Origins:Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern (Sutskever)

Subject: Lyr Req: Need phonetics Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: GUEST,GUEST - Donna
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 03:26 PM

Hi - I need to learn this song in a few weeks and was wondering if anyone had the lyrics phonetically? Thank you!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need phonetics Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 04:15 PM

Hi, Donna-
Transliterated Yiddish is more-or-less phonetic, but you'll miss some fine points. I think you're better off learning it from a recording and typing up your own phonetics if you really want it.
This Google link will lead you to videos of a number of recordings. I especially like this recording from Chava Alberstein. It's a haunting song, isn't it?

The Digital Tradition version of this song needs some work - starting with the title, which makes no sense. The Yiddish version is fine except for one typographical error ["ibqer" should be changed to iber], and the English translation isn't bad. The "free translation" doesn't seem to have any relation to the song at all. I'll post a couple other versions later.

-Joe-

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You'll find a choral arrangement in sheet music form in this pdf file: http://www.ecspublishing.com/New%20issue/fall06/6219WEB.pdf

Subject: ADD Version: Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 05:50 PM

UNTER DAYNE VAYSE SHTERN
(text, Avraham Sutskever; melody, Avreml Brudna)

Unter dayne vayse shtern
Shtrek tsu mir dayn vayse hant,
Mayne verter zaynen trern,
Viln ruen in dayn hant.
Ze, es tunklt zeyer finkl
In mayn kelerdikn blik,
Un ich hob gornisht keyn vinkl
Zey tsu shenken dir tsurik.

Un ich vil doch, got mayn troyer,
Dir fartroyen mayn farmeg,
In mayn hartsn brent a fayer*
Un in fayer mayne teg.
Iber kelern, in lecher
Veynt di merderishe ru,
Loyf ich hecher, iber decher
Un ich zuch - vu bistu vu?

Nemen yogn mich meshune
Trep un hayfn mit gevoy,
Heng ich a geplatste strune
Un ich zing tsu dir azoy:
Unter dayne vayse shtern
Shtrek tsu mir dayn vayse hant,
Mayne verter zaynen trern,
Viln ruen in dayn hant.


*alternate: Vayl es mont in mir a fayer


Under your white stars,
Stretch out to me your white hand,
My words are tears,
They want to rest in your hand.
Look, their sparkle is darkening
In my cellar-like glance,
And I don't even have a corner
To give them back as a gift.

And I want to, God my true one
To will you what I own,
In my heart there burns a fire
And my days are in that fire.
Over cellars, in holes
The murderous peace resides,
I run higher, over roofs
And I search, where are you, where?

Peculiar things are chasing me
Stairs and courtyards with a goad,
I hang a torn violin string
And I sing to you thus:
Under your white stars
Stretch out to me your white hand,
My words are tears,
They want to rest in your hand.

Notes: This song was produced in the small art stage "Di yogenesh in Fas" by Zlate Karchiginski. The composer (Brudna), a well-known Vilna graphic artist, was killed in a Lithuanian camp, Kloge. Avraham Sutskever was born in 1913 in Storgon. He moved to Vilna in 1920. The gruesome days lit this author's poetic spirit. In the very worst moments, Sutskever didn't lay down his pen. His appearance before the ghetto-audiences was a real happening. His songs, which he read beautifully, made a tremendous impression on his listeners.


Source: Songs Never Silenced, by Velvel Pasternak (Tara Publications, 2003), pp. 22-23

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Click to play

Subject: DT Correction: Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 06:33 PM

Here's what I would like to submit to the Digital Tradition as a correction:


UNTER DAYNE VAYSE SHTERN
(text, Avraham Sutskever; melody, Abraham Brudno)

Yiddish:

Unter dayne vayse shtern
Shtrek tsu mir dayn vayse hant.
Mayne verter zaynen trern
Viln ruen in dayn hant.
Ze, es tunklt zeyer finkl
In mayn kelerdikn blik.
Un ikh hob gornit keyn vinkl
Zey tsu shenken dir tsurik.

Un ikh vil dokh, got getrayer,
Dir fartroyen mayn farmeg.
Vayl es mont in mir a fayer
Un in fayer - mayne teg.
Nor in kelern un lekher
Veynt di merderishe ru.
Loyf ikh hekher, iber dekher
Un ikh zukh: vu bistu, vu?

