Can Anyone Help with a Yiddish Rhyme that Sounds Like, "Sipicle sipicle amadal"?
May 10th, 2013

Jeff wrote asking for help with a Yiddish song.  Here’s his email:

Hi,

I grew up reciting a Yiddish rhyme or song where we pinched the skin on the back of each others hands and bobbed them up and down while saying something like (and I’m just writing what it sounded like):

"Sipicle sipicle amadal, kimsimir and kamadal, hipis hopis razen, a shishela with vazen".

Do have any idea what that might be or what we were saying?

Thanks,
Jeff

If anyone can help Jeff, please comment below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

This article was posted on Friday, May 10th, 2013 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Israel, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, USA, Yiddish, Yiddish Children's Songs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

One Response to “Can Anyone Help with a Yiddish Rhyme that Sounds Like, "Sipicle sipicle amadal"?”

  1. Marjorie Stamm Rosenfeld Says:
    August 17th, 2014 at 11:35 pm

    No problem, Jeff. My paternal grandmother was from Vishnevets, Russian Empire, and we played the same game of pinching the skin on each other’s hands and moving up and down while we recited in Yiddish:

    Knippe, knippe naigeleh.
    Mame koifen eyelech
    Baken, baken bageleh.
    Gezund zol zein in die eigelech.
    Kitzoo!

    ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
    Pinch, pinch little nails.
    Mama buys eggs
    To bake bagels.
    Good [health] should flow in the eyes.

    I am guessing that “Kitzoo,” which was always accompanied by tickling, was probably an abbreviated form of “kitchie, kitchie, koo!”

Leave a Reply