Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 10.055 April 27, 2001 1) Yiddish text of Manger's purimshpil? (Larry Rosenwald) 2) Dreyfus in Kasrilevke (Ingemar Johansson) 3) Dreyfus in Kasrilevke (Solon Beinfeld) 4) Dreyfus in Kasrilevke (Michael "Mechele" Zlotowski) 5) Yidish bikher/Yiddish out-of-print books (Gilles Rozier) 6) Yiddish terms for an "apology" and a "deep apology" (Marjorie Wolfe) 7) Perets quotes (Hershl Hartman) 8) "Great is the God of my disbelief" (S.L. (Shulamis) Wisenberg) 9) a vertl (Barbara Goldstein) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 14:56:22 -0400 (EDT) From: "Lawrence A. Rosenwald" Subject: Yiddish text of Manger's purimshpil? Hi - wrong holiday, I know, but I was wondering whether anyone could tell me where to buy or find the Yiddish text of Manger's purimshpil - I've been listening to the wonderful Burshteyn recording and would like to have a look at the text they're starting from. A dank, Larry Rosenwald [Moderator's note: one of the editions is "Medresh Itsik", Yerushalayim: Hebreyisher universitet in Yerushalayim, 1984. - i.v.] 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 02:01:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Ingemar Johansson Subject: Dreyfus in Kasrilevke Dear friends, Many thanks for the romanized version of Sholem-Aleykhem's "Dreyfus in Kasrilevke". The unidentified "Lambori" should be the lawyer Fernand Labori (1860-1917), who raised to world fame during the Dreyfus affair as Emil Zola's defense counsel. A matter of transcription? My very best wishes, Ingemar Johansson 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 11:48:16 -0400 (EDT) From: "Solon Beinfeld" Subject: Dreyfus in Kasrilevke A few comments on the endnotes to the text of "Dreyfus in Kasrilevke": Endnote 17: "vetshni poselenye", while it may work in Polish as well, is nontheless Russian for "perpetual deportation". The Jews of Kasrilevke undoubtedly knew all too well the Russian terms for imprisonment in Czarist Russia. Polish was not an important language in that part of the Ukraine. Endnote 18: "frantsehoyzn" is indeed a pun, but I doubt if Sholem Aleykhem--not a writer much given to sexual imagery-- had syphilis in mind. More likely the "frants" hints at "frandzn" (fringes) or "frant" (fop), both suggesting dandyism, something like "fancypants". Endnote 20: "tut ne zhidivska shkola...." (Ukrainian, by the way) uses Jewish terms in a kind of pseudo-translation. Hence "shkola" here means not "school" but "shul" i.e. "synagogue" in the antisemitic sense of a noisy, undignified place. "Kahal" likewise is not a mere "meeting place" but the conventional antisemitic word for surreptitious gathering place for evil purposes (there was rumored to be a super-"Kahal" or secret Jewish world-parliament even before the publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.) Endnote 23: "Peli" is surely General Georges de Pellieux, head of the Paris Military Police, who conducted an investigation designed to whitewash Esterhazy and confirm Drefyus's guilt. Endnote 29: "Lambori" is of course Fernand Labori, Zola's defense counsel and then one of Dreyfus's lawyers at the Rennes court-martial. He was shot and wounded in the street during the trial, but returned eight days later. His absence is regarded as having hurt Dreyfus's chances for a reversal. Solon Beinfeld 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 05:05:36 -0400 (EDT) From: "Fidel Di PAZ" Subject: Dreyfus in kasrilevke Leonard Prager's endnote 29 about a "lambori". The correct spelling is LABORI. Lawyer Fernand Labori defended both Emile Zola and Alfred Dreyfus. In 1899, Alfred Dreyfus was retried, Labori was requested by Dreyfus's defense not to plead, in order to prevent any confrontation with the army. Dreyfus was condemned again for high treason, sentenced to a reduced ten year sentence and pardoned a few days later by the president of the Republique Emile Loubet. In endnote 4, Zola's famous front-page in L'Aurore was titled "J'Accuse". As of endnote 23 about a "peli", it may well be Charles Peguy, the Catholic philosopher and writer who became a leading Dreyfusard, bringing many fellow socialists to share his views of Dreyfus's innocence. Michael "Mechele" Zlotowski 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 11:29:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Bibliotheque Medem Subject: Yidish bikher/Yiddish out-of-print books Dear Mendelyaner, You can find actualized lists of used and out-of-print Yiddish books that the Medem Library is selling at the following address: http://www.yiddishweb.com/dubletn/ Tayere Mendelyaner, Ir kent gefinen di derhayntikte reshimes fun genitste yidishe bikher vos di Medem-bibliotek farkoyft oyfn vayterdikn adres: http://www.yiddishweb.com/dubletn/ Gilles Rozier 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 11:21:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Marjorie Wolfe Subject: Yiddish terms for an "apology" and a "deep apology." President Bush and Colin Powell are "very sorry" over the apparent death of a Chinese pilot missing since the mid-air collision. The U. S. is also "very sorry" that the "severely crippled" American plane entred China's airspace without "verbal clearance." Our country did not express a "DEEP APOLOGY". Question: In Yiddish, how do we express the word apology? Do we differentiate between terms like "very sorry", "sorry" and a DEEP APOLOGY? How important is an apology for a wrongdoing? I look forward to hearing from you. Marjorie Wolfe 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 18:43:54 -0700 From: Hershl Hartman Subject: Perets quotes ikh hob tsu aykh a bekoshe. eyner fun di yugntlekhe velkhe greytn zikh hay-yor tsu vern veltlekhe barmitsves in The Sholem Community fun los andzeles vil leynen--dafke af yidish--di folgndike shures fun peretsn, vos er hot bloyz af english. efsher kont ir mir shikn dem original, oder onvayzn in velkhn band fun di gezamlte verk ikh kon es gefinen? ikh--un er--veln aykh shtark dankbar zayn. ot iz di tsitate: "Don't assume you are fulfilling your obligation by working for the greater entity, for so-called 'humanity-at-large'. Humanity-at-large is an abstraction. On the world stage today are individual groups, distinct peoples, differing cultures... We too hope for a common humanity, but we shall never achieve it by destroying unique languages, or by annihilating separate peoples, or by cutting down cultures... We have not endured these thousands of years in order now to forget our own way of life. We wish to continue it, so that we may unite later with the company of humankind as equal partners" Hershl Hartman 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 01:23:58 -0500 From: Sandi L Wisenberg Subject: "Great is the God of my disbelief" Does anyone know the source of this quote? I think it's the first line of a poem, I'm almost certain it's by a Jewish/Yiddish writer, but haven't been able to find it. Here it is: "Great is the God of my disbelief." A shaynem dank, S.L. (Shulamis) Wisenberg 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 14:57:50 -0500 (EST) From: steven goldstein Subject: a vertl Ikh hob a frage: Mayn bruder hot mir gezogt vi undzer mame hot im a vertln gezogt. Zi hot es af english ibergezetzt un hot gezogt, "Never trust a thin-lipped (person)." Ver hot dos vertl gehert? Vi zogt men dos vertl af yidish? A sheynem dank, Barbara Goldstein ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 10.055 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net http://ibiblio.org/yiddish/mendele.html