Rosenbaum's song begins with the words: “Azokhen wei! Shalom Aleichem…” In Makarevich's song "Freyles", a Jew wooes and, having received a refusal, says: "Pour it quickly, azochen wei." In many Odessa songs, the expression "azokhen wei" is found. What does this idiom mean?
Translated from Yiddish
Literally, this expression can be translated as follows:
When all that's left is to say, "Oh and wei."
What is "oh", no need to explain. People of all nations groan and gasp for different reasons. But “wei” in Yiddish means “woe”. It should be noted that among the Eastern peoples the exclamation “wai”, “oh-howl”, “wai me” is widespread.
But, as often happens with Jewish phraseological units, its meaning sometimes changes to the opposite. And even used in several senses.
When it remains to say "Oh!" and "Woe!"
In sadness, a Jew will say: "Azochen wei!", Which means: "Oh-oh-oh!". This interjection is similar to "Oh my God!" and "wei" means "woe." In various cases, it is resorted to to express sympathy, panic, anxiety or discontent. Eeyore the donkey could have said so if he were a Jew.
Alas and ah
If you ask a Jew: "How are you?" and hear in response: "Azokhen wei", which means - his deeds are bad, only groaning remains. I remember a song where a Jew, reflecting sadness in his eyes, repeated: “Azochen wei”, in our opinion, “alas and ah.”
Isaac Babel puts these words into the mouth of his heroine: "If gefilte fish is made with bones, then azochen wei to our Jews." That is, if the fish is cooked without removing the bones from it (which is contrary to the law on the Sabbath), then such Jews are worthless.
Azochen wei and our tanks are fast
This expression may have ironic overtones. Like, “Oh-ho-ho, yes really! What little things! Just scared!" A video parody of the tankmen's anthem "Azochen Way and our tanks are fast" is circulating on the Internet. There is footage from a Japanese film about WW2 - a meeting of two armies. Apparently, in the video, this happens “near the harsh banks of the Amur”, in the Jewish Autonomous Region. Therefore, people with sidelocks dance and threaten the Japanese, Valeria Novodvorskaya easily eats a brick, and in general it seems that the Jewish Cossacks consist entirely of harsh and tough people, however, who love to sing and dance.
In this context, the idiom does not at all reflect regret, sadness, or melancholy. The brave Jewish Cossacks in the video, constantly dancing, report on the courage and fearlessness of the sons of the fatherland. Not at all doubting a crushing victory, they sing about the total cleansing of the Japanese aggressors. And in vain in the frame a samurai twists his sword - girls will oppose him,serving in the military and elegantly breaking bricks with their palms.
From the lips of a real Jew one can hear such, for example, a characterization of a person: "He is such a specialist … Azochen wei." Which means - not a very specialist. At the same time, expansiveness in facial expressions and intonations leave no doubt about this. Mom scolds her son for not studying for the test. He retorts her: “Azochen wei this test!”.
In a humorous sketch about a rehearsal in the Odessa theater, the history of Russia is presented as a conversation between Boris Godunov and the boyars, while everyone uses Yiddish through the word. Boris's monologue begins with the words: "Azokhen wei, comrades of the boyars." The phrase began to be used by Russians as well.
Such is life
There is a wonderful story by V. Slavushchev "Azochen way", which means in his interpretation approximately the same as the French "se la vie". The plot is this: Lenya, a graduate of Moscow State University, a journalist in the editorial office, is waiting with his mom and dad for permission to travel to Canada. Here he is taken on a business trip for a journalistic investigation about the abuse of a certain head of the plant. Upon arrival, it turned out that a mistress had written an anonymous letter to the boss, and the secretary of the party committee, Zakurnaev, hushed up the whole matter, confining himself to condemning the anonymous girls.
On the last day, a company led by Zakurnaev rushes into Leni's room for a solemn washing of a successfully conducted investigation. Together with the men comes the oriental beauty-Korean Zhenya. She and Lenya immediately fell in love with each other without memory. The young people retired to the next room, but did not have time to explain themselves, as a stone flew through the window, andthe girl ran away.
The next day, Lenya came to Zakurnaev to find out the address of the beauty, but he said that she had left. Lenya did not emigrate with his parents to Canada, he was looking for his beloved for a long time, but to no avail. Once an elderly Korean came to his office and almost killed him with an axe. It was Zhenya's father. It turned out that she gave birth to a child and indicated Lenya as the father. The journalist explained to the angry father that this could not be, and he apologized and left.
After many years, life pushed Zakurnaev and Leonid together. They talked, and it turned out that Zhenya had been waiting for Lenya for a long time. This child is from Zakurnaev, he divorced his first wife and married Zhenya. The child had to be written down for Leonid so that there would be no scandal. And since then Lenya, a lonely and aging journalist, sighs about his life.
He regrets that he did not go with Zhenya's father - he called. She showed everyone the letters, she said - from Leni. Waited. And now it's too late. This is what azochen wei means.
