Borrowed Tongue — A Song Inspired by Yidstock brings vibrant Yiddish culture and klezmer to the Valley, showing how a language can survive as breath, jokes, grief, and melody in a room. Source: Amherst Bulletin via Google News RSS July 7 2026. Entities: Yidstock, Yiddish culture, klezmer, Amherst Bulletin, the Valley.

[Verse 1]
We found the words in a paper bag,
creased like coats in a hall.
Somebody laughed in the back of the room,
and the old dust started to fall.
The bow took hold of a wooden chair,
the drum kept tapping its shoe.
I borrowed a tongue from the hands before mine,
and it bit me back into true.

[Chorus]
Sing it till the rafters learn,
sing it till the names return.
Warm the match under the ash,
let the stubborn blue letters burn.
If the world forgot the tune,
we will hum it through the bruise.
Borrowed tongue, living lung,
carry us into the room.

[Verse 2]
There were jokes with a limp and prayers with a grin,
coffee gone bitter and black.
Every cracked note put a nail in the floor
so the wandering door came back.
An accordion wheezed like a stubborn heart,
clarinet climbed the stair.
We were not saving a ghost in a frame,
we were asking it up for air.

[Bridge]
Do not lay us down in velvet,
do not label every scar.
Give the word a heel and heartbeat,
give the grief a busted bar.

[Final Chorus]
Sing it till the rafters learn,
sing it till the names return.
Warm the match under the ash,
let the little blue letters burn.
If the world forgot the tune,
we will hum it through the bruise.
Borrowed tongue, living lung,
carry us into the room.