The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7574   Message #2606256
Posted By: Joe Offer
07-Apr-09 - 02:41 AM
Thread Name: Origins/lyrics: Hey Zhankoye
Subject: ADD Version: Hey Zhankoye
Pete Seeger visited Dzankoy in the Crimea in 1964, and asked about this song, which he had learned some thirty years before. He devotes some ten pages of The Incompleat Folksinger (1972) to his experiences there. Here is his transliteration of the song, along with his literal translation:

HEY DZHANKOYE
Az men fort kayn Sevastopol,
Iz nit vayt fun Simferopol,
Dortn iz a stantsiye faran.
Ver darf zuchn naye glikn?
S'iz a stantsiye an antikl,
In Dzhankoye, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan.

Chorus:
Hey Dzhan, hey Dzhankoye,
Hey Dzhanvili, hey Dzhankoye,
Hey Dzhankoye, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan.

Entfert Yidn oyf mayn kashe,
Vu'z mayn bruder, vu'z Abrasha?
S'geyt bay im der trakter vi a ban.
Di mume Leye bay der kosilke,
Beyle bay der molotilke,
In Dzhankoye, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan.

Ver zogt az Yidn konen nor handlen,
Esn fete yoych mit mandlen,
Nor nit zayn kayn arbetsman?
Dos konen zogn nor di sonim!
Yidn! Shpayt zey on in ponim!
Tut a kuk oyf Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan!
As one travels to Sevastopol—
It's not far from Simferopol—
There is a railroad station:
Who wants to look for new glory?
This is a station, a beauty,
In Dzhankoy, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan.

Chorus:
Hey Dzhan, hey Dzhankoy,
Hey Dzhan-village, hey Dzhankoy,
Hey Dzhanoky, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan.

Answer my question, Jews:
Where's my brother, where's Abrasha?
His tractor is going like a locomotive.
Aunt Leye is at the butter churn,
Beyle at the thresher,
In Dzhankoy, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan.

Who says Jews can only buy and sell,
Only eat fat chicken soup with soup nuts,
Just so as not to be workingmen?
This can be said only by our enemies!
Jews! Spit in their faces!
Take a look at Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan!

Source: The Incompleat Folksinger, Pete Seeger (1972), page 516

The song is also in Seeger's Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, page 121

Note that Seeger's "singable" translation is in the message from BSeed above. Rubin's translation may be closer to the original, but I think I prefer Seeger's "singable" version.
-Joe-