Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 15.010 June 12, 2005 1) dray niselekh (Ellen Prince) 2) On Long Winter Nights (Justin Daniel Cammy) 3) parkh (Bob Rothstein) 4) parkh (Andrew Cassel) 5) lakhn mit yashtcherkes (Bob Rothstein) 6) kakt mir bkherem (Shalom Londner) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 8, 2005 Subject: Re: dray niselekh Marvin Engel asks about a song which is very close to one that the singer Sarah Gorby recorded on a 78 rpm record and which I transcribed as follows. (The bracketed material is stuff I was unsure of.) From Sarah Gorby, Melotone 293 DRAY YINGELEKH (Zaslavsky) Di mame hot dray yingelekh, Dray yingelekh gehat. Mit beyde royte bekelekh, Di tsarte [samet blat]. Hot eyns geheysn Berele, Dos tsveyte Khayim Shmerele, Dos drite hot geheysn "Men zol im koyfn shikh." Ikh hob aykh opgenart, Ikh hob gevust ir vart, Dos drite kleyne yingele, Dos drite, dos bin ikh, bin ikh. Dos drite kleyne yingele, Dos drite, dos bin ikh, bin ikh. Di mame hot dray niselekh Fun dem yarid gebrakht. Dray gute fete niselekh, Dray niselekh, a trakht! Iz eyns geven far Berele, Un eyns far Khayim Shmerele, Un gor dos beste nisele, Hot zi gelozt far zikh. Ir vundert zikh a bisl Far vos nit mir a nisl, Vayl nisl, nisl, nisele, Dos drite, dos bin ikh, bin ikh. Vayl nisl, nisl, nisele, Dos drite, dos bin ikh, bin ikh. Di mame hot aheymgebrakht Tsvey niselekh [...] mikh, Tsvey nislekh far di briderlekh, Un mir tsvey naye shikh! Ellen Prince [From Mendele 07.078: The song "Di mame hot dray yingelekh" was written by Y. Goichberg. The more popular melody was written by Michl Gelbart. I believe the melody that Sarah Garby sings (that Ellen Prince) refers to is by N. Zaslavsky. (Chana and Yosl Mlotek)] [Posts also received from Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Martin Jacobs and Elye Palevsky.] 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 8, 2005 Subject: Hinde Bergner, On Long Winter Nights This is to announce the recent publication of an English language translation from the Yiddish of Hinde Bergner's memoir of life in a small Galician shtetl - On Long Winter Nights. As members of Mendele might recall, Bergner is the mother of Melekh Ravitsh and Herts Bergner, and the grandmother of painter Yosl Bergner. The memoir recalls the gradual impact of modernization on a traditional world from the perspective of a young woman. As translator, I provide an introduction to situate the memoir in the context of Galician Jewry. This short volume should be of particular interest to students of Eastern European Jewish culture and Jewish women's studies, and is a new addition to the library of Jewish women's memoir from Eastern Europe. Publication Information: Hinde Bergner, On Long Winter Nights: Memoirs of a Jewish Family in a Galician Township, 1870-1900, translated from the Yiddish, with an introduction by Justin Cammy, Harvard Center for Jewish Studies, 2005 (Distributed by Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-01969-5, $25, cloth; ISBN 0-674-01970-9, $17.50, paper. Justin Daniel Cammy jcammy@smith.edu 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 8, 2005 Subject: Re: parkh The Polish word _parch_, referred to by Lyuba Dukker in 15.009, is the name of a skin disease that is called favus in English. It is a kind of ringworm, caused by a fungus. Its most typical manifestation is on the scalp, where it produces round, yellow, cup-shaped crusts with a "musty" or "mousy" odor. The 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica says that favus "is commonest among the poorer Jews of Russia, Poland, Hungary, Galicia and the East and among the same class of Mahommedans in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, Egypt, Algiers etc. ...Lack of personal cleanliness is an almost necessary factor in its development..." The Polish term seems to be used nowadays only (or primarily) with reference to a fungal disease of plants. The human disease or animal disease is more often called _grzybica woszczynowy_ (sebaceous mycosis) or _strupien' woszczynowy_ (sebaceous tinea). The word _parch_ was also a term of abuse applied to Jews in Polish, as was the adjective _parchaty_, also borrowed by Ukrainian and (perhaps via Ukrainian) Russian, which originally meant 'infected with favus'. A variant of the adjective meaning 'infected with favus' was Polish _parszywy_ (with similar forms in Ukrainian and Russian), which also took on the figurative meaning 'lousy, rotten', whence Yiddish _parshive_. Note that English "lousy" (which is considerably weaker than the Slavic adjectives) also presumably originally meant 'infected with lice'. Bob Rothstein 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 8, 2005 Subject: Re: parkh I don't know what other connotations the term "parkh" might have, but my version of Harkavy's dictionary defines it as "scab, scurf, (fig) wicked man". It shows up in my grandfather's memoirs of his Lithuanian heymshtot Keidan, in this description of a rather frightful character: "avrom parkh, a hoykher, darer mit a tsigenem groyer berdl, velkher iz geven eyner fun di khapers in nikolays tsaytn, hot tsulib zayn frierdiker basheftigung oysgeibt epes a min shrek oyf di Keidaner yidn, velkhe nokh als kinder, flegn araynfalnen in a tsiter, ven men flegt nor zayn nomen dermonen." My translation: (corrections welcomed): Avrom 'the Scab' was a tall, skinny man with a grey goatee. He had been one of the child-snatchers in Tsar Nikolai's time, and because of his former occupation he still evoked terror in the hearts of Keidan Jews, who as children had trembled at the mere mention of his name. Andrew Cassel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 8, 2005 Subject: Re: lakhn mit yashtcherkes A belated response to Bernard Brasen, who asked in 14.050 about "lakhn mit yashtsherkes": there's a possible etymology in 1.208 (April 6, 1992). Bob Rothstein 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 10, 2005 Subject: Re: kakt mir bkherem "freg mich b'kheyrem" was the the ironic answer my parents would give me if asked about an item that I had misplaced. That is to say "I might as well be in excommunication for all the good it's going to do you to ask me about the thing you misplaced" This expression was also liberally applied when I (who was already a smartaleck at a young age) would pose a myriad of questions for which they could supply no ready answers. I also have heard the word play of "kak zey on instead of kik zey on. I heard it used both in jest and in serious insult. Shalom Londner ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 15.010 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, choose one of these three: Messages for posting on Mendele Personal and other messages to the shamosim