Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 15.017
July 10, 2005

1) Sam Kweskin z"l (Sema Chaimovitz Menora)
2) nisht angedakht (Leizer Gillig)
3) Soviet Orthography (Lucas Bruyn)
4) shepn nakhes (Leon T. Rosenberg)
5) shepn nakhes (Jack S. Berger)
6) A poem by Yuri Suhl (Al Stein)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: July 8, 2005
Subject: Sam Kweskin z"l

Just thought I would let Mendele members know of the passing of one of its
members, Sam Kweskin, an artist who  hailed originally from Chicago and
then New York before retiring to Boca Raton, Fla. A WW2 veteran and a
skilled Yiddish speaker,  Sam was one of the original members of AOL's
highly popular transliterated Yiddish chat group of the 1990s, a group
which eventually faded away due to loss of leadership. Sam's funeral was
held in Chicago, where  he was buried next to his beloved daughter,
Barbara.

Sema Chaimovitz Menora

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: July 8, 2005
Subject: Re: nisht angedakht

I think that the phrase referred to is not "nicht angedacht", but "nisht
_haynt_ gedakht", (not brought to mind today- although of course it is said
exactly when bringing something to mind) which is said when remembering a
bad event or situation that took place in the past, lest its very memory
result in a repetition of the horror. I have also heard people say "nisht
do gedakht" (not brought to mind here) in exactly the same way. (e.g.,"in
Auschwitz, nisht do gedakht, hobn mir nisht gehat vos tsu esn.")

Moreover, "andenken" or "angedacht" in German would be "ondenkn" or
"ongedakht" in Yiddish, and in the Galitzianer-Hungarian-Poylish Yiddish
common in the "Toronto Ghetto" it would become "ungedakht", so the
phrase is definitely not "nisht angedackht"

Leizer Gillig

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: July 8, 2005
Subject: Re: Soviet Orthography

Mordkhe Schaechter mentions the orthography used in the Soviet
Union briefly in his _The Standardised Yiddish Orthography_:

     In the Soviet Union, which instituted its own standard Yiddish
     spelling in the early 1930s, final khof, mem, nun, fe and tsadik were
     eliminated (but were reintroduced in 1961). The spelling of
     Hebrew-origin words according to the phonemic system used for all all
     other yiddish words remained in effect, although with the dissolution
     of the Soviet Union, there has been some discussion of reconciling the
     orthography with the standard prevailing in the rest of the world.

For clarity I would like to remark that the Soviet orthography of
non-Hebrew Yiddish words is basically the same as the Standardized YIVO
Orthography and that the Soviet spelling of Hebrew words according to the
phonemic system is identical to the system used in Weinreich?s dictionary.

Lucas Bruyn

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: July 8, 2005
From: leon t rosenberg 
Subject: Re: shepn nakhes

Refers to the pride generated in the elders by their lineal descendendents.
I suspect it is restricted to the achievememts of children and.
grandchildren, and their  parents and grandparents or, uncommonly, an
uncle or aunt).  I know of no single English equivalent, suggesting either
that the gene for the emotion is somehow ethnically restricted.  Men ken
visn az a tate kleybt nakhes.  Er zitst und kvelt.

Leon T. Rosenberg

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: July 8, 2005
Subject: Re: shepn nakhes

I do not understand why khaver Segal believes his example is not
translatable.

To "shep nakhes"  is to draw great personal satisfaction and joy (from a
metaphorical wellspring containing this rare commodity).

One of my uncles was fond of translating "nakhes" as the feeling you have
when you see that your children have turned out well.

Jack S. Berger

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: July 9, 2005
Subject: A poem by Yuri Suhl

We are looking for the original Yiddish poem by Yuri Suhl that Aaron Kramer
has included on page 309 in his anthology, " A Century of Yiddish Poetry"
and translated as  "My song will be that fists fling high". Kramer
translates the first line as "Let bourgeois poets sing the greening season
and praise the tender little breeze of May;"

If this Yiddish poem is available to you, please scan it and e-mail it to
Carl Rosenberg, editor of Canadian Jewish Outlook at cjoutlook@telus.net or
fax him a good copy at (604) 325 2470.

We thank you for your assistance.  A dank faroys.

Al Stein

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End of Mendele Vol. 15.017


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