovet (more meat).
Hay digge digge dam – digge digge digge dam
Hay digge digge dam – digge digge dam.
Oy, vey, help, I’m going crazy!
I care only for brinze and mamalige
I dance and jump to the stars
When I eat Patlozhele,
Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam – Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam –
Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam – Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam –
Roumanians drink wine and eat mamalige,
And whoever kisses his own wife Is the one who’s crazy!
Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam – Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam –
Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam – Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam –
“May salvation come from heaven…”
Stop and kiss the cook, Chaye,
Dressed in rags and tatters,
She makes a pudding for the Sabbath,
Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam – Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam –
Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam – Tzingma! – Tay didl di dam –
What a pleasure, what could be better!
Oh, the only delight is Roumanian wine!!
Dr Kurtzman, some corrections to your translation:
Kashtaval is not translated as meat, Kashkaval is a typical cheese from that region (Hungary, Bulgaria too), that tastes very good, similar in consistency to Emmental or Manchego cheese. Romanians give different names to what us will fall in the generic term of cheese, but are not synonyms for them (read below)
Kastrovet is not meat either. In romanian Castravete (kastrovet in Yiddish) mean Cucumber.
Brinza, is Branza is a type of cheese. This is different from Kashkaval. Branza is a younger, white cheese.
Lastly, Patlozhele means tomato (patlagele in romanian).
There used to be a big Jewish community in that country. Some died during the world war II, others left during Ceaeusescu’s regimen (the jewish community were somehow free to emigrate to Israel, unlike ethnic Saxons, Hungarians or ethnic Romanians), and few remain there ( I met some last November). Read about Hertha Muller, a saxon-romanian that emigrated to Germany, and Nobel prize (literature) 2009.
Recommended romanian lectures:
1.- The Hatchet by Mihail Sadoveanu
2.- The sacred and the profane. The nature of religion, by Mircea Eliade
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