Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 12.012
December 5, 2002

1) Wolf Krakowski's Goyrl:Destiny - CD review (Sheinele Mankovsky)
2) The memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik - book review (Lucas Bruyn)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 22:40:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Mankovsky, Sheine" <sheine.mankovsky2@tdsb.on.ca>
Subject: Wolf Krakowski's Goyrl:Destiny - CD review

A while ago, I sent a note to Mendele, or perhaps better said, a rant,
about Disney for erroneously refering to Yiddish names as being of
Hebrew origin on their Family.com site in the Baby Name feature.  And
to this day those akshunim continue to indicate Hershel and Haskel as
Hebrew names, despite my yearly reminders to make a correction, or a
deletion.  Maybe they are just very indecisive....I pass the torch of
to you Hershels and Haskels who are Mendele subscribers.

However, as a result of the posting, I got a wonderful response from my
school chum, Wolf Krakowski.  We exchanged some e-mails, reminiscences
about our teen years in Toronto, and caught up on each others lives
generally.  I hadn't seen Wolf since we were 18, about 35 years ago.  
This summer I had the pleasure of a visit from Wolf and his talented
songstress wife whom many of you will surely know, Paula (Fraidy) Katz.

Wolf has just put out a new CD called Goyrl:Destiny.  It is first rate
in all respects.  What is so enjoyable for me in Wolf's approach is the
way he arranges well-known Yiddish songs to music not normally
associated with them.  He is modern at the same time as being true to
our mutual Polish Jewish roots.  I particularly enjoy listening to his
use of the Yiddish dialect with which we both grew up.  Please visit
Wolf's website, www.kamea.com to listen to some clips, read some
delicious reviews, and buy a copy of Wolf's CD.  You too will be
delighted with Wolf's passion for Yiddish, Yiddish music and the unique
artistry with which he puts it all together.

Sheinele Mankovsky
Toronto

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 15:50:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: "M. Troia" <troia@wxs.nl>
Subject: The memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik - book review

BOOK REVIEW: A journey to a nineteenth-century shtetl: the memoirs of
Yekhezkel Kotik

Two similar books have seen the light recently in the United States,
both translations of memoirs of Jews who lived in the 19th century in
approximately the same region. I intend to review only the second book,
but want to refer shortly to the first for comparison's sake.

1. Rememberings: the world of a Russian-Jewish Woman in the Nineteenth
Century by Pauline Wengeroff; translated by Henny Wenkart; Studies and
Texts in Jewish History and Culture; Vol. IX, University Press of
Maryland. 2000. An abridged translation of the German, 2nd ed. of:
Memoiren einer Grossmutter.

2. A journey to a nineteenth-century shtetl: the memoirs of Yekhezkel
Kotik / edited with an introduction and notes by David Assaf;
translated from the Yiddish by Margaret Birnstein. Raphael Patai Series
in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology Wayne State University Press,
Detroit. 2002, Published in co-operation with the Diaspora Research
Institute, Tel Aviv University. [Original title: Mayne Zikhroynes].

Both books are academic publications and, though published by different
publishers, there are striking similarities between the two volumes in
physical appearance.

On the dust-cover of each there is a photograph of the author with the
names underneath in a 19th century cursive script, which is not the
handwriting of the authors themselves. However, closer inspection
reveals some remarkable differences:

While the main title of the first book is 'Rememberings, (a translation
of the first part of the German title 'Memoiren einer Grossmuttter')
'The memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik' is only a subtitle, though the
original title is, in Yiddish, Mayne Zikhroynes or: My Memoirs. (I
prefer the word 'memoirs' above 'rememberings').

On the back the first book says 'Wengeroff, Rememberings'; the second
'Assaf, Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl, the memoirs of
Yekhezkel Kotik.

The front cover of Wengeroff's memoirs gives the name of the translator
and the editor, on Kotik's only the name of the editor is found.

