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Vaylu

Alas!
װײַלו

Words by popular Yiddish poet Itsik Manger (1901-1969) whose songs are sung throughout the world. Words and music submitted by Masha Benya Matz, who also suggested that Manger might possibly be the composer of the melody.

Illustration of musical notes from the books

Lyrics

Play for me, gypsy,
Play me a song.
Play for me and play for me
And don’t grow tired.
Vaylu.

If roaming and wandering
Are my destiny,
Let me roam
Over seas and land.
Vaylu

Wrapped in night
and girdled by the wind,
I pace on unfamiliar roads.
Vaylu.

I left my mother
Alone at home,
A room patched
With sorrow and cement.
Vaylu.

A star falls somewhere
And quickly burns up.
I recognize my life in it.
Vaylu.

So play for me, gypsy,
Play me a song.
Play for me and play for me
And don’t grow tired.
Vaylu.

Shpil mir, tsigayner,
Shpil mir a lid,
Shpil mir un shpil mir
Un ver gornit mid.
Vaylu.

Oyb voglen un vandern
Iz mir bashert,
To zol zayn gevandert
Oyf yamen un erd.
Vaylu.

Geviklt mit nakht
Un fargartlt mit vint,
Shprayz ikh oyf fremde
Vegn atsind.
Vaylu.

Gelozn a mamen
Aleyn in der heym,
A shtibl farlatet
Mit troyer un leym —
Vaylu.

Falt vu a shtern
Un vert bald farbrent,
Ikh hob in shtern
Mayn lebn derkent
Vaylu.

To shpil mir, tsigayner,
Shpil mir a lld,
Shpil mir un shpil mir
Un ver gornit mid.
Vaylu

שפּיל מיר, ציגײַנער,
שפּיל מיר אַ ליד,
שפּיל מיר און שפּיל מיר
און װער גאָרניט מיד.
װײַלו.

אױב װאָגלען און װאַנדערן
איז מיר באַשערט,
טאָ זאָל זײַן געװאַנדערט
אױף ימען און ערד.
װײַלו.

געװיקלט מיט נאַכט
און פֿאַרגאַרטלט מיט װינט,
שפּרײַז איך אױף פֿרעמדע
װעגן אַצינד.
װײַלו.

געלאָזן אַ מאַמען
אַלײן אין דער הײם,
אַ שטיבל פֿאַרלאַטעט
מיט טרױער און לײם —
װײַלו.

פֿאַלט װוּ אַ שטערן
און װערט באַלד פֿאַרברענט,
איך האָב אין שטערן
מײַן לעבן דערקענט.
װײַלו.

טאָ שפּיל מיר, ציגײַנער,
שפּיל מיר אַ ליד,
שפּיל מיר און שפּיל מיר
און װער גאָרניט מיד.
װײַלו.

Song Title: Vaylu

Composer: Itsik Manger
Composer’s Yiddish Name: Unknown
Lyricist: Itsik Manger
Lyricist’s Yiddish Name: איציק מאַנגער
Time Period: Unspecified

This Song is Part of a Collection

Pearls of Yiddish Song Cover with Illustration of musicians playing instruments

Pearls of Yiddish Song

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.

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