Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 14.049 April 28, 2005 1) Kalich, Khash (Moyshe-Shaye Steinlauf) 2) glombike (Lucas Bruyn) 3) prezhenitse (Perets Mett) 4) prezhenitse (Hy Wolfe) 5) kuni-leml (Barney Martin) 6) ikh vil nit keyn ayzerne keytn (Daniel Lang) Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 26, 2005 Subject: Kalich, Khash Does anyone know the date of death of the Yiddish dramatist and theater manager, husband of Molly Picon, Jacob Kalich, who was born in 1891? The birth date of the Vilna Yiddish operetta actor and director Yoysef Khash (d. 1941), brother of Kadish (K. Khash, 1893-1941)? A sheynem dank foroys, Moyshe-Shaye Steinlauf Philadephia 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 26, 2005 Subject: glombike I had expected some critical remarks about my translation of Yishroel Shtern's poem (vol. 14.037). Thusfar, my interpretation came under attack, but not the translation itself. I found one typo in the translation: flagrance = fragrance and I noticed that I incorrectly attributed the practice of sorcery or 'popular medicine' to the 'sogerke' in my comments. The only word in the text that I had a problem with was 'glombike': The dictionaries I consulted did not provide a ready answer. Weinreich has: glomp, der (n) - stalk, stem (of a cabbage, lettuce); dummy, yokel. 'Stalk, stem,' looks like a good candidate. The meaning 'yokel' is probably similar to:' a klots mit oygn' - a foolish person. Can I assume that this word for 'stalk, stem' is also used for fruits? What are the alternatives for stem in Yiddish? I check with the English-Yiddish sections of Weinreich and Harkavi: stalk - di zang, dos shtengl, dos hengerl (of fruit), der katshn. katshenes (of cabbage etc.); stem - dos shtengl, der shtam [Harkavi: dos shtekele, der tsvayg]; dummy - der goylem, der glomp, der lekish; yokel - der zhlob. Conclusion: for fruits the words 'hengerl' and 'shtekele' would be more common. I only find back 'glomp' as 'dummy'. I try another dictionary, Tsanin's Yiddish-Hebrew and look up the meanings of the Hebrew, It does not give me the stem of a fruit on the tree: glomb (n) der - kelah (final cheth), kolas, shoresh; tipesh >; kelah - shtengl; glomb (lemoshl fun kroyt); kolas - shtengl; heyftl; kepl shoresh - vortsl; tipesh - nar, goylem. A last resort, the 'oytser', The oytser confirms what I have found and gives an indication about the origin of the word. It must be a Polish cabbage stem, while' katshan' is its Russian equivalent: Stutchkoff (oytser): index: gliomp: 258. teyl kroyt; 340. nar 258. spayz, getrank. p. 223 [teyln kroyt] katshan, khrapke, gl(i)omp 340. narishkeyt p. 306 nar: gl(i)omp (also: katshan) Origin/etymology: Polish: glab (a with ogonek, an little hook underneath) - stalk Preliminary conclusion: meaning of gl(i)omb : cabbage stalk > [worthless part of the cabbage] > stupid person. Not found as an adjective ending on -ik. Possible meaning of the adjective glombik: 1. having a stalk (like a cabbage). 2. being like a dummy, yokel The fruits in the text are: hanging on a tree in an orchard and they are fragrant. They are big enough to cut up with a small knife. A cabbage stalk is not appropriate to describe the stem of a pear or a peach. Fruits are not clever, but to describe them as dummies is unusual. If stupid or foolish fruits were meant, the writer could have used many alternatives expressing the meaning more clearly. Stuck with glombik, back to the dictionaries once more: Niborski: glomb - der (n/es) > glomp glomp - der (n/es): trognon; fig. abruti, andouille. Harrap's French-English dictionary translates: trognon - core of an apple; stump (of a cabbage, etc.), T. de chou, cabbage runt. F: (to child, to little girl) Mon petit trognon, my little dear. abruti - sot; idiot, fool andouille - muff, duffer, chuckle-head, mug The French translation seems to provide us with an additional meaning for glomb: core of an apple. If so, glombik could mean: having a core or core-like and our fruits turn into apples or pears. In my opinion, this additional meaning of trognon is not meant by Niborski. The cabbage stalk is obviously what he had in mind. Yiddish has other words for core: dos harts, der yoder. Moreover, knowing that the fruits have cores would not add to our understanding of the poem and assuming that they look like cores or are reduced to cores