"Bei mir bist Du shoen" by Zarah Leander

[gusmeister]

I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I have no
idea what language she is singing in. It's not German. Yiddish? Swedish?
Does anyone know?

[j***@sonic.net]

Post by gusmeister
I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I have no
idea what language she is singing in. It's not German. Yiddish? Swedish?
Does anyone know?

Sure looks like German to me - are you sure it's not? It could be Dutch,
I guess. Doesn't look much like Swedish and I can say for certain that it's
not Yiddish.

J. Wermont

[Seven Felicce]

Post by gusmeister
I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I have no
idea what language she is singing in. It's not German. Yiddish?

Swedish?

Post by gusmeister
Does anyone know?

It's German. It means something like "You are beautiful near me" or "You are
beautiful for me"

[Gunther Anderson]

Post by gusmeister

Post by gusmeister
I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I have no
idea what language she is singing in. It's not German. Yiddish?

Swedish?

Post by gusmeister
Does anyone know?

It's German. It means something like "You are beautiful near me" or "You are
beautiful for me"

I don't know what Zarah Leander might be singing in, but the original
was very much Yiddish. In German, "schoen" is not at all pronounced
"shane"... Unfortunately, I've only ever heard the English translation
performed by the Anderws Sisters.

Gunther Anderson

[Ernie Garner]

"You are beautiful to me" ... translates to one step less than "I
love you". Kind of an "I care about you" sentiment. Given it's
colloquial nature I would expect it to be Yiddish.

Ernie

Post by gusmeister

Post by gusmeister
I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I have no
idea what language she is singing in. It's not German. Yiddish?

Swedish?

Post by gusmeister
Does anyone know?

It's German. It means something like "You are beautiful near me" or "You are
beautiful for me"

[Gunther Anderson]

Post by Ernie Garner
"You are beautiful to me" ... translates to one step less than "I
love you". Kind of an "I care about you" sentiment. Given it's
colloquial nature I would expect it to be Yiddish.

Actually, it's even cooler. "Bei mir" can mean "According to me" (the
standard reading), "When in my company", or even "Compared to me". The
last two are the positive and negative ways of reading "Next to me,"
which is the literal meaning of "Bei mir." So sure, next to me, you're
beautiful, but so is my Aunt Gertie's horse. Jacobs and Secunda sure
knew how to work a pun...

Gunther Anderson

Post by Ernie Garner

Post by gusmeister

Post by gusmeister
I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I have no
idea what language she is singing in. It's not German. Yiddish?

Swedish?

Post by gusmeister
Does anyone know?

It's German. It means something like "You are beautiful near me" or "You are
beautiful for me"

[gusmeister]

Post by gusmeister
I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I have no
idea what language she is singing in. It's not German. Yiddish?

Swedish?

Post by gusmeister
Does anyone know?

Thanks for all your responses. The title is in German but the song itself
has been performed in more than one language. I think the original was in
Yiddish and the English version became a huge hit in the US by the Andrew
Sisters. However, Zarah's version is a mystery to me. She is Swedish (who
performed primarily in Germany) so there is a chance the song might be in
Swedish. I hope someone will be able to confirm.

[Lady Veteran]

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On Thu, 5 Feb 2004 19:25:10 -0500, "gusmeister"

Post by gusmeister
I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I
have no idea what language she is singing in. It's not German.
Yiddish? Swedish? Does anyone know?

It is Yiddish. It is one of my favorites.

LV


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Lady Veteran
-----------------------------------
"I rode a tank and held a general's rank
when the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank..."
-Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil
------------------------------------------------
People who hide behind anonymous remailers and
ridicule fat people are cowardly idiots with no
motive but malice.
---------------------------------------------

[Maximo Lachman]

Post by Lady Veteran
On Thu, 5 Feb 2004 19:25:10 -0500, "gusmeister"

Post by gusmeister
I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I
have no idea what language she is singing in. It's not German.
Yiddish? Swedish? Does anyone know?

It is Yiddish. It is one of my favorites.

The title is definitely German. The Swedes don't have an aversion to
singing in German, as can be seen in their films, Bergman etc, so the song
is more likely to be sung in German as well, which would go over well if
it's being pitched to an upper-crust classical-music listening audience:
They'll regard German as more aesthetically pleasing when sung than
Swedish or Yiddish. I have the Barry Sisters' version in Yiddish, and
the title is listed as "Bei mir bistu shain" (on an anglo-Canadian CD).

