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Lyrics
Drey drey Kahtereenkah mine
Play what you have and don't sit there and whine
What comes tomorrow and what passed away
The hurdy gurdy just plays every day
Whose street musician are you anyway
First they will love you then drive you away
Fortune will turn with a single wheel spin
Once you were lucky and now broke again
Drey drey Katerinka mine
Play what you have and don't sit there and whine
What comes tomorrow and what passed away
The hurdy gurdy just plays every day
Loved ones are lost and the family gone
Hammer keeps clicking the wheel rolls along
Wind and the rain and the winter in sight
Hurdy gurdy man with no light in the night
Drey drey Katerinka mine
Play what you have and don't sit there and whine
What comes tomorrow and what passed away
The hurdy gurdy just plays every day
A penny drops down on the floor with a ring
You ask for more songs and I have them to sing
And as for the money it slips from the hand
The world is a handful of coins that are damned
Oh destiny turn your wheel over again
Finish this song and let other begin
But tune is still blue and skies are still gray
And world still remains exactly the same
Exactly the same
But world still remains exactly the same
Behind the song
The song’s story
The wheel on the street
A katerinke is a barrel organ, the hand-cranked instrument of a street musician. Research on this word traces its connections with Polish katarynka and the Russian sharmanka. Turning the handle brings a small machine to life in sound.
Song & language research
A wheel of changing fortune
That turning wheel is a rich image for a life that alternates between hardship and hope. Our song develops this image through a musician who still has something to play. Several older songs have related titles; a title alone cannot identify one original composer.
Song & language research · Our recording & notes
New words and new music
Walter J. Kin's Katerinka Mine was inspired by Di Katerinke, but has new English words and music. It is not a literal translation of the older song or of Olga Anikina's Sharmanshchik. Klezmer, blues and chanson color its wandering musician's voice.
Our recording & notes
About this recording
The barrel organ's turning wheel becomes a picture of changing fortune. A street musician faces loss, poverty and gray skies, but still has songs to play.
Walter J. Kin wrote new English words and music inspired by Di Katerinke. This is not a literal translation of that song or of Olga Anikina's Russian Sharmanshchik. Klezmer, blues and chanson give the wandering musician a theatrical voice.
Why we consider this song Jewish or Jewish-themed
For us, the connection begins with the named Yiddish source, Di Katerinke, and its street-musician image. The refrain retains drey drey, the call to turn the instrument's handle.
The klezmer influence and that surviving phrase keep the source audible, while the English story speaks more widely about resilience, loss and carrying on.
Credits & source
- Inspiration
- Di Katerinke (Yiddish song)
- Music / words / production
- Walter J. Kin (2026)
- Performance
- Riglis Band
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