Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.414 May 9, 1995 1) Introduction (Michael Godfrey) 2) A shaggy dog story (Zellig Bach) 3) Misha Aleksandrovitsh (Rick Gildemeister) 4) Yiddish redndik frayviliger (Ruvn Millman) 5) A mi(e)se mise (Mikhl Herzog) 6) Tzie tut [a lidl] (Michael Godfrey) 7) Translation queries (Joseph Sherman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 23:16:05 -0400 (EDT) From: mgodfrey@runt.dawsoncollege.qc.ca Subject: Introduction Ich derman zich oyf di kinderyorn in Montreal. Vi pasirt zich a mol, mein eltern flegn Yiddish gereden azoy az ich zoll nit fershtayen. Ayn mol, mole-kass, hob ich di holtz gerisn shreyendik: "Stop speaking French!" Shpayter fiftzig yor dreyen zich di reder un ich oych bin du in shatn lokeren. Ich heys Melech-Yidl (Michael) Godfrey un siz gantz zeit (noch leynen etleche monaten in mendele) mich tzu farshteln vi a bar mitzvah bocher. I teach English at Dawson College in Montreal, including a course in Jewish Literature. My class list includes three Jewish students, three Muslims, one Greek, one wasp, one Quebecoise (my A plus student) and four Chinese (one of whom aggressively wants to know why I don't accept his saviour -- I don't suppose he means the Buddha) and all of whom are convinced Jews have a strong sense of family, are devoted to their ancestors and are, to a man, fabulously wealthy, oyf mir gezugt gevorn. Michael Godfrey 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 13:46:42 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: A shaggy dog story As the El-Al airplane lifted off with a full complement of passengers from the Kennedy airport tarmac in New York on its direct flight to Tel Aviv, Israel, a steward walked slowly between the isles to check if everyone was properly belted in his seat. When he saw a lady passenger with a basket in her lap, he asked her what was in it. "It's my dog," she said sadly. "Sorry, Madam," the steward said, "it's against regulations to carry animals in the passenger compartment." He strongly urged her to give him the basket to be placed in the cargo section of the plane, reassuring her again and again that it will be safe. "We have lots of experience in dealing with this type of cargo," he said. After much hesitation and against her better judgment, she handed him her precious bundle. When the airplane landed safely at its destination, the steward decided to personally check the lady's basket, to see how it negotiated the trip. Upon opening the basket, he found that the dog was dead. Perplexed by the strange circumstance, he promptly made a Polaroid color picture of the dead dog, faxed it to the next pet shop in town, explaining the emergency nature of the request and pleaded for a live replacement of the same breed, color, size, and approximate age. All this was satisfactorily completed in a an amazingly rapid sequence, in time for the owner to claim her belongings. When she looked into the basket, she exclaimed with vehemence: "This is not my dog!" The steward, bewildered, said to her: "What do you mean 'It's not your dog,' look how frisky it is!" "Don't tell me frisky-prisky," she angrily retorted. She became very emotional, started to cry, and poured out her heart in Yiddish: "Mayn tayerer hunt, aza zise neshome! Kh'hob im tsugezogt az ven di tsayt vet kumen, vel ikh im breyngen tsu kvure inem heylikn land..." The steward, who unfortunately didn't understand Yiddish, looked even more bewildered. So she said to him: "Don't you see, my dog was dead, and I was bringing it to Israel for burial"... Zellig Bach 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 08 May 95 13:36:40 EDT From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Misha Aleksandrovitsh I noticed the announcement in Mendele 4.413 of a concert in Boston where Misha A. will be performing. A couple of weeks ago I noticed everybody was posting the version they liked best of "Leyg dayn kop af mayne kni". I didn't want to do it to death, so I let it go. But now I'll say, It's really a beautiful version (but I'll spare everyone the transcription). I learned Yiddish beginning at age 14, a non-Jew who knew nothing from dialects; I naively thought everyone spoke the Klal-Shprakh. Very coinciden- tally the first Yiddish albums