would not fit with the fragrance of the garden or their 'vign' on the tree. Other interpretations of 'glombik', like a connection with German 'Gelumpe' etc, are not supported by Yiddish dictionaries. Assuming that the word is the result of a printing error would open the door to a host of possibilities, none of them obviously correct. I decide to translate 'fruits having stems' although I am not sure this is correct. The Niborski-Vaisbrot Yiddish-French Dictionary is obviously one of the best available, but we cannot discard our old dictionaries yet. I have been told that a collective of English speaking Yiddishists is working on a translation of the dictionary into English. A word of warning: translations should be checked with all earlier dictionaries, or we get apple cores where there are none. Lucas Bruyn 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 26, 2005 Subject: Re: prezhenitse I thought ayershpayz was a scrambled egg. Perets Mett 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 27, 2005 Subject: Re: prezhenitse bay undz in der heym hot men gepreyglt a "pletsl," mit gepreyglte tsibele oder on a tsibile. This would be the recipe for two eggs beaten in a bowl fried on both side, sorry, no fillings. hobn mir farkokht a kashe ober nisht prezhenitses. Hy Wolfe 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 27, 2005 Subject: RE: Kuni-leml In Vol. 14 number 48, Lucas Bruyn states: "The question not answered yet is how the lamb got to the kune. Must have been a foolish lamb, and, as Mr. Hartman's original question suggests, probably an innocent lamb as well." At first glance 'leml' looks to be the Yiddish variation of Dutch 'lummel, derived from lumm (dialect Dutch: lazy, limp). Possibly, though, the meaning conflates with 'lommerd' (Lombard), used mediaevally as an insulting term for bankers and pawn-shop owners, as Lombards were at one time north of the Alps. [Note: Lombards as bankers or lenders: the coat of arms of the D'Medici family is still, in abbreviated form, used as a shop-sign for pawnbrokers.] Surely many average people during the middle-ages (and even to recent times) would have loved to see the lommerd or lummel to whom they owed money tied to a pillory. I also suspect that 'kuni' derives from cone (Greek 'konos' - pinecone), applied to a short conical pillar (or its termination) such as one would tie a horse or wagon to - but this is mere speculation. Barney Martin 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 28, 2005 Subject: ikh vil nit keyn ayzerne keytn I'm a sometime lurker on the list, now turning active in hopes of some speedy help with the lyrics for B. Charney Vladek's "ikh vil not keyn ayzerne keytn", which i'm hoping to use in a seder this weekend. I've only been able to find bare-bones summary translations, and don't have the Yiddish skills to get the sense of some parts of the song even with a batch of dictionary work... what I've got is below. So I'm hoping someone can give me a hand, mainly with the last lines of the first and third verses, and the last two lines of the fourth. and of course if i'm terribly off in other places I'd love to know... Feel free to email me off-list, at glitz@lessonplanproject.org Many thanks un gut yontef Daniel Lang -------------- [B. Charney Vladek & Mikhl Gelbart] ikh vil nit keyn ayzerne keytn ikh vil nit keyn golderne kroyne di knekhtshaft iz mies un biter zi meg zayn di gothayt aleyn ikh veys nit fun moyre fun laytn ikh veys nit fun koyrim far got mayn harts iz mayn knekht un bafeler mayn viln iz oykh mayn gebot zol sheltn der kleynlekher soyne un sharfn zayn tempikn shverd tsu zinken in finstern opgrunt iz im fun mayn tsukunft bashert ikh shpin mir mayn fodern fun shtraln ikh veb mir mayn gloybn, mayn fon fun di velkher shpiln in lebn gevint nor der dreyster dem kon ----- I want no iron chains I want no golden crown slavery is ugly and bitter - ?? I know no fear of the wealthy I know no crying out to god my heart is my slave and master my will is likewise my [sole] obligation/mitsve/commandment may the petty enemy curse and sharpen his dull sword - to sink into the dark ground ?? will be his certain fate in my future ?? I spin us threads out of jubilation I weave us my Ideal, my flag - ?? ?? ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 14.049 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu