Papirosn – a yiddish song – played May 26th, 2012 by the klezmer music band “INEJNEM” (in English “Together”) in front of Restaurant Ester on Szeroka street in the heart of Kazimierz – the old Jewish district of Kraków (Poland).
Iryna Stefanyuk is singing – the first part in Yiddish and the second part in Russian – with Myroslav Bandrivskyy playing the clarinet, Jurij Bejchuk on guitar, and Jarosław Filipiak on contrabass. The song is also well-known as “Papirosen”. See Inejnem’s facebook for other concert info.
Story – The song “Papirosn” (in English “Cigarettes”) is about a little boy all alone trying to survive: Wet, hungry, standing in the rain on a cold, foggy, night, a little boy is standing on the corner of a street begging: Please, buy my cigarettes, buy my matches! Help an orphan, save me from hunger! With no father or mother, and after a year roaming the streets together with his little sister, she also died, and he is now all alone, trying to survive.
Lyrics Yiddish and Russian
Papirosn – 1st part sung in Yiddish
(2nd part sung in Russian below)
A kalte nakht a nebldike finster umetum,
shteyt a yingele fartroyert un kukt zikh arum.
Fun regn shitst im nor a vant,
a koshikl halt er in hant,
un zayne oygn betn yedn shtum.Ikh hob shoyn nit keyn koyekh mer
arumtsugeyn in gaz, hungerig un
opgerizn fun dem regn naz.
Ikh shlep arum zikh fun baginen,
keyner git nisht tsu fardinen,
ale lakhn, makhn fun mir shpaz.Kupitye koyft she, koyft she papirosn,
trukene fun regn nisht fargozn.
Koyft she bilik benemones,
koyft un hot oyf mir rakhmones,
ratevet fun hunger mikh atsind..
Kupitye koyft she shvebelakh antikn,
dermit verd ir a yosiml derkvikn.
Umzizt mayn shrayen un mayn loyfn,
keyner vil bay mir nit koyfn,
oysgeyn vel ikh muzn vi a hunt.The Jewish song Papirosn (Russian text)
Еврейская песня Папиросы (Русский текст)
Холодный вечер окна зажигает в темноте,
На углу продрогший мальчик смотрит на людей.
Ветер спутал его косы,
дождик мочит папиросы
И стекает с худеньких плечей.
Проходят под зонтами дамы в шляпах и манто,
И гуляют с ними детки в новеньких пальто.
Пальцы стали непослушны,
А он смотрит людям в душу
И дрожит как на ветру листокRefrain: / Припев:
Купите же, купите папиросы,
Отличные сухие папиросы.
Купите за бесценок вам
Я папиросы все отдам,
От голода спасите вы меня.
Купите же вы спички, о купите,
Несчастному сиротке помогите.
Напрасно силы трачу я,
Никто не купит у меня,
И с голоду я должен умереть.
For complete yiddish and english lyrics see http://www.stolaf.edu/people/hend/songs/Papirosn.html
The song is a traditional Bulgarian folk tune with several variants, and the original Yiddish words are by Herman Yablokoff (Chaim Yablonik, born in 1903 in Grodno / Hrodna near the Niemen river in today’s Belarus) based on his own experience as a child selling cigarettes during world war 1 (tune, trad. Bulgarian).
Performance © 2012 Inejnem — all rights reserved – www.inejnem.pl – Inejnem’s facebook
Words: Herman Yablokoff (Yiddish) / Anatoli L Kaplan and E. Hazdan (Russian)
Video © 2012 Michel van der Burg – michelvanderburg.com – some rights reserved -license /permissions info below:
Video “Papirosn – INEJNEM” by Michel van der Burg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. For permissions beyond the scope of this license – like for using the music-only – contact Inejnem.
Note: Steven Spielberg shot his film Schindler’s List largely here in this old Jewish Kazimierz quarter of Cracow
version 01 – 21 september 2012
version 02 – 21 september 2012 (russian lyrics added)
version 03 – 21 september 2012 (new links and tags added/updated)
version 04 – 21 september 2012 (license description in more detail)
version 05 – 15 feb 2013 (rearranged the description layout)
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