Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 15.034
November 20, 2005

1) Julian Tuwim (Gilles Rozier)
2) Julian Tuwim (Wlodek Goldkorn)
3) Julian Tuwim (Marci Shore)
4) Julian Tuwim (Yitzhak Luden)
5) Textbooks (Heather Valencia)
6) A folk song fragment (Morton Morrison)
7) megayer zayn (Amitai Halevi)


1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: November 18, 2005
Subject: Re: Julian Tuwim

To answer to Sarah Zarrow (Mendele Vol. 15.033)

I really don't think that Julian Tuwim was able to translate himself into
Yiddish. I am not sure eather that he knew the language.

Gilles Rozier
Paris

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: November 18, 2005
Subject: Re: Julian Tuwim

Tuwim did not translate any of his poems into yiddish. Maybe he knew and
understood some, since he lived in Poland, but I guess he did know to write
neither to read yiddish.

The two worlds in Poland: Jewish Jews, speaking yiddish and assimilated
Jews, speaking Polish had very few contacts one with other and were rather
separated.

Wlodek Goldkorn
Firenze Italy

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: November 18, 2005
Subject: Re: Julian Tuwim

I'm fairly certain that Julian Tuwim never translated his own works
into Yiddish.  He was very negatively predisposed towards the
language, and I suspect his skills in it were limited to passive ones.
He may have translated some of his work into Esperanto (he was an
Esperanto enthusiast), but I'm not certain of that.  Tuwim himself was
a devoted translator, especially of Russian (although he also
translated Marinetti, for instance).  His poetry was so much a playing
with sounds of the Polish language, though, I've never come across any
references to any self-translations.

Marci Shore

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: November 20, 2005
Subject: Re: Julian Tuwim/Lokomatywa

Ms. Sara Zarrow asked (in volume 15, number 33): "Do any Mendelyaners know
if Tuwim translated his own work into Yiddish." As far as I know he
didn't, and it was myself who translated into Yiddish the poem
"Lokomotywa".

I never heard that Julian Tuwim was ideologically opposed to using Yiddish.
He was assimilated into the Polish culture and he considered himself a
Polish poet.

I don't understand what does Ms. Zarrow mean by using the expression "a
secondary translator". I was asked by the Polish "Institut Mickiewicza" in
Krakow to translate the poemA0 for the purpose of preparing a  special
issue of this poem in 23 languages. Meanwhile the poem in my translation
appeared in an ilustrated booklet (with my permission my copyright
is mentioned there) as a diploma-project of the School  of Fine Arts in
Czestochowa, Poland, for the year 2005.

As far as I know, the late Benjamin Tene was the translator of the poem
into Hebrew. I am surprised why his name does not appear in this issue.

Yitzhak Luden

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: November 18, 2005
Subject: Re: Textbooks

May I reply to Gershon Freidlin's request for textbooks for university
students by immodestly suggesting my own anthology of short Yiddish texts
with notes, short biographies,  a glossary and 8 (yes 8) CDs of the texts
being read by readers of native-speaker quality. The book is called "Mit
groys fargenign" and is available for 38 dollars (including the CDs) from
the Workers' Circle Bookshop in New York, and from several internet
bookstores. (For people in Europe who are interested, it can be supplied
from here - you can write to me).

Mit hartsike grusn,

Heather Valencia
valencia@onetel.com

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: November 18, 2005
Subject: A folk song fragment

A fragment of a folk song that my mother sang about the year 1920 has =
been running around in my head.  Can anyone give me all the words with a =
translation?  A shaynen dank.

gegn a vayb ken men ken khokhem gornit zayn
gegn a vayb tor ken tsaine nit
es hayt a yetzer horele ..............

Morton Morrison

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: November 18, 2005
Subject: Re: megayer zayn

While I have nothing to contribute in response to Felicitas Payk's
question about current usage, let me make a grammatical comment that may be
relevant.

In Hebrew , "megayer" (active voice)  means the one - presumably the Rabbi
- who is performing the conversion. The convert is the one who has been
"meguyar" (passive voice). A person willing to be converted  can be
regarded as  who converts him/herself, and is referred to as a "mitgayer"
(reflexive voice).

In Yiddish, at a guess, the last named could be rendered in either of two
ways: "zikh megayer zayn" or "misgayer zayn",  in which the "zikh" is
implied.

Amitai Halevi

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End of Mendele Vol. 15.034


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