Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 13.029 March 28, 2004 1) Binem Heller (Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov) 2) Binem Heller (Shane Baker) 3) Yiddish Google (Yoyne Freer) 4) alef-beys (Lynda Cohen) 5) alef-beys (Sylvia Schildt) 6) pange (Jack Berger) 7) oyf'n hekhn barg (Ken Frieden) 8) Poems by M. Ben-Zion (Paula Eisenstein Baker) 9) iberkhazern (Itsik Goldenberg) Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net/index.utf-8.htm 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 25, 2004 From: jnalewajko@poczta.onet.pl Subject: Re: Binem Heller + introduction I'm jumping right into the discussion on Binem Heller since I also have a question regarding his works and will use it as an opportunity to finally introduce myself. My name is Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov and I'm pursuing my PhD in history in Warsaw, Poland. My thesis deals with a Yiddish writer David Sfard and I'm currently exploring the relationship between Yiddish literature and Communist ideology. I have been studying Yiddish on and off for 10 years but attending a YIVO summer course last year gave it a whole new dimension which resulted, among others, in my helping to co-organize a Yiddish svive in Warsaw which meets every Wednesday night. Anyway, the question regarding Binem Heller is as follows: according to Leksikon fun der Nayer Yidisher Literatur, Heller left Poland in 1956 for Paris and then for Brussels, where he wrote his famous confession poem "Akh Vi Hot Men Mir Mayn Lebn Tsebrokhn". Does anyone know where it was published (which newspaper/magazine and/or volume of Heller's poetry)? Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 26, 2004 From: kongres@earthlink.net Subject: Re: Binem Heller Binem Heller (1908-1998) is surely well known to students of Uriel Weinreich's College Yiddish. His poem "In Varshever Geto Iz Khoydesh Nisn" there appears in the Supplementary Readings. Recently the poem was discussed on ha-Safran, the Jewish librarians' list-serve; and Yoel Sheridan there posted his translation of the poem. See http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/msg01879.html Max Rosenfeld's English adaptation, along with the Yiddish original and a romanization, is to be found in the Workmen's Circle Yiddish haggadah, recently discussed here on Mendele. With regard to Heller's name, it appears as Binem (in naturalized spelling) in volume 3 of the Congress for Jewish Culture's 8 volume _Leksikon fun der Nayer Yidisher Literatur_ (Biographical Dictionary of Modern Yiddish Literature). This would be the pronunciation of _Bunem_ in his native Warsaw, but the spelling demands "Binem" even of Litvakes. Shane Baker 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 25, 2004 From: freer@acsu.buffalo.edu Subject: Yiddish Google I don't recall seeing mention of this on the list. Google's international versions include Yiddish: I especially like the "All About Google" link labeled: 'di gantse megile' Yoyne Freer [Yiddish Google is another of Refoyl Finkel's many gifts over the years. Mendele regrets that the original announcement dated Jan 20 did not appear. Note also: "You will need a Unicode-aware browser and a reasonable font. It will look better if you can set global RTL."] 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 27, 2004 From: Buby8@aol.com Subject: Re: alef-beys [Regarding Meyer Engel'S assertion:] I am a W.C.shule graduate and know the alphabet and use a dictionary often a song we use with children today is Debbie Friedman's Aleph Bet Vet it is on her early CDs. Lynda A. Cohen 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 27, 2004 From: creativa@charm.net Subject: Re: alef-beys Correction: As a graduate of Arbeter Ring Shule, Mitl Shule and Lerer Seminar I am fully qualifed to state that we did not use the phonetic spelling for words of Loshn Koydesh origin. And we were also taught to follow the beys order. We used Weinreich's dictionary. We reach Tanakh in the Yehoyesh translation. The Ordn shules did use the phonetic spelling as it was used in the soviet union. My Yiddish friends who came from the Ords shules system today have a hard time with Loshn-Koydesh shtamike verter. Sylvia Schildt Baltimore, Maryland 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 27, 2004 From: Jack S. Berger Subject: pange I. L. Peretz makes reference to something called 'a pange' in one of his reminiscences that I am translating. The context suggests that this is some kind of an 'evil spirit.' He refers to it as 'a goyishn malkhamovis'. I am curious as to the origins of this word, which has a Slavic ring to it. Jack Berger 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 23, 2004 From: kfrieden@syr.edu Subject: Re: oyf'n hekhn barg One more note in response to the three interesting posts about the song, "On the Green Mountain." This song also appears in the first chapter of the original, short version of _Fishke der krumer_ (1869). Ten years ago Shalom Luria published a scholarly, Yiddish/Hebrew edition of the rare first Yiddish version, in _K'tavim b'ibbam_ (Haifa University Press). An English translation of the short version is contained in my new anthology _Classic Yiddish Stories_ (Syracuse University Press). In my translation, the opening lines of the song read: High up on Green Mountain, Tall grass brushing their hips, Stand two stylish Prussians Brandishing whips.... Mendele then comments that he always liked the song. I have always liked the short version of _Fishke der krumer_. Ken Frieden Syracuse, New York 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 28, 2004 From: eisenbak@stthom.edu Subject: Poems by M. Ben-Zion, aka B. Almuni Some may remember my earlier posting [Mendele 13.004] about trying to locate the Yiddish text of some poems by "M. Ben-Zion." Thanks to Brad Hill and Chana Mlotek of YIVO, I learned that the poet was Ben Zion Makhtey, a Yiddish poet and journalist in Vilna in the early 1920s. Some time in the mid-1920s Makhtey adopted yet another name, "B. Almuni." After several years of traveling (Canada in 1928, Brazil and Argentina either before or after), he surfaces in Johannesburg around 1930, where he founded and was the first editor of the _Afrikaner Idishe tsaytung_ (first issue April 1931). He died in Durban, S. Africa, 18 August 1953, survived by his wife, nee Maxine Huth, a daughter, Marlene Joan Almuni, and a brother, Moyshe Machtey of Kfar Menachem (Tel Aviv). (A relative of Almuni's who e-mailed me has so far been unable to locate the daughter.) So the poet has been identified, but I am still looking for the Yiddish texts of the poems composer Leo Tseytlin set which begin: "benk ich ye, benk ich nit?" and "tsien zich khmares oyf, harts mayns, oyf, harts mayns" If, as Almuni claimed in an interview, he actually published a second volume of poetry, entitled _In di vegen fun harts_, they MAY have appeared in it. Any leads welcome. Paula Eisenstein Baker 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 28, 2004 From: rgoldenberg@sympatico.ca Subject: iberkhazern Can anyone suggest why the yiddish word IBERKHAZERN, which means "to review, to repeat, to go over," is derived from the Hebrew word "khazer," meaning "pig." What is the connection? Itsik Goldenberg ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 13.029 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu