С альбома "Duz gezang fin Geto Lodzh - Song of the Lodz Ghetto" (2005)
(music: trad., Arrg. Alan Bern, text: trad./
music: trad., Arrg. Alan Bern, text: Miriam Harel)

Музыканты:
Alan Bern – musical director, accordion, piano;
Michael Alpert – vocals, fiddle;
Kurt Bjorling – clarinet, bass clarinet;
Stuart Brotman – bass, cello, trombone, fiddle
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Yikhes

Vus bisti, ketsele, oy, broyges?
Vus gayst’ [bad word] di nuz?
Tomer vilsti visn fin dayn yikhes?
Vel ikh dir zugn, ketsele, o-dus!

Dayn tate iz a shmaravoznik
Dayn nane ganvet fish in mark
In dayn brider iz a groyser kartyozhnik
In dayn shvester shluft mit a kozak

Vinter 1942

Tate-mame lign in bes-oylem
Der brider is avekgeshikt
Di shvester krank geyt ayngeboygn
Ikh bin fun hunger tsugedrikt

6ln shtub nishto kayn lefl esn
Ka’ broyt, ka’ merl zeyt men nisht
Tsi kayen nob ikh shoyn fargesn
In laydik, puste iz der tish

Es iz in himl kayn rakhmones
Der sotn shteyt dort, in er lakht
Fin di yesoymim in almones
In Lodzher geto tsigemakht

Ikh gey [bad word] zikh vi an alter
Di oygn zenen nas un royt
Der himl, finster, iz a kalter
Un morgn kumen vet der toyt
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Yikhes (family background)

Why are you angry, my kitten?
Why the long face?
Would you like to hear about your background?
I’ll tell you all about it!

Your father greases the wheels
Your mother steals fish in the marketplace
Your brother is a card-shark
And your sister sleeps with a Cossack

Winter 1942 (adapted from Yikhes)

My mother and father lie in the cemetery
My brother has been deported
My sister is bent over and sick
And I am [bad word] by hunger

Not a spoonful of food in the house
No bread, not even a carrot to be seen
I’ve even forgotten how to chew
And the table is empty and bare

There is no mercy from on high
The devil sits there and laughs
At the orphans and windows
Locked up in the Lodz Ghetto

I walk around like a old person
My eyes moist and red
The sky is cold and dark
And tomorrow will bring only death