Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 15.023 August 28 , 2005 1) Henekh Kon, composer (Yvette Metral) 2) On transcription (Lucas Bruyn) 3) Itsik Fefer's poems (Itsik Goldenberg) 4) Who wrote "Grine Bleter"? (Pavel Greenberg) 5) A question about Africa (Sigrid Sohn) 6) klal-shprakh (Allan Nadler) 7) Josef Burg, Yiddish writer (Martin Davis) 8) Shmuel Mett o"h (Shamosim) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: July 9, 2005 Subject: Henekh Kon, composer I am trying to collect the works of this composer who died in NYC in 1972. I already have the scores of "kdoyshim", and "30 Songs of the Ghetto". I am looking for two other works: -an opera: "David and Bathsheba", performed in Warsaw, 1924. -the music Kon wrote for Peretz's play: "bay nakht oyfn altn mark". According to I. Fater, Kon created also two octets for strings, and three poems for violin and piano. Of course I tried already YIVO, Brandeis and so on... No luck so far. If somebody could give me some handful hints, I should feel very grateful. My e-mail: alyvet@noos.fr. Thanks and all the best, Yvette Metral 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 9, 2005 Subject: On transcription Bob Berkovitz comments in Vol. 15.022 on his earlier remark on Romanised Yiddish, saying that 'a consistent transcription is best'. Again, that is why YIVO uses a transliteration for all non-Loshen-Koydesh Yiddish words, in which each Hebrew character is replaced by one Roman letter (or a fixed combination of two Roman letters.as ts for tsadek). Weinreich explains the dual spelling system of Yiddish and the phonemic transcription of Loshen-Koydesh words in the preface to his dictionary. It is slightly more difficult to transliterate Roman script in Hebrew script, because Hebrew misses some letters like the x and c, but one might for instance transliterate English knee as kuf-nun-ayen-ayen, A person knowing Yiddish but not familiar with English would never guess the pronunciation to be nun-yud. He would not be able to pronounce the word written as knee either. The irregular orthography of English has nothing to do with transliterating Yiddish. For several languages written in another script we have a standard transliteration, e.g. Russian and Sanskrit. Lucas Bruyn 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 12, 2005 Subject: Re: Itsik Fefer's poems In response to Jeanette Greenberg's request (Mendele Vol. 15.022) for the words to Itsik Fefer's "Ikh bin a yid," here are 3 of the 14 verses: Der vayn fun doyresdikn doyer Hot mir geshtarkt in vanderveg, Di beyze shverd fun payn un troyer Hot nit farnikhtet mayn farmeg. Mayn folk, mayn gloybn un mayn blien, Zi hot mayn frayhayt nit geshmidt. Fun unter shverd hob ikh geshrien: Ikh bin a yid! Der kluger kneytsh fun Reb Akive, Di khokhme fun Yeshayes vort Hobn gebert mayn dursht, mayn libe, Un zi mit has tsunoyfgeport. Der shvung fun makabeyer heldn, Bar Kokhbas blut in maynem zidt, Fun ale shtayers fleg ikh meldn: Ikh bin a yid! Un oyf tsepikenish di sonim, Vos greytn kvorim shoyn far mir, Vel ikh unter di fraye fonen Nokh hobn nakhes on a shir. Kh'vel mayne vayngertner farflantsn Un fun mayn goyrl zayn der shmid, Kh'vel nokh oyf di sonims keyver tantsn! Ikh bin a yid! The other verses can be found in various collections of Fefer's poems. e.g. the Musterverk anthology No. 14, published in Buenos Aires in l962 ("Dovid Hofshteyn, Izi Kharik, Itsik Fefer - Oysgeklibene Shriftn). Itsik Goldenberg Fort Erie, ON, Canada P.S. I am posting this message on August 12, the 53rd anniversary of Itsik Fefer's execution, together with that of many other prominent Soviet-Yiddish cultural figures, in the Lubyanka prison in Moscow, on August 12, 1952. 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 19, 2005 Subject: Who wrote "Grine Bleter"? I'm trying to establish who was composer of this song, sometimes called by its first stanza "Shpil, tzigayner, mir a lidl". As far as I know, some sources credits Itzik Manger as a composer, others - Moishe Oysher, which, for example, sang this song in "Dem Hazn Zindl" movie. But in that movie's titles we also can read: Musical Score Composed and Directed by Alexander Olshanetsky. Of course, this reference hasn't single meaning like "Music Composed", but ...maybe it is really Olshanetsky's song? Any help will be appreciated. Pavel Greenberg 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 26, 2005 Subject: A question about Africa Please, can somebody help me, in a question that regards a poem of Avraham Sutzkever. In one of the poems of the cycle "Helfandn ba nakht" Sutzkever writes "pigmeyen fun sakhare" I can not understand what is sakhare as I can't find a town or a region with this name in the map. Maybe, somebody knows. Sigrid Sohn 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 26, 2005 Subject: klal-shprakh I see the value in instructing students using the klal-sprakh non-accented Yiddish for early study, but after that it becomes a new dialect...the one one hears Zumer-program graduates nad klez-kamp enthusiasts, many of whom are now Yiddish college instructors of Yiddish actually speaking with eachother. It sounds awful to my ears (and I too learned Yiddish from College Yiddish in an essentially klal-sprakh way, at McGill, from the late Leib Tencer). At some point, by the second semester or so, students ought to be exposed to dialectical, i.e. real, Yiddish. This would make learning the language more interesting. You get to choose if you want to be a Litvak or a Poylisher or a Galitsianer or an 'Ingerisher. If you keep speaking klal-shprakh for too long, you're just a Yiddish speaking sheygets. For additional remarks see http://www.forward.com/articles/3839 Allan Nadler 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 27, 2005 Subject: Josef Burg, Yiddish writer Mendele readers will find this article from the Financial Times interesting. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6807041c-145d-11da-9df1-00000e2511c8.html Martin Davis 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 28, 2005 Subject: Shmuel Mett o"h Our readers everywhere extend their deepest sympathy to fellow-Mendelist Perets Mett and his wife Judith on the tragic death if their son Shmuel in Jerusalem. Shamosim ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 15.023 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, choose one of these two: Messages for posting on Mendele Personal and other messages to the shamosim