Nemen yogn mikh meshune
Trep un hoyfin mit gevoy.
Heng ikh - a geplaste strune
Un ikh zing tsu dir azoy:

Unter dayne vayse shtern
Shtrek tsu mir dayn vayse hant.
Mayne verter zaynen trern
Viln ruen in dayn hant.

English (singable translation by Roslyn Bresnick-Perry)

Under Your Starry Heaven

Under your white starry heaven
Offer me your pale white hand.
All my words are flowing teardrops,
I would place them in your hand.
Gone the luster from their brightness,
Seen through morbid cellar view -
And I no longer have my own space
To reflect them back to you.

My devoted God I offer
Everything that I possess,
As the fire that I suffer
Fills each fiery day I pass.
Only in the holes and cellars
With deadly rest my days I share.
I run higher - over spire
Searching where are you, oh where?

I am chased by phantom beings
Stairs and courtyards goad me too.
There I hang a broken bowstring -
And I sing once more to you:
Under your white starry heaven
Offer me your pale white hand.
All my words are flowing teardrops,
I would place them in your hand.


English (literal translation)

Under Your white stars
Stretch to me Your white hand.
My words are tears,
Wanting to rest in Your hand.
See, they twinkle very darkly
In my cellar-beaten view;
And I have no place
How to send them back to You.

And I will, dear God,
Confide in you these of mine
While in me a fire grows
And on fire are my days.
But in cellars and holes
Cries the murderous quiet
I fly higher, over rooftops
And I search: Where are You? Where?

Something strange hunts me
Stairs and courtyards are on chase
I hang as a broken bow-string
And I sing to You this way:
Under Your white stars
Stretch to me Your white hand.
My words are tears,
Wanting to rest in Your hand.

Source: We Are Here: Songs of the Holocaust, complied by Eleanor Mlotek and Malke Gottlieb (Workmen's Circle, 1983), pages 48-49.


Note: (from Mlotek and other sources) This song was written in the Vilna ghetto, words by Abraham Sutskever (1913-2010); music by Abraham Brudno (?-1944). It was first presented in the ghetto theater in the play " Di Yogenish in Fas" (the hunt in the barrel, a pun on Diogenes in a barrel.) It was first sung by Zlate Katcherginsky. After the liquidation of the ghetto, Suskever joined the partisan fighters. He survived the war and lived in Israel where he edited the literary quarterly "Di Goldene Keyt". Sutzkever died January, 20, 2010 The composer, Avrom Brudno, following the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto, was deported to a German concentration camp in Estonia, where he died. YW

@Yiddish @WWII @Holocaust @religion @memorial
filename[ UNTRDAYN
YW

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Click to play

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Some recordings for you to listen to here (click)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need phonetics Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 07:27 PM

The Pasternak songbook lists the name of the composer as "Avreml Brudna," but most other sources list him as Brudno. In English, the first name of both composer and lyricist is "abraham," but that can also be Avraham, Avrom, Avreml, and a variety of other forms of the name.
Click here for a list of recordings of Brudno compositions in the Freedman Catalog. Click here for Sutskever compositions.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: DT Attribution & Minor Corrections PermaThread
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 08:13 PM

Joe, it looks like the Congress for Jewish Culture spells the name of the composer Sutzkever (z instead of s).
Also the name for Abraham is given as Avrom, for both men.

Sheet music- http://www.ecspublishing.com/New%20issue/fall06/6219WEB.pdf

I don't know; just posting what this sheet music page shows. Is Avrom Hebrew rather than Yiddish, which has all but disappeared?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need phonetics Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 08:47 PM

Hi, Q-
'Tis a puzzlement, but it's what you can expect when transliterating back and forth among alphabets. Wikipedia prefers "Sutzkever," but also has "Sutskever." The two songbooks both have "Sutskever," so that's what I'm going with - and not also the Brudno/Brudna disagreement on the name of the composer of the melody.

There must be a jillion different variations of "Abraham."

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need phonetics Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: GUEST,Donna
Date: 19 Jun 10 - 08:33 PM

Thanks Joe! I appreciate your help. The song is haunting; I'm enjoying learning it. I've been listening to three different versions to learn it, but I think the pronunciation in one is better than the other two. I find the "ch" and "sht" plus the rolling, guttural "r" to be challenging.

