Re: "Yosl"

[Robert A. Rothstein <rar...>]

Lori Cahan-Simon wrote:

> Speaking of Yosl, are there any more lyrics than that one verse, or
> chorus, or whatever it is?  It's so short.  What am I missing?  Is there
> a recitative, or something fun?  Or did Nellie Casman just run out of
> steam after the big effort?  What show was it from?

    In addition to the chorus there are two verses.  The whole song, as 
recorded by Nellie Casman in 1923, is included in the wonderful Henry 
Sapoznik-Michael Brooks
compilation "From Avenue A to the Great White Way: Yiddish and American Popular 
Songs from 1914-1950."  There are at least three versions (differing in small 
details) of
Samuel Steinberg's text:  the one that Casman sings on the 1923 recording and 
two non-identical versions printed in the sheet music published by Kammen (one 
in
transliteration printed under the melody line and another separately printed in 
Yiddish letters).  Below is an attempt (informed by the printed texts) at 
transcribing
what Casman sings. I've marked with a question mark two lines where I can't 
quite make out whether Casman is singing what the printed texts suggest (in 
other places she
clearly is not).  Two of the rhymes work only in Casman's (and presumably 
Steinberg's) Central (Polish) Yiddish dialect: zakh/glaykh [glakh] and umetum 
[imitim]/zin.
    My photocopy of the sheet music doesn't show a date and is missing the 
title page, which perhaps indicated what show it was from (if it was from a 
show).

        Bob Rothstein

YOSL (words: Samuel Steinberg, music: Nellie Casman)

Mayn khayes geyt mir oys,
ikh fil, ikh halt nisht oys,
mayn harts tut mir vey gor on a shir.
Es iz mir heys un kalt,
un ikh ver gro un alt.
Un veyst ir, mentshn, vos es kvelt mir.
Di libe brent a shrek,
ikh fil, ikh shtarb avek
nokh mayn Yoslen, my darling, my dear.
A bokher, a sheyner,
mir zol zayn far zayne beyner.
Yosl, ikh krapir nokh dir.

 Oy, oy, oy, Yosl, Yosl, Yosl, Yosl,
 oy, oy, mayn khayes geyt mir oys fun dir.
 Oy, oy, oy, Yosl, Yosl, Yosl, Yosl,
 dayn malke zitst nokh alts un vart oyf dir.
 Oy, oy, oy, Yosl, Yosl, Yosl, Yosl,
 ikh kholem yede nakht nor fun dir.
 Un git der yeytser-hore
 mikh amol a tore,
 Yosl, ikh krapir nokh dir.

Geredt a shidekh mir,
a glik gor on a shir,
a sheynem bokher mit a groyser bombe gelt.
Es iz keyn gringe zakh.
A khupe geshtelt glaykh [?]
un finster iz mir gevorn mayn velt.
Mayn man libt mikh on a shir [?]
un Yosl krikht tsu mir
in hartsn, in kop un umetum.
Baym trinken, baym esn
ken ikh im keynmol fargesn.
Yosl, krikhst mir nokh in zin.

 Oy, oy, oy, Yosl, Yosl, Yosl, Yosl,...




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