Interrobang's Journal: Bei Mir Bistu Shayn, un Scotish oyf Yidish

For some incomprehensible reason, while doing my research and studying my Hebrew worksheets from Akhlah*, I keep getting "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" (alternate spelling in title) stuck in my head. (Gosh, I wonder why?)

Now, I've been meaning to look up the lyrics/sheet music for that one for, oh, just ever, at least since I saw the British black comedy "Genghis Cohn." (Don't ask; just see it! It has Diana Rigg in it! It's black British comedy! It'll teach you how to say "Kiss my ass" in Yiddish, if you didn't already know! What more could you possibly want, huh?)

Unfortunately, I don't know the verses, nor the music to the verses very well, which leaves me with the chorus and the bridge. Darned inconvenient, that, because it's like singing the same 16 or 20 measures over and over again. In other words, time to look up the rest of the damned song.

Finding some English lyics wasn't hard, but finding the sheet music or anything else was hard. (Apparently the song is still -- alas! -- copyright!) So, after a long and tiring Google-a-thon, I managed to find some sheet music for it, only (fortunately or unfortunately) it only has the original Yiddish lyrics. Oh, well. I've sung in so many languages now, one more won't matter. (And maybe I can one-up my friend who can sing in 27 languages, which is more than I have!) Nevertheless, it's a beautiful PDF of the sheet music! (Yes, for all of you wondering, I can "read the dots.")

However, while on the site where I found the sheet music, I also found something so mind-bendingly wonderful it just...hurts. (Especially since my family's all Scottish and my fiance's Jewish.) This is a little composition by a guy you might be familiar with, although you might not know his alter ego. Check out the signature piece of Robbie Burns-tein:

Auld langs syne oyf yidish !

Ver ken fargesen alte fraynt
Zey ligen in gedank,
Lomir gedenken alte fraynt,
Un simkhes mit gezang.

Dermon zikh fun di alte teg,
Dermon zikh fun amol,
L'khayim tsu di alte teg,
Un simkhes fun amol.

Ot iz mayn hant, maynt guter fraynt,
Un gib mir yetst daynt hant;
Lomir makhen a shnaps, maynt fraynt,
Mit freylekhs zayn bekant.


----
That's truly the nature of the Internet for you: Go looking for something, find something completely else that's nevertheless utterly amazing, probably in a risible sort of fashion. Sort of reminds me of cleaning my apartment, in a way... ;)


* I am not signing something I can't read for myself...and it was on the list anyway. So there!

You, my friend,

[perfessor multigeek]

are a strange woman.

Feel like giving us a literal English translation?

I have now formatted this and printed it out for the yiddish club at the senior home at which I spend part of my days.
I'll be curious to see what they think of it.

Rustin

I can't give you a literal translation.

[Interrobang]

You give me far too much credit, amigo. I didn't do the translation, I just found it somewhere! About the only working knowledge I really have of Yiddish is knowing some of the prepositions (a, bei, et, oyf, mit), pronouns (mir, du, -du), sentence structure, and I can more or less tell what's a noun and what's a verb. David said, "Nicht --- an mir ---" and that was all I understood. If I spoke more German, and more Hebrew, I'd be in like Flynn, though. (I'm 98% of the way with Ladino, though, I'm pleas

I've forgotten too much

[SolemnDragon]

guess it's time to brush up. MY,/I> family's scottish too- and i don't have jewish family to blame, either. (Everyone who wasn't scottish/english was either french, german, or... no, wait, that's it...) but i lived near a FLOCK of jewish extended families at one point. Come home and talk to the neighbour and next thing i know there's six people in street asking do i like chicken soup and would i like some chicken soup and do i need a recipe for chicken soup and do i need to go shopping with them to get

It means you're the fairest in the land....

[daoine]

Courtesy the Andrews Sisters:

http://www.poplyrics.net/waiguo/soundtrack/xfiles/ 053.htm [poplyrics.net]

But the English lyrics aren't the same!

[Interrobang]

I've got the English lyrics, just not on the sheet music, and I am savvy enough to tell you that they're not the same as the Yiddish lyrics would be in English. A few prepositions, nouns, and verbs, and you know a thing or two, if not more than that.

Thanks anyway, though.

I'm actually still looking for an English translation of the Yiddish lyrics, which I may have to either do myself (give me a large enough corpus of the language, and I can translate anything), or get Mrs. R. to do (the PIC's mom, who a