Poem: Mordechai Gebirtig
Sung in Yiddish
O, good klezmer, take your fiddle in hand,
And play for me the song of the Golden Land….
Once upon a time, my mother used to sing me
This song with great feeling. O, play it for me, play!
When I hear the song, it seems
That my dear mother is hovering over me.
Her lovely figure, her tender glance—
They awaken my childhood happiness.
When I hear the song, I suddenly see
My mother. She’s preparing my cradle for me
And I feel on my forehead her slender hand—
She sings me the song of the Golden Land.
“Once there was in a Golden Land
A clever only son, a beautiful diamond,”
She sings, and the clock’s pendulum ticks,
And the cradle rocks. Ay lyu lyu lyu.
oy, nem, guter klezmer, dayn fidl in hant
un shpil mir dos lidl fun goldenem land.
a mol flegt mayn mame mit harts un gefil,
dos lidl mir zingen. oy shpil es mir, shpil!
un her ikh dos lidl, dan shvebt far mir bald
mayn tayere mame, ir liblekh geshtalt;
ir tsertlekher blik—
zay vekn mir oyf mayn fargangenem glik.
un her ikh dos lidl, derze ikh, ot shteyt
mayn mame, zi makht mir mayn vigele greyt.
un kh’fil af mayn shtern ir darinke hant—
zi zingt mir dos lidl fun goldenem land.
a mol iz geven in a goldenem land
a kluger benyokhid, a sheyner brilyant—
zi zingt un es tiktakt dem zeygers umru
un s’vigele hoydet zikh—
Ay lyu lyu lyu.
