MISHA TSERAYST HITLERS DAYTCHLAND - MISHA TEARS APARTS HITLER'S GERMANY
Lyrics: Taybl Birman, a 28-year-old tailor from Odessa, recorded by Hersh Kleyner. She told Kleyner that this song was written by her husband, who sent it in a letter from the front, as a response to her letter/song “I Sit in the Tailor Shop” (Track 7).
Music: Based on a combination of the folk song “Tum Balalayka” (exact date not known, first recorded in 1940) and “Katyusha” (1938), by Matvey Blanter (1903 - 1990) with instrumental parts and arrangement by Sergei Erdenko.
The song, like almost no other in this album, highlights the uniqueness of Soviet
Yiddish wartime culture – it fully departs from lamenting and longing, and
calls for direct violent action. Portraying Germans as poisoned mice and wild
animals was common in Red Army songs and folklore, as was the graphic
description of violence. The call for revenge is unapologetic and unambiguous,
and it fits very well with the spirit of its time.
The decision to use the combination of “Tum Balalayka,” arguably the most
popular Russian Yiddish folksong and “Katyusha,” a cult Soviet wartime song,
was to highlight the Russian, Soviet and Yiddish elements of the piece. Written
by Matvey Blanter, a Soviet composer of Jewish origin, the original “Katyusha”
features a young woman, who writes a letter for her husband, a border guard.
“Tum Balalayka,” although also a love song, is here because in some ways, it
stands for what most Russian Jews perceive as Yiddish culture today. We have
taken this association one step further and inserted it into a song that
emphasizes the heroism of the Jewish Red Army soldiers. Besides, in the process,
we were pleasantly surprised to discover that melodically, “Katyusha” and
“Tum Balalayka” go really well together! This song also contains fragments
of “Tachanka” (see track 7).
English
Russian
Yiddish Transliteration
Yiddish
Taybele, my wife, please know
I am now in eastern-Prussia.
We will tear Hitler’s Germany apart
Very soon, into the tiniest pieces.
And we will surely destroy them
Just as they’ve caused great destruction to us
My Taybel, you will see
How they run just like mice.
They’ll run like poisoned mice
Into the holes and the cracks [of the wall]
But we will search them [out]
And they won’t be able to hide.
We will quickly, quickly clear them out
All the hatred, the brown plague of fascists.
We will strike down Hitler
Like a wild animal in her burrow .
Then no one will disrupt
Our happiness and our peace.
Have patience, my dearest wife
Wait just a little bit longer.
То, что в Пруссии сейчас мы,
Знай, голубушка-жена,
Будем рвать её на части,
Это Гитлера страна,
Будем так и мы травить их,
Как они когда-то нас.
Тайбелэ, должна ты видеть,
Как бегут они сейчас.
Как отравленные мыши,
В дыры, в щели убегают.
Не уйдут они от Миши,
Всех найдём их, дорогая.
От заразы мир очистим
И прикончим самого
Зверя Гитлера-фашиста
Прямо в логове его.
Впредь никто не помешает
Здесь ни отдыху, ни сну.
Потерпи ещё, родная,
Только капельку одну.
Taybele mayn froy, zay visn,
Itst bin ikh in Mizrekh-Praysn.
Mirn gikh shoyn op pits-pitslekh
Hitlers Daytshland tseraysn.
Mirn oykhet zey farnikhtn
Vi undz zey hobn masnuvayz
Taybl mayne, du zolst zen,
Vi zey loyfn vi di mayz.
Vi farsamte mayz zey loyfn
In di lekher, in di shpaltn,
Mirn ober zey opzukhn
Un zey zoln nit bahaltn.
Mirn gikh shoyn gikh oysratn
Aldos beyz, di broyne tsore.
Mirn Hitlern dershlogn,
Vi vilde khaye in ir nore.
Dan vet keyner shoyn nit shtern,
Undzer glik un undzer ru.
Hob geduld, mayn tayer vibl,
Nokh a kapele vart tsu.
טייבּעלע מיין פרוי, זיי וויסן,
איצט בין איך אין מיזרעך–פרייסן.
מירן גיך שוין אָפ פיץ–פיצלעך
היטלערס דייטשלאנד צערייסן.
מירן אויכעט זיי פארניכטן
ווי אונדז זיי האבּן מאסנוווייז.
טייבּל מיינע, דו זאלסט זען,
ווי זיי לויפן ווי די מייז.
ווי פארסאמטע מייז זיי לויפן
אין די לעכער, אין די שפאלטן
מירן אָבער זיי אָפזוכן
און זיי זאָלן ניט בּאהאלטן.
מירן גיך שוין גיך אויסראטן
אלדאָס בּייז, די בּרוינע צאָרע.
מירן היטלערן דערשלאָגן,
ווי ווילדע כייע אין איר נאָרע.
דאן וועט קיינער שוין ניט שטערן,
אונדזער גליק און אונדזער רו.
האָבּ געדולד, מיין טייער וויבּל,
נאָך א קאפעלע ווארט צו.
Source Documents & Recordings
DEVELOPED BY DUMASTAR
Source: Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Manuscript Department, fond 190, delo 151, p.17.