Chanuka oh chanuka song in Yiddish! Or English

amother

Tiffanyblue

Sun, Nov 28 2021, 6:53 pm

amother [ Eggshell ] wrote:

English version is:

chanuka oh chanuka, come light the menora,
let's have a party,
we'll all dance the hora,
gather round the table,
I'll give you a treat,
a dreidel to play with and latkes to eat,
and while we are playing,
the candles are burning low,
one for each night, they share their sweet light to remind us of days long ago,
one for each night, they share their sweet light to remind us of days long ago.

As with most folk songs, there are many versions. This is not the one I learned which still can be heard in my mind’s ear. 😄🤫

zaq

Sun, Nov 28 2021, 6:57 pm

Hebrew:
Yemei hachanuka, chanukat mikdashenu
Begil uvesimcha memal'im et libeinu
Layla vayom sevivineinu nisov
Sufganiyot nochal bam larov.
Ha'iru, hadliku,
Nerot Chanuka rabim
Al hanisim ve'al hanifla'ot asher hollelu haMaccabim (2x)

Nitzchon haMaccabim nesaper, nezamerah
Alei hason'im az yadam ki gaverah
Yerushalayim shavah lit'chiyah
Am Yisrael asah tushiyah

Ha'iru, hadliku..

Next, from: http://www.hebrewsongs.com/?song=oychanukah
Oy Chanukah oy Chanukah,
A yontif a sheiner,
A lustiker a freylicher
Nito noch a zeyner.

Alle nacht in dreydlech shpiln mir
Zudik hesse latkes essen mir
Geshvinder tsindt kinder
di Chanukah lichtelech on.

Zol yeder bazunder bazingen dem vunder
un tantzen freylech in kohn (2x)

As you can see, amother lemonlime of "is yiddish not your first language? these 2 bolded are wrong, among other mistakes" fame (or should we say infamy?), this is astonishingly similar, right down to the accent, to mine own transliteration, with a few differences here and there as is par for the course with folk lyrics.

Now for the English version I learned in school circa 1965. From Songs of Zion, edited by Harry Coopersmith, copyright 1942, second printing 1944. Also in "Holiday Songster."

Chanuka oh chanuka a festival of joy
A holiday a jolly day for every girl and boy
Spin the whirling trendles* all week long
Eat the sizzling latkes, sing the happy songs.

Now light then, tonight then, the flickering candles in a row.
Read the wondrous story of G-d in all His glory and dance by the candles' cheering glow (2x)

Tiffanyblue, is this the version you learned?

*IDK why they had to use the word "trendle." It was archaic even in 1942.

amother

Celeste

Sun, Nov 28 2021, 8:00 pm

zaq wrote:

My accent, btw, is genuine Peilish/Litvish, not the phony “Litvish” spoken by American Yeshiva Bocherim, an accent that never existed in Europe. Hardly anyone uses this accent anymore, seeing as 98% of its speakers were murdered, and the few who survived were vastly outnumbered by those using other accents. YOU may say Azoyner, but I will continue to say Azeiner, rhymes with “complainer.” As far as I’m concerned, YOUR accent is incorrect. We were once a majority, but losing 98% of your cohort changes things. Unfortunately I can’t help being influenced by American Yiddish because I’m surrounded by it on all sides, especially now that my parents’ generation is no longer alive to keep me on the linguistic straight and narrow. So from time to time I find myself to my horror saying “Azoy” instead of “Azey” (rhymes with Hey). But if the accent is going to be wiped off the face of the earth, which it is just about, it’s not going to be my doing. Fighting to keep the accent alive may help vee a teit in bankes but stick to it I will.

Goooten cheidesh. Gittin is a tractate in the Talmud.

Off soap box.

Very funny making fun of other people's accents.
You realize that all the Chassidishe Hungarians are still speaking their authentic yiddish?
And yes they say Azoy and Ah gitten, like they always have.

Last edited by amother on Wed, Dec 15 2021, 9:03 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Tiffanyblue

Sun, Nov 28 2021, 8:38 pm

zaq wrote:

Hebrew:

Now for the English version I learned in school circa 1965. From Songs of Zion, edited by Harry Coopersmith, copyright 1942, second printing 1944. Also in "Holiday Songster."

Chanuka oh chanuka a festival of joy
A holiday a jolly day for every girl and boy
Spin the whirling trendles* all week long
Eat the sizzling latkes, sing the happy songs.

Now light then, tonight then, the flickering candles in a row.
Read the wondrous story of G-d in all His glory and dance by the candles' cheering glow (2x)

Tiffanyblue, is this the version you learned?

*IDK why they had to use the word "trendle." It was archaic even in 1942.

Yes this is the one that is going through my brain like an ear wig. 😂🤷‍♀️

But I have never heard of trendles. When I first read it I thought that it was one of imamother’s strange examples of censorship 😂😂

The other ear wig which is now rumbling through me are certain sings from an album by Theodore Bikel of Yiddish songs which my mother would play incessantly. 😂😂 I found them on YouTube and it was like partaking of Proust’s madeleine 😘

Mindfully

Sun, Nov 28 2021, 11:38 pm

amother [ Eggshell ] wrote:

My version for line 6: Sevivon to play with

amother

Lemonlime

Mon, Nov 29 2021, 12:12 am

SafeAtLast wrote:

Thanks for sticking up for me while I was sleeping.

I don't know if my American Williamsburg accent is authentic, but I do know that I'm an authentic Yiddish speaker, I speak Yiddish to my kids, my mom, my sisters, dh, friends...
Yet lots of Israelis here don't understand my Yiddish

About the song, I never heard these words, so it was just weird for me.

