Shadows - Songs from Testimonies, Vol. 3 audio CD with booklet (liner notes, lyrics with transliterations and translations)
Includes unlimited streaming of Shadows - Songs from Testimonies, Vol. 3
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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Side D contains original testimnonies' audio clips from the Fortunoff Video Archive, edited and mastered for this edition.
Includes unlimited streaming of Shadows - Songs from Testimonies, Vol. 3
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about
Shotns—שאָטנס—Shadows
The song originates in the Vilna ghetto, with Leyb Rosental’s lyrics providing a poetic setting to an unidentified popular tango tune. It was performed by the Vilna native and Vilna ghetto survivor Sima S. The warm feel of the music of this tango comes in stark contrast with the grim lyrics, which offers as liberation only the catharsis of a reference to death at the end.
ס׳וועלן שאָטנס פֿאַרשווינדן,
וועסט אין גרויקײַט זען באַלד,
ווי פֿון שאָטן וואָס פֿאַלט
טיילט זיך אויס אַ געשטאַלט,
ווי די זון העל צעשטראַלט.
Ikh blondzhe in geto.
Kh'kler: mentshn haven hin un her,
Yeder mentsh iz zayn bager
Vert fun goyrl getribn.
Nor vos zhe kumt aroys derfun?
Khotsh in lebn alts geton,
Host geyogt zikh nokh der zun
Un in khoyshekh farblibn.
Du gist a freg,
Iz di velt bloyz a milkhl?
Tsu vos dos geyeg,
Ot dos narishe shpilkhl?
Vayl mir zaynen vi shotns,
Blondzhen shtil durkh der nakht,
Vayl in lebn on likht
Veyst nit ver vu er krikht,
Fremd zayn eygn gezikht...
Yede tir, yeder lodn
Iz far undz haynt farmakht...
Verst fun umet geyogt,
Keyner fregt vos dikh plogt,
Tsi a harts in dir shlogt!
Zukhst dayn gezikht, dayn eygn ikh
Nor kenst es nit gefinen.
Kumst mit der nakht
Un vest in nakht tserinen.
Vayl mir zaynen vi shotns
Vos di nakht hot tseshpreyt,
Nor zi eyne farshteyt
Vu ahin yeder geyt,
Ver tsum lebn—ver (tsum) teyt.
Haynt host getrofn mikh do, fraynt.
Zest mayn freyd, vos hot geshaynt,
Shoyn farshvenkt fun geviter.
Kh'bin elnt, hefkerdik aleyn,
Afn veg—a hoyler shteyn,
Keyner hert nit mayn geveyn,
Keynem art nit mayn tsiter.
Vi oft ikh farges,
Az in mentsh kh'bin gerotn:
Mir dukht kh'bin a mes
Oder gor bloyz a shotn.
S'veln shotns farshvindn,
Vest in groykayt zen bald,
Vi fun shotn vos falt
Teylt zikh oys a geshtalt,
Vi di zun hel tseshtralt.
I am wandering around the ghetto.
I see as people are running here and there,
Each person is what they desire
and is driven by their fate.
Now, what comes of it?
Although everything has been done in life
You are chasing after the sun
and remained in the dark.
And you ask yourself:
Is the world a windmill?
What's the use of this chasing,
This silly game?
Because we are like shadows
Wandering quietly through the night,
Because in a life without light
You don’t know who is crawling, and where,
Even your own face seems foreign...
Every door, every window
is shut for us today...
If you are in despair,
No one will ask what troubles you,
Whether the heart is still beating in you!
You’re looking for your face, your own self,
But you can't find it.
You arrive with the night,
And in the night, you disappear.
Because we are like shadows
that the night has spread out,
Only she understands
Where everyone goes,
Some to life, and some to death.
You met me here today, my friend.
See my joy that is shining,
It has already been swept away by the storm.
I am alone and lost,
An empty stone on the road,
No one hears my cry,
No one cares that I am shaking.
Oh, how often I forget
That I was once a human:
It seems to me I'm a corpse—
Or just a shadow.
Shadows will disappear,
Soon in the grayness you’ll see:
From the falling shadow,
An image will separate,
Brightly lit up, like the sun.
credits
from Shadows - Songs from Testimonies, Vol. 3,
released January 19, 2024
Lyrics: Leyb Rosental
Music: popular tango (source unidentified). Arranged by D. Zisl Slepovitch.
Performed by Sima S., testimony hvt.3482.
supported by 6 fans who also own “Shotns (Shadows)”
One of the best new albums of Yiddish and Klezmer music on Bandcamp in my opinion. The collaboration of two sensitive artists of different generations who know a lot about Yiddish and American music.
dcarkner
supported by 5 fans who also own “Shotns (Shadows)”
One of my favourite musical discoveries in a while. These musicians are seriously talented. I can’t help imagining that there would have been a whole significant subculture of Yiddish psych rock like this in a different, kinder universe. For now, this is a window into that world that might have been. And I love every second of it. Audrey
Raw black metal that brooks no compromises, this has all the ferocious guitars, lo-fi aesthetics and infernal howling you crave. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 30, 2023
Led by klezmer phenom David Krakauer, this collaborative LP develops international sounds into an celebration of our common humanity. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 2, 2022
