Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 7.017 June 10, 1997 1) Yiddish Idiomatic Expressions (Zellig Bach) 2) Yiddish Texts for the Stage (Ruvn Millman) 3) Yiddish Education in Toronto (Sheine Mankovsky) 4) Translation once again (Martha Krow-Lucal) 5) Di sufragetke (Kalman Weiser) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Jun 1997 15:46:48 -0400 (EDT) From: Zellig@aol.com Subject: Yiddish Idiomatic Expressions Perets Mett (7.012,2) is correct in his critique of the recent post in (romanized) Yiddish about the visit of the kalever rebe in Budapest. He specifically criticizes the poster's use of the verb "gegebn" [gave] to special khasidic affairs such as "gegebn tish" [table] and "gegebn droshe" [sermon]. According to Mr. Mett these should properly be described in Yiddish as _gefirt_ or _gepravet_ a tish, and _gehaltn_ or _gezogt_ a droshe, and in neither case "gegebn." It is possible, that "gegebn", as used in the post, was a direct translation into Yiddish from another language. If, for instance, it was a translation from English "he gave (gegebn) a speech." But, I ask you, is speech a droshe?... Certain idiomatic expressions, in Yiddish as well as certainly in other languages, are fixed and unchangeable The words go hand-in-hand, so to speak, and are inseparable lest they lose their authentic message and ta'am [flavor]. Take, for instance the Yiddish expression _es vet im nemen a yor mit a mitvokh_ [it will take him one year and a Wednesday], to exaggerate someone's habitual slowness in accomplishing something or finishing finally a job started quite some time ago. Or even more biting "... a yor mit a smitshik [one year and a bow of a string instrument], as if a smitshik is, timewise, even longer than a Wednesday... One could not change the day in this expression, for example, to "a yor mit a donershtik" [one year and a Thursday]. The special irony would be lost and would make no sense whatsoever. Idiomatic expressions are essentially nontranslatable, and one must learn and gain almost an intimate familiarity with their special meaning(s) before using them. Zellig Bach, Lakehurst, NJ 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 7 Jun 1997 22:15:17 -0400 (EDT) From: Ruvn@aol.com Subject: Yiddish Texts for the Stage If anyone has any information for this choreographer, please write to him directly or post it and I will forward the information. > I am an American-born choreogrpaher currently living ad working in Tel > Aviv, Israel. I work with my own contemporary dance theater company and > am interested in finding texts in Yiddish for use on the stage. I am > particularly interested in conversations between women. > Thank you, > Barak Marshall > marshall@trendline.co.il Thank you, Ruvn Millman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 07 Jun 97 08:44:00 EST From: sheine mankovsky Subject: Yiddish Education in Toronto I am pleased to be able to report, on behalf of the Yiddish Education Committee of the Committee for Yiddish of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, the receipt of a grant from the Endowment Fund of the United Jewish Appeal. For a number of years we have been doggedly building (rebuilding?) the infrastructure of Yiddish education in Toronto. Last year we suffered a setback when we had to suspend the Yiddish high school course which was offered in cooperation with the City of North York Board of Education. Unfortunately, CHAT, the single Jewish community high school in Toronto flatly rejected our request to accept the course, part of the General Studies program, together with financial support for the teacher's salary that was being offered by the Board of Education into the school's program. Yiddish is not offered in the Jewish Studies Program at CHAT. The financial support to continue the course had been offered due to the efforts of a Board trustee, Elsa Chandler, herself a survivor of the Holocaust, and someone who understood clearly the place of Yiddish in the Jewish cultural mosaic. It was also due to the efforts of the administration of the Board who had gone out of their way to facilitate Yiddish. Of particular help, had been Gloria Howard, the principal of the continuing education program at the high school where Yiddish had been taught. However, CHAT did provide a room after school later in this school year where 5 students studied Yiddish, with a teacher we supplied, and on their own time, and without a credit at the end of it, because they thought that it was worth doing so. We hope to continue to address the unmet needs of the students at the Jewish community high school for Yiddish in their Jewish Studies Program as time goes on. We are thrilled with the grant of $25,000 as it will go far to help stabilize work in providing a framework for the growing interest in Yiddish. Furthermore, it reflects the confidence of the Jewish Community in our efforts to re-establish the place of Yiddish as a vital part of our cultural heritage and cultural future. Az men leibt..... Sheine Mankovsky 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 15:20:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Kromobile@aol.com Subject: Translation once again Thanks to Louis Frihandler, who exemplifies the best learning/teaching spirit of Mendele. Translation is a problem, as we all know, and it would be ideal if we could all read everything ever written in the original. But such is not the case. We have two choices: we can either resolve never to read anything unless we are able to read and understand it fully in the original, or we can attempt to understand other cultures and enjoy other works of literature, however imperfectly, by reading translations. As in all fallible (human) matters, our guides to other literatures and cultures may or may not be adequate. I am not surprised to know that this is the case in Yiddish, since it certainly is so in Spanish; pace S. Berger, there is a world of difference between Agnes Moncy Gullon's splendid translation of the 1500-page masterpiece "Fortunata y Jacinta" and Lester Clark's appallingly unintelligible one. And even so, Moncy Gullon's translation cannot convey all the flavor, complexity and beauty of the original. The best translation may give the illusion of being "transformed through it into something Spanish," but it is no more than an illusion. I do not expect my English-only students who read Moncy Gullon's translation to be experts in Spanish culture after their reading - any more than I see myself as an expert on Yiddish culture because I have read translations of various Yiddish writers. But the real question is: should translation be condemned because it is not the original, and given up as impossible? I hope to be able to read Sholem Aleichem in the original someday. Until I can open my grandmother's "ale verk fun sholem aleykhem" and read them as effortlessly as I do Spanish and English, should I refuse to read any translations of his work, no matter how much I enjoy them? Should I refuse to allow my children to read them? My answer as a teacher, a parent, and a child of Yiddish culture with a yerushe to pass on to my grandmother's great-grandchildren, is no. I believe in the accuracy of S. Berger's strictures concerning the quality of many Yiddish translations. For me the solution lies in better translations, not in no translations at all. Martha Krow-Lucal Sunnyvale 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 08:40:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Kalman Weiser Subject: Di sufragetke Tsi veyst emetser vu ikh ken gefinen dem tekst tsum lid "Di sufragetke" (arum 1900)? A dank. Kalman Weiser New York, NY ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 7.017