Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 7.062 September 19, 1997 1) Internationale (Maynard Wishner) 2) International (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Weinreich's phrasebook (Ron Robboy) 4) Max Rosenfeld (Raymond Berger) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 10:57:02 -0500 From: active@jon.cjfny.org Subject: Internationale In response to request of Ronald Florence [7.061] re International. As best as I can recall, it went something like this: Shtait oif yir aleh ver vie shklafen. In hoonger laiden muz in noit. Der geist er kocht un ruft tzum vafen. In shlacht unz firen iz er groit. Di velt fun gevaldtakten un leiden Tseshteren velen mir un dahn. Fun freiheit, gleicheit,,a ganaiden Bashafen vet der arbets mahn. Dosvet zein shoin der letzter Un ansheidener shreit. Mit dem Internatzional Shteit oif yir arbets leit. (Repeat) There was also a children"s version...Der Kinder Internatzional Mir zainen kinder aleh glaicheh Mir zainen aleh ains far ains Nittoh kein oremeh kein raicheh Mir boyen unzer velt alain' Zolen leben di kinder Zolen vaksen biz grois Tzum shafen ...tzu boiyen Mit lieder gait farois (Repeat) I notice I said " it WENT..." not "it GOES" and "there WAS a children's..." not "there IS...". Therein lies many a tale and a capitaleh geshichteh. Better sources would be an old Arbeiter Ring song book and Bob Freedman at yidsong@pobox.upenn.edu Maynard Wishner Chicago, Il 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 12:09:38 -0400 From: "mikhl herzog" Subject: International Concerning the Yiddish words to the International, here is the/a version (no attempt is made to standardize some of the _daytshmerizmen_: Shteyt oyf ir ale, ver vi shklafn In hunger lebn muz, un noyt; Der gayst, er ruft un vekt tzum vafn, In kamf undz firn iz er greyt. Di velt fun gvaldtatn un laydn Tseshtern veln mir, un dan Fun frayhayt, glaykhhayt a gan-eydn Bashafn vet der arbetsman. Un dos vet zayn shoyn der letster Un antsheydener shtrayt; Mit dem Internatsyonal, Shteyt uf (= oyf) ir arbetslayt. Repeat: Un dos vet zayn shoyn der letster Un antsheydener shtrayt; Mit dem Internatsyonal, Shteyt oyf ir arbetslayt. (If we had audio, I could sing it for you, too.) Mikhl Herzog 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:48:50 -0700 From: rrobboy@cts.com (Ron Robboy) Subject: Weinreich's phrasebook Revisiting the flare of emotions generated by novelist Michael Chabon's rumination on Uriel and Beatrice Weinreich's "Say It in Yiddish" phrasebook (7.023-25, 7.027-29, 7.031-36), Mendelistin may be interested to know that Chabon's piece has been reprinted in somewhat abridged form in the latest issue of Harper's Magazine (October 1997). With regard to the original in the June-July issue of Civilization, two glaring omissions struck me when I finally read it recently, neither one of which was on Chabon's part. I am speaking of what was _not_ commented upon by angry Mendelistn who had seen the piece. One was of the actual content of Ben Katchor's accompanying illustrations. Al Grand (7.023) did write, "The charming illustrations by Ben Katchor of city life in this imaginary land wherein all street signs, billboards, directional markers and public notices are all in Yiddish _oysyes_ is alone worth the price of the magazine." But nothing else was said. A bus is marked "Gebirtig gas"; the ferry Chabon found so unfathomable is called the _Harkavy_; a woman is reading the _Frayhayt_; and a zoom-in close-up depicts the licking of a postage stamp bearing the name and _recognizable_ image of Moyshe Nadir. I would wager that Katchor based his drawing on the striking photo of the young writer in Reyzen's _Leksikon_; and I further suspect, incidentally, that Reyzen reversed the negative. In several other images I have on hand, Nadir is shown with his abundant hair parted on his left; but the photo in Reyzen shows a dark shock of wavy hair, trailing from a part on his right, and falling across his left brow. Katchor's image is nearly identical in that and several other respects. (Though in an introductory statement Katchor laments not having greater command of Yiddish, his choice of Nadir reveals a level of sophistication light years beyond that Chabon, whose essay described stamps with portraits of Walter Benjamin, Simon Dubnow, and Bruno Schulz. While Benjamin and Schulz may reflect Chabon's hip good taste, they haven't much to do with _yidishkeyt_.) The second omission by Mendelistn was of any mention of Chabon's introductory statement, appearing next to his own photo (also quite a bit of dark hair, but easily distinguishable from Nadir) at the beginning of the magazine. It anticipates, in a very few