Alexander Gorodnitsky in Yiddish
On March 18, 2023, the well-known singer and musician Psoy Korolenko performed in the USA two songs by the Soviet and Russian poet Alexander Gorodnitsky translated into Yiddish. The translations were made exclusively for the author’s 90th birthday by the Yiddish writer Yoel Matveyev. As a special contribution for our website, Korolenko shared a recording of Gorodnitsky’s song “Snow” (“Shney” in Yiddish), which he performed at the Spring MusArt Fest in Sunnyvale (California).
Alexander Gorodnitsky is a world-famous geologist, one of the founders of the Soviet “bardic” song genre (independent singer-songwriters’ style somewhat similar to American folk music revival of the 1960s). The asteroid 5988 Gorodnitskij is named after him. His songs about expeditions to the Arctic are based on personal field experience. Gorodnitsky considers Yiddish, the language of his ancestors, a very important part of his personal cultural heritage.