Re: G-d un doss kelbl = "Dona, dona"

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky wrote:

>  It seems that Ben Yomen may have also
> thought that "dana" had something to do with Spanish or Sefardic language
> and published it as "Dona".  If he learned the song from a published
> source, most probably one that didn't use standard Yiddish orthography, he
> may have guessed that the alef needed a komets rather than a pasakh, simply
> because the Spanish 'dona' was familiar to him and Polish 'dana' was not.
>  These kinds of errors happened all the time before standard Yiddish
> orthography became the publishing standard.

I can buy this explanation.

> Masha Benya said that according to Yiddish actress Rita Karpinovitch, o"h,
> 'dana, dana' is a common refrain in Polish songs.

Theodore Bikel, as many of you know, has a prodigious international
repertoire,
including many Russian and Slavic songs.

Thanks, Reyzl and Sam Weiss for your detective work on this one.

Wolf

BTW-  Rita Karpinovitch, o"h, (aka Rita Karin) played Richard Dreyfus' mother
in the film "The Big Fix".  Among the memorable lines:
Dreyfus character, Det. Moses Wine re: Karin character:  "She DATED
Kropotkin!"
Karin character (overlooking casino patrons) with Yiddish accent:
"Look at them; the rotten fruit of capitalism."

The film is based on American revolutionary Abbie Hoffman, o"h, during his
fugitive phase.


---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+