I thought OP was searching for the song to sing it, and I felt like today's updated version was more appropriate than the old-fashioned one. I'm so sorry, I'm a heintige generation Can't Believe It

(sorry for derailing your thread OP)

amother

Lemonlime

Mon, Nov 29 2021, 12:14 am

amother [ Navy ] wrote:

חנוכה אוי חנוכה א יום טוב א שיינע
א ליסטיגע א פרייליכע נישט דא נאך אזיינע
אלע נעכט מיט דריידלעך שפילן מיר
הייסע פרישע לאטקעס עסן מיר

קומטס קינדער
געשווינדער
די חנוכה ליכטעלעך אנצינדן
זינגט על הניסים
און דאנקט פאר די ניסים
און לאמיר אלע טאנצן צוזאמען
זינגט על הניסים
און דאנקט פאר די ניסים
און לאמיר אלע טאנצן צוזאמען

https://jmusic.me/en/harav-yoe.....62500

These are the lyrics sung today...
(and 20 years ago when I learnt it in nursery)

Elfrida

Mon, Nov 29 2021, 6:04 am

salt wrote:

I remember the English one being:

Oh Chanuka oh Chanuka
A time to remember
A holiday a jolly day
that comes in December.

Is that completely made up?!

Someone made it up, and they probably made it up relatively recently. It's also not strictly accurate, considering that last night was 28th November.

Other than that, take it as another adaptation of a traditional folk song.

Elfrida

Mon, Nov 29 2021, 6:09 am

Mindfully wrote:

My version for line 6: Sevivon to play with

That's the version that I remember.

I also remember a line towards the end about

And while we're all playing
The Chanukah story we'll tell.

But then it reverts to the candles. 🤔

ETA Thinking about it, I believe we switched to singing the last two lines in Hebrew which does speak about the Maccabim and the miracles. Interesting.

zaq

Mon, Nov 29 2021, 8:58 am

SafeAtLast wrote:

I do realize. I'm not making fun of Hungarian Yiddish; amother lemonlime was making fun of MY Yiddish by asking me if it's my first language and then going on to say that the transliterated version of the song that I provided was "wrong." I'm simply standing up for my tradition, which, owing to the horrifying efficiency with which the Nazis yemach shmam managed to wipe out 98% of Polish Jewry and 95% of Lithuanian Jewry, will soon be gone.

FTR my father lived on the border and used to "translate" for his neighbors who couldn't understand the Galitzyaner accent. But he himself spoke a pure Litvish Yiddish.

iyar

Mon, Nov 29 2021, 12:30 pm

zaq wrote:

PS I might point out that even our davening and our Megillah readings have multiple nuschaot. Folk songs lo kol sheken. None of them is “wrong.”

Agree totally, you can't have a wrong version of Oy Chanukah!
Your original version was closest to what I remember.
Our davening can be very different too, but- Megillah readings? Maybe the accent or the tune can differ but Megillas Esther, Eichah, Koheles- they're part of 24 sifrei Tanach, the words are identical no matter your nusach or background. (I thought maybe you were referring to Megillas Antiochus which isn't part of Tanach and most people don't read it.)
I enjoyed your genuine Litvish Yiddish. Sad, but it does seem to be on the verge of extinction. It's not just the Nazis' fault. Chassidim still speak Yiddish and their kids learn Yiddish in yeshiva and school. The Yiddish the Chassidim are preserving is mostly Hungarian style (though there's a lot of varff de ball and gei in grocery koiffen juice which I guess makes it American-Hungarian Yiddish). The language spoken in Litvish homes and yeshivas is mostly English. Some used to translate Chumash into Yiddish but it's all in English now. If the kids aren't taught the language, it dies.

amother

Celeste

Mon, Nov 29 2021, 12:36 pm

zaq wrote:

Well then what in the world are the words dininke and kon?
Would dininke mean thin?
Would kon mean kitchen?

And it can't be aleh necht in dreidlen
Translation of that is-
All nights inside dreidels.
Meaning should be
All nights with dreidels
So correct grammar would be
Aleh necht mit

Last edited by amother on Wed, Dec 15 2021, 8:54 pm; edited 1 time in total

zaq

Mon, Nov 29 2021, 1:37 pm

Iyar, there are in fact two places in megillat esther where there are different nuschaot, not just differences between K'ri uCh'tiv of which there are many, but actual different ways of reading, marked in books as Nun-aleph for Nusach Acher (one of my books has Yud Gimmel instead--anyone know what that stands for? )You find this in stand-alone printed megillot intended to be used by listeners following along with the reader.

There are musical "detours," places where some but not all baaalei kriah use the Eichah melody for sad passages within Esther, such as Vecha'asher avad'ti avad'ti (Esther 4:1) and Ki nimkarnu ani ve'ami lehashmid laharog ule'abed (Esther 7:4) as well as at least half a dozen others, but musical differences don't affect the reading of the text. The reading is kosher even if it's read with no musical trope.

But the actual nusach differences in the reading of the text are:

Ve'ish lo amad bifneihem
Ve'ish lo amad lifneihem (Esther 9:2)
and
Laharog ule'abed
Velaharog ule'abed (Esther 8:11)

Some baalei k'riah read it one way while others read it first one way and then the other to cover all bases. One who doesn't know would think that the baal kriah goofed and is correcting himself. S/he didn't, and s/he's not.

Last edited by zaq on Mon, Nov 29 2021, 2:12 pm; edited 2 times in total

amother

Chambray

Mon, Nov 29 2021, 1:49 pm

zaq wrote:

I related to this because even amongst us few yiddish speaking folk, the diehards argue over "breit" or "broyt" and similar. I think it's cute.

"Kun" is a circle.
(For us "kich" is kitchen and "koch" is "cook" as a verb.)