query: 18th c. song

[Robert A. Rothstein]

On 2/2/2011 9:07 AM, Moshe Taube wrote:
> A colleague preparing an edition of an 18th century Hebrew text asked me about (East) Slavic words in the text (in Hebrew transliteration), appearing to come from a popular song. I was able to offer only limited suggestions and am asking for your help. The four words are האליי דאשע בעז טוקנטשא which I tentatively render as гола(я) душа без (ш?)туканц(ч?)а. These are glossed in the text as הנשמה ערומה ללא בגד  "the soul is naked without a dress". Any ideas?
My guess would be that it is Polish rather than East Slavic: Hulaj dusza 
bez kontusza!, which means "live it up, do what you want, there are no 
restrictions." To be sure, the earliest attribution is to an 1825 text 
by Jan Nepomucen Kamiński, but the expression, which is proverbial, is 
probably older, and a variant (Labuj [later: hulaj] dusza, piekło gore) 
is found as early as 1632. (The sense seems to be that you can do what 
you want because there's no longer any Hell.) It also exists in 
Ukrainian: Гуляй, душа, без кунтуша. characterized as a /prykazka/ 
(proverbial expression), often connected with dancing. So perhaps the 
author of the Hebrew text was quoting it from an East Slavic source 
after all.

Bob Rothstein

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