Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 11.007 June 22, 2001 1) Yiddish and microfilm (David Mazower) 2) der nayer numer "Yidishe Kultur" (Feygl Infeld Glezer) 3) Lewis Carroll in Yiddish? (Martin Jacobs) 4) The Women's Name Frumet/Frimet (Dovid Braun) 5) origin of word "mayontek" (Susan Ganc) 6) Papirnik (Victoria Lunzer-Talos) 7) a poem from Sokolifke (Itsik Goldenberg) 8) Glatstein's Holocaust Poems (Barnett Zumoff) 9) Peretz' Schriften (Marcos Levin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 09:48:19 -0400 (EDT) From: David Mazower Subject: Yiddish and microfilm Following on from the recent postings by Sholem Berger and Adam Levitin on the subject of libraries disposing of original Yiddish periodicals in favour of microfilm copies, a recent personal experience may be of interest. A few months ago, I noticed an American dealer selling bound volumes of the Forverts, three months worth of papers per volume. I bought a few volumes from the 1920s and 30s, and was surprised to find that they were in pristine condition, printed on rag paper, presumably for library use, and virtually untouched by later hands. I was even more surprised to discover that the bindings were all stamped 'Library of Congress' - apparently part of the Library's near-complete run of the original newspaper. A recent article on the subject of libraries disposing of their original newspapers appears in the current issue of the Times Literary Supplement. It makes the point that virtually all the bibliographic guides to original newspapers are now badly out of date. This presumably applies equally to Yiddish periodicals. Perhaps some of the Judaica librarians among Mendele's ranks could take the initiative in this matter? At the very least, it would be interesting to know which libraries have disposed of which Yiddish sets. In the face of the growing debate on this issue, the British Library has now promised to make public the list of 'foreign periodicals' they have de-accessioned, something they have hitherto resisted. I hope, and pray, that it does not include some of their rare sets of London Yiddish newspapers. David Mazower 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2001 10:59:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Fela Glaser Subject: der nayer numer "Yidishe Kultur" Oyfn farlang fun Shoshana Balaban Wolkowicz, Redaktsye Sekretarin fun "Yidishe Kultur", loz ikh aykh visn, az es iz dershinen der nayer, 62ster numer 7-8 funem khoydesh shrift Yidishe Kultur, organ funem YKUF (Yidisher Kultur Farband). Inem nayem numer zaynen arayn artiklen un poemes funem redaktor Itshe Goldberg, Sholem Aleykhemen, I.L. Peretsn, N.B. Minkov, Mark Kaplan, Avrom Sutskever, Yosef Kerler, Mordkhe Tsanin, Yosef Berger, Yente Mash, Martin Birnboym, Motl kheyn, Simkhe Simkhovitsh, Doved Volpe, Meynke Kats, Khaym Beyder, Yosef Bulov, Yosl Bergner, un Feygl Infeld Glezer. Ir kent dem zhurnal bakumen DURKH YERLEKHN ABONAMENT oder INDIVIDUELN aynkoyf inem ofis fun YKUF - 1133 Broadway, tsimer 820, NY, NY 10010. Der telefon numer iz: 212-243-1304. Feygl Infeld Glezer 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 21:23:08 -0400 (EDT) From: Martin Jacobs Subject: Lewis Carroll in Yiddish? Can anyone tell me if the works of Lewis Carroll (e.g. Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass) have ever been translated into Yiddish? If so, can you tell me the translator, Yiddish title, publisher, and publication date? The Lewis Carroll Society of North America is compiling a list of all translations of his works; so far they have over 70 languages listed, including Hebrew, but they are unaware of any Yiddish translation. Martin Jacobs 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2001 23:52:07 -0400 (EDT) From: David S Braun Subject: The Women's Name Frumet/Frimet Apparently stems from older Yiddish _frumhayt_ 'piety' (modern Yiddish: _frumkayt_). Dovid Braun Cambridge, MA (Keymbridzhi'vke?) 