Yiddish Song Translation

With support from a 2022-2023 Yiddish Book Center Translation Fellowship, Adah is working on an anthology of new translations of Yiddish songs for use in educational and communal settings.

See below for already-published song translations by Adah.

“Mama Goes Where Papa Goes”

Translation of Sophie Tucker’s “Di mame geyt vu der tate geyt,” published in How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish, edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert, 2020.

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“Sing in Yiddish”

Translation of Arkady Gendler’s “Zingt af yidish,” published in “Radiant Jargon,” a chapbook published by The Yiddish Book Center, 2019.

“What I wasn’t expecting was Adah Hetko’s hilarious English-language translation/adaptation of ‘Shnirele Perele’

‘Shnirele Perele’ had already undergone its own composed, musical reinvention and then re-entered the Jewish music world as a new folk song. Adah’s was just another link in that chain.

I guess I’m just lucky to know the folk behind the folk songs.”

— Rokhl Kafrissen, Tablet Magazine