Lyrics: Hirsh Glik
Melody: Russian Folk Melody
Recorded for the Jewish Historical Commission, Munich, 1946.
Performed by Betty Segal, accompanied by Akiva Daykhes on the accordion.
The song appears in Lider Fun di Getos un Lagern (1948: words – p. 345, melody p. 428), in Mir Zaynen Do (1983, p. 88) with English translation, and in Min Hametzar (1987, p. 96) entitled, “A Song for the Woman Partisan” (p. 178).
The song tells of the first attack of the Vilna partisans, the FPO, on a German army convoy. A young woman partisan, Vitke Kempner, and the partisan Itzik Matskevich threw a grenade on the convoy, damaging it. The song describes the woman partisan in her coat and hat, her beautiful face and her heroism. According to the song, she managed to stop the convoy with a small pistol. She then came back to the forest filled with delight by her small victory, and that of the Jews of the ghetto, over the wicked enemy.
Bay nakht iz aroysgegangen
Un ven der frost – hot shtark gebrent,
Tsi gedenkstu vi ikh hob dikh gelernt
Tsu haltn dem shpayer in di hent.
A moyd, a peltsl un a beret,
In hant zi halt fest dem nagan,
A moyd mit a sametenem ponem
Hit op dem soynes karavan.
Far tog fun vald aroysgekrokhn,
Getsilt, geshosn un getrofn
An oyto a fulinkn mit vafn
Farhaltn hot zi mit eyn koyl.
In vald tsurik arayngekrokhn,
Mit shney-girlandn af di hor,
Gemutikt fun kleyninkn nitsokhn
Far undzer sheynem nayer dor.