In 1938, Moisey Beregovski and Itzik Fefer published a politically charged songbook, Yidishe folkslider - Jewish (Yiddish) folksongs. One of them was the song Dzhankoy by unknown authors (possibly by Fefer and Beregovski themselves) that was encouraging and glorifying new Jewish agricultural settlements (colonies) in the North Crimea, including Dzhankoy (Canköy / Джанкой / דזשאַנקויע) and Kalinindorf (now Kalinino village). As much as the original song was state-sponsored and politically charged, it is not surprising that it saw many versions with alternative lyrics later in history. During WW2 / the Holocaust, the tune was used as a camp / ghetto song of Transnistria recorded by Itzik Schwartz in Baku, 1948. In the 1960's-70's Soviet Ukrainian Jewish underground singer Grisha Balber created his "dirty" version of it. In the Perestroika time, the song was repurposed for Purim, also in the underground (published by Dmitri Yakirevich in the bulletin Mame-Loshn, no.2, 1989, issued by the Initiative Group of the Yiddish Culture Association in Moscow.
This version in its first revision was created by the Litvakus' founding member and artistic director, D. Zisl Slepovitch, in 2014, following Russia's annexation of the Crimea. In 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Slepovitch revised the lyrics.
Az men fort kayn Sevastopol,
Iz nit vayt fun Simferopol,
Zet men dort dos okupirte land.
Vi es shteyt in'm altn lid,
Yeder yid hot gor shtark lib
Di shtot Dzhankoye, dzhan, dzhan dzhan
REFRAIN:
Hey, Dzhan, hey Dzhankoye,
Hey Dzhanvili, hey Dzhankoye,
Hey Dzhankoye, dzhan, dzhan, dzhan (2x)
Enfert yidn af mayn kashe,
Vu'z mayn bruder, vu'z Abrashe?
S'geyt ba im der tank vi a ban.
Er kemft far Ukraine libe,
Far di zeydes-bobes griber.
Shteyt er af zayn eybikn Maydan.
Zoln visn ale sonim,
Rotskhim, merders un talyonim
Az Abrashe iz dokh nit aleyn.
Di vos libn zeyer land-
Nemen biksn in der rekhter hant
In di enge reyen ale shteyen.
REFRAIN
Vet men kemfn, vet men hofn,
in Ergets vet men nit antlofn,
Darft men nit keyn Putinland.
Di sonim varfn bombes, mines,
Ober lebt nokh Ukraine,
Ale mentshn shteyen nokhanand.
S’lebn unter okupatsye
'z nit keyn yontef, keyn vakatsye,
Vil Abrashe lebn in zayn land.
Me't bagrisn fraynt, turistn,
Nit banditn-aferistn,
In Dzhankoye-dzhan-dzhan-dzhan.
English translation and Yiddish transliteration: see captions.
1 окт 2024
