Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.281 April 8, 1997 1) Love: Yiddish style (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 2) What song is this? (Hershl Hartman) 3) What song is this? (Anna Shternshis) 4) Yidishe shprikhverter (Mikhl Herzog) 5) Yidishe shprikhverter (Mechl Asheri) 6) Nibl-pe (Sholem Berger) 7) Tsveytn tog yontif (Melech Godfrey) 8) Yiddish name cognates (Liebe Denner) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 15:36:51 -0400 (EDT) From: Subject: Love: Yiddish style This is the season to turn to Shir Hashirim, to welcome sweet green springtime. For a surefire zisn Peysakh, I heartily recommend a beautiful new (1996) translation by Curt Leviant of Sholem Aleichem's slim novella, "Shir Hashirim". "Song of Songs" by Sholem Aleichem illustrated by Devis Grebu (publisher Simon and Schuster, New York 1996 - ISBN O-684-8146-2). Besides "Stempenyu" where Rukhele and Stempenyu are each taught a lesson about physical attraction that can lead to downfall, I believe this is Sholem Aleichem's only love story. It is a lyrical, magical book of young love (Sholem Aleichem called it a yugnt roman), its language bordering on poetry, its story gentle yet poignant, its characters that warm your heart. The illustrations are strongly piercing and uniquely imaginative, Shmulik and Buzie literally freeing themselves from the pages of a book. I've given the book to several people from ages 32 to 79 (the shamas has decreed - yidn koyft bikher!) and have been warmly thanked each time for my "sensitivity" and "good taste." What better way to hand down the shtetl culture of our roots... A zisn Peysakh aykh ale! Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 21:14:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Subject: What song is this? I'm delighted that mayn khaver un yugnt-fraynd Marv Engel raised the question and that so many Mendelistn referred him to Moyshe Beregovski's collection. There's yet another connection that I've had previous occasion to mention here. After the 1934 publication in Moscow of Beregovski's "Jewish Musical Folklore," (Jewish Folk Music), Nathaniel Buchwald, theatre critic of the New York Yiddish daily _morgn frayhayt_ and Jacob Schaeffer, conductor of the New York _frayhayt gezangs fareyn_, collaborated on a folk-operetta, "A Bunt Mit a Statshke" (a conspiracy and a strike) using many of the songs Beregovski had published. One of them, in two variants (nos. 107, 108) was called _shimke_(107) or _simkhe_(108) khazer_. If I remember correctly, the character's name was changed on-stage to "meyer khazer." In the operetta, the song described the grisly but justified end of a conscienceless opportunist who spied on the Jewish workers for the Czar's police, fled to Istanbul when he was unmasked and there perished. This would seem to fit the folk lyric far better than the suggestion that this was a veiled reference to Czar Alexander II (!) who was assassinated by Nihilists in a bombing, not by stabbing. A linguistic aside: the Russian word for foreign (cross-border), za granitshni, was "yidished" in the folksong, receiving the Yiddish "em" declension: _zagranitshnem meser_. As to _er is gevaldik tsufridn_, I think the Buchwald/Schaeffer score _may_ have wedded that ditty to _meyer khazer_, but I won't take an oath on it. Hershl Hartman Los Angeles 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 11:18:55 -0500 (EST) From: Subject: What song is this? My mother suddenly remembered a song which her mother used to sing in Soviet kolhoz: Fun ale meydelekh is Beylke bay mir sheyner, Khotch in zags mit ir gevolt tsu geyn azh fir mener... This was a very popular song, but I've never seen it it any collection. Maybe somebody has heard it or know the author and the composer. I would be very thankful if there can be found any information about this. "Zags" is a registration office in Russian. Anna Shternshis 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Apr 97 13:35 EDT From: Subject: Yidishe shprikhverter Note that the "Erotica and Rustica" that I cited is simply a final chapter supplement to the full Bernshteyn collection. Mikhl Herzog 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 22:12:17 +0300 From: Subject: Yidishe shprikhverter The response to the subject of yidishe shprihkverter is an encouraging sign that Mendele is getting away from inconsequential trifles (Oslvanger's umlauts etc.) and back to tachlis. Al Grand's list of 227 addtions to Bernshtayn's collection, even if most of them do violate a sort of unspoken rule against nibl pe, is a valuable contribution to Yiddish folklore in general as are Abraham Brumberg's further examples. I am sure I'm not the only one who has printed them out and added them to my copy of Bernshtayn. For whatever they're worth, here a few more proverbs and proverbial expressions. 1. Ale Yivonim hobn ayn ponim. (Yivonim in this case means goyim in general) 2. Az me fregt a shayle, iz treyf. 3. Vi in posik iz geshribn, oyf a shikse meg men lign. 4. Al tifroysh min ha-tzibur (source Pirke Ovoys: "do not cut yourself off from the community", but commonly said when drinks are being served and someone refuses one.). 5. Goy goy, y'makh sh'moy, ki leoylom khasdoy (kheder yingl rhyme) 6. Der goy is tref ober di shikse iz kosher. 7. Mir veln hobn dray teg rosh khoydesh ven... (roughly equivalent to "That'll be the day!"). Mechl Asheri 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1904 03:42:32 +0000 From: Subject: Nibl-pe Tsi veyst emetser tsi iz ergets faran a yidish-ivrit- (oder farkert) verterbukh fun nibl-pe (d"h grobe verter)? (Un dertsu: volt eyner a mendelyaner mir gekent rekomendirn a gutn glosar far azoyne verter af ivrit?) A dank in foroys. Does anyone know if there exists anywhere a Yiddish-Hebrew (or vice-versa) dictionary of obscenities? And could anyone recommend me a good general glossary for such words in Hebrew? Thanks in advance. Sholem Berger New York 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 12:44:52 -0400 From: Subject: Tsveytn tog yontif In my experience the phrase "tsveytn tog yontif" always expressed anticlimax. Melech Godfrey 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 08:35:42 -0700 From: Subject: Yiddish name cognates I would appreciate some help with the meaning of the Yiddish name Leybish, which, I imagine, comes from the word "leyb"--body. Also would appreciate knowing of English cognates for that name. Thanks. Liebe Denner ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.281 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: Send change-of-status messages to: a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. 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