I AM A TYPHUS LOUSE - BIN IKH MIR A TIFUS LOYZ
Lyrics: Reli Blay
Music: David Beigelman (1887–1945) (died in Auschwitz)
Arrangement: Drew Jurecka
English translation and transliteration: Eli Jany
Written by Reli Blay (1913–2000), a teacher imprisoned in the Mohilev–Podilski ghetto and transit point, for children to perform in a makeshift amateur theater in an orphanage. The song addressed typhus, one of the largest killers in Transnistrian ghettos during the war. Set to provide comic relief for both children performers and adult/children listeners, the text is told from the point of view of an anti-fascist typhus louse who jumps around to spread the disease to Nazis. She is not afraid of anything, but doctors who risk their own lives to fight against the deadly epidemic of typhus.
English
Yiddish Transliteration
Me, I am a typhus louse
and I go from house to house
tra-la-la-la-la
As soon as I show up there,
you have to go into quarantine
tra-la-la-la-la-la
After three years of visiting you,
I’m feeling old and weak
tra la la la la la
But to tell you the truth as if from the Torah,
I’m afraid of the (Germans/doctor)
tra-la-la-la-la
Of the Germans, oy, the murderers,
and the Cossacks with their smell
tra la la ---
Suddenly, word goes around
that you’re being sent home
tra-la-la-la-la
Well, safe travels on your journey;
I’ll turn my attention to the enemies
tra-la…
bin ikh mir a tifus-loyz
gey ikh mir fun hoyz tsu hoyz
tra-la-la-la-la
vi ikh kum nor dort tsu geyn
iz shoyn ba aykh karanteyn
tra-la-la-la-la-la
dray yor geyendik tsu aykh
fil ikh mir shoyn alt un shvakh
tra la la la la la
nor der emes fun der toyre
far dem (daytsh/dokter) hob ikh moyre
tra-la-la-la-la
far dem daytsh oy dem roytseyekh
un di kozakn mit der reyekh
tra la la ---
plutsem lozt men aroys a shem
az men shikt aykh gor aheym
tra-la-la-la-la
nu fort zhe mir gezunt fun danen
ekh vel mikh nemen tsu di sonim
tra-la…
Source Documents & Recordings
DEVELOPED BY DUMASTAR
Source: VNLU, fond 190, delo 147, ll. 50–51