Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 15.042
February 8, 2006

1) shakhterlid (Fela Glaser)
2) tomid vs. keseyder (Yitzhak Luden)
3) badkhn (Gilles Rozier)
4) badkhn (Bernard Katz)
5) badkhn (Yaffa Glass)
6) badkhn (Maurice Wolfthal)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 8
Subject: SHAKHTER-LID (Coalminers' song)

In koved fun di umgekumene 12 koylngreber (shakhter) di letste vokh,  gib 
ikh do iber a lid, SHAKHTERLID, geshribn fun Z.SEGALOVITSHN UN oysgelernt 
zikh in der finfter klas, MEDEM-SHUL (A TSISHO SHUL IN LODZH), in 1939:

Adye, adye, der liber zun,
dem himl un di shtraln!
Mir raysn op zikh itst derfun,
Far undz iz alts farfaln.

Der tifer vald, dos fraye feld,
Dem frilings ale prakhtn...
Adye, adye der sheyner velt,
Mir Geyen in di shakhtn!

Es gist zikh likht oyf yedn veg,
Es klingen morgnlider;
Es iz di nakht nor-vos avek,
Far undz iz nakht shoyn vider.

Far undz iz nakht in grub arayn,
Genug vet zayn tsu trakhtn...
Adye, adye, der liber shayn,
Mir geyen in di shakhtn!

Fela Glaser

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 12
Subject: tomid vs keseyder

As I understand - tomid iz shtendik in yiddish and always, ever in english 
and keseyder - nokhanand in yiddish and constantly in English, without any 
pilpulistic.

Yitzhak Luden

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 12
Subject: badkhn

In response to Lillian Siegfried's question about badkhones:

You can have a look in Jean Baumgarten's research about this issue:
Jean Baumgarten, l'art des "badhanim" dans la socit hassidique ;
pense religieuse, rites matrimoniaux et traditions orales en langue
yiddish, in Le yiddish ; langue, culture, socit (ed. Jean Baumgarten
et David Bunis), Paris, CNRS, 1999.

As far as I remember, Baumgarten gives some examples of contemporary
badkhones texts in this article and he gives a rich bibliography.

Gilles Rozier

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 12
Subject:  badkhn

In 15.039 Lillian Siegfried asks about the role of a badkhn. There's
lots of good information about badkhanim in the Encyclopaedia Judaica,
Vol.4:73-75 (including 2 early 20thC illustrations). Even more can be
found there by checking the index (Vol.1) under "badhan." As for some
recorded representations, I suggest the wedding scene in the film of
"Fiddler on the Roof", and even better is the recording of a badkhan
spielerei (abbreviated a little) by the Kapelye group, with Michael
Alpert as the badkhn - not to be missed! The disc is titled "Chicken"
(Shanachie, 1989) and the relevant track is the last one - "Der Badkhn."

Bernard (Borukh) Katz

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 13
Subject:  badkhn

The Badkhn was indeed the entertainer at weddings in Eastern Europe.

I doubt there would be any recordings as such. From my late mother's 
stories about her life in a shtetl not far from Lublin, the Badkhn more or 
less resembled a 'stand up' artist of today. The text used by him sounded 
as if it were ad-lib, personalized, e.g., if he praised the
bride's beauty (as one does to this day, even when the bride is not so 
beautiful...) he would use rhymes that would be 'sung' to a niggun which 
would be familiar to the wedding guests, but would include the bride's 
name and so on.

The badkhn was always male, obviously because of the halachic restriction 
on women singing in public.

Mother z"l was so taken by some of the more popular ditties/rhymes that 
she would sing them 40 years later.  I wish I had written them down.  They 
were light hearted and funny and harmless. There was one which begged the 
kale (bride) to stop crying as she had succeeded and was about to enter 
her khupe.

Yaffa Glass

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  January 14
Subject: badkhn

Lillian Siegfried asks about "badkhn."  A fascinating essay by Jean 
Baumgarten appears (in French) in Le yiddish: langue, culture, societe.

The CD Abe Schwartz The Klezmer King features "Di Boibriker Chasseneh" 
(cut 21), in which there is an imitation of a badkhn who wishes a hearty 
mazel tov to all assembled, especially the "makhetunim," and then proceeds 
to insult the khosn and the kale, and predicts that their life together 
will be "gehakte tsures."

Maurice Wolfthal
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End of Mendele Vol. 15.042


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