[gusmeister]

Post by Maximo Lachman
The title is definitely German. The Swedes don't have an aversion to
singing in German, as can be seen in their films, Bergman etc, so the song
is more likely to be sung in German as well, which would go over well if
They'll regard German as more aesthetically pleasing when sung than
Swedish or Yiddish. I have the Barry Sisters' version in Yiddish, and
the title is listed as "Bei mir bistu shain" (on an anglo-Canadian CD).

Thank you for your response. I speak German and I can assure you the song
itself is not in German (but the title is). Yes, the Swedes don't have an
aversion to singing in German but Zarah (who moved to Nazi Germany and
replaced Marlene Dietrich, who had moved to America) sang most of her songs
in German. I would like to believe Zarah's version is in Yiddish but there
are not enough Yiddish sounds (like "kh") in the song. Anyway, since I
don't know Yiddish I will take Lady Veteran's word for it.

[Maximo Lachman]

Post by gusmeister
Thank you for your response. I speak German and I can assure you the song
itself is not in German (but the title is). Yes, the Swedes don't have an
aversion to singing in German but Zarah (who moved to Nazi Germany and
replaced Marlene Dietrich, who had moved to America) sang most of her songs
in German. I would like to believe Zarah's version is in Yiddish but there
are not enough Yiddish sounds (like "kh") in the song.

It would be nice to believe that she was promoting interfaith dialogue
back then, but that sounds too good to be true. Yiddish can sound quite
similar to dialects in central Germany, so my guess would be that whoever
arranged music/lyrics for her, found that the song would scan & rhyme just
as well in one such dialect. When was it recorded?

[m***@gmail.com]

Post by Maximo Lachman

Post by gusmeister
Thank you for your response. I speak German and I can assure you the song
itself is not in German (but the title is). Yes, the Swedes don't have an
aversion to singing in German but Zarah (who moved to Nazi Germany and
replaced Marlene Dietrich, who had moved to America) sang most of her songs
in German. I would like to believe Zarah's version is in Yiddish but there
are not enough Yiddish sounds (like "kh") in the song.

It would be nice to believe that she was promoting interfaith dialogue
back then, but that sounds too good to be true. Yiddish can sound quite
similar to dialects in central Germany, so my guess would be that whoever
arranged music/lyrics for her, found that the song would scan & rhyme just
as well in one such dialect. When was it recorded?

It was recorded on March 21st, 1938 (As posted on a Youtube recording)

[a***@gmail.com]

Post by m***@gmail.com

Post by Maximo Lachman

Post by gusmeister
Thank you for your response. I speak German and I can assure you the song
itself is not in German (but the title is). Yes, the Swedes don't have an
aversion to singing in German but Zarah (who moved to Nazi Germany and
replaced Marlene Dietrich, who had moved to America) sang most of her songs
in German. I would like to believe Zarah's version is in Yiddish but there
are not enough Yiddish sounds (like "kh") in the song.

It would be nice to believe that she was promoting interfaith dialogue
back then, but that sounds too good to be true. Yiddish can sound quite
similar to dialects in central Germany, so my guess would be that whoever
arranged music/lyrics for her, found that the song would scan & rhyme just
as well in one such dialect. When was it recorded?

It was recorded on March 21st, 1938 (As posted on a Youtube recording) http://youtu.be/imvDoeY7vEg

Zarah Leander - Bei mir bist du schoen! текст песни

Bland de män jag mött
finns det många
Som av min tro och
kärlek sökt fånga

På de mest skilda sätt
har man tiggt och bett
Men vem visste väl vad
jag drömt

Men du var ej som
alla de andra
Den första gång vi
mötte varandra

I Wien en vårljus dag
solen sken
Och jag hörde andlös
dig viska ömt

Bei mir bist du schön
Ack hör nu min bön
Och säg att min mening
du förstår

Bei mir bist du schön
Du kan tolka min bön
Att aldrig min kärlek
du försmår

Och ord som bella mia
splendid och beautiful
Fast skilda språk har säkert skapats
blott för din skull

Bei mir bist du schön
Jag väntar min lön
En kyss och ditt svar att
du förstår

[m***@gmail.com]

Post by gusmeister
I have Zarah Leander's version of "Bei mir bist Du schoen" but I have no
idea what language she is singing in. It's not German. Yiddish? Swedish?
Does anyone know?

I have often wondered what language it was myself. Mrs. Leander's version is in Swedish. On the Wiki page, this is detailed. I believe this to be credible because Mrs. Leander was a Swedish woman and actress before she moved to Germany. Her native language was Swedish. At about 1:30 in her version of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," she says phrases that mean some-thing along the lines of "Beautiful" in several different languages. Now, we just need a person, who speaks Swedish, to translate and write the lyrics!

[a***@gmail.com]

Lyrcs added to the Youtube
http://youtu.be/imvDoeY7vEg