Thanks - Donna

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need phonetics Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: GUEST,Donna
Date: 19 Jun 10 - 08:38 PM

And thanks for the sheet music Q. That's a huge help. - Donna

Subject: RE: the poet Avraham Sutzkever
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Aug 21 - 07:02 PM

I'm not familiar with Avraham Sutzkever's work. I looked to see if any was published in Mudcat after I read of a documentary film VER VET BLAYBN? (Who Will Remain?) which will be shown and discussed online as part of the KlezKanada Klezmer and Yiddish festival 23-27 Aug. ( https://klezkanada.org/ )

"Attempting to better understand her grandfather Avrom Sutzkever, Israeli actress Hadas Kalderon travels to Lithuania, using her grandfather's diary to trace his early life in Vilna and his survival of the Holocaust. Sutzkever (1913-2010) was an acclaimed Yiddish poet-described by the New York Times as the "greatest poet of the Holocaust"-whose verse drew on his youth in Siberia and Vilna, his spiritual and material resistance during World War II, and his post-war life in the State of Israel. Kalderon, whose native language is Hebrew and must rely on translation of her grandfather's work, is nevertheless determined to connect with what remains of the poet's bygone world and confront the personal responsibility of preserving her grandfather's literary legacy. Woven into the documentary are family home videos, newly recorded interviews, and archival recordings, including Sutzkever's testimony at the Nuremberg Trial. Recitation of his poetry and personal reflections on resisting Nazi forces as a partisan fighter reveal how Sutzkever tried to make sense of the Holocaust and its aftermath. As Kalderon strives to reconstruct the stories told by her grandfather, the film examines the limits of language, geography, and time."

Another documentary about the author of Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern is
Black Honey - the life and poetry of Avraham Sutskever (2018)
"As long as Abraham Sutzkever lived, he wouldn't let a film about his life be made. Today, eight years after his passing, Black Honey tells the incredible story of the greatest Yiddish poet of modern times. The man who led the Paper Brigade underground movement that saved Jewish manuscripts from the Nazis, survived the WWII due to Stalin sending him a private rescue plane, testified in the Nuremberg Trials, and emigrated to Israel in 1947 where he led Yiddish culture, while writing in astonishing vitality. This film is part of a special project, The Hebrews, dedicated to Jewish poets. The project won a Special Mention Award at the Haifa International Film Festival 'Between Israeli and Jewish Identity Competition Section', 2018 "

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need phonetics Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Aug 21 - 07:24 PM

Some recordings of Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern currently available on youtube

Vladimir Fridman - vocal, guitar followed by Miriam Isaacs speaking about when she met Sutzkever

Chava Alberstein

Yeela Avital - voice
,Daphna Peled - flute, Gideon Brettler - guitar and arrangement

"Mira (Mirele) Sutzkever, daughter of Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever, recalls the story her father told her about how he wrote the poem 'Unter dayne vayse shtern (Under Your White Stars)' in the Vilna Ghetto." a very short video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE7CQlsa2bM


Lyrics of Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern and four other songs from the poetry of Avraham Sutzkever are presently at https://lyricstranslate.com/en/abraham-sutzkever-lyrics.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need phonetics Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Aug 21 - 07:41 PM

more background reading
https://www.jewdas.org/sutzkever/ The Departure of the Yiddish Mastodons ~ Avrom Sutzkever z”h by Dov Neumann includes a piece by musician Daniel Kahn, and further links related to Sutzkever and his work.

https://blog.nli.org.il/en/sutzkever/ A biographical article.

I think Mudcat may be due for a Songs by Avrom Sutzkever thread just as there is one for another Yiddish poet Mordechai Gebirtig.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need phonetics Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Aug 21 - 12:46 AM

I'm glad others are posting links to recordings by Chava Alberstein. I just love her singing.

Subject: RE: Origins:Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern (Sutskever)
From: Monique
Date: 13 Aug 21 - 01:48 AM

Lyrics in Yiddish alphabet

אונטער דײנע ווײסע שטערן

אונטער דיינע ווייסע שטערן
שטרעק צו מיר דיין ווײסע האנט
מיינע װערטער זענען טרערן
וועלן רוען אין דיין האנט

זע עס טונקלט זייער פינקל
אין מײן קעלערדיקן בליק
און איך האָב גאַרניט קיין ווינקל
זיי צו שענקען דיר צוריק

אונטער דיינע ווייסע שטערן
שטרעק צו מיר דיין ווײסע האנט
מיינע װערטער זענען טרערן
וועלן רוען אין דיין האנט