The song of Rosenbaum begins with the words: “Azochen Way! Shalom Aleichem ... ". In Makarevich’s song “Freiles,” the Jew weds and, having been refused, says: “Pour it soon, azohen wei.” In many Odessa songs the expression "azohen vey" is found. What does this phraseologism mean?
Yiddish Translation
Literally, this expression can be translated like this:
- When it remains only to say: "Oh and wei."
What is “oh”, no need to explain. People of all nations cry and gasp for different reasons. But “vey” in translation from Yiddish means “grief”. It should be noted that among the Eastern peoples the exclamation of “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 ways.
When it remains to say "Oh!" and “Woe!”
In sorrow, a Jew will say: "Azochen Wei!", Which means: "Oh-oh-oh!" This interjection is like, “Oh my god!” and "vey" means "grief." In various cases, they resort to him to express sympathy, panic, anxiety or discontent. So the donkey Eeyore could very well say if he were a Jew.
Alas and ah!
If you ask a Jew: "How are you?" and to hear in response: "Azochen vey", which means - his deeds are bad, only he remains groaning. I remember a song where a Jew, reflecting sadness in his eyes, repeated: "Asohen vey", in our opinion "alas and ah."
Isaac Babel puts such words into the mouth of his heroine: "If a gefilte fish is made with bones, then our Jews are azohen." That is, if the fish is cooked without taking out the bones from it (which contradicts the Sabbath law), then such Jews are worthless.
Azohen Way and our tanks are fast
This expression may have an ironic connotation. Like, “Oh-ho-ho, really! What little things! They were frightened right! ” A video parody of the tankmen’s anthem "Azochen Way and Our Tanks Are Fast" walks on the Internet. There are shots from a Japanese film about WW2 - a meeting of two armies. Apparently, in the video, this happens "off the harsh shores of the Amur," in the Jewish Autonomous Region. Therefore, people with paisseas dance and threaten the Japanese, Valeria Novodvorskaya easily bites a brick and in general it seems that the Jewish Cossacks consist entirely of harsh and cool people, however, who love to sing and dance.
In such a context, phraseologism does not at all reflect regret, nor sadness, nor longing. The bold Jewish Cossacks in the video, constantly dancing, reports on the courage and fearlessness of the sons of the fatherland. Not at all doubting the crushing victory, they sing about the total sweeping of the Japanese aggressors. And in vain in the frame is a samurai swinging a sword - girls who are doing military service and elegantly breaking bricks with their palm will come out against it.
From the mouth of a real Jew you can hear such, for example, a characteristic of a person: "He is such a specialist ... Azochen Way." Which means - the specialist is not very. Moreover, the expansiveness in facial expressions and intonations leave no doubt about this. Mom chastises her son for not preparing for the test. He parries her: "Azochen Way this control!".
In a humorous sketch about a rehearsal in the Odessa theater, the history of Russia seems to be a conversation between Boris Godunov and the boyars, while everyone uses Yiddish through the word. Boris’s monologue begins with the words: "Azochen Wei, comrades boyars." The phrase began to be used by Russians.
That is life
There is a wonderful story by V. Slavuschev “Azochen Way”, which means in his interpretation about 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 her 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 plant manager. Upon arrival, it turned out that a mistress wrote an anonymous letter to the chief, and the party committee secretary Zakurnaev hushed up the whole thing, confining himself to condemning the anonymous letters.
On the last day, a company led by Zakurnaev bursts into Leni’s room for the solemn washing of a successful investigation. Together with the men, the eastern Korean beauty Zhenya comes. He and Lenya immediately fell in love with each other without memory. The young ones retired to the next room, but did not have time to explain how a stone flew into the window, and the girl ran away.
The next day, Lenya came to Zakurnaev to find out the address of the beautiful woman, 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 nearly killed him with an ax. It was Zhenya's father. It turned out that she gave birth to a child and indicated her father Lenya. The journalist explained to his angry father that this could not be, and he apologized and left.
Many years later, life clashed Zakurnaev and Leonid. 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 arranged a marriage with Zhenya. The child had to be recorded on Leonid so that there was 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 letters, she said - from Leni. I waited. And now it's late. That's what azohen wei means.