The Yiddish lyrics posted here are not quite correct. The second verse goes: Bei mir bistu gut Bei mir hostu "it" Bei mir bistu teurer vun gelt To me, you're good To me, you have it To me, you're more precious than money To "have it" was a phrase used in the twenties to say someone had that certain something, je ne sais quoi, sex appeal. It was most famously applied to Clara Beau, the "It Girl." Having the expression in a Yiddish theater song was not as incongruous as it may seem, because English slang had certainly penetrated Yiddish in the New York of the day (just read the Joys of Yiddish - Leo Rosten covers the phenomenon well). Also, although the lyrics are usually transliterated with "U" in a lot of places, the versions I've heard pronounce them as a short "I" or long "E." Thus "gut" rhymes with "it." "Bistu" comes out "Bistea" and "Hostu" as "Hostea." I don't know why, but if I recall correctly, that follows the official YIVO transliteration rules.
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