Скачать или смотреть Vot Ken Yu Makh?

Composer: Alexander Olshanetsky

Soloist: Jill Hoffman
UCLA Klezmer Ensemble
Guest Conductor: Dr. Lorry Black

Translation:
It wasn't hard for me to come to America
I thought I'd become a rabbi and grow out my beard.
I had two pretty peyes, like any pious Jew,
But in the end, I didn't have the beard or the peyes.

If you ask me, what's the meaning of this? How can it be?
Here's the answer, my dear friend:

What can you do? It's America!
That's how they do things here.
What can you do? It's America!
Even a Jew has a [shaved] face like goy.

You won't see any traces of peyes here,
It's the young women who have the peyes!

What can you do? It's America!
It's America! What can you do?

Here in America, everything is upside-down,
The men shave and the women grow beards.

What can you do? It's America!
Oy, America, and nothing else!


In Europe, first you meet a boy and then you tie the know
And only afterwards you tie “das kinderlach mitzvot”
In America, it's different, and when you see the bride,
She’s walking to the chuppah mit das kinder at her side.

If you ask me, how can this be so?
The answer friend is this is what I know

What can you do? It's America.
It is one crazy place I must confess.
What can you do? It's America!
They do not wait, they like to do things fast.

And so to save time, and you have to hear this
Sometimes they have a wedding at the same time as the bris!

What can you do? It's America!
It's America! What can you do?

It’s hard to be a proper Jew, with all this “mishigas”
After the wedding, there's a cradle- a baby, already prepared!

What can you do? It's America
Oy, America, and that's all!