Warshawsky's Songs: A Sholom Aleichem Memoir

Bernick, Joan

WARSHAWSKY'S SONGS ASHOtOM ALEKHEM MEMOIR TRANSLATED BY JOANBERNKK About fifteen years ago, a friend of mine, a lawyer, told me about a trip he had taken to attend court in Vasilkov, along with a...

...and the earnest, preoccupied faces would begin to smile a little, on credit...
...All his life, Warshawsky, poor fellow, struggled with poverty, like a true hero, God forbid not showing anyone that he and his family (a wife and daughter) suffered need...
...When, children you grow older You will understand How many tears, how much weeping Is buried in these letters...
...Poor fellow, he really perspired, just as if they were paying him—who knows what...
...Perhaps it's an ideal of popularity and every composer should wish to achieve it...
...Got hot zei mit oiihcr un koved baglikt, In tebn hobn zei zich keinmol nit gekrigt, Nor Notele, nor bobele rufn zei zich tzi Achtzik er un zibetzik zi...
...But the real holiday began when Warshawsky sat down at the piano...
...Unless with time the One Above would be merciful...
...Really...
...But—God intervened: When I arrived in Yekaterinoslav, I found a telegram of just three words: "Warshawsky seriously ill...
...and there we'll turn the world upside down...
...he said with his echoing laughter...
...I'm not joking...
...Why don't you have these songs published...
...He was glad that his friends had covered the costs...
...God has brought me great delight, Made my dark days sunny, bright, So dance, my children, with all your might...
...And since the songs had been known for a long time, the first thousand little books were snatched up like matzah-water at a Seder—not even enough left to serve as a drop of medicine...
...And a buyer who would pay the author a few hundred in cash for it—he didn't show up either...
...The walls sweated...
...And they made a circle around the guest of honor and the host, and we danced and sang—life at the full...
...This was the period of "Zionism"—Zionist evenings, Zionist gatherings...
...Just you watch Granny How she stamps her feet...
...But, that Warshawsky wrote songs in Yiddish as well as in Russian—this I never knew...
...A group of friends subscribed the money, and in an auspicious hour the first volume of Warshawsky's songs was set up in type...
...For songs in Yiddish, cash money...
...And where could one find a more upright and honorable man than ?. M. Warshawsky...
...I saw before me a short, plump man of over fifty, with near-sighted, but smiling, speaking eyes, in a jacket a little rubbed out at the elbows, and a well-worn tie...
...More than once, when we left a meeting at night on foot (to order a carriage for the free artists didn't occur to anyone), he would show me, laughing gaily, that his shirt was soaking wet...
...Who knows...
...How many Zionists know the name of Naphtali Herz Imber, who wrote "Hatikva...
...And he promised...
...So they revelled until midnight Bobbele, zaide says, good night Sleep well and cover yourself He is eighty, she is seventy...
...It is warm in the house, The rebbe is teaching the little children The alef-beis...
...he sets them to music, and he sings them—the whole thing himself...
...Azoi hot men genu men tzu biselech vain Dem zeidn mit der bobcn in rod arain, Di mume iz gegangen akegn oif a kni Achtzik er un zibetzik zi...
...A suffocating crowd...
...So our Warshawsky suddenly became a great man: he was offered a position with a salary of several thousand rubles a year, a house, all furnished, a phaeton and horses— they talked of all good things...
...You realize that the author didn't make any money from this venture...
...He was a lawyer, the kind of lawyer who doesn't catch any stars, who doesn't cackle or make a noise in the world, but sits quietly in his office, and looks out the window a long time for a client...
...He said that upright and honorable people, He Himself must have...
...I didn't know, then, that my prophecy would be more than fulfilled, that the songs would be known to all Israel, and sung every time a Jewish song was sung—but that their creator would be unknown, and the name of Warshawsky forgotten, just as though Mark Markevitch Warshawsky had never existed in the world...
...Besides, he confessed to me that, although he had once studied at the academy for state-appointed rabbis, in Zhitomir, he had learned so little and forgotten so much about writing Yiddish that it was hard for him to set down his songs on paper...
...pa pi iayl...
...Where do you find them...
...Issac, you rascal, We're in for a treat...
...The jubilee was held at my house...
...I've given my youngest away tonight...
...Right in the middle, a group of students burst in, young people, warm Jewish blood...
...It got to be a habit—a lost cause...
...He writes the words himself...
...And we all had a glass and proposed a toast, and made a speech, praising the author to the skies...
...I remember, as if it were today, how he reckoned up the profits of our first tour over the land...
...Then why are you keeping him a secret...
...lyi...
...Who wrote the "Marseillaise...
...The English translations of the Warshawsky songs on this and the following pages appear on page 62...
...And the voice, when the composer sang his songs for audiences in Kiev, reached also to other towns, and we both began to receive invitations from big and little towns, to come and cheer people up—I, with my stories, Warshawsky with his "little songs...
...They say that everyone knows the "Lorelei" but no one knows that the words were written by Heine...
...pypK ryuwyi ?? yam ? ? p'xyan...
...He had a rapid walk, a sweet voice, and a very resounding laugh—this is Warshawsky's portrait...
...And woe, woe, what happened...
...he had quite forgotten Warshawsky...
...Hardly an evening went by, hardly a Zionist gathering, that they didn't drag us from Kreshtshatik to Podol and from Podol to Kreshtshatik...
...I had often heard of Mark Markevitch Warshawsky...
...With God's help, the volume of songs came off the press...
...Learn, children, don't be afraid Every beginning is difficult...
...WARSHAWSKY'S SONGS ASHOtOM ALEKHEM MEMOIR TRANSLATED BY JOANBERNKK About fifteen years ago, a friend of mine, a lawyer, told me about a trip he had taken to attend court in Vasilkov, along with a fellow-lawyer, Mark Markevitch Warshawsky, and how, during the whole journey from Kiev to Vasilkov and back, Warshawsky sang songs in Yiddish—songs so sweet that they seemed to penetrate eveiy limb...
...Azoi hot men gchutiet biz halbe nacht Bobele, zogt der zeide, a gute niche li&riyi...
...No one appeared on the scene who was eager to finance a second edition...
...So folk-like were the words, and so simple the melodies...
...I've given my youngest away tonight...
...It was called "The One-and-a-half Year Jubilee of Warshawsky's Songs...
...At all Jewish concerts, artists come out and sing Warshawsky's songs beautifully...
...Learn, children, with great desire And I promise you Whoever learns to read the best Will receive a flag...
...My guest didn't need much urging, but sat down at the piano, and began to play and sing, with so much humor and feeling, and in such a beautiful, heartfelt voice, that I simply seized him around and kissed him...
...But we had the whole world before us...
...We'll make thirty thousand, devil take them...
...Thirty thousand...
...And since the gatherings consisted of very hot debates, and dry—often a little too dry—speeches, they very much needed refreshment: a kind of dessert "pour le bonne bouche," as the French say...
...So they had a bit of wine And the bobbe and the zaide entered the circle Auntie, opposite, dancing on her knees He is eighty, she is seventy...
...Joan Bernick writes prose, verse and song lyrics, and translates literature and opera...
...In my introduction to the first edition of Warshawsky's songs, I prophesied that before long these songs would become real folk-songs, sung by folk all over the Dispersion of Israel...
...yVyoei — ii ?? "i rt p'iyan ?? -\y p'is» lybca ii pnuya ijb oen...
...there was hardly a Jewish home where they couldn't sing "Oifn Pripechok...
...is p'isk 1133 -|1K IBiy Wli ? U(U .DP'^1K3 xn ^aj"p ?? ™? pen pyi> jm .wnpyi pn jrVyaea...
...rtt iya*a iyi...
...No one else could enliven a crowd as he could, by improvising humorous rhymes: a song about anyone, sketching his chief characteristics, and depicting a man for you in three or four words...
...We went first to two nearby towns, Bielotserkov and Berdichev...
...They're his own»songs, not published anywhere...
...What joy, oh what delight...
...Di Mezinke...
...when life is good, you abandon the world...
...Ha ha ha...
...Where are they published...
...When they had talked themselves out as empty as drums, and eaten a full meal of debates, they would draw up their chairs, and sit Sholom Aleichem down in front...
...Di Mezinke...
...In a few days, the songbird came...
...But we attacked him from all sides, for so long, that at last he was persuaded to dictate the text to me, and the notes to a musician...
...There was a jubilee party for him...
...Perhaps this is a virtue...
...In spite of this, Warshawsky was a lively fellow, a true Kasrilik— poor but happy, the soul of sociability among the Kiev lawyers...
...My friend thought that this was a Jewish folksong...
...No party, no celebration, no carousal could go on without Mark Markevitch...
...Truly, it was far enough from thirty thousand...
...But the world was not destined to be turned upside down...
...Happy is the Jew who learns Torah, What more do we need...
...It should have been called: "Since a year and a half ago Warshawksy's songs, by the endeavors of friends and Zionists, were published, and with God's help in a good hour came forth from the press—it's a holiday for you, Jews...