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 18:13:50 -0400 (EDT) From: "Susan Ganc" Subject: origin of word "mayontek" I came accross the work mayontek (mem -pasekh alef- yod- kumetz alef- nun-tes-ayen-kof) in Sholem Aleichem's Mottel Pessi. The meaning is "estate" or "fortune". I wonder what the origen of this word would be. Also in Mottel Pessi in section 8 of "meer koletn" is a dual language saying: as spoken by Mottel's mother, "yak redele to redele, abi dobre megele". First of all what language are the slavic words from? Russian? Ukranian? What does it actually mean? Susan Ganc 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 19:36:45 -0400 (EDT) From: "Victoria Lunzer-Talos" Subject: Papirnik "Papirnik" is indeed a collection of stories written by a young jewish author living in Vienna: Rabinovici, Doron: Papirnik : Stories / Doron Rabinovici. - Erstausg., 1. Aufl.. - Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp, 1994. - 134 S.. - (Edition Suhrkamp ; 1889 = N.F., 889) ISBN 3-518-11889-7 - As to the etymology of the name, it seems to me rather simple, imho combining the word "paper" with the east-european suffix -nik meaning something like "guy" or so. (It looks like such a surname exists in reality too, you find it in some czech sites in the internet)) I would try to translate by "paperling" - made from paper, filled with paper, ijnspired by paper = books, multiple written, read, learned identities. For more about Rabinovici, the author, look at http://www.cas.uiuc.edu/MillerComm/millercommarchive/SP01/ Rabinovici.htm. I hope my associations are not too simplistic. (In french, "papernik" doesn't offer so quick an association to the word "papier", whose prononciation sounds different)., it seems more to rely on the surname "Papernik", existing in this spelling too. Regards Victoria Lunzer-Talos 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 12:05:01 -0400 (EDT) From: Goldenberg Subject: a poem from Sokolifke My friend Lil Berman of Buffalo NY (and a member of our weekly yidish-vinkl) asked me to try to find the missing lines and verses of a poem that her mother and aunt used to recite. They were both born in the shtetl Sokolifke/Justingrad (between Kiev and Odessa). The lines that she recalls are: Ikh lig af der erd Un shmir di (?) Kimt arayn der tate Mit a lange kapote ... ... ... ... Ikh shnayd un er frest Zol er vern tsezetst. If anyone recognizes and can add to this, Lil would be delighted. It would be interesting to know where else the poem was recited. Incidentally, the shtetl Sokolifke (or Justingrad, named after the wife of the porets who owned the land which the shtetl occupied) was totally destroyed and no longer exists. The pogroms after WW1 and the Shoah saw to that. Modern maps of that territory don't show the location of the shtetl by either name. Itsik Goldenberg 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 12:56:01 -0400 (EDT) From: "Barnett Zumoff" Subject: Glatstein's Holocaust Poems I'd like to thank my friend Allen Nadler for providing the reference to the source of the phrase "the God of my disbelief." I'd like to mention to the readers of this list that I published an English translation of Glatstein's Holocaust poems several years ago, under the title "I Keep Recalling" (original Yiddish title: "Kh'Tu Dermonen"). The poem "My Fellow-Wanderer (Mayn Vogl-Bruder) was one of the many powerful poems in that volume. Barnett Zumoff 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 15:05:12 -0400 (EDT) From: marcos levin Subject: Peretz' Schriften I am looking for help to get information about an Yiddish version of I.L. Peretz'works," Peretz' Schriften", published by Hebrew Publishing Company, 50- 52 Eldridge Str., New York. There are some interesting facts about this book : there is no date of printing, and this Yiddish version , compared to more recent ones, presents special orthographic forms, remembering more a "German Yiddish" written with Hebrew letters. One of my friends from whom I received this book as a so kind present, does not know any extra details about the above mentioned book. My persistent intention is to translate Peretz into Spanish under the light of a conception other than trhe ones up to day exposed by some translators. This is a rather laborious work, to "pass " from a so beautiful Yiddish into Spanish, trying to keep style, spirit and literary "flesh" and not turning it into "a treifeh skhoireh mit a koshern Yiddishn ta'am".I am working seriously on it. Shall one from among the "Khaverim" be so kind to assist me to know about, shall I be deeply thankful. Mit meine beste wunchen, Marcos Levin Kibbutz Matzuvah, Israel ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 11.007 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