ADD: The Little Bird (from Jewish summer camps)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LITTLE BIRD
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 13 May 04 - 11:23 PM

Here is a song that was popular in Jewish summer camps 55 years ago. The author and composer are unknown. Rumor has it that it was written by a 16-year-old junior counselor in an all-girls Orthodox camp called Camp Bais Yaakov (Beth Jacob) in the Catskill Mountains sometime between the end of World War 2 and 1948 when the State of Israel was created. The Holocaust was still fresh in her mind. Many of you may know the tune which is the same as the Israeli folk song B'Arvot Hanegev. This song, "The Little Bird" preceded it, but the tune was never copyrighted.

The little bird is calling
He wishes to return
The little bird is wounded
He cannot cry but yearns
He's captured by the vultures
And is crying bitterly
Oh to see my nest again
Oh to be redeemed

The little bird of silver
So delicate and rare
Still chirps among the vultures
Outshining all that's there
How long, how long it suffers
How long will it be
When will come the eagle
And set the little bird free

The little bird is Yisroel (Israel)
The vultures are our foes
The painful wound is Galus (exile)
Which we all feel and know
The nest is Yerusholayim (Jerusalem)
Which we yearn to see once more
The eagle is Moshiach (Messiah)
Whom we are waiting for

Please note that the word Yisroel refers to the Jewish people and not to the State of Israel which was not yet in existence when this song was written. Both, the words and music are in the public domain.
SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Lyrics: The Little Bird
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 14 May 04 - 12:13 AM

Thank you Rabbi-Sol - a nice addition.

What is YOUR first connection to the piece and what is YOUR source for the lyrics?

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyrics: The Little Bird
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 14 May 04 - 06:36 PM

Hi Gargoyle, My first connection with the lyrics was when I heard them as a camper in a Jewish camp, Camp North Star located in Duane, N.Y. The year was 1951. The counselors taught us the words to the song that summer, but I forgot them. I was searching the web for the past 4 years and I finally re-discovered them on a special web site run by Princeton University. The URL is http://www.princeton.edu/zemerl
Although I had been to that web site many times before, the song was added to it last August 2003. SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Lyrics: The Little Bird
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 15 May 04 - 11:50 PM

Although this song is over 55 years old it is still very appropriate for today. I would like to see someone record this song as part of a future album. I think that Priscilla Herdman with her operatic voice would be the best candidate. I will try to talk to her at the next festival that I attend where she will be appearing. SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Lyrics: The Little Bird
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 May 04 - 01:37 AM

The only mention I found of "B'Arvot Hanegev" and "The Little Bird" was at Zemerl, and I couldn't find a tune for either one. Do either of these songs appear in print?
Anybody have a MIDI they can send me for posting here?
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyrics: The Little Bird
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 16 May 04 - 07:41 PM

Hi Joe, I just did some searching. If you have Windows Media Player, you can actually hear a woman singing the song with the words. The site to go to is http://www.geocities.com/matovou/littlebird.htm
You might be able to save the file and bring it over here. I do not have the computer expertise to do it. I hope that this helps you.
SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Little Bird
From: Wolfgang
Date: 25 May 04 - 02:10 PM

Click for tune

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Little Bird
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 May 04 - 01:15 PM

That link Wolfgang gave there doesn't seem to work for me anyway - but Sol's does, - The Little Bird.

Very moving and delicate. Songs about exile do often have a strange power.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Little Bird
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 May 04 - 07:22 PM

Here are couple of other little bird songs. Nothing to do with that one, but I like it when you get songs echoing each other, especially when they come from completely different places and times.

Little birdie, little birdie
   Come and sing me you song
   Got a short time to stay here
   And a long time to be gone

There are verses that go with this, but I've never heard any that match up to it - but it goes well added on to Will the Circle be Unbroken.

And here's the other, recorded y Doc Watson with these words:

Free Little Bird

I'm as free a little bird as I can be
I'm as free a little bird as I can be
I'm free at my age as a birdie in the cage
I'm as free a little bird as I can be

Carry me home little birdie carry me home
Carry me home little birdie carry me home
Carry me home to my wife she's the joy of my life
Carry me home little birdie carry me home

I'll never build my nest on the ground
Neither in the forks of a tree
I'll build my nest in the ruffle of her dress
Where the bad boys can never bother me

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Little Bird
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 May 04 - 09:41 PM

Palestinian folk song ('Ataba)

The breeze of our homeland revives the body
And surely we cannot live without our homeland
The bird cries when it is thrown out of its nest
So how is the homeland that has its own people?

Verse from a Palestinian 'Ataba

naseem eblaadna lal-jesem mon'esh
bedoon el-waTan iqna' yowm ma n-'eesh
bebky eT-Teir eTha ben Tarad men' esh
fa keef el-waTan elly loo S-Haab?


Palestinian Popular Songs

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Little Bird
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 30 May 04 - 11:25 PM

Hi Q, Can you tell me in what year this verse of the Palestinian 'Ataba was written ? SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Little Bird
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 May 04 - 11:59 PM

'Atabas are constantly revised. Cannot translate Arabic in any case.I don't think the 4arabs website 'three hour course' would be suficient.