Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 14.041 April 19, 2005 1) mir zenen vi feygelekh fraye (Ellen Cassedy) 2) mir veln keyn veyts un keyn Korn (Arnold Richards) 3) orl/ female suffixes (Lucas Bruyn) 4) nokhn khirurgishn tish (Joachim Martillo) 5) aftsulokhes (Larry Gillig ) 6) aftsulokhes (Jack Berger) 7) frayer (Noyekh Miller) Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 19, 2005 Subject: mir zenen vi feygelekh fraye In response to Pearl Schif's question, the song that begins "mir zenen vi feygelekh fraye" is the anthem of the Beis Yankev orthodox girls' schools founded by Sarah Shnirer in Cracow in 1917. The words are by Eliezer Schindler. mir zenen vi feygelekh fraye mir zenen vi blimlekh in feld mir zenen khaveres [sic] getraye mir kinder fun yankevs getselt. mir lernen un zingen tsuzamen mir lebn in fridn banand keyn soyne bay undz nit faranen dir toyre zi iz undzer band mir zenen getray undzer boyre mir hitn zayn heylik gebot mir shvern tsu haltn di toyre tsu dinen dem eyntsikn got Ellen Cassedy Takoma Park, MD 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 19, 2005 Subject: mir veln keyn veyts un keyn Korn.. Does anyone know the lines of the poem which begins: mir veln keyn veyts un keyn Korn nisht hobn de felder zey zenen mit griber bagrobn arnold richards 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 19, 2005 Subject: orl/ female suffixes Larry Gillig, in vol. 14, no 38, remarksn in the context of Baleboste the word 'areyliste/arayliste. For more on orl, see: Vol .10.001; 10.008. For more on female suffixes see; Vol 1 no 114; Vol 1 no 115 Lucas Bruyn 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 19, 2005 Subject: Re: nokhn khirurgishn tish [Lucas Bruyn, 14.037, writes]: "The poem is called 'nokhn khirurgishn tish'. Why 'after' and not 'on'?" I thought nokh could have the sense in Yiddish of "toward" or "to" with motion. We wake up knowing, So early nobody ever Has seen death . The poet expresses in these lines how, on the one hand, the Jewish population suppressed knowledge about what was coming, pretended not to know, could not know, but on the other hand has lived with a clear premonition about the disaster about to strike for a long time. This interpretation is applying 20/20 hindsight. During the 30s life in Germany was miserable for German Jews but probably niether as bad as life for blacks in the USA at the same period nor as bad as life for Palestinians under Zionist rule (I spend a lot of time among Israeli Palestinians and OT Palestinians). In addition, during the 30s the majority Zionist leadership actively and often cordially collaborated with the German Nazis. Indeed the mass murders did not begin until September 1941 when the German army made contact with anti-Soviet forces after the invasion of the Soviet Union. I am not sure the Polish Ashkenazi population can be legitimately accused of suppressing knowledge about German Nazi plans -- especially because the German Nazis may have changed their plans after observing the desire of "liberated" Soviet nationalities for collective revenge against all ethnic Ashkenazim because of the acts of ethnic Ashkenazi Soviet officials during collectivization. Joachim Martillo 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 19, 2005 Subject: Re: aftsulokhes aftsulokhes implies irritation...as in the picnic and rain scenario. I have personally never heard it used in conjunction with just any old coincidence... although among Galitzianer Yidn I have not heard the expression very frequently altogether - more familiar with it from my Litivishe shviger. I have also heard it applied to intentional negative behavior, as in "Why does he always get into political arguments with the rabbi? I don't think he really believes in the cause; I think he does it aftsulokhes" . And "He's an aftsulukhesnik"... a rabble rouser. I believe (and I have heard from members of the older Yiddish-speaking European generation) that the etymology of the word is from the Hebrew Lhaakhis, which means to make (someone) angry. (The root of the word is Ka'as - anger)....Aftsu - in order to Lokhes = ashkenazi pronunciation of Lehaakhis... to make angry. Aftsulokhes = in order to make angry. How do you spell "aftsulokhes" in Yiddish, anyhow? Larry Gillig 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 19, 2005 Subject: Re: aftsulokhes Having learned and spoken Yiddish in North America, I cannot identify the meaning ascribed to NA speakers by Khaver Sweet. Rather, I also use the phrase as he does. Jack Berger 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 19, 2005 Subject: Re: frayer It's all my fault: if I hadn't confused frayer with gefrayter I could have gone to my Duden and learned that Freier is a German word meaning a prostitute's client, in American slang a John. The short of it is, then, that frayer _may_ have come to Israeli Hebrew straight from the German (though I confess that I can't see it imported by the proper bourgeois likes of Scholem and Buber). In any case, frayer is _now_ a Yiddish word. I write 'now' because, though it is found in Polish (frajer) and Russian, it is not found in Harkavy or Stutchkoff or Weinreich and appears for the first time I beleive in the recent Niborski where it's tagged as argot. That suggests many possible paths and I hope that someone in our list can throw authoritative light on the matter. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 14.041 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu