Researching Yiddish penny songs (tenement song broadsides of theater and variety show songs, 1895-1925)
Index of songs on this site
Youtube: all the Penny Songs I've recorded so far (with subtitles)
About this project ♦ ♦ About Jane Peppler
List of the still-lost songs: do you know any of them?
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Meymi hot gemozlt ven a kind zi var
Hot ir dan a doktor geretet fun gefar
Nem tsu bislekh oft, hot er gezogt ir dan,
Un tsu nemen oft tsu bislekh, iz oykh yetst ir plan
Ayngevoynt hot zi zikh tsu nemen alesding
Vemen es ken shver zayn, ir iz ales gring
Mit tsvey lange hentlekh hot ir got geshtroft,
Un zi folgt dem doktor, nemt zi tsu bislekh oft

M m m m Meymi s'iz a shrek, a eyme
Shemst zikh nit, un klemst zikh nit,
Vos redt af dir di velt?
Bist nokh gor a kleyne, un tsunemen eyne
Kenst ale fangen un derlangen, Meymi

Klepedike finger hot zi mitgeshlept
Vos zi hot barirt, hot zikh glaykh tsugeklept,
S'iz a klepke krankhayt, gloyb ikh un ikh denk,
Groyse damen, raykhe damen hobn dieze krenk
Meymi iz arayn ven in a drayguds stor,
Un genument hot zi a kleyn shpigl nor,
Hot der kremer bald gegebn ir di sek,
Dokh iz zi fun dort gants leydik nit avek

Zi hot oft gesheptn mit polis in kort,
Yunge loyers redn far ir a gut vort
Der gefengnis-vekhter iz ir varer fraynd,
Meymen ken er, Meymen veys er un shoyn nit fun haynt.
Zi makht oft a shnepsl vi a mansperzon,
Keyn mol tsolt zi karfer/karper, vayl men ken ir shon?
Shmeykhlt tsum konduktor, shmeykhlt er tsu ir,
Un der drayver vert gor di kapore shir