...Until you burst your strings in two...
...Warshawsky died, but his songs kept on spreading out among the Jewish folk, among us in the Russian Pale of Settlement, and also far, far beyond, to foreign lands, to America, and still farther than that...
...Motl, Shimen— All the poor folk have arrived...
...That was the happiest time— you might call it the springtime of Warshawsky's life...
...Itzik, old fellow, Raise your bow—and bellow At your band, that lazy crew, Strike up the liveliest of tunes...
...But the client, when he comes at last, knows that this lawyer is not one who will look in his hand and estimate how much he has in his pocket, but one who will hear him out like a friend, and deal with him like a brother...
...So you can imagine with what curiosity I awaited him...
...But just at old age, at fifty-odd years, some iron company from the Don River basin, not Jews but Christian Bulgarians, needed a prosecutor in their office in Yekaterinoslav...
...So, what did God do...
...And after that, we'll swim across the sea, and make a journey across America...
...I had to read something, and Warshawsky had to sing something—and not sing "something," but really sing a lot!— although neither my reading nor his singing had anything to do with Zionism...
...At last the time came for Warshawsky to enjoy some recognition...
...I 'n ?? epip ,Biyt:b>yyj ?? ia*n *n — is ? pnyan...
...Tear the fiddle-strings till they break At the youngest daughter's wedding...
...The idea of publication was so far from Warshawsky's mind that at first, he wouldn't hear of it at all...
...Remember, children, Remember dear ones, What you are learning here...
...After only a few songs, they all poured in requests as if they were invited guests at a wedding...
...Oifn Pripechok...
...God has bedecked them with happiness and honor They have never quarreled They call each other only Nottele, Bobbele He is eighty, she is seventy...
...Say again and then again, Kametz alef "o...
...J Achtzik Er Und Zibetzik Zi s'iz haint ikunt gevorn fuftzik yor Vi zei lcbn zich in einem, dot altc por, Zei hobn zich gecltert, kukt lich tzi Achtzik er un zibetzik zi...
...WWl t'K'O P'ttlD o)p ,07...
...When the little book was sold out, Warshawsky's songs became known, not only in Kiev, and around Kiev, but far and wide over the whole land...
...But he did get honor for it: a jubilee...
...Bring this songbird to see me...
...Taiere Malke...
...Listen—it's worth knowing...
...It was Purim, after the holiday supper, a lively party...
...I've given my daughter away tonight...
...Thirty it was, but the thousand was lacking...
...Robber...
...To bring out the little book himself—Warshawsky never possessed so much capital...
...Simches-Toire...
...She lives in a suburb of Chicago...
...it dripped from the ceiling...
...Translation from A Treasury of Jewish Folksong, Schocken Books, New York 1950, edited by Ruth Rubin Oifn Pripechok A fire is burning in the hearth...
...Still more: not long ago, a friend of mine, a writer from Warsaw, was at a Jewish concert in Odessa, and came away enchanted with a Jewish folk-song: Stronger, stronger...
...Serve them the best of every dish, Costly wines, delicious fish, Oh my daughter, give me a kiss...
...Soon we were asked to come to Yekaterinoslav, and from there we were to go to Odessa, and farther, and still farther...
...iy p"i3k ra oy^inyi iya o$n 'int .B3w ya^Rn yen ? ,ym ijri oibi ,?*ya&a .tav Di Mezinke Oisgegebn Oifti Pripechok Achtzik Er Und Zibetzik Zi Today it is exactly fifty years That they have lived together, the old couple They have aged, just look He is eighty, she is seventy...
...One in ten thousand knows that it was Rouget de Lisle...
...And Warshawsky lay down, suffered inhumanly for a year, and died, forgotten by the world, and leaving his family without any means of support...
...And then Kasrilevke came upon the scene, and everyone relaxed into a holiday mood...
...If I didn't know they were yours, I would swear that I used to hear my mother sing them...
...but the strange thing is that the programs and posters rarely show his name...
...Fit to be wrung out— the devil take them...
...I've given my youngest away tonight...
...And the good Warshawsky, who didn't know what it was to refuse, listened to them all and was happy to give each one what he desired...
...God, if He wills, He can...
...It goes without saying, that such men drudge as long as they live, wage a bitter war with poverty, in which they barely come out with a piece of bread, and are aged before their time...
...This dessert was, first, Sholom Aleichem's stories, and after that, Warshawsky's songs...
...They wanted an upright and honorable lawyer from Kiev—he could be a Jew...
...Di Mezinke Oisgegebn Larger, longer, Make the dance-ring stronger...
...Whose songs are they...
...oyi .m...
...How did such a thing happen...

Vol. 5 • May 1980 • No. 5


 
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