After these differences I would like to point out one more similarity
between the two books . It is notable that both covers fail to mention
that the reader who purchases it gets only half value for money. In
Wengeroff's memoirs we read under the Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-publication Data, that we have bought an abridged
translation of the original; similar data on Kotik's memoirs indicate
simply that we have bought the memoirs. We have to go to the first page
of the introduction to find out that we only been given volume one of a
two volume work.

As a preliminary conclusion it may be said that Jewish memoirs seem to
be quite the fashion. Furthermore we can say that they are presented to
and edited for the reader by scholars in Jewish Folklore, Anthropology,
History & Culture and that they are enriched with forewords,
introductions, afterwords, glossaries, appendices, bibliographies,
genealogical trees, tables, indexes, copious footnotes and what not, so
the reader may fully benefit from their contents provided he is not
scared off by this wealth of erudition and is willing to pay the price
for these extras. The concept fits well in our post-modern era. The
original work is important only in the context of what is said about it
and is only meaningful as such. The literary quality of the text is
made subservient to the ambitions of the scholars claiming to elucidate
it.

Being an old-fashioned reader I choose to ignore all accessories
offered and to start reading the English translation of the Yiddish
text of Kotik's "My Memoirs".

It is a well known fact that a book seldom gains in translation, but
that truly good literature is nearly indestructible, surviving even the
most atrocious translation. We may compare a translation with the
original, to get an idea of its accuracy; we may judge the translation
on its intrinsic literary quality, we may compare it, if available, to
other translations of the same work or we can get enchanted by the
story (that is the contents) without paying much attention to wording
and phrasing.

I must say that even though I read both volumes of the original in
Yiddish (as well as the fragments available in earlier English or
German translations) Kotik's memoirs remain fascinating in this English
translation.

For a description of the contents of the memoirs, its style and Kotik
as a person I may refer to the contribution by Dr. David Assaf to The
Mendele Review, Vol. 03 no. 007: The Memoirs of Yekheskl Kotik [Table
of Contents and Summary] and to my own contributions to The Mendele
Review, Vol. 04.012: Reflections on a Widespread View of Kotik's 'My
Memoirs'. and Vol. 04.013: Expanded Table of Contents of Vol. 1 of 'My
Memoirs' (Yekheskl Kotik).

It is obvious that any Yiddish text in translation will need some
footnotes to make it more accessible to the general reader. A word list
has be attached, some religious customs have to be explained, some
historical facts need annotation. Kotik's memoirs are generally easy to
read. Even without gaining a deeper insight in all the details they
provide they offer pleasant and interesting reading.

Even though the translation is readable and enjoyable as it is and in
spite of its being accurate to a high degree, it does, artistically, no
justice whatsoever to the original. The editor informs us that it is
the result of the labours of a female triumvirate, the translator
Margaret Birnstein, the editor's wife and a professional editor
provided by the publishing house. These three graces succeeded in
utterly destroying the undeniable literary charms of the original
Yiddish version. Not having seen the original translation I cannot say
for sure who is to blame most, but noticing a tendency to stick to
Yiddish-Germanic long sentence structures and the use of stilted
English expressions I would guess that the original translation was
already of inferior quality and that the subsequent editors only
achieved changing it into generally decent, though unattractive English
with remaining vestiges of the original. It totally lacks any feeling
for register or colouring.

Kotik's memoirs are not written as a work of art but his language is
lively, at times original and does have an indisputable literary
quality even though this quality is uneven throughout his work.

Though not doing the author justice the translation, by being quite
accurate, is extremely suitable as a core text for scholarly exegesis
and one may suspect the editor, Dr. David Assaf, (who had previously
translated the Yiddish text into Hebrew following a similar method of
cooperative translating), to have been instrumental in deciding the
type of translation he wanted. This, then, would explain why the
translator is only identified as part of the aforementioned collective.

At the end of his introduction, under 'On This Edition', the editor
makes a baffling statement, throwing some light on his attitude towards
translating:

"Because of the self-evident difficulties in rendering a work in
translation we have allowed ourselves to diverge from the strict
adherence to the tenses used in the original, as well as to unify or
divide paragraphs or sentences as we saw fit".

