Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 15.028 September 22 , 2005 1) Majer Bogdanski (Hershl Hartman) 2) Yiddish literacy (Joachim Martillo) 3) Yiddish literacy (NMorrie Feller) 4) The state of Yiddish (Lucas Bruyn) 5) The state of Yiddish (Yankev Berger) 6) The state of Yiddish (Leizer Giilg) 7) Early medical writings in Yiddish (Cheryl Tallan) 8) "Naye Vegn" numer 12 (Barry Goldstein) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 16, 2005 Subject: Majer Bogdanski -- The L.A. Connection Nine of Bogdanski's musical settings for poems by Soviet Yiddish writers had their North American premiere in Los Angeles on August 10, 2003, as part of that year's commemoration -- sponsored by ten Secular Jewish organizations -- of the Soviet Yiddish writers murdered by the Stalin regime. Sung in Yiddish by soprano Vanessa Paloma, a leading interpreter of Sefardic Jewish music, the nine songs were part of the script, "The Soviet Yiddish Writers: A Celebration of Their Final Victory," written by the undersigned. The musical settings for the poems, whose English translations are part of the script, appear in Bogdanski's four-volume compilation of his musical works. The poems and their authors, not all of whom were executed on August 12, 1952, are: Moyshe Kulbak: eybik, "Eternally" Itsik Fefer: zaynen toyern mer nit farshlosn, "Gates Are No Longer Barred" Leyb Kvitko: mayn ruf, "My Call" Yosif Kerler: lider kumen, "Songs Come," nit shayekh, "Not Mete" and akshones, "Stubbornness" Shmuel Halkin: a groyse naye velt, "A Huge New World" Dovid Hofshteyn: tsum nayem knoyt, "To The New Wick" Izi Kharik: mikh art nit, "I Don't Care" Copies of the script, which includes brief biographies of Bogdanski and of the poets, are available on request. kovid dem likhtikn ondenk fun Mayer Bogdanski -- all honor to the bright memory of Majer Bogdanski! Hershl Hartman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 16, 2005 Subject: Re: Yiddish literacy Many other factors play a role. Previous learning of other languages is a great advantage. A second or third foreign language is learned much faster than the first. A student who happens to know German (or Dutch) and Hebrew could start reading Yiddish from day one, a student who just knows English and has no clue to general grammar is at a disadvantage. Classical Hebrew and German actually create a lot of confusion in understanding and speaking proper Yiddish, while Modern Israeli Hebrew, Polish and Yiddish actually share a lot of syntax -- especially in relative clauses, aspect and complex sentence structure. The phonology is all quite similar and the range of meaning of a word in Yiddish is usually the same as the range of meaning of the most obvious translation into Polish or Modern Israeli Hebrew. I also find the semantics and humor in Polish, Modern Israeli Hebrew and Yiddish rather similar. Joachim Martillo 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 19, 2005 Subject: Re: Yiddish literacy In response to Lucas Bruyn (15.027), I would, first of all, like to thank him for his full commentary relative to the question of acquiring Yiddish literacy. The main purpose behind my inquiry was to determine if it might be practicable to create enough readers who could take advantage of the thousands of Yiddish titles which the NYBC has accumulated over the past twenty five years. If there is a lack of such readers, then the question arises about the value of such a huge collection. If we have to rely on a handful of translators to open up the treasures of Yiddish literature, it could be a very long time before an appreciable portion of this literature becomes available to the English reader. Morrie Feller 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 18, 2005 Subject: Re: the state of Yiddish In reply to Yankev Berger's Catch 22 comment (Vol.15.027) I can only say that eventually a truce with the Haredim will be necessary if Yiddish is to survive as a living language. I would like to refer to a recent article by Avirama Golan in the , Haarets of 18 Sept. 2005, entitled Angry young men in black, signalling some changes within the Haredi community and mentioning three writers from that community. http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo3D78012&contra ssID3D3&subContrassID3D0&sbSubContrassID3D0 Lucas Bruyn 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 18, 2005 Subject: Re: the state of Yiddish I find the various thoughts being expressed here quite cogent and important to this forum. I would go so far as to say that this might be the highest priority issue worth exploring by the readers of this newsletter. First, I would like to say that Khaver Wolfe's findings are welcome, but lack the force of numbers to make his conclusion credible. The evidence he presents is consistent with an outcome that relegates Yiddish to a niche reserved for specialists and afficionados. It does not bode well for the putative renaissance that many would like to see. In this regard, I believe the fate of 'Der Forverts,' today called 'The Forward,' is a better indication of where we are heading. To lend credence to Khaver Wolfe's thesis, one would have to see a reversal of the current trajectory: an increase in Yiddish content over English content, and an increase in