Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.280 April 7, 1997 1) Yidishe shprikhverter (Abraham Brumberg) 2) Helsinki University Library (Zachary M. Baker) 3) Ezra Lahad receives Pinski Prize (Leonard Prager) 4) What song is this? (Chana Mlotek) 5) What song is this? (David Goldberg) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 Mar 97 18:09:28 EST From: 102142.2545@compuserve.com Subject: Yidishe shprikhverter Ikh vil makhn mayn bayshtayer tsu der antologye velkhe vert itst tsugegreyt fun kolerlay mendelyaner. Di etlekhe bayshpiln zaynen a deyl fun a groyser kolektsye, vos a kopie fun ir ligt bay mikhl hertsogn in zayn ville in tsofn niu york. l. Beser tsu drapen mit der rekhter fus vi tsu tsertlen mit der rekhter hand. Opshtam: besarabie. S'heyst s'hot nit kayn zinen gebn kashtanen emetsn vos vert tsezetst fun shvendzhenish. 2. Bay a vilder moyd past nit betn a nedove. Opshtam: dos derfl yashinke in di mazurishe ozeres, poyln. moker: gloria sosin. taytch: afile der ergster ganev hot zayn prayz. 3. Ale perfumen fun arabye, zaynen nit vert a shmek tabak in a shpitol. opshtam: kroke. moker: linda faynvaser, bruklin. zin: bahalt di portmonetke ven du bist in a shlekhter gegnt, bifrat tsvishn goyim. 4. Di beste valize ken oykh a mol platsn. opshtam: belgye. moker: a grupe yidn vos zaynen dort avekgeforn un geblibn in di 60ker yorn. meyn: zay oyf a diete. Abraham Brumberg 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Apr 1997 19:33:22 -0500 (EST) From: yivo1@metgate.metro.org Subject: Helsinki University Library Dovid Braun's message (Mendele 6.279), regarding Ignaz Bernstein's collections of Yiddish proverbs, evokes fresh memories of a trip that I took last month to Helsinki and Vilna (Vilnius). During the Vilnius segment of the trip I was one of three Judaica librarians who, with the support of the Andrew Mellon Foundation and traveling under the aegis of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, were paying an extended visit to the Bibliographical Center of the Lithuanian National Library, where we examined that library's extensive Hebrew and Yiddish collections at close range. (I will have to defer any further discussion of those collections until our report is submitted to our sponsors next month.) Since the travel agent booked us on Finnair I took advantage of the situation to schedule a three-day stopover in Helsinki, where I was able to see the much-discussed Hebrew (and Yiddish) collection at Helsinki University Library. During Tsarist times, the University Library was designated as a legal depository, to which all publications appearing in the Russian Empire -- in whatever language -- were to be sent. The last published report that I had seen, written in 1991 by Dr. Tapani Harvianen (a Bible scholar who was supervising the collection's cataloging), noted that most of the books in the Hebrew collection were actually published between 1890 and 1914, and that (I'm recalling this from memory) about 90% of the 5,000 or so titles are in Hebrew. Not all of the books were cataloged as of 1991, a situation that has since been remedied, and it appears that the bulk of the new additions to the catalog are for Yiddish books, thereby increasing the proportion of Yiddish titles in the Hebrew collection in Helsinki. (I can confirm Harvianen's report that holdings of Hebrew and Yiddish journals and newspapers are very patchy.) The overwhelming majority do indeed date from the two-and-a-half decades before the First World War, and while admittedly I was able to have little more than a cursory glance at the catalog I do not believe that major surprises are likely to be found there by Yiddish literary scholars. A special collections librarian gave me a quick tour of the area where the Hebrew and Yiddish books are housed in archival containers (together with all non-Slavic-language imprints that were printed in Tsarist Russia -- the Slavic books are kept in a separate facility), and I asked if I might open up a random box to see what was inside. She agreed to my request, and when I opened the box that I found several paperbound items, among them portions of a pulp novel by Abner Tannenbaum and the four fascicles of the 1908, Warsaw edition of Ignaz Bernstein's Yudishe shprikhverter un redensarten -- with pages uncut and in fine condition, although printed on inferior newsprint paper stock. In the Helsinki University Museum, next to the Special Collections division of the University Library, portraits of five 19th-century Russian Tsars occupy honored spots on the walls. To this day the three Alexanders are held in rather high esteem in Finland (so I was told) -- and the two Nicholases rather less so. Zachary M. Baker 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 06 Apr 97 23:20:37 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: Ezra Lahad receives Pinski Prize posthumously The late Ezra Lahad received the Pinski Prize for 1996 on the 18th of March. His wife, Naomi, received the prize in her late husband's name. The prize was awarded for a lifetime devoted to Yiddish bibliographical scholarship in general and for the compendious bibliography of printed Yiddish plays which Lahad managed to complete shortly before his death -- an important research tool which, hopefully, will be published within the next year. Leonard Prager Haifa 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Apr 1997 19:01:58 -0400 (EDT) From: emlotek@aol.com Subject: What song is this? The lines "Ikh bin gvaldik tsufridn, etc." come from a song by Yosl Cutler, music by Jacob Schaefer. It is called "Nishka." The words are are follows: Treft zhe ver er iz? Ir kent nisht? To khapt nisht, S'brent night. Fregt zikh a frage Vos i' dos far a fish? Vel ikh aykh derklern Vos er iz - nish. Er iz nishka stolyer, Er iz nishka poyer Er iz nishka shnayder, Er iz nishka boyer. Er iz "nishka" Un fartik. Un khotsh er iz nisht Ot di ale zakhn, Fun dest vegn ken er Aykh altsding makhn. Ven a forier, lemoshl, Darf makhn a pelts, Nemt er a felkhl Un makht es. Ven, ober, nishka Darf makhn a pelts Nemt er a felkhl Mit a forier Un makht es. Er ergert zikh derfun Afile keyn hor nisht, Er makht aykh altsding Un kenen ken er Gornisht. Aleyn gornisht kenen Iz dokh gornisht sheyn, Ober esn, zogt men, Ken er aleyn. Fregt zikh a frage, Vos iz er fort? Vos iz er nisht? Er iz vos in der kort! A yoger, a zoyfer, A lakkhn, a koyfer, A khaper, a vikher, A nemer, a krikher. S'geyt nishkan, nishkoshe, S'lebt zikh im glat, Er iz gevaldik tsufridn Vos di mame hot im gehat. The song, text and choral piece (4 voices and piano) is published in Jacob Schaefer's "Ikh her a kol" - 22 Selected Songs of Jacob Schaefer. The melody of the last two lines is the same as the one we sang in Camp Boiberik. Apparently campers or counselors added the line: "Un nit keyn fremde yidene." Chana Mlotek 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 07 Apr 97 11:11:48 EST From: david.goldberg@smtpgwy.mla.org Subject: What song is this? The line appears in a song based on the poem Nishke by Yosl Kotler, a staple of the Ordn Mitlshul's musical repertoire. (It's the last line of the poem, and in the 4-part arrangement that the Mitlshul chorus sang, it's repeated over and over at the end by the basses and tenors - a very funny moment). The song containing the line about the zagranitshne meser, by the way, was included in Yankev Sheyfer's (Schaefer's) Bunt Mit A Statshke, which was an arrangement of songs from the Beregovski collection- also a favorite of the Ordn Shuln. There the protagonist (and recipient of the zangranitshne meser) was called Meyer Khazer. David Goldberg ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.280