געװען אַמאָל איז אַ שטעטל

Geven amol iz a shtetl 1. Geven amol iz a shtetl, Baym breg funem Nester in tol, Ayngevigt in khaloymes, Geven aza shtetl a mol. 2. Gelebt zikh dort yidn vi yidn, In freydn un dayges on tsol, Fun doyres farvortslte toyshvim, Geven aza shtetl a mol. 3. Un froyen gezungen dort lider Fun libes, mit oygn farbenkt, Un kinder tsevoyvete shtifers Zikh mayses fun sheydim dertseylt. 4. Azoy hot dos shtetl Zvinetshke, Khotsh klener un bleykher mit der tsayt, Geshpunen dem gildenem fodem Fun zeydes un bobes on bayt. 5. Nor plutsem vi a duner gekumen, Dos eyn-un-fertsikste yor. Der Nester tut strashedik brumen, Der himl fartsoygn zikh gro. 6. Un zelner in grine mundirn Mit biksn tsum shisn gevendt. Af der brik vos ibern Nester Zay ale biz eynem farlendt. 7. Dem shoykhet mit vayb un akht kinder, In tales gehilt zey – shma Yisroyl! Di geshreyen farshlungen der Nester, Di khvalyes farshtumt zeyer kol. 8. Haynt grinen dort vayter di lonkes Un s'pashet der poyer zayn ki, Vi keyn mol geven dort keyn yidn, Vi gor nisht geshen dortn vi.

There once was a town 1. There once was a town, On the banks of the Dniester Valley, Lulled by dreams, There was such a town once. 2. Jews had lived there like Jews, With numberless worries and joys, Generations of deep-rooted dwellers, There was such a town once. 3. And women sang songs there Of loves, with yearning eyes, And kids, mischievous troublemakers, Told each other ghost stories. 4. That is how the town Zvinetshke, Though smaller and paler with time, Spun the golden thread Of grandparents without change. 5. But suddenly like a thunderclap it came, The year nineteen forty-one. The Dniester roars menacingly, The sky, obscured – gray. 6. Soldiers in gray uniforms With rifles ready to shoot. On the bridge over the Dniester They wiped them out to the last. 7. The ritual slaughterer with his wife and eight children Wrapped them in his tallis – Shema Yisrael! The cries were swallowed by the Dniester, The waves silenced their voice. 8. Today the fields are now green again, And the peasant pastures his cows, As if no Jews were ever there, As if nothing had ever happened.

C'era una volta uno shtetl 1. C'era una volta uno shtetl Sulle rive della valle del Dnjestr, cullato dai sogni, c'era una volta uno shtetl così. 2. Gli ebrei ci vivevano da ebrei, con tante e tante gioie e dolori, generazioni di abitanti radicati, c'era una volta uno shtetl così. 3. E le donne vi cantavano canzoni d'amore con gli occhi pieni di desiderio, e i bambini, casinisti dispettosi si raccontavano storie di fantasmi. 4. Così lo shtetl di Zvinetshke, benché rimpicciolito e impallidito dal tempo, tesseva il filo d'oro degli avi senza cambiare. 5. Ma all'improvviso arrivò come un tuono l'anno millenovecentoquarantuno. Il Dnjestr romba minacciosamente, il cielo diventa grigio. 6. E soldati in uniformi verdi con fucili fatti per sparare. Sul ponte sullo Dnjestr hanno annientato tutti. 7. Il macellaio rituale con sua moglie e otto figli li ha avvolti nel suo talìt, shemà Israel! Le grida sono state inghiottite dal Dnjestr, le onde hanno fatto tacere le loro voci. 8. Oggi i campi sono di nuovo verdi e il contadino pascola le sue mucche, come se là non gli ebrei non fossero mai esistiti, come se niente fosse accaduto.

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Notes

Shtetl

A shtetl (Yiddish diminutive form of shtot, "town", pronounced very similarly to the South German diminutive "Städtle", "little town") was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in pre-Holocaust Central and Eastern Europe.

Shtetls (plural: shtetlekh) were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia, and Romania. A larger city, like Lemberg or Czernowitz, was called a shtot; a smaller village was called a dorf.

The concept of shtetl culture is used as a metaphor for the traditional way of life of 19th-century Eastern European Jews. Shtetls are portrayed as pious communities following Orthodox Judaism, socially stable and unchanging despite outside influence or attacks. The Holocaust resulted in the disappearance of the vast majority of shtetls, through both extermination and mass exodus...

Source

• https://www.antiwarsongs.org/canzone.php?id=37980&lang=fr

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• Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman