A Yiddish folk riddle about true love, no one knows who wrote it, and everyone knows how it goes. English adaptation by Walter J. Kin, performed by Riglis Band.
A young man stands thinking all night: whom to court, and how not to choose wrong? So he does what people in folk songs do: he asks riddles. What can grow without rain? What can burn without being consumed? What can cry without tears?
The girl he asks does not miss a beat. A stone can grow without rain. Love can burn without being consumed. A heart can cry without tears. The song never tells us if they married. It doesn't need to: anyone who can answer riddles like that has already understood love better than the boy who asked.
Tumbalalaika has been teaching the same lesson for more than a century: choose the person who understands the riddle, not the one who merely answers fastest. It teaches without preaching, in the oldest classroom there is, a melody.
It is also the purest case of what a folk song is: a masterpiece with no author to thank. Someone made this, someone poor, probably, and in love, and we cannot even light a candle for their name. What we can do is keep the song so alive that losing the name stops mattering.
"An author can be forgotten; a song refuses to be. Our job is to keep the song so alive that the forgetting stops there."
- Walter J. Kin, on the project's approachThe melody and the Yiddish riddle verses are traditional; their author is unknown and probably always will be. The project's arrangements, the Russian poem by Olga Anikina, and the English adaptation by Walter J. Kin are new works in an old chain. Each one is credited by name, because this encyclopedia believes authors should be remembered while it is still possible.
The project's Russian poem and English adaptation are new texts. Their full lyrics and lead sheets are shared through licensing.
The Russian version: Olga Anikina's retelling of the riddle dialogue, sung by Elechka with just a guitar, like a conversation you were lucky to overhear.
| Melody & Yiddish verses | Traditional (author unknown), arranged by Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) |
| English adaptation | Walter J. Kin |
| Russian poem | Olga Anikina (commissioned) |
| Performance | Riglis Band (English) / Elechka (Russian) |
| Production | Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) |
| Copyright | Registered (SR0000891440) · ISRC CACWV1998764 |
| Project | Jewish Songs for All / JewishSong.org |
You may watch, share, and enjoy these recordings freely. For performances, recordings, film and media placements, and printed arrangements of the project's versions, licensing is handled simply and respectfully by Rigli Publishing: start at the song's licensing page.
The English adaptation and the project's arrangements were created for RIGLI by Walter J. Kin, Member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and published by Rigli Publishing as part of JewishSong.org. The Russian poem is by Olga Anikina, performed by Elechka. The traditional melody and Yiddish verses belong to the whole Jewish people.