Dumai

Dumai is a song by Daniel Kahn. It takes the melody of an old Satmar folk song with refrain “dunai” which is about devotion. If my memory serves correctly, the refrain is derived from the river Danube. In Kahn’s version, the refrain is “dumai,” a Russian word meaning think. Sometimes it is written “dumay.” The song is about Zionism and Israel and Palestine. You can listen to Kahn introducing the song here (YouTube), or to Korolenko and Kahn introducing it here (YouTube). Kahn wrote the verse in Yiddish and translated it into English. Psoy Korolenko wrote a Russian translation.

There are a few versions of the song floating around: the one Kahn & Korolenko recorded as The Unternationale with Oy Division (Bandcamp) and the one Kahn recorded with his band the Painted Bird (YouTube, Oriente Music) are the two studio versions. Both of these have the verses in only Yiddish and English. The Unternationale studio version has a prelude with another short verse I can’t quite identify sung by an Oy Division guy, though I think it’s in Hebrew, and then another in Russian sung by Psoy.

My favourite version, however, is a live version performed by the Unternationale at the Levontin 7 club in Tel Aviv on 2008-11-05, according to a Youtube bootleg that has since went down. A video of the performance of Dumai alone is here on YouTube and backed up on this site here. This version also adds the main verse in Russian performed by Korolenko. There are some minor differences in wording and ordering between this version and each of the two studio recordings.

Here is my best shot at a transcription. I don’t know the first intro verse, nor Hebrew, so I’ve taken that transcription from the description of the YouTube video. A clearer singing of the Hebrew can be found in this recording (YouTube). The Yiddish and Hebrew are both romanized, since I don’t know the Hebrew alphabet. I also don’t know Yiddish, but I cross-referenced the video description with other lyrics on the internet for the main verse. The booklet (Painted Bird website) for the Painted Bird version was particularly helpful. The lyrics to Dumai are on page 16. I transcribed the Russian myself, since there are errors in the video description’s transcription. If anyone has corrections, or information about the Hebrew verse, please message me!

A more compact form of the transcription with the verses separated by language is here.

veyomus ki yekhye
dunay dunay dunay
vaysaper maysey ko
dunay dunay dunay

не хочу умирать, хочу я жить
думай думай думай
искать и бороться, творить и любить
думай думай думай

hob ikh mir in harts a kholem
dumai dumai dumai
heyb ikh oyf a fon fun sholem
dumai dumai dumai
ober in mayn kholem shteyt a moyer
dumai dumai dumai
ful mit payn un ful mit troyer
dumai dumai dumai

af der moyer shteyt a zelner
dumai dumai dumai
hinter im di grine felder
dumai dumai dumai
me’ hot geboyt tsufile grenetsn
dumai dumai dumai
afn land un in di mentshn
dumai dumai dumai

mir veln di grenetsn iberkumen
dumai dumai dumai
nor ven sine iz avekgenumen
dumai dumai dumai
keyner vet undz frayhayt gebn
dumai dumai dumai
me’ darf nokh zi aleyn zikh shtrebn
dumai dumai dumai

vemen zol dos land gehern?
dumai dumai dumai
tsi folk fun levone tsi folk fun shtern?
dumai dumai dumai
zayn a fremder iz mayn shtand
dumai dumai dumai
s’iz gules do in undzer land
dumai dumai dumai

i carry in my heart a dream
a flag of peace and a land redeemed
but in my dream is a wall of wire
stone and iron forged in fire

on the wall a soldier stands
keeps the people from their land
borders tear us all apart
on the ground and in the heart

and while we all must learn to conquer hate
what’s a nation without a state?
the land is holy, but for whom?
the god of the star and the crescent moon?

(transcriber’s note: the and in the line above should be an or, Kahn makes a mistake)

well no one freely gives up power
the people alone they say we can take what’s ours
they say without freedom, without land
here in exile we do stand

глубоко в сердце моём томленье
мечта о мире и избавленье
но вот передо мной стоит стена
огнём и мечом она клеймена

там человек стоит с ружьём
нас не пускает в собственный дом
мы много границ вокруг начертили
и вдруг ощутили сердце своё

святая земля, тебе или мне?
народу звезде иль народу луне?
но нет мне земли, и нет мне свободы
скитаюсь один, навстречу народы

если не мы, то кто же тогда?
не здесь и сейчас, то где и когда?
мы сможем границу с тобой перейти
но нам нужно мир в своём сердце найти

нет справедливости, мир болен.
из нашей мечты был создан голем.
где же ты, родина? где чужбина?
где ты израиль? где палестина?

without justice, without peace
dumai dumai dumai
just a dream become a beast
dumai dumai dumai

nisht keyn tsedek, nisht keyn sholem
dumai dumai dumai
nor a kholem gevorn a golem
dumai dumai dumai

well without justice, without peace
dumai dumai dumai
just a dream become a beast
dumai dumai dumai
where will exile draw the line?
dumai dumai dumai
in israel or palestine?
dumai dumai dumai

voser folk on a medina?
dumai dumai dumai
say yisroel say palestina
dumai dumai dumai

There are a few interesting lyrical differences with the later Painted Bird version:

1. The position of “keyner vet undz frayhayt gebn / me’ darf nokh zi aleyn zikh shtrebn” is swapped with “vemen zol dos land gehern? / tsi folk fun levone tsi folk fun shtern?” The swapped version matches the English.
2. Kahn sings “keeps us out of our own land” instead of “keeps the people from their land.” I don’t know why he made this change. Maybe he had a good reason. Not knowing that reason, I don’t like the change very much. The Painted Bird lyric carries to me an implication that Palestine is the land of the song’s narrator.
3. “the people alone they say we can take what’s ours / they say without freedom, without land” is replaced by “we alone can take what’s ours / without freedom, without land.” I’ve seen other live recordings where he sings “they say we can take what’s ours / they say without freedom, without land,” like this one (YouTube).

There is another version of the initial Russian verse which appears in this recording (YouTube):

хочу я бога похвалить
дунай дунай дунай
убивай меня бог чем убиваеш
дунай дунай дунай
а только смерти не давай
дунай дунай дунай

I started writing this post on May 1st, when I was singing this song and wanted a transcription of the Russian. In doing do, I realized that my previous post was subconsciously inspired by Dumai. Its title “If not us, then who?” is essentially “Если не мы, то кто же тогда?” in English. I didn’t finish this post until now, but here it is, and here’s to posting more.