Anyone who knows more than one language is aware of the fact that
replacing the tense-system of one language by that of another is a sine
qua non for reaching a basic translation and that the remodeling of
sentence patterns is a must to achieve readability. (Paragraphing is
rather a matter of style and fashion). But if this is the extent to
which the translator is permitted to go, not even a technical manual
could be translated into decent language. Certainly no serious literary
translator would undertake a translation if not allowed some artistic
freedoms beyond those of interpreting tenses and cutting up long
sentences.

I have selected one sentence from Ms. Birnstein's translation at
random, sticking a needle between the pages first and putting down my
index on the open pages:

p. 319.
"Yitzhak-Asher arranged with my father to teach us only until the onset
of the afternoon prayers, unlike all the other heders, where the boys
studied until nine o'clock in the evening during the winter.

original text:
yitskhok-osher hot oysgeredt mitn tatn, er zol lernen mit unz nor biz
minkhe, nisht azoy vi in ale khadorim vinter, biz nayn azeyger ovnt

word by word translation:
Yitskhok-Osher had [hot - indicator past tense] come to an
understanding [oysgeredt - p.p.; litt to 'out-speak'] with father
(that) he would have [zol - ought to, should] (to) teach us [lernen mit
unz - learn with/teach us] only until 'minke'{the afternoon prayer,
between 12.30 and sunset.}; unlike [nisht azoy vi ] (the custom was) in
all kheyders (in) winter, untill nine o'clock (at) night.

comment: 
The translator uses the past continuous, were the past perfect is
correct and manages to introduce a dangling modifier which is not
present in the original and which could have been avoided easily by
rearranging the sentence in translation:

Yitzhak-Asher had arranged with father that he would only have to teach
us until the afternoon prayer instead of until nine o'clock at night as
was the custom in all other heders during winter.

or, since English prefers shorter sentences:

Yitzhak-Asher had arranged with father that he would only have to work
with us until the afternoon prayer. In all other heders teaching
finished at nine o'clock at night in winter.

 From this one example, chosen at random, it may be clear that the
translator is not even capable of using the limited freedoms granted to
her by the editor. However, she takes the liberty of introducing the
words 'onset' and 'boys' in her translation, not present in the original
and not necessary for understanding the text.

In order to further substantiate my negative comments on the the
translation I refer to the short fragment Dr. Assaf submitted in
English translation to the Mendele list, Vol. 10.029, entitled
'beyndl', of which the original Yiddish text was given in transcription
in Vol. 10.030. Though in the final edition several corrections were
made by the final editor, somewhat improving the English, the
translation in print is virtually the same. I give my own attempt at a
translation of the same fragment at the end of this review.

As mentioned before, the book has more to offer than just a mediocre
translation. It starts with a 'Preface to the English Edition',
followed by 'A note to the Translation', a list of 'Abbreviations' and
an 'Introduction'. The introduction, including the 'Notes to the
Introduction' covers 83 pages and is divided into 8 chapters. The
actual translation covers 307 pages and is followed by three appendices
('Yekhezkel Kotik: List of publications'; 'Selected Bibliography on
Yekhezkel Kotik and his Memoirs'; 'Yekhezkel Kotik's Genealogy), 58
pages of notes, a list of 'Works Cited', a 'Glossary' and an Index of
Names, Places, and Subjects. Of the total of 540 pages about 240 are
used up by the editor.

What readership did the publisher or the editor have in mind? Certainly
not the 'general reader', who would have been contented with a short
introduction placing the book in a historical context, a glossary
translating Yiddish/Hebrew terminology used in the translation and a
handful of footnotes to help him across certain passages.

