Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.100 September 4, 1995 1) Introduction (Charlie Kent) 2) Kinehore (Dan Leeson) 3) Puzzling proverb (Shleyme Axelrod) 4) Shnirele Perele (Morrie Feller) 5) Visgemirgedakh (Arre Komar) 6) A bakoshe (Joshua Fishman) 7) Mendele's who-is-who (Anno Siegel) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 01 Sep 95 14:06:32 EDT From: 102253.2241@compuserve.com Subject: Introduction Ikh bin a nayer Mendelnik kemat dray monatn. Ikh vil aykh fil dankn far de hanoe vos ikh bakum fun leyenen di brif. Dray yor tsurik hob ikh ungehoybn onteyl nemen in a klas in Phoenix mit khaver Morrie Feller. Dos iz geven der onfang fun mayn tsurikkumen tsu idish. S'iz mer fun 60 yor zint ich bin geven a shiler in der Arbeter Ring Perets Shule. Azoy az ven ich hob zikh ongehoybn dermonen verter un frazn iz far mir geven a dermonenish fun mayne kinderishe yorn. Vi ir kent farshteyn iz dos geven in di yorn fun "depression". Ober der ziser tam fun idish iz shnel tsurikgekumen. Tam ganeydn. Ikh hob Morrie Feller tsu fardankn far di klasn un oykh hot er mir dertseylt vegn mendele. Morrie, a sheynem dank. Shoyn genug! Yetst veyst ir farvos men flegt mir rufen a "reydifdike" kats. Mayn nomen iz demolt take geven Katz. Charlie Kent 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 17:02:59 EDT From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Kinehore I am still basking in the pleasantness of Zelig Bach's article on superstitious expressions in Yiddish and realized that I had two small things to add, both with respect to "kinehore," the expression used to ward off the evil eye. (Ptew, ptew, ptew!) The first item is that the west coast slang expression, "Don't give me a canary!" is derived from that word and is intended to mean the very same thing. Mostly I hear it in Los Angeles and hardly at all in San Francisco. The second item is a joke based on the word itself. It is an old joke and is probably known to 90% of the people on the board, but for the other 10%, they should not pass another night without hearing it. An elderly Jewish man appears in court for some purpose and is asked by the judge, who happens not to be Jewish, "How old are you?". The elderly man replies, "I am 92 years old, kinehore." The judge, not understanding what he meant, repeated the question. The response was the same: "I am 92 years old, kinehore." The judge becomes more heated. "Why aren't you being responsive?" he demands. "Now answer my question without embellishments! How old are you?" The old man looks frightened and says, "I am 92 years old, kinehore." The judge is furious, but before he can explode with anger, one of the attorneys in court approaches and asks if he might put the question to the witness. The lawyer understands Yiddish and realizes what the problem is. He says to the old man, "Kinehore, how old are you?" To which the immediate response is, "I am 92 years old." Dan Leeson Los Altos, California 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 10:37:57 -0400 (EDT) From: ptyaxel@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Puzzling proverb I am sometimes at a loss in understanding proverbs, a difficulty my psychiatric/psychological friends will doubtless attribute to the ravages of age. _Yidishe shprikhverter_ are a special problem--as I recall, even Ignatz Bernstein, in his famous collection (1908), admits being puzzled on occasion. Can some clever Mendelyaner explicate the following, cited by U. Weinreich on page 206 of _College Yiddish_? "_Beser dray teg gezunt eyder eyn tog krank_." When is this startling insight appropriate? All that occurs to me is that it might be said right after someone has uttered something entirely obvious. (I believe that "Queen Anne is dead" often serves this function in Britain.) Shleyme Axelrod Buffalo, New York 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 07:44:10 -0700 (MST) From: feller@indirect.com Subject: Shnirele Perele We recently heard a Yiddish song "Shnirele Perele" (String of Pearls?) whose words and music we would like to acquire. If anyone could tell us of a source, we would greatly appreciate it. A sheynem dank in foroys. Morrie Feller Phoenix 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 15:24:37 -0400 (EDT) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Visgemirgedakh Sam Abrash, I rather suspect that your horse's name [5.099] was nishtbamirgedakht, that nisht-bay-mir-gedakht, i.e. unheard of (approximately). I hope that you didn't try betting on him. Art Komar 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 21:33:21 -0700 (PDT) From: fishman@csli.stanford.edu Subject: A bakoshe Gele Shveyd Fishman bet, in shaykhes mit ir forsharbet in der arkhivaler zamlung fun der dikhterin Rukhl Fishman, o"h, vos gefint zikh in bibliotek fun Stanford universitet (opteyl fun spetsiyele zamlungen), tsi emetser tsvishn di mendeleyaner hot di adresn fun tsvey yekhidim vos hobn zikh in di 70er yorn durkhgeshribn mit der dikhterin: (1) Marcia Spiegel (demolt fun Rolling Hills Estates, CA) un Ruth Finer Mintz (keyn shum tsurik- adres). Tsi veys emetser vu zey gefinen zikh itst? A hartsikn dank in foroys far yeder hilf in dem shaykhes. Joshua Fishman 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 Sep 95 13:40:07 +0200 From: anno4000@w172zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de Subject: Mendele's who-is-who I'd like to remind Mendele readers that there is a who_is_who file for Mendele. It contains the introductions that have been sent by current sunscribers. The latest update has just been made available. It contains almost 300 introductions in about 300 KBytes. You can get it via ftp from ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu as pub/mendele/files/who-is-who It is also available via e-mail. You will receive instructions on how to do this when you send mail to shtadlen@w172zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de with Subject: request help Anno Siegel Berlin, Germany ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.100