About the Sunset

from What Joy is Yours by Brivele

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about

Poem “Der arbetlozer redt tsum kind vegn zun-fargang” by L. Miller (1937)
English translation (“The Man Who is Out of Work Talks to His Son about the Sunset”) by Amelia Glaser and published in Proletpen: America’s Rebel Yiddish Poets (2012)
Music by Maia Brown, arrangement by Brivele

lyrics

Vay, vi s’hot der himl zikh tsebrent!
Es brent di oygn.
Finkeldige pasmes zun,
Farbn, tsarte, vaykhe,
Hoifns blitn, berg mit blumen…
Volt der bos aher dergraykhn,
Volt er altz far zikh genumen
Un gemakht fun dem profitn…

Azoy fil frayd far mentshn’s oygn,
Es vekt di benkshaft oyf in khartsn
Vayst aleyn nit vos zolst garn.
Vifl gold un vifl zilber!
Khotsh mit lopetes tsu sharn.
Nisht tsum mestn, nisht stum tseyln,
S’volt genug zayn yedn eynem
[Ayntsutayln…]

Farbn roisn…
Kolirn kumen un fargayn.
Vi zey toishn zikh un miniyen,
Azsh es nemt der kop zikh dreyen.
Ot iz zeyd, un dortn veyt iz samet.
Far yedn hoiz a por gardinen.
Vi sheyn es volt gepast der mamen
A kleyd fun yenem zeyd dem grinem.
Zi neyt un neyt un neyt,
Un ken zikh nit
Keyn leytish kleyd farginen.


English Translation:

Oh, how the sky is in flame!
it dazzles the eyes.
Sparkling strips of sun,
delicate, tender colors,
mounds of blossoms, mountains of flowers.
If the boss came here,
he’d take it all, then somehow use it
like a good profiteer.

Such pleasure for the human eye,
it wakes the longing in my heart—
you don’t know, yourself, what you should crave.
How much gold and how much silver!
Or simply spades to scrape at what’s already there.
Measureless, countless,
there’d be enough to give everyone
to share…

Colors rush…
Colors come in and go out.
How they turn and change,
‘til your head spins about.
That’s silk, and satin over there.
A pair of drapes for every house.
How mother would look in
a dress of that green silk.
She sews and sews and sews
and can’t afford a decent dress.

credits

from What Joy is Yours, released May 29, 2022

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Brivele Seattle, Washington

A discontented punky-klezy trio of Yiddishists.

Brivele is:

Stefanie Brendler (accordion, vox, glockenspiel, slide whistle)
Maia Brown (banjo, vox)
Hannah Hamavid (violin, ukulele, vox)
... more

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