Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish

Subject: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 01:11 AM

Anybody have lyrics to this haunting song? Somebody sang it tonight, and I really liked it.
It was recorded by the Pennywhistlers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 10:13 AM

Here we go; good luck with Google Translate! Not my field of expertise, I'm afraid. OCR with some punctuation missing:

עס פאלט א שניי, עס גיסט א רעגן
עס קאפעט פון די דעכעד
וויכנע־דוואשע פירט די מעל
אין זעק מיט הוילע לעכער

האפ מיינע המדטאשז
האפ מיינע ווייסע
מיט מייגע המן־טאשן
האט פאסירט א מעשה

פינף רויע המן־טאשן
פאר דער מומע יעגטע
נישט דערקנאטן, נישט דערבאקן
און ארויס פארברענטע

האפ מייגע המן־טאשן
ד,אפ מיינע ווייסע
מיט מיינע המן־טאשן
האט פאסירט א מעשה

Authorship yet to be determined; presumably "neo-Yiddish". Who finds more?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 01:49 PM

And a beautiful recorded performance by the Pennywhistlers, at that:
beautiful, poignant voices
and a sweet four-part arrangement. Recommended.
I haven't listened in years,
and I still recall how it sounded.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 11:27 AM

I have done some research, though not exhaustive. The song seems to belong to the context of "Vykhne-Dvozhe", the hero of several novels by the Latvian Yiddish author Ozer Bloshteyn (1840-1898). I do not yet know whether the poem is by him, from one of the said novels or otherwise, but it may well be.

Here is the corrected text (- took me some labour -) with transliteration and my translation, the latter based on guesswork:

עס פאַלט אַ שניי, עס גיסט אַ רעגן
,עס קאַפּעט פון די דעכעד
וויכנע־דוואָשע פירט די מעל
.אין זעק מיט הוילע לעכער

האָפּ מיינע המד־טאַשן
,האָפּ מיינע ווייסע
מיט מיינע המד־טאַשן
.האָט פּאַסירט אַ מעשה

פינף רויע המן־טאַשן
,פאַר דער מומע יעגטע
נישט דערקנאָטן, נישט דערבאַקן
...און אַרויס פאַרברענטע

,האָפּ מיינע המן־טאַשן
,האָפּ מיינע ווייסע
מיט מיינע המן־טאַשן
.האָט פּאַסירט אַ מעשה

es falt a shney, es gist a regn
es kapet fun di dekhed,
vikhne-dvoshe firt di mel
in zek mit hoyle lekher.

hop meyne hmd-tashn
hop meyne veyse,
mit meyne hmd-tashn
hot pasirt a meshh.

finf roye hmn-tashn
far der mume yegte,
nisht derknotn, nisht derbakn
aun aroys farbrente...

hop meyne hmn-tashn,
hop meyne veyse,
mit meyne hmn-tashn
hot pasirt a meshh.

Snow is falling, rain is pouring,
it's dropping from the ceiling,
Vykhne-Dvozhe carries flour
in sacks full of holes.

I have my ham bags,
I have my white ones;
with my ham bags
some misfortune happened.

Five bags of raw ham
for aunt Yegte,
not recognized, not identified,
and burned outside!

I have my ham bags,
I have my white ones;
with my ham bags
some misfortune happened.

Probably genuine from the Silver Age of Yiddish literature; a nice finding!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 11:37 AM

My translation "ham" is inspired by Google and by no means trustworthy.

If however it is correct, it cannot refer to ordinary pork ham, so the meat is likely to be very valuable indeed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: cnd
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 12:00 PM

Excellent searching Grishka!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 12:45 PM

Although "?????????" can well mean "ham bag" (presumably from Spanish jamón), in this context it means, as I now found out, Haman pastry, a traditional sweet cookie, not quite as valuable as goat ham, but delicious as well. Five of them burned accidentally won't make you poor, unless aunt Yegte bocomes so angry that she disinherits you ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 12:47 PM

That should have been:
Although "hmn-tashn" (המן־טאַשן) can well mean "ham bags" ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 01:23 PM

One of the Pennywhistlers albums, in its track listing,
credits an arranger
-- note, NOT an author or composer --
named "I. Shain."
Following that lead led to this, for the little it's worth.

