Words: P. Raskin
Sung in Yiddish
I want to tell to you a tale, my child.
A wonderful and beautiful tale;
The older you’ll grow, the more you’ll ponder,
The better you’ll understand this tale.
We once had a Temple in Jerusalem,
A magnificent, holy Temple,
And amongst its many rare articles
There was an extraordinary treasure—a candelabrum.
A wondrous lamp, one whose equal, my child,
Will never be discovered;
For all future generations God ordered that
The candelabrum’s light should burn and shine.
And for generations the lamp burned,
And those same rays
That once shone on the forebears
Did later fall to illuminate their grandsons.
a maysele vil ikh, mayn kind, dir dertseleyn,
a maysele vundelikh-sheyn;
vos elter vest veren, vos merer vest klern,
alts beser vestu dos farshteyn …
mir hobn amol a beys hamidrash gehat,
a herlikhn heylign templ,
un tsuvishn fil keylim-antiklekh
iz dort geven an antikl—a lempl.
a vunder a lempl; zayn glaykhn, mayn kind,
gefinen vet keyner nit kenen:
af ebige doyres befoyln hot got
dos lempl zol laykhtn, zol brenen.
un doyres-lang hot dizes lempl gelaykht,
un s’flegn di zelbige shtraln
vos hobn amol af di zeydes geshaynt
