The Ruth Rubin Legacy
Archive of Yiddish Folksongs

Tsu vos-zhe gibn dir, mayn libe kind?

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Title

Tsu vos-zhe gibn dir, mayn libe kind?

Date

1955

Description

[Note from typewritten tape log in box:] These [marriage songs] are not songs of ceremonials or rites. These are songs which touch upon the marriage theme, either in jest, satirically, in dance or even in a children’s rhyme like [Tape 70] No. 3. Sometimes they bear the mark of the marriage entertainer (badkhn). [Handwritten note:] Like [Tape 70] No. 5.

The daughter sings she doesn’t want a shuster (shoemaker), or a balegole (driver), stoler (carpenter), koveling, - for various reasons (like, the stolier makht a bet [makes a bed] un git dem vay donershtik a get (on Thursday gives his wife a divorce) - but a dokter (Dr.) - yes. In 3/4 meter.

Compare song #14 on this tape: “Tsu vos-zhe gibn dir, mayn libe kind?” Very similar words, both in 3/4 meter. But #9 chorus is in major key, # 14 in minor key. #9 is humorous; #14 is much darker, and talks a lot about the various types of husbands beating their wives.

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Citation

“Tsu vos-zhe gibn dir, mayn libe kind?,” YIVO Online Exhibitions, accessed December 27, 2024, https://exhibitions.yivo.org/items/show/2065.
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