I bought (Nekhame Lifshits among them) all used the klal-shprakh. So it wasn't till I bought a spoken recording of I.B. Singer (and I swear I couldn't understand a word!) that I learned there were other pronunciations. Since then (and this has a point, just bear with me) I got all engrossed in Yiddish theater and music, most of which uses a South-Eastern-based pronunciation, and I learned to speak both ways. Misha uses the klal-shprakh, and the lyrics and the pronunciation only enhance a certain refinement or "classicality" of his singing. He does a beautiful rendition also of "Moyshele mayn fraynd". Go hear him! It's eynmol an experience of a lifetime! Now, please don't flame me for saying that the only truly aesthetically pleasing pronunciation is the klal-shrakh (kholile!) It's just that I agree with something Zellig Bach said a long time ago about having a standard language, even if it's no one's native speech. It elevates a language, giving it norms for expressing complex thought. I read a fascinating book published by YIVO on Romanian Jewry. It was a real aesthetic experience, each word carefully and lovingly chosen for nuance, and a regula- rity that transcended to the sublime in its rejection of German influence (e.g. grupes instead of grupn). I feel like Molly Picon, all of a sudden, "Oh boy, am I getting carried away! Listen to me!") I'll say GO, gezunterheyt! Rick Gildemeister 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 14:49:44 -0400 From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Yiddish redndik frayviliger in Ellis Island Es hot mir gebetn eyner fun di firer fun Ellis Island museyum oyb me ken emetsn vos vil helfn iberzetsn fun Yidish un andere shprakhn af English. Lemoshl: a togbukh fun Bukharest, religieze materieln, bikher un brivn vos me zamlt dortn. In gantsn faran 30,000 obiektn. Oyb me farinteresirt zikh zol me shraybn: Eric Byron Statue of Liberty, N.M. Liberty Island New York, NY 10004 Ruvn Millman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 May 95 21:59 EDT From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: A mi(e)se mise Louis Fridlander is right to distinguish _mise_ 'death' [mem-yud- sof-hey], as in _mise meshune_, from the inflected adjective _mi(e)se_ 'ugly (plural)' from _mies_ [mem-yud-alef-vov-samekh]. Apparently Mr. Fridlander isn't aware that, in German, the latter is a borrowing from Yiddish (of Hebrew origin)--only one of many whose origin is obscure to most speakers of German. Mikhl Herzog 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 23:28:18 -0400 (EDT) From: mgodfrey@runt.dawsoncollege.qc.ca Subject: Tzie tut [a lidl] The following (very beautiful) song caused endless controversy among Yiddish choir members who clearly need a gloss from a student of Yiddish with a joint major in gematria and ethnomusicology. I present it as it appears on our handwritten (no one knows by whom) song sheet, though without repeats. I defer my own opinion, which did not meet with general agreement, despite its obvious correctness. Tzie tut kravitz mieshka Rebbenyu! Vos iz mein kind? Oy rebbenyu er hot gezogt "Zie." "Zie" iz a heiliger vort "Zie" iz b'gematrio kof aleph p'omim vos bedait az die torah darf men lernen kof alef p'omim k'de es zol nit zain kain shikcho ober a malach iz dos geven... Michael Godfrey 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 07:51:13 GMT + 2:00 From: 071jos@muse.arts.wits.ac.za Subject: Translation queries I am busy with some large translation projects, so with the permission of the shames, gezunt un shtark zol er zayn, I will from time to time send out appeals to learned khaveyrim for help with problems. To start with, can someone advise on a good English rendering of the phrase *mit lib aykh ayer gast* said to someone on the new arrival of family from the Old Home. Second, does anyone know what are *alfonzes* -- a word not to be found either in Weinreich or in Harkavy. Is it a South Africanism? (though I have no idea what it means) I'll await help soonest. A hartsikn dank tsu ale. Joseph Sherman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.414 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. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. 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