When I was young, I did not want to learn Yiddish which was a mistake on a couple of levels. One is that my parents could talk about me and would not understand them.
The other was not understanding the lyrics of some songs they played. I thought, for example, that
Der Rebbe Elimelech was a song about a Rabbi. Well, sort of. It was really about a drunken party. If they had told me, I might be fluent in Yiddish today. But the Internet/google turned a hazy memory into:
The song ends:
Di shikere kapelye fun raben melekh-elieh,
hot oysgeshtelt dem dales a fayg.
Di freylekhe kapelye
hot gehopket biz der stelie
un zikh farbitn mitn klaper-getsayg:
Di fidldike poyker
hobn tsimbldik gefidlt,
un bronfndik gegosn zikh mit vayn.
Di lustike klezmorim
mit flesher untern orem,
hoben geholiet biz in heln tog arayn.
Translated:
The drunk band from Rabbi Melekh Elieh
gave poverty the fig-finger gesture
the happy band
had hopped to the ceiling
and traded with paraphernalia.
The fiddling drummer
had fiddled cymballingly
and liquor-flowed himself with wine
The cheerful musicians
with bottles under their arms
caroused brightly till the next day.
DER REBE ELIMELEKH is on HebrewSongs. Search Hebrew Songs for all your favourite songs. Hebrew songs transliterated and translated into English as well as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and other languages, by volunteers worldwide.
www.hebrewsongs.com