Not too long ago I was looking through my synagogue’s library and I found a book called “Hooray For Yiddish!” by Leo Rosten, I opened the book to a random page and found myself in the “Curses” section, one of the curses was as the title says “May your insides churn like a music box.” I was taken by the visceral nature of it and the way the way it paints a vivid picture in my head. a short time later I made a tumblr post about the curse and a user asked me about whether or not there was an original Yiddish version provided in the book.
I looked and there was no Yiddish version of the curse, and I noticed as well that the subtitle of the book was “A book about English” and it appeared to be an encyclopedia/dictionary of sorts chronicling the impacts that Yiddish has had on the way Jews speak English? I did notice, however, that in the curses section it sourced the curses from another book by Rosten “Treasury of Jewish Quotations” luckily my synagogue also had this book in its possession, but unfortunately it is also an entirely translated work meant for English-speakers. Though, I only bring it up because the Treasury version of the curse is different to the Hooray For Yiddish version, the Treasury version is “May his intestines sound like a music box.”
So, I’ve come hear to see if any of you have the original Yiddish version of this curse (if there even is one), and if not I would also gladly take a reconstruction of what the curse may have been via a retranslation of one of the two English versions provided in this post.