Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 10.020 June 18, 2000 1) Ruth Rubin (Dan Leeson) 2) "shikt arayn a boyer" (Joan Gusoff) 3) komerne (Robert M. Shapiro) 4) komerne (Michael Marinoff) 5) Yiddish in the camps (Miriam Weinstein) 6) Glik and Katcherginski (Martin Cohen) 7) "oyb men vil fleysh.." (Berish Goldshteyn) 8) orl (Lucas Bruyn) 9) lovitch (Abraham Melezin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 19:21:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Daniel Leeson Subject: Ruth Rubin I regret to announce to my friends on Mendele, that Ruth Rubin, a folklorist of Yiddish songs, died on Sunday, June 10 in the Sarah R. Neumann Nursing Home in Mamaroneck, NY at the age of 93. An obituary of some length may be found in the New York Times of June 17, p. A 11 (west coast edition) in which it is suggested that her work was an important cornerstone in the revival of Yiddish that is currently occupying all of us. Dan Leeson 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 14:49:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Gussie2500@aol.com Subject: "shikt arayn a boyer" Does anyone know the lyrics to a song my grandmother used to sing to me? It started off like: Shikt arayn a boyer in vald arayn, a boyer in vald arayn, zol dem fayer leshn. The meaning is that there is a fire in the woods and it goes on to say that the boyer (peasant) brings a stick, which brings water, which brings something else, etc. etc. Thank you. Joan Gusoff 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 09:18:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert M Shapiro Subject: Re: Komorne ("komerne") The Polish word komorne means rent. Hope this is useful. Robert M. Shapiro 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 09:18:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Michael Marinoff Subject: komerne My parents who were in the real estate business..as am I....used the word to describe a bill collector who made periodic visits to homes...in order to collect insurance payments, rents..etc. I was told that the expression came from... the invitation to "come in" kum arayn. Michael Marinoff Philadelphia 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 09:18:58 -0400 (EDT) From: "Miriam Weinstein" Subject: Yiddish in the camps For a journalistic project, I am looking for information about the use of Yiddish in concentration camps. Does anyone have any figures, or approximations, or guesses about the percentage of inmates who spoke Yiddish? Were any new Yiddish words coined? I am assuming that Yiddish functioned as a common language among inmates, and that Nazis spoke German only. Is this correct? Many thanks. Miriam Weinstein 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 17:53:39 -0400 (EDT) From: Martin Cohen Subject: Glik and Katcherginski Arre Komar (10.019) wrote: With regard to the very interesting report (10.011) that Glik's use of three different words for gun in the same song (Zog Nisht Keynmol) had a specific political intention, the anecdote suffers from a small difficulty: In that song only the word "naganis" is used. The Glik song that uses 3 different words for gun is "Shtil, Di Nakht Iz Oysgeshternt." I hope that apart from this detail the essence of the story is reliable. If Arre Komar will go back to my original post (10.006), he will see that this WAS in reference to "Shtil, Di Nakht", not the "Partizan Hymn" or "Zog Nit Keynmol". Martin Cohen 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 20:49:35 -0400 (EDT) From: Barry Goldstein Subject: "oyb men vil fleysh.." In Marjorie Hirshan's posting (Mendele Volume 10 Number 13) in the translation discussion, she writes Beyond the compulsive cry for exactitude, I remember, and want to note, the anti-translation era of the secular Jew. When a parent asked our beloved shula teacher, Yankl Blank, to respond in English, he answered idealistically and passionately, "A ki git bloyz milkh; oyb men vil fleysh muz men es derhargenen." (A cow gives only milk; if you want meat, you must slaughter it.) The survival of Yiddish then was to speak, read, write Yiddish! Am I the only one who doesn't understand the drift of the teacher's answer? I understand the literal translation, and the last sentence makes sense in the context of the paragraph and the discussion. And I agree. But an explanation of the metaphor/proverb/whatever would be very welcome to me in my denseness. a dank. berish goldshteyn 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 June From: Marion Troia/Lucas Bruyn Subject: orl In Mendele 10.019 both Martin Davis and Paul Gasser refer to Motl Peysi dem Khazns, Chapter VII, "mayn bruder Elyes getrank", hey, in relation to 'orl'. Martin Davis says: "A bystander refers to the cop as the orl, and advises Motl to make tracks". In the Melukhe Farlag version of 1947 I find no 'orl' but a 'yovn' (a word earlier discussed on the Mendele list): Sholem Aleikhem, motl, peysi dem khasns, Chapt.VII, 'hey': "daber nisht, du narisher yodl, af dayn okhi!" zogn tsu mir etlekhe yidn ale mitamol. ... ruft zikh on tsu mir eyner, an alter yid mit gneyvishe oygn, farshtelt, af loshn koydesh: "Motl, rays aroys dem yad funem yovn un heyb uf di raglayim un makh pleyte!" (geshribn in yor 1907). Lucas Bruyn 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 22:14:46 -0400 (EDT) From: Amelezin@aol.com Subject: Lovitch and some more About ikh hob dir in Lovitch: It was an expression heard often in Varshe (Warsaw) and vicinity. In Vilne it was said "Ikh hob dikh in Trok" (I am not sure about dir and dikh). Both places signifies remote localities, hard to get to. Lowicz was a district town some 50 miles from Varshe. About 18-19 thousand people before the war with some 4.5 thousand Jews. Yes, there was a cemetery dating back to probably 17th century. In olden times it was hard to access the place. Trok (Troki, Trakai) was much smaller. it was a town about 3 thousand people with about 300-325 Jews and many more Karaites. Only about 17 miles from Vilne, it was hard to reach, not only in those olden times but even in the 1930's. Located among lakes and off the main track, Troki in Wilno was a synonym of remotness (and certain dislike on account of the Karaites). If somebody wanted to get rid of an unwanted interlocutor and didn't want to use some of the expressions mentioned in the previous postings, he would say "Ikh hob dikh in Lowicz (when in Varshe), or in Trok (when in Vilne). The meaning was the same: get lost in that Godforsaken place that no one can reach easily. After all, some Jews tried to be polite not only to the goyim. Regards to all who try to disentangle and understand our old folk sayings. Abraham Melezin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 10.020 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://mendele.commons.yale.edu http://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html