Khotsh Though

Identifier
irn671443
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2005.458
  • RG-91.0083
Level of Description
Item
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Scope and Content

The song was written by Zelik Barditshever (1898-1937), an itinerant teacher, poet, and playwright from Belts, Bessarabia (present-day Bălții, Moldava). Collected by the Yiddish writer Leibu Levin, it first appeared in a volume of Barditshever's works published in Czernowitz, Romania (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine) in 1939.

Note(s)

  • Recorded by Ben Stonehill, Hotel Marseilles, New York, summer 1948. From the Library of Congress, Ben Stonehill Collection containing field recordings of songs of European Jewish immigrants, described by Ben Stonehill as "containing almost a thousand songs collected from Jewish refugees in N.Y. City in 1948 that they brought with them from concentration camp, ghetto and hearth." Originally recorded on wire in New York City by Ben Stonehill, 1948. Lyrics: "What are you singing? What is this song called? “Khotsh” (Though). Very good. Though I have no home, no land to live in, The whole world hunts me, yet I don’t give in. I live. Oh, I live. A curse on my enemies— What sense, what meaning is there to my life, to my endless wanderings? Yet still I live. Oh, I live. Though I have no feet, no hands, no part of me intact, Yet I want to wildly dance. I dance. Oh, I dance. A curse on my enemies— What sense, what meaning is there to my life, to my endless wanderings? Yet still I dance. Oh, I dance. A curse on my enemies— What sense, what meaning is there to my life, to my endless wanderings? Yet still I dance. Though I have no voice left, no way to make a sound, Yet I want to wildly sing. So I sing. Oh, I sing. A curse on my enemies— What sense, what meaning is there to my life, to my endless wanderings? Yet still I sing. Oh, I sing. And so I live!

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.