Aulejas klezmers [English translation]

Fairly rough an autumn came,

Frost is shaking the trees’ leaves.

Fairly sharp’s my little scythe

When it’s running through the field.

Winter, winter comes.

Even if the autumn’s rough,

For young folk it brought gaiety,

Good barley was scythed,

Sweet beer was brewed,

Wedding, wedding comes.

Mother, bake your soft bread,

Daughter, wear your white shoes,

Sister, make a white bed,

It’s for you the wooers come.

Wooers, wooers come.

You will both raise your right hand,

Will exchange the darling rings.

My parents get a daughter-in-law,

I myself a lovely bride,

From this very day.

Girl, you think it is all fun,

It will now be but woe.

Less than a year will pass,

You’ll carry a little one,

Never rest again.

In the first year my lover

waited on me hand and foot.

In the second and the third

He didn’t let me into his bed,

Alas, into his bed.

Had I known this before,

I wouldn’t have worn mother’s shoes.

Mother’s shoes were slippery,

Made me slip into my wooers’ arms.

Alas, my wooers’ arms.

The wooers bewitched me,

Hardship came hard on me,

I put step to step

And could not step out,

Alas, I can’t step out.

• Artist:Tautumeitas