Written as a tribute to the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Mostly Jewish girls freshly emigrated from the Eastern European countryside to the U.S.A.
+Veronique Kouwenhoven Bulgaria an Eastern country save all her jewish population from about 49,000 at the time of World War II though it was an ally of Germany. Historical fact ! But so mourning about lost 14,000 souls in Macedonia and West Thrace. O, God Almighty , if You want forgive us, please !
Veronique, actually, this song was written about 12 years before the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (Rosenfeld published it in 1899), although it got "adopted" as part of the memorial for the victims years later. Rosenfeld actually wrote a different poem as a response to the tragedy.
I get chills every time I hear this. My own question finally moved me to buy newer Yiddish dictionaries. Weinreich's (published posthumously in 1968) lists "hayter" as "cheerful" but marked "of doubtful admissibility in the standard language." The 2002 Yiddish-Francais which became Yiddish-English (2013) has it without Weinreich's caveat. So there is still no verb in that line, but it would be understood as "And cheer up my gloomy heart"
@@strangerthan765 Sorry I didn't see your reply until today. Thank you. I had actually figured that out with further study in the months following my original post. Oyfhaytern is an example of a complemented verb, and, as you said, the adverbial complement is separable and follows the base verb when it is imperative (also in present tense) Also I learned that this song was written about 12 years before the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, although it got "adopted" as part of the memorial for the victims years later. Rosenfeld actually wrote a different poem as a response to the tragedy.
Found this song on a 1971 album of Yiddish songs, beautifully sung by Jewish bass-baritone opera singer Leon Lishner (1913-95). It's on YT + many others; some, like Aquabella are lovely, a couple are drek. Some say Rosenfeld wrote this before the tragic fire, some say after. If someone knows for sure, pls reply, as I am obsessed with this song. I've even written my own translation. I'm studying Yiddish with help from my 93-yr-old mother (a native speaker), Weinreich's textbook & Harkevy. Problem: none of these sources have the word "hayter". Translations on YT render it "lift" or "cheer" but it seems not to be a verb. Does it mean "higher" with verb implied (it is poetry, after all)? Is it borrowed from English?
Itzik Gottesman A sheynem dank (Thanks). So was this in the first of his poems to be translated into English by Leo Weiner (Prof of Slavic languages at Harvard), published as "Songs from the Ghetto" (which brought Rosenfeld fame)?
In German (and so also still, probably, in Yiddish), the adjective "heiter" (pronounced "high ter", to use English transliteration) means "cheerful", "serene", and synonyms. The verb formed from it, "heitern" (in the infinitive form), is not related to English "heighten", which comes from "high", German "hoch". The Yiddish pronunciation "hay ter" comes from the Germanic parts of Yiddish (i,.e, not the Slav borrowings, Hebrew, etc.) with origins in southern German dialects, where this sound shift is still common (around Heidelberg/Mannheim, for instance). The (German) verb "heitern" means, for example, to cheer someone up, raise their spirits, or enhance something. The lyrics use the preposition "oyf" (German "auf") with the verb, so you get "oyfhaytern" (the "oyf" is a separable prefix that gets splitaway from the main part of the verb, "haytern" for grammatical reasons, just like in German). "oyf" is cognate with English "up(wards)". So the line "hayter oyf mayn harts di tribe" literally means "cheer up out of my heart the darkness" ("tribe" pronounced "tree ber", cognate with German "Trübe", means darkness or trouble). The translation given, "cheer my gloomy heart", covers that nicely!
Duncan R. Bell A sheynem dank. This is a great help. So you're saying "harts" is (dative) object of "oyf," and "di tribe" is (accusative) object of "haiter," the imperative of the verb. So "tribe" must be fem. Since my post, I finally bought newer dictionaries (see my other post), both giving "oyfhaitern" as "to exhilarate" or "to cheer up." (Harkevy didn't list it.) None list "tribe" as a noun (only as an adjective: gloomy, troubled), so you've filled this gap. I don't think you meant to put R in "tree ber" as that would require "der triber" to be masc. What is the gender in German? BTW, I use "ai" or "ay" to translit. long i as in aisle or aye; "ei" or "ey" for long A as in weigh or they.
Interesting questions - I'm off to a 17th century banquet, so answer tomorrow! (Quickie: "ber" does not imply masculine - it's just a transliteration, to aid pronciation: "be" could have been misunderstood as sounding like "bee" like insect.) Useful site for German-> English: "Linguee" - gives gender etc. too
Nope. Yiddish-speaking Jews were a little too busy in the 30s and 40s to be complaining about their working conditions. Mayn Rue Platz is a poem written in 1911 by the sweatshop poet Morris Rosenfeld after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Mayn Rue Platz Don’t look for me where myrtles are green. You will not find me there, my beloved. Where lives wither at the machines, There is my resting place.
Eliezer, actually, this song was written about 12 years before the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (Rosenfeld published it in 1899), although it got "adopted" as part of the memorial for the victims years later. Rosenfeld actually wrote a different poem as a response to the tragedy.
Dear Pinkdoobie, "Aquabella is an all-female vocal group whose members live in Berlin, Bremen and Amsterdam. Sharing an interest in languages and cultures from around the globe, the singers of Aquabella have found a musical identity in their farreaching search for diverse cappellic beauty." (source: singers.com) If you see my reply, it will bring you back to hearing this beautiful Rosenfeld song from 1899. There are several excellent versions on RU-vid. Search with the name Linda Hirschhorn, also Daniel Kahn, June Tabor (odd pronunciation but lovely), and the oldest I've found by Leon Lishner: Five Yiddish Songs (this one is 3rd at 2:52)
Albert, you've probably learned this already, but Rosenfeld was one of the sweatshop poets and published this song in 1899. We Jews have certainly had far more than our share of hard times over the millennia. Syrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Romans, Inquisitors, expulsions, forced conversions.... Compared to so many Holocausts, I guess just working long hours in sweatshops while living in crowded tenements was a walk in the park.
