At seven or forty he will drive up,
At seven or forty he will drive up -
Our old, our glorious
Our gitsyn steam engine [2] .
Carriages wagons
Leads wagons
Stuffed by people
Like a hay cart.
He will get out of the car
And move along the platform .
On his head is his luxurious bowler hat ,
In the big green eyes to the east
Odessa light is on.
Let him not from Odessa ,
Let him not from Odessa,
Fountains and Pounding
They are waiting for him in their yard.
At seven or forty he will arrive
At seven or forty he will arrive
Our glorious, good Fedya, that is, Theodore. (original Fuchs)
(in other versions - Our old, our glorious,
Our Odessa steam locomotive.)
He will get out of the car
And move along the platform.
On his head is his luxurious bowler hat.
In the big green eyes to the east
Odessa light is on.
Seven or forty has come.
Hours all beat off
But the train did not arrive
There is none and that’s all, but here
We'll wait anyway
We'll wait anyway
Even if he is late for a whole year.
He will get out of the car
And move along the platform.
On his head is his luxurious bowler hat.
In the big green eyes to the east
Odessa light is on.
Seven to forty is the traditional klezmer dance melody , which in Soviet times turned into the most recognizable Jewish melody.
Song History
The words of the song are written on the motive of an older Jewish melody, which was often played by street musicians at the station . In various versions, the melody “7:40” (a variation of the Freilechs dance) was already known at the end of the 19th century . The Freylex style itself, like most of the modern Klezmer repertoire, is of Bessarabian or Moldavian origin.
The first gramophone record of the melody was performed in 1903 by the “Zonophone Society’s own orchestra” without a name. The name "7:40" appeared in pre-revolutionary times (judging by the labels of the records), and its origin is not known for certain. Various words were written to the dance melody in modern times, of which, thanks to the tape recordings of Arkady the Northern 1970s, the cited text (with various variations) became the most famous.
Origin of a song
The original songwriter is Rudolf Fuchs [3] . The author says that the song describes the arrival of the founder of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, to Odessa (he was supposed to arrive by train, but did not).
There are also several other versions about the origin of the song, the authors of which are unknown to Rudolf Fuchs (they think that the song is folk). One says that the Odessa steam tram is described in the song [4] . The words " Fountains and Peresyp await him in their courtyard" describe the route of the line. The steam tram consisted of a steam locomotive and trailed wagons, which explains the phrase “Carriages wagon”.
Another version is about the train . Jews who worked in Odessa but didn’t live there arrived in the city early in the morning from the surrounding towns - some of them on the first train, which arrived at 7:40 (according to the later version, “ Bender - Odessa”, the so-called “worker” train ”, which arrived precisely at this time). The phrase "A gits in a steam locomotive" is also a humorous name for an overly energetic excited person. The original first verse of the song is based on this pun, describing the passengers of this train - mostly “air people”.
There is a legend according to which Jewish musicians had to conduct a train with the mistress of the governor to music, but overslept. The infuriated governor ordered them to come to the station and play a melody intended for his mistress for a whole year, at exactly 7:40. Over time, the melody became popular and turned into a truly folk.
It has also been suggested that the song allegorically speaks of the anticipated coming of the Messiah [5] .
Notes
- ↑ Seven to forty (song chords)
- ↑ From “a hitsun steam engine” ( Yiddish אַ היץ אין פּאַראָװאָז , literally heat in a steam train ) - in Yiddish is an idiomatic expression of the triviality of the news heard, that is, the lack of an element of novelty in it, “open America through the window”.
- ↑ Rudolph Fuchs - Seven Forty - The story of 7-40 song creation from the author. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (January 6, 2015). Date of treatment January 20, 2016.
- ↑ Prokoptsev G. History of the tram
- ↑ Danilchuk D. “Seven-Forty”: What is actually sung in the song? (inaccessible link)
Links
- Jewish dance class, or freylekhs, mitzvah and not only // migdal.org.ua
- Discography of a song on Russian-Records.com
- Gulyarin B. Song 7:40 (modern version) on YouTube
- Rudolf Fuchs Manuscript
- Kosmacheva Y. Seven forty