# Yiddish: Tsu dir, mayn zis-lebn, tsit dokh mayn harts



## sleepymarmot

Hello everybody.
I'd like to know the meaning of this sentence. It's written on the back of photo. 
"Tsu dir, mayn zis-lebn, tsit dokh mayn harts".
Could anybody help me? Thanks a lot!
Marmot


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## Nunty

I haven't spoken Yiddish in years, but I grew up with it. Literally, I read this: "To you, my sweet life, my heart surely trembles."

Zis-lebn, that I gave as "sweet life" is a tender endearment.
Dokh is a word that emphasizes (like _doch_ in German in many ways) and I don't know how to render it in English.

It's a very nice inscription.


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## sleepymarmot

Thank you very much, Sister! 
The Yiddish of your childhood hasn't gone rusty at all!


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## David

Here's what you transcribed looks like in Yiddish:

!צו דיר, מיין זיס־לעבן, ציט דוך מיין הערץ​
but maybe the word after the commas was

ציטערט,​
_tsitert_ "trembles,"?


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## sleepymarmot

David said:


> maybe the word after the commas was
> 
> ציטערט,​
> _tsitert_ "trembles,"?


 
Hello David, I've check the text. It's tsit, not tsitert (is it, maybe, an error?). 
Thank you for the Yiddish transcription! 
Marmot


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## Nunty

Yes, that is puzzling. I just assumed it was an error or maybe some kind of in-joke between the person who wrote it and the one receiving it.


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## Forero

This is a line from a song (sorry I can't type Yiddish characters):

_Papir iz doch vais, un tint iz doch shvartz.
Tzu dir, main zis leben, tzit doch main hartz.
'Ch volt shtendig gezesen drai teg noch an and'
Tzu kushn dain sheyn ponim un tzu haltn dain hant.
_
I have always imagined it said my heart "draws" (tzit) me to you.

The second verse says I saw lots of pretty girls at a wedding, but none could compare with your black eyes and black hair.  The third verse says "_Glaich mich nit tzu kein beimele, un nit tzu kein shtop_" and I hope, with G-d's help, to go with you under the _khupe_.


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## nurBahnhof

Yes, this is a line from the song "papir iz dokh vays".

I believe that ציט (tsit) is the third-person singular present tense conjugation of ציען (tsien) which means to pull, draw, attract, etc.  In the 6th edition of Harkavy's Yiddish-English Dictionary (which is available online) he uses the more Germanized spelling of ציעהען (tsiehen).

In the Zemerl database of Jewish songs, the line is translated as "My heart is drawn to you, my sweet-life".

On Ruth Rubin's "Jewish Folk Songs" record published by Smithsonian Folkways, the line is translated as "My heart yearns for my darling love."

In Harkavy, the word לעבן (lebn) doesn't only mean "life", it can also mean "darling" (he spells it לעבען / leben).  So perhaps something like "sweet darling" might be a better translation.


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## nurBahnhof

If I had to translate it, I might say something like, "You know my heart is drawn to you, my sweet darling."


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## Forero

Aside from spelling, I made another error that I can't edit out now: instead of "shtop", the word should be "slop" (Don't treat me like a tree or a post).


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