Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.391 April 18, 1995 1) Purim-lid (Bob Rothstein) 2) Sholem-Aleykhem and Gogol (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Hagode songs in Yiddish (Eliyahu Juni) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Apr 1995 18:47:26 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Purim-lid The Purim song that Shimen Kass asked about (4.388) may be #539 in Y. L. Cahan's collection (_Yidishe folkslider mit melodyes_, published by YIVO in 1957): A gutn purim, a gutn purim, mayne libe gvirim! Haynt hobn mir yom-hapirim, vet ets hern di groyse vinder, vi got hot geholfn zayne yidishe kinder: Homen iz gevezn shuldik Akhashveyreshn a khoyv, hot er im gezogt, di tlie iz oyfn hoyf. Zingen mir, loybn mir: shoyshanes yankev! Zingen mir, loybn mir: shoyshanes yankev! Homen hot zikh gezetst shpiln mit Akhashveyreshn a shokh, hot men gevorfn goyrl oyf ifte [= kumendike] vokh. Farflukht zol vern Homen vos iz geven der ergster! Gebentsht zol vern Mordkhe vos iz geven der bester! Gebentsht zol zayn di malke vos hot geheysn Ester! Kum ikh arayntsushpringen oyf a fisele loyz [= nit-shtayf, tentsldik], heyb ikh on tsu zingen, der doles iz mir groys. Cahan explains the refrain as an allusion to the Purim song "Shushanas yankev tsoholo vesomeykho" [which in turn alludes to Esther 8:15: "and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad"]. The song was collected in Warsaw. Noyekh Prilutski includes four variants (##71-74) under the title "Shoyshanes yankev" in his _Yidishe folkslider_, 1 (Warsaw, 1910). He also includes a Polish version of #71. (#72 is one of the so-called "mishshprakhike lider" with alternating stanzas in Yiddish and Polish). Bob Rothstein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 Apr 95 20:02:26 EDT From: 74064.1661@compuserve.com Subject: Sholem-Aleykhem and Gogol (cont.) Thank you, Jason Payne, for your reference to the article by Joseph Sherman's study, "God and the Tsar" examining "restorative laughter" in Sholem-Aleykhem and Gogol. I will try to find it at UCI. Is that Joseph Sherman a Mendele khaver? I bet he is. Sholem-Aleykhem found in Mendele Moykher Sforim a guiding light for himself and for Yiddish literature. He was an avid reader of Russian literature as well and (as I previously pointed out) found a kindred spirit in Nikolai Gogol's approach to humor, an approach harmonious with his own. On pp. 188-189 of Dos Sholem-Aleykhem Bukh, I.D. Berkowitz sheds a bit of light on a style Sholem-Aleykhem admired and probably tried to emulate. Among his personal papers, Sholem-Aleykhem kept a special envelope as a kind of lucky charm. It contained a passage in Russian from Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls" freely translated into Yiddish. My translation is of Sholem-Aleykhem's Yiddish translation: Un lang nokh aponim iz mir bashert Much later, it seemed, fate mit yenem vunderlekhn koyekh tsu granted me the glorious power to geyen hant bay hant mit mayne walk hand in hand with my strange modne parshoyndlekh, un tsu little characters; and to batrakhtn dos groyse tumldike lebn contemplate this great noisy, durkh an ofenem gelekhter,un durkh muddled life with outward laughter farshtelte, farborgene trern. disguising secret tears. While that sort of approach to humor is often depicted by the cliche, "Laughter through tears," the Yiddish expression, "lakhn mit yashtcherkes" is stronger. Literally, it means "laughing with lizards." Go figure! Louis Fridhandler Irvine, CA 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 03:16:28 -0400 From: ao107@freenet.carleton.ca Subject: Hagode songs in Yiddish Mikhl Herzog posted a Yiddish version of Ekhod mi Yoydaya, and asked about other Yiddish versions of hagode songs. After the second seder, my father and I sat around, going through some old tunes, and he mentioned that his grandfather (who he never met) used to sing a Yiddish version of Adir Hu, from which his mother (my grandmother) vaguely remembered some words and part of the tune. The refrain, (which in Hebrew is "Ayl bnay, Ayl bnay, bnay bayskho b'koroyv,") in Yiddish went "Nun bow, Nun bow, bow dayn templ shiire." Then, this afternoon, I browsed through an exhibit on Yiddish at the University of Toronto, where I saw a facsimile edition of a manuscript hagode from Prague, open to the last page. I think it was the full text of the Yiddish version of Adir Hu, although I had a hard time making it out. I found the sentence "bow dayn templ shire," but didn't see the word "Nun." My father theorized that "Nun" is some sort of archaic form, analogous to 'Sir.' Anyone have any other ideas? I presume that the word "shire" means something like 'soon,' since it translates the Hebrew word "b'koroyv." Does anyone know a precise gloss for it, or better yet, an etymology? (If I wasn't mistaken about the hagode I saw in U of T, the word my father pronounced "shire" was spelled shin-yud-reish-yud.) A kushern in fraylikhn Paysikh. Eliyahu Juni ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.391 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. 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