Catalog of Copyright Entries
Library of Congress, 1968

'S FALT A SHNEI
with transliterated Yiddish words and music,
arranged I. Shain.
Close score (four parts)
NM: arrangement of words and music.
[COPYRIGHT MARK]   Stormking Music, Inc.
15 September 1967
EU15939

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 01:30 PM

More random gleanings from online.

A Jewish-American blogger comments on the Pennywhistlers version.
"One song that especially touched me was "'S Falt a Shnei" , a lament
about a Jewish shtetl girl sewing away deep into the night. "

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 01:47 PM

Then it must be a different song.

The blogger mentions his 2020 email address, perhaps, Joe, you want to contact him?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: Reinhard
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 03:18 PM

This is from the booklet of the Folkways album The Pennywhistlers:

S'FALT A SHNEI
Yiddish Folk Song
Arranged by I. Phain

Women's work songs are rare and this one dates back to the late 1000's in Czarist Russia. Young Jewish girls of twelve and thirteen years of age, were sent out to work as seamstresses to help sup­ port their families. They sat at their benches day in and day out. Growing old and bent before their time, they lost all hope of ever having families of their own.

CHORUS:
S'fait a shnei (2)
Tog un nacht (2)
Nor ich nei (2)

In droisn geit a regn (2)
Un s'falt a shnei (2)
Maine yunge yom hob ich ongevom,
Zitsndik shtendik bam genei.

Vi tog azoi vi nacht, tog azoi vi nacht,
Mit der nodi geshtochn,
Shtendik mit der nodi geshtochn,
Ch'hob shoin kain gantse beiner,
Zei zainen in mir ale tsebrochn.

The snow falls.
Day and night, day and night.
And I keep sewing.

Outside it is raining,
The snow keeps falling,
Constantly I sit and sew,
While my young years waste away.

Both day and night I sit and sew,
My needle stitches on endlessly,
I haven't a whole bone in my body,
For they have all been broken.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 10:54 PM

Seems pretty clear there are two different songs, both starting with "snow is falling" but one about baking hamentashn and the other about sewing.

I'm in a choir that sang a Yiddish song a couple of years back about a young woman having all kinds of disasters while trying to bake hamentashn, but it didn't quite follow the lines of the song Grishka found. I probably don't have it any more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 11:08 PM

I found one stanza of the hamentashn song I mentioned here just earlier:

Yachne Dvoshe fort in shtot, halt zich in eyn pakn. 
Zi darf of Purim koyfn mel, Homntashn bakn.
Hop! mayne homntashn, Hop! mayne vayse.
Hop! mit mayne homntashn Hot pasirt a mayse!

In English,

Yachne Dvoshe goes to the town, so as to be able to continue packing
she needs to buy flour for Purim, hamantaschen baking.
hop! my hamantaschen, hop! my white ones
a story happened

My notes say the words are by M. Pirozhnikov.
No snowfall in this song, but the same lead character as in the song Grishka found.

I found the full text here. Snow falls in the second stanza! There's also a link there to a recording on Youtube.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 28 Jul 20 - 04:08 AM

Well done, Reinhard and Gerry.

Some spelling errors in Reinhard's lyrics will be easily corrected by anyone who wants to research further. Here I found this or a similar song mentioned as "created by Yiddish lyricists and musicians in the early 20th century" and apparently suggesting its origin to be in the USA. Inhuman working conditions are not a monopoly of Tsarist Russia.

Gerry, the song you are quoting is obviously the very same that my source mentions, just different verses. Here is a rendering that seems quite authentic to me. Here a lady talks about the song in English, including some translation. Note that the song is about a woman named Yachne Dvoshe, whom my source erroneously confuses with Bloshteyn's fictional character. Pirozhnikov (Пирожников) is a well-known dynasty of Jewish musicians in Vilna (Vilnius) and Russia.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: S'Falt a Shnei (The Snow Falls) -Yiddish
From: Reinhard
Date: 28 Jul 20 - 04:46 AM

Grishka, I OCR-scanned the Pennywhistler's booklet from the Smithsonian Folkways album page but did only a perfunctorily check of the results. So feel free to check the source by yourself ;-)