New Year song

[ROBERT A ROTHSTEIN]

        Thanks to Avraham Kofman for his comments on the version of
"Elochka" that I posted.  I described my text as "one version" since
I knew that there was an "original" somewhere, but had not been
able to remember where it was.  The text I posted is apparently a
folklorized version of a poem by Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva (1878-1964).
Kudasheva's text was first published in the journal _Maliutka_ in 1903
(in a longer version) as a playlet.  The "canonical" version, which was
set to music by L. Bekman, reads as follows (from _Russkaia poeziia
detiam_ [_Biblioteka poeta, Bol'shaia seriia_], 1989):

        V lesu rodilas' elochka,
        V lesu ona rosla,
        Zimoi i letom stroinaia,
        Zelenaia byla.

        Metel' ei pela pesenku:
        "Spi, elochka, bai-bai!"
        Moroz snezhkom ukutyval:
        "Smotri, ne zamerzai!"

        Trusishka zaika seren'kii
        Pod elochkoi skakal.
        Poroi volk, serdityi volk,
        Rystsoiu probegal.

        Chu!  Sneg po lesu chastomu
        Pod polozom skripit.
        Loshadka moxnonogaia
        Toropitsia, bezhit.

        Vezet loshadka drovenki,
        Na drovniakh starichok.
        Srubil on nashu elochku
        Pod samyi koreshok.

        I vot ty zdes', nariadnaia,
        Na prazdnik k nam prishla
        I mnogo-mnogo radosti
        Detishkam prinesla.

                                        Bob Rothstein