frequency of publication from weekly back to daily. That is not likely to happen any time soon. As to the acquisition of competence in reading Yiddish, I concur with Khaver Astro's general outlook. Yiddish is more than just a language -- it is the mode of expression by a culture with a specific history and value system. Accordingly, even if you 'master the fundamentals,' (meaning the grammar, syntax and vocabulary) -- but only that --such an individual will have a stilted view of written Yiddish by the masters, and the Yiddish he or she speaks will sound peculiar. I also agree that the lament over the absence of a 'modern Yiddish literature,' is overstated. Reading I. L. Peretz, Sholom Aleichem, and all the Singers provides an excellent foundation for acquiring the idiom of the language. It is true that the development of the language was 'arrested' by the Holocaust, and therefore is a bit frozen in time, say early 20th century. This does not militate against its beauty or ability to serve as a means of literary expression, any more than Elizabethan English was inadequate in satisfying Shakespeare's needs. Yankev Berger 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 20, 2005 Subject: Re: the state of Yiddish Recent postings of Yankev Berger and Lucas Bruyn regarding the state of Yiddish are very interesting. Personally I disagree that "old" Yiddish literature is not interesting, not relevant, and depressing. Like any classic literature in any language, if it's worth keeping, it has timeless messages, timeless characters, and timeless enchantment. I also would like to point out that many "Yizkor books" are actually _not_ written particularly well, as they were produced by people who may not have been professional writers, but people who wanted to say what needed to be said before it was all forgotten. Nevertheless, it would be great to have a wellspring of good contemporary Yiddish literature. In response to Bruyn's suggestion that we need more contemporary Yiddish literature, Berger writes: To stimulate the writing of contemporary Yiddish, it is necessary to have a cultural matrix within which the language itself thrives as the medium of daily discourse. This is a pre-requisite to giving someone with writing talent the basis on which to articulate whatever it is that is on that person's mind. "That cultural matrix no longer exists, nor can it be re-created." This statement is simply not true. The Hasidic world, while not interested in _producing_ Yiddish literature, certainly provides a cultural matrix with ample fodder about which Yiddish literature could be produced. For example, the story behind the 1998 film "A Price Above Rubies", starring Renee Zellweger (and as an ex Boro Parker, I must say that Renee should have gotten the Oscar for her flawless performance as a Hasidic woman), could have made for a compelling novel had it been written in Yiddish. The stories of Yonia Fain, written in the late 40's or early 50's in the anthology "Niu-Yorker Adresn", while perhaps no longer contemporary, could have been written in _any_ language, demonstrating that the idiom does not necessarily inform the content of good literature. Even some of the Hassidic publications being produced, with decent editing, could become good Yiddish literature. If one argues that the lives of people Boro Park have at best a tenuous relationship to the Yiddish reader in San Francisco, I might counter that the lives of people in Kasrilevke had very little relationship to the lives of Yiddish readers in Boston. Much ado is made by yidishistn about the fact that the khsidim are not particularly articulate. Nevertheless, they are actually speaking Yiddish and the language is vibrant, natural, and real, if not scholarly. Bruyn makes some good suggestions: "The production of modern Yiddish literature in a modern form of Yiddish should be stimulated. Modern Yiddish should be allowed to have at least 15% of Anglicisms and English loan words, reflecting the natural development and growth of the language. The translation of contemporary literature into Yiddish should be stimulated. Why not a contest to get the best translation of the lyrics of Bob Dylan, for example. An attempt should be made to convince the remaining Yiddish mameloshn speakers that their conservative attitude towards the language is not helpful stimulating young learners." Yiddish has always assimilated words from the host culture. I feel that YIVO's hard-core Jewish Esperanto a/k/a "klal yidish", which keeps Yiddish in a fossilized state for nostalgic reasons. Greater flexibility in using words and constructions borrowed from English would recognize the fact that Yiddish _is_ alive and well, and living and breathing. When the good people of Boro Park say things like "Yanki, jump nisht of di steps vayl du kenst dikh hurten", while they are perhaps reflecting an unfortunate decline in the use of "proper Yiddish", they are not doing anything that drastically different from someone who in days of yore said "der kran iz fardzshavet gevorn". Why borrowings from Polish were "kosher" but borrowings from American are not, I am not quite sure. Meanwhile, who has determined that cellphones are "mobilkes"? Another unfortunate (?) but very real development of the Anglicization of Yiddish by