Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.156 December 21, 1996 1) "Jet lag" un khulshe deporkhe (Khayem Bochner) 2) A garland of Slavic words in Yiddish (Zellig Bach) 3) Rusalke (Jota Piasecki) 4) Mendele 'un a bisele haynt' (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 5) Walter Scott in Yiddish (Leonard Prager) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 96 17:54:17 -0500 From: bochner@deas.harvard.edu Subject: "Jet lag" un khulshe deporkhe In numer 6.143 leygt fir David Herskovic di fraze "khulshe deporkhe" farn englishn "jet lag". Khotsh ikh bin nisht aza groyser kener fun loshn koydesh, muz ikh oyf dem: ot dos heyst an aynfal! Farshteyt zikh az s'iz shver ayntsuredn dem oylem ontsunemen a vort ven me muz es derklern yedes mol: ikh volt oykh nisht gevust mit vos me est dos. Nor praktishe zakhn oyf a zayt, bin ikh maskem mit khaver Herskovic az dos hot beemes a yidishn tam! Khayem Bochner 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 22:17:25 -0500 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: A garland of Slavic words in Yiddish In connection with several posts about the influences of Slavic languages on Yiddish, herewith a _krentsl_ [garland] of a very small number of selected Slavisms in Yiddish. Note especially the consonantal soft sound combinations: Pitshevke [particular detail], shtshav [sorrel], vetshere [supper], yungatsh [rascal], zhaleven [spare], and the palatal "soft" consonants such as in MoTye (famous saying "nit by MoTyen," you cannot fool me), stoLyer [carpenter], zuneNyu [dear son (when still a baby, young child)]. Other words or word structures: Abi [only] (as in "abi gezunt!"), vedlik [according to], tamevate [na'ive person]. The verb _ot'khAyen_ might be of special interest: Prefix "ot" slavik, "khayen" Hebrew, from "khay" [to live, gelebt (as in "am Yisroel khay"). "Ot'khAyen" means to bring a person who just fainted back to life. Zellig Bach Lakehurst, NJ 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 15:24:58 +0100 From: jpi@it.lth.se Subject: Rusalke Rusalka appears in Polish, too; 'a lady of the lake' or/and of the forest. I think she is to be found, among others, in Adam Mickiewicz's Ballads and Romances. Jota Piasecki 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 12:11:02 -0500 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: Mendele 'un a bisele haynt' Noyekh (in Vol 6.148) forges forward to touch at issues of eyniklekh un ureyniklekh which is the penultimate, if not the ultimate (for some of us), issue involved in our interest, motivation, and enjoyment of Mendele as Yidishistn, lovers of Yiddish who work in some way to perpetuate it. Our shames' posting appeared soon after I presented a book review of Carol Shields "Stone Diaries" (deserving of its Pulitzer) within which the grandfather creates a time capsule for his family, calling upon the children and grandchildren to submit an item of importance (a definition of themselves?) to be buried beneath a stone tower of tribute he has sculpted. The two items so woven together gave me pause to wonder if we Mendelniks set aside one day (like December 31, which feels like a marker) to submit a posting that we wished to define us; to describe an item we would want to leave; to declare what we would want most to "hand down" to future generations, in keeping with Eric Ericson's generativity concept; to be a valuable addition to the Shulkhan Arukh that Noyekh talks of. Such a "time capsule" created by the wonder of the people that make up Mendele would be something to cherish, and to pass on today, while we are still here. Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 21 Dec 96 22:22:07 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: Walter Scott in Yiddish With reference to David Lidsky's query in Vol6.144, and Iosif Vaisman's reply in Vol6.146, one can reasonably claim that there has been significant interest in Scott in Yiddish. However, only a thorough index of Yiddish literary periodicals would corroborate this estimate. There is _Ivanhoe_ translated by Balbine Klatshke (Warsaw: Aleksander Ginz {printer}, 1879, Parts 1-4: 78, 82, 74, 94 pp. Copies are to be found at Yivo, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress and other libraries. Ben-Tsien Benedikt adapted _Ivanhoe_ to the stage in _Oto da-fe oder rebeka di 18-yerike makhsheyfe_, drama in 5 aktn un 12 bildn, Odessa, 1882, 88 pp. There is a copy at the New York Public Library of this scarce item. There are two Scott works which merited translators of proved literary ability. The first is _Der shvartser riter_ ('The Black Knight') translated by the well known writer Lamed Shapiro (Bikher far ale, 1911, 362 pp.). Yivo and the Library of Congress have copies. And the second is _Ivanhoe_ Yiddished by the Soviet poet and translator Moyshe Tayf (Minsk, 1937, 413 pp.) There is a copy at the New York Public Library. This is probably not a scarce item, but it is surprising how difficult it often is to locate materials published in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. If you own such items, prize them! Leonard Prager Haifa ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.156 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.cis.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. 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