Dreadful song about Golem

("Píseň strašlivá o Golemovi, kterak chtíčem byl jat a jak to s ním dopadlo z písně každý vyrozumí")

Jiří Voskovec & Jiří Werich, Jaroslav Ježek

(Translated Jeroným Klimeš 2003)

http://home.tiscali.cz/jeronym.klimes/noty/golem2.tif

1. Let me plainly assume,

that everybody of you knows Golem.

Rabbi Loewi pitter-pattered him up out of mud,

as he was angry at his aunt.

 

The aunt had put his

old-new trumpet somewhere

[meant shofer , hint at Old new Synagogue in Prague]

and this way she offended him so much

that he made up an executioner at her.

 

2. The executioner should have been namely Golem

And he had to keep an eye strictly on the aunt,

Respectively to kill her

if she would not return the trumpet.

 

But the aunt was beautiful,

grown up well, totally passionate.

She was dangerous for all men

and mad for officers.

 

3. At the beginning she was afraid of Golem,

She disdained him as he was earthen

But she never got a suspicion

that he had fallen in love with her.

 

Believe, it is truly a wonder of wonders,

True, sincere and real,

He loved the seductive daughter of Eve,

Very much and in vain too.

4. One day at an hour of retreat,

he came to tell her, that he loved her,

But he found her in arms

of an officer of foot soldiers.

 

Tears burst out of his eyes,

jealousy put an arm in his hands.

He started to beat the pair with a coal rake

He killed the officer and the she-devil (dragon)

 

5. Nine months and nine weeks,

a regiment of army surrounded him,

Golem sadly sat on a porch,

partly crying, partly writing poems.

 

He wrote to the rabbi whose aunt he killed,

that he will commit a suicide,

They should have given the trumpet at his grave

as a remembrance of the reviled love.

 

6. Having written this, he exclaimed I cannot live any more,

jumped into water saying “Adieu”

There are two versions of his about his end,

out of which I cite only two of them.

 

According the first one, he had jumped into the water,

then dipped, and finally melted

According the second one, firstly he had dissolved,

then he dipped and afterwards he jumped there.

Dovolte, bych suše předpokládal, Golema, že všichni znáte tu. Rabi Lev, že z hlíny ho uplácal, protože měl vzteka na tetu. Ta teta mu někam založila jeho staronovou trumpetu, a tím pádem ho tak urazila, že si uhnět kata na tetu.

Katem tím měl právě Golem býti, a dohlížet přísně na tetu. Eventuelně ji zahubiti, kdyby nevydala trumpetu. Vona ale teta byla fešná, pěkně rostlá, zcela vášnivá, všechněm mužskejm byla nebezpečná, na oficíři byla divá.

Ze začátku Golema se bála, hnusil se jí, že je hliněný. Toho se však nikdy nenadála, že je do ní zamilovaný. Div divoucí je to totiž věru, opravdu docela skutečně, miloval tu svůdnou Evy dceru velice, a taky zbytečně.

Navečer v hodině čepobití jde ji jde říci, že ji miluje. Najde ji však, ležíc ve objetí, s oficírem infanterie. Jeho oči plakat začnou pláčem, žárlivost mu vtiskne v ruku zbraň, a jme se párek mlátit pohrabáčem - oficíra zabil i tu saň.

Devět měsiců a devět neděl regiment vojska ho obléhal. Golem smutně na palandě seděl, chvilku plakal, chvilku dopis psal. Rabínovi, co mu zabil tetu, napsal, že si svůj život veme, na hrob prej ať mu daj tu trumpetu, na památku lásky zhrzené.

Když to napsal, zvolal: ,,Žít mi nelze!” — skočil do vody, řka: " Ádié " O zániku jeho jsou dvě verse, ze kterých uvádím jenom dvě. Podle jedné do té vody skočil, namočil se, pak se rozmočil, podle druhé, nejdřív se rozmočil, namočil se a pak tam skočil.

Very simple notes