The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth CenturyWiener, Leo
History
The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century
Wiener, Leo
Yiddish literature -- History and criticism
meditate on the vanity of life, the inconstancy of fortune, and so
forth.
'The Gold Watch' is one of a very common type of songs of dispute that
have been known to various literatures in previous times and that are
used up to the present by Jewish bards. They range in length from the
short folksong consisting of but one question and answer to a long
series of stanzas, or they may become the subject of long discussions
covering whole books. In 'The Gold Watch' the author accuses the watch
of being unjust in complaining and in allowing its heart to beat so
incessantly, since it enjoys the privilege of being worn by fine ladies
and gentlemen, of never growing old, of being clad in gold and precious
stones. Each stanza of the question ends with the words:
Wās fehlt dir, wās klapt dir dās Herz?
The watch's answer is that it must incessantly work, that it is
everybody's slave, that it is thrown away as useless as soon as it
stops. So, too, is man. Upon this follows what is generally known as a
_Zuspiel_, a byplay, a song treating the contrary of the previous matter
or serving as a conclusion to the same. The _Zuspiel_ to 'The Gold
Watch' is entitled ''Tis Best to Live without Worrying.' There is a
series of songs in his collection which might be respectively entitled
'Memento mori' and 'Memento vivere.' Such are 'The Tombstone' and 'The
Contented,' 'The Tombstone-cutter' and 'The Precentor,' 'The Cemetery,'
and 'While you Live, you Must not Think of Death.' The cemetery, the
gravedigger, the funeral, are themes which have a special fascination
for the Jewish popular singers, who nearly all of them have written
songs of the same character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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