its contemporary real speakers (i.e., the khsidim) is an almost pathological disregard for noun gender and declension of both definite articles and pronouns. Like in English, where the definite article is "the" in all cases, the "haymish-yiddish" speakers tend to use "di." I even saw a website produced by the younger generation of Bobover Khsidim who referred to "Di Rov".... and certainly they are not referring to a female Rabbi! The dative case commonly now uses "tsu" in place of the English "to": Di mame hot gegebn dem kind a shtikl broyt" has become "De mame hot gegebn a shtikl broyt tsu de kind", with "de" having a sort of schwa sound for its vowel. "Di maydel" has become feminine at last, and she eats with "gupelakh and lefelakh" (which she may have purchased by saving up her "nickelakh".) I am not suggesting that we throw out all the rules of grammar, but am suggesting that perhaps we are, in the post-cataclysmic stage, seeing a type of linguistic evolution perhaps akin to what happened to English after the Battle of Hastings, when it received its infusion of Latinate words and constructions. If we are to seriously keep Yiddish alive as a living language, we must recognize that it is evolving, and without losing respect for past traditions (we still learn Beowulf in school, too), we must go with the flow. We must also, I think, recognize that much of classic Yiddish literature was written, to a great extent, for the common man, not for the scholar. With this in mind, we should lose the ivory tower mentality. In English, we no longer decline verbs, but not all that long ago, in a historical sense, English verbs were declined (I am, thou art). In my own lifetime (I am an old man of 50), contemporary English has assimilated constructions. Split infinitives are now kosher. The subjunctive is nearly dead ("If this be treason..."), and the list goes on and on. I am not sure what _would_ stimulate younger speakers. Perhaps getting Jewish schools - even synagogue "Hebrew" schools to offer Yiddish as a language along with Israeli Hebrew would be a good start. I do think that translating contemporary literature into Yiddish would be a great idea - but please, don't do a "Vini der Pu" in transliteration. What we _do_ need, are good Yiddish writers, editors, and thinkers to produce the literature. Halevay ikh volt dos gekont ton- but Miss Legierski didn't teach Yiddish. In summary, then: 1) Yiddish is _not_ dead. It is alive, in a form that is evolving - perhaps more rapidly evolving than some would prefer. 2) There IS a growing cultural matrix in which "naturally occurring" Yiddish is still thriving - in an evolved state. 3) The evolution of Yiddish is reflected in changes in vocabulary, grammatical construction, and some basic aspects of the language. 4) We have to recognize this as a fact, and respect it. This doesn't mean that we don't learn the "old". English speakers no longer sound like Jane Austen characters, but we still learn and love Jane Austen! 5) Di tzayten zey farenderen zikh. Leizer Gillig 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 21, 2005 Subject: Early medical writings in Yiddish Can anyone tell me anything about the earliest medical writings in Yiddish. When and where were they written? Are they translations from Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, or vernacular languages or were they written originally in Yiddish? Have any of them been printed or do they only exist in manuscript form? Where and how can I find them? Thanks, Cheryl Tallan c.tallan@utoronto.ca 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 22, 2005 Subject: "Naye Vegn" numer 12 nor vos aroys fun druk, der nayer number "naye vegn - literarisher almanakh", fun Tel-Aviv. dos heyst, numer 12. inhalt: ali rozentsvayg - a trefung mit zikh aleyn yisroyl nekrasov - dray sonetn mordkhe shteynberg - di intuitsye fun a mame sholem berger - lider leye robinson - kholem-ferd shhmul naydorf - mentshn un dinozaver andrea fidermuts shtelt for: brider grim - di tsetantste shikh i.s. - di ban d"r avrom grinboym - di ludmirer moyd naye nemen: dmitri yakirevitsh - lider yitskhok bogolyubov - dertseylungen dmitri slepovitsh - lider felix heymovitsh - lider iberzetsungen: J.R.R. Tolkien - boymbord (yidish: b. goldshteyn)(*) yehude gur-eyrye - shprakhn fun mayn lebn (yidish: basman ben-khayem) i. ilf un ye. petrov - dos shtarke gefil, a vodevil (yidish: henekh groysman un b.ts.folman) fun literarishn izoven: moyshe helmond - yehudises trern literatur-kritik: lazar lubarski - velvl zbarzher d"r moyshe kijak - zigmund froyd yitskhok gnuz - dos lid vegn zeydn un aynikl dramaturgye: daniel glay - di strashidle men ken krign ekzemplarn fun "hemshekh-dor libhobers fun yidish", alenbi gas 100, "dorgraf", Tel-Aviv, tel: 03-5607760, blitsbriv-adres: dorgrf@013.net. oder durkh der radyo-program "dos yidishe kol" fun boston: http://www.yv.org/ oder radio@yv.org. (*) nit vos ikh zol zikh barimen, ober lomir bloyz zogn, az me ken krign kopyes fun "boymbord", mayner an iberzetsung funem kapitl "Treebeard" fun der har fun di fingerelkh. lozt visn vos far a kopye: *.doc, *.html, oder af emesn papir: bag@shore.net. Barry Goldstein ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 15.028 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