Words by Soviet Yiddish poet Shloyme Lopatin (1902-1943). The melody is similar to the Bialystok ghetto song “Rifkele di shabesdiker” (Rifkele the Sabbath widow) by Peysakh Kaplan.
Toward the golden sunrise, my golden wheat is rising.
Toward the golden sunrise, my golden happiness is rising.
New horizons call me and excite me,
I sing new songs, a Jewish farmer.
The work goes joyfully from very early until evening.
The sun is my factory whistle, the field my factory.
Yesterday, my neighbors were distant, now so near,
Ukranian peasant and Jewish farmer.
Kegn gold fun zun geyt oyf mayn gold fun veytsn,
Kegn gold fun zun geyt oyf mayn goldn glik.
Naye horizontn rufn mikh un reytsn,
Naye lider zing ikh, yidisher muzhik.
Geyt di arbet freylekh fun gants fri biz ovnt,
Zun iz mayn hudok, un feld iz mayn fabrik,
Nekhtn shkheynim vayte — haynt shoyn azoy noent,
Ukrayiner poyer, yidisher muzhik.
קעגן גאָלד פֿון זון גײט אױף מײַן גאָלד פֿון װײצן,
קעגן גאָלד פֿון זון גײט אױף מײַן גאָלדן גליק.
נײַע האָריזאָנטן רופֿן מיך און רײצן,
נײַע לידער זינג איך, ייִדישער מוזשיק.
גײט די אַרבעט פֿרײלעך פֿון גאַנץ פֿרי ביז אָװנט,
זון איז מײַן הודאָק, און פֿעלד איז מײַן פֿאַבריק,
נעכטן שכנים װײַטע — הײַנט שױן אַזױ נאָענט,
אוקראַיִנער פּױער, ייִדישער מוזשיק.
Song Title: Kegn Gold Fun Zun
The Songs of Generations: New Pearls of Yiddish Song anthology comprises songs that were either never printed before or appeared in rare and inaccessible publications — sometimes in different versions and without proper sources. Most of the songs in this book were submitted by readers of Chana and Yosl’s column “Perl fun der yidisher poezye” (Pearls of Yiddish Poetry) in the Yiddish newspaper Der Forverts (The Forward), initiated in October, 1970. Over 25 years, thousands of songs were collected in correspondence and on cassettes from readers throughout the world, and they represent a veritable national Yiddish song archive. Chana Mlotek, in her introduction, writes, “In the course of years the inquiries, contributions and enthusiasm of these readers have kept our own interest unflagging and have reinforced our dedication to this effort. And in recent years our participants have also been augmented by new readers from the former Soviet Russia, who receive our newspaper there or from newly-arrived immigrants in this country and Israel.”