Because the editor is a renowned historian specialised in the history
of East-European Jewry, obviously a more scholarly audience is aimed
at, consisting of students of Jewish Studies in general and of Jewish
History in particular. Because the same work was published before in
Hebrew we might limit the readership to those students of Jewish
Studies that don't know Hebrew and we might narrow it down even further
by saying it is intended for the use by those who know neither Hebrew
or Yiddish. One would expect a more serious student of the history of
East-European Jewry to master at least one of the two Jewish languages
in the course of their studies, so the book must be meant for beginners
or amateur historians. If this is the case, the main effort of the
editor should have been to write an educational work, enlarging the
horizon of its readers by instilling an interest in its subject,
showing what basic research can add to a literary text and the like.

Having finished reading the introduction I must say that I personally
quite enjoyed it. It is well written and touches on every possible
aspect related to the work, such as the man Kotik, his time, his
memoirs, the publishing history of the memoirs, their reception by the
public etc. It is clear that the author spent substantial amounts of
time on research and that he did so with competence and enthousiasm. In
the course of his expos‚ the author also provides an extensive
description of the contents of both volumes of the memoirs.

Whether such an extensive introduction was needed in order for the
reader to be able to follow the text or whether the introduction serves
an educational purpose is another matter. I would think that the
material could be divided into several interesting university lectures
and a couple of articles for specialised magazines, but that much of
the material is too detailed for the beginning student and does not
serve much of a purpose in connection with the translation it
introduces.

About the notes to the text a similar remark can be made. While many of
the footnotes are useful and interesting, others are of a specialised
nature and do not illuminate the overall picture the memoirs intend to
give. Kotik mentions lots of names of historical people, Rabbis,
religious works, places. While it might be interesting to the
specialist to get all the details in full, others could hardly care
less. We cannot blame the editor for displaying his wide knowledge, but
might wonder whether this particular text was worth his efforts. After
all, as both the introduction and the footnotes prove, the memoirs do
not contain historical revelations or facts not known from other
sources.

In conclusion, the work appears to be a typical product of our time. A
highly scholarly edition of an interesting, but minor work of
memoir-literature in bad translation. It has been beautifully published
and with the right advertising it will certainly make its way to a
limited but growing readership with an interest in things Jewish.

Lucas Bruyn.


Version 'beyndl' reviewer:

We had two people in our shtetl who exorcised the evil eye. One was
Dovid Carter, who rode flour from the mills to the shops. He used to
exorcise the evil eye with small bones from a dead person. I never
found out how he got those bones.

If someone had a swollen face, swollen cheeks I mean, caused by a so
called tooth abscess, or a sore throat, they would go to this Dovid
Carter. He would get out his bones and make them dance over the
swelling while whispering something inaudible. The patient would be
confident that the swelling would go down, if not that same day, then
tomorrow, or within eight days, or in two to three weeks time.

Everybody in the shtetl knew that swellings were caused by the evil
eye.

The second exorcist was Golde Preacher, the preacher's wife. He, the
preacher, was a great Talmud scholar, a Jew of importance, very
erudite. It was said that his wife also knew how to study Gemore.

She exorcised the evil eye using two eggs. She would wander over the
swollen face or throat with an egg in each hand mumbling all the while.

This 'treatment' was cheap: ten groschen and for the poor only six.

I remember having had a swollen face several times, probably because of
my teeth. They would bring me to Dovid Carter, who was considered to be
the better exorcist.

I remember that he would scratch me with those sharp, jagged bones so
badly that I almost fainted from the pain. He would go over your face
with those bones at great speed.

So I would plead with them to bring me to the preacher's wife, saying
that her exorcising with the eggs went so smoothly that it was a
pleasure. But they wouldn't listen to me. "You little fool", they would
say, "it might hurt you a little, but you will get rid of it quickly.
With the preacher's wife it takes forever".

Sometimes I was lucky. If Dovid Carter wasn't home but on his way to
the mills or bringing a load of flour to Brisk, they would bring me to
the preacher's wife. That would please me, I would feel extremely
happy. It is no joke, having someone going over a swelling with pointed
pointed bones! 
______________________________________________________
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