Re: Chatskele

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

Another version:

    Nit keyn gebetene, aleyn gekumen,
    take an oreme, fort a mume.

        Orem iz nit gut,
        orem iz nit gut,
        lomir zikh nit shemen
        mit eygenem blut.

Sore di rebetsn, di kales a mume,
take an oreme, fort a frume.

Khatskele, Khatskele, shpilt mir a kazatskele,
khotsh an oreme, abi a khvatskele.

Gegebn a perene, tsugenumen,
take an oreme, fort a mume.

(From the 1927 edition of the Schack-Cohen _Yiddish Folk Songs: 50 Songs
for Voice and Piano, which calls it "Orem is [sic] nit gut" and gives
the following summary:  "The poor but pious aunt, who has not been
invited to the wedding, comes uninvited and valiantly makes merry.  She
pays the musicians to play a _kasatskele_ [sic] for her.  Her gift to
the pair is a feather-bed.  In the chorus she turns a philosophic
thought about the misfortune of poverty and warns folks not to be
ashamed of blood-relatives.")

Bob Rothstein

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