words, several particulars of Zachary Baker's lengthier insightful comments to Mendele (7.033). On the Contributors' page, we read: "I was raised in that generation of American Jews who knew Yiddish only as the language of jocular complaint, uncharitable character assessment and clandestine con- versations between mustachioed great-aunts," says Michael Chabon. "With all its old-country associations, it seemed to inspire both nostalgia and shame in my relations. Yid- dish was dangled before me as both a fabulous treasure I could never possess and a worthless old habit of which my parents had, wisely, been broken." Clearly, the man is not an "enemy" of Yiddish. He is a good writer and a compassionate individual, but he is self-absorbed. The most fundamental criticism I would make of Chabon is that he did not do some basic research. If he had, he would not have framed his rhetorical questions as he did. His compassion, his wistfulness, even his pessimism for the future of Yiddish, all may have been justified and defensible, but his lack of knowledge of the lay of the land -- and I say this with profound awareness of its manifold ironies -- is what failed him. He says he had "once read that Franklin Roosevelt was nearly sold," during the Second World War, on a plan to resettle European Jews in North America on what was then the Territory of Alaska. (Harper's changed this sentence to "briefly sold.") Chabon goes on to hypothesize a Yiddish-speaking state, created in the aftermath of the Holocaust and for which the phrasebook would be useful, saying "but not necessarily in Palestine; it could be in Alaska or on Madagascar." Chabon's essay shows no evidence of any other knowledge of a century of Territorialist schemes to establish precisely such Jewish homelands (and in which the dominant language would certainly have been Yiddish.) And it is not even true that, save for that of Zionism, none of those plans came to fruition. Whatever the failures of Birobidzhan, its proximity to Alaska, if nothing else, should have provoked at least a hint of the sarcasm at which Chabon so excels. "What were they thinking, the Weinreichs?" he solipsistically asks. If he really cared, if he were really pursuing this as inquiry, the most basic research would have revealed that Uriel Weinreich passed away many years ago, and it would have been unthinkable, speaking of Katchor's ferry _Harkavy_, to have framed a question, "[w]hither could I sail . . . in the solicitous company of Uriel and Beatrice Weinreich . . . ?" Not where could he _have_ done so, but where could he "_now_," as he insisted on his post to Mendele (7.029). And he wonders that Beatrice Weinreich would have found that painful? Speaking of the lay of the land, there is no little irony in the fact that Chabon reports he found his phrasebook in a chain store in Orange County, California. Orange County is the obscenely wealthy suburban fortress that recently chose to stiff its bond holders and other creditors by declaring bankruptcy. To convincingly carry out the charade, it was necessary to slash educational and social service funding to the bone, and their newly completed TWELVE-lane freeway cuts through their low-income districts just as though they weren't there at all. Nostalgically clinging to the 1980s, Orange County's political culture epitomizes the what's-in-it-for-me ethos of the most revanchist elements of Reaganism. What has any of this to do with Weinreich's phrasebook? For Chabon's closing sentence, he poses a final rhetorical question: just what am I supposed to do with this book? Now that he has used it to leverage a writer's fee first from Civilization, and then from Harper's, I would propose that he use it, along with the discussion he has provoked, to learn. Let us hope he does that, for I have no doubt that the results will produce even more beautiful writing, which I would look eagerly forward to reading. Ron Robboy 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 12:11:31 -0700 From: Raymond Berger Subject: Max Rosenfeld I am deeply saddened by the passing of Max Rosenfeld. He is an old family friend and touched my life in so many ways--with the folkshul, which I attended, and the Sholem Aleichem Club that my parents to this day are active in, his warm style that provided relief during my Bar Mitzvah training days, and his books, storytelling and translations have always been a great comfort to me. He has touched so many lives in such wonderful ways and gave me great pride in my Jewishness when, as a child, it was something that I tended to take for granted. Max--you will always be loved. Ray Berger ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 7.062