Textual variant published in 1923 by Pinkhes Graubard; text and music published in 1925 by M. Kipnis and in 1928 by S. Lehman. The version presented here was sung by Yosl Mlotek in Warsaw in the 1930’s.
When I was a small lad,
I didn’t want to obey my father.
Today l sit in jail
And look through the prison grates.
Refrain:
I won’t steal anymore,
But take by force.
When I was a small lad,
I didn’t want to obey my mother.
Today l sit in prison
And do time in the pits.
When I was a small lad,
I didn’t want to obey my brothers.
Today I sit in jail and sing songs.
The birds stand on the rooftop and look down.
I still have to serve another summer and winter.
I left the jail on good behavior.
My first theft was a gold watch.
Kh’bin geven a kleyner yat,
Hob ikh nisht gevolt folgn dem tatn;
Haynt zits ikh in pavyak
Un kuk aroys durkh di kratn.
Refrain:
Kh’vel shoyn mer nisht ganvenen,
Nor nemen bagrande.*
Kh’bin geven a kleyner yat,
Hob ikh nisht gevolt folgn der mamen;
Haynt zits ikh in turme
Un valger mir in di yamen.
Kh’bin geven a kleyner yat,
Hob ikh nisht gevolt folgn dem brider;
Haynt zits ikh in kitshement
Un zing mir lider.
Di feygelekh shteyen oyfn dakh
Un kukn arinter;
Ikh hob nokh tsu zitsn
A zumer mit a vinter.
Kh’bin aroys fun kriminal
Mit a sheynem shteyger;
Der ershter potshontek:
A goldener zeyger.
*Last time: Nor dos mol un nokh a mol.
כ’בין געװען אַ קלײנער יאַט,
האָב איך נישט געװאָלט פֿאָלגן דעם טאַטן;
הײַנט זיץ איך אין פּאַװיאַק
און קוק אַרױס דורך די קראַטן.
רעפֿרײן:
כ’װעל שױן מער נישט גנבֿענען
נאָר נעמען באַגראַנדע.*
כ’בין געװען אַ קלײנער יאַט,
האָב איך נישט געװאָלט פֿאָלגן דער מאַמען;
הײַנט זיץ איך אין טורמע
און װאַלגער מיר אין די יאַמען.
כ’בין געװען אַ קלײנער יאַט,
האָב איך נישט געװאָלט פֿאָלגן דעם ברידער;
הײַנט זיץ איך אין קיטשעמענט
און זינג מיר לידער.
די פֿײגעלעך שטײען אױפֿן דאַך
און קוקן אַרינטער;
איך האָב נאָך צו זיצן
אַ זומער מיט אַ װינטער.
כ’בין אַרױס פֿון קרימינאַל
מיט אַ שײנעם שטײנער;
דער ערשטער פּאָטשאָנטעק:
אַ גאָלדענער זײגער.
* דאָס לעצטע מאָל: נאָר דאָס מאָל און נאָך אַ מאָל.
Song Title: Kh’vel Shoyn Mer Nit Ganvenen
First published in 1988 as Pearls of Yiddish Song: Favorite Folk, Art and Theatre Songs, this anthology contains 115 songs. Some material had never been published, while others, included in rare song collections or sheet music, were largely inaccessible. The songs presented reflect Jewish life in Eastern Europe and the United States and depict childhood, love, family celebrations, poverty, work and struggle. There are also songs from the Hasidic and Maskilic movements, songs of Zion and of America, as well as songs from the Yiddish theater.
The title of this anthology derives from the weekly two-page feature column “Pearls of Yiddish Poetry,” which the compilers Yosl and Chana Mlotek initiated in 1970 in the Yiddish newspaper Der Forvertz (the Yiddish Daily Forward). Hundreds of readers from around the world — including authors, composers, singers, actors — became co-participants in this collective folk project and recalled melodies, lines, fragments, stanzas and their variants of songs, poems, and plays which they had heard in their youth. At first, readers sent in only written material. Later, they also taped songs on cassettes, many of whose melodies had, until then, never been recorded. They also identified and supplied missing information regarding lyricists, poets, and composers and described the circumstances surrounding the songs’ origins, their dissemination, diffusion and impact.
