Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 15.045 February 21, 2006 1) vu iz dos gesele? (Bernard Katz) 2) Visotskis tey (Zevi Ghivelder) 3) Visotskis tey (Maurice Wolfthal) 4) Visotskis tey (Yaffa Glass) 5) Visotskis tey (Bernard Katz) 6) Rokhl Luria (Bernard Katz) 7) badkhn (Helen Winkler) 8) Online dictionary (Refoyl Finkel) 9) Opatoshu's "Pundika Retivta" (Shimon Frank) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 14 Subject: vu iz dos gesele? Lynda Kraar asks about the lyrics and music to "vu iz dos gesele?" Two sets of Yiddish lyrics and one in Russian can be found on the Zemerl Web site: zemerl.com. As for the music, I cannot find it in anything I have at hand. However, the Zemerl site includes a 3.3 min recording by what sounds like the Barry sisters, in Yiddish and English. Abi gezunt, Bernard Katz, Toronto 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 14 Subject: Visotskis tey Vissotsky was the most popular tea brand in Russia around the 20s. At that time, Russian Jews used to say: To whom belongs the tea? Vissotsky! To whom belongs the sugar? Brodsky! To whom belongs Russia? Trotsky! The Vissotsky family moved to Palestine and Vissotsky Tea is still for sale nowadays in Israel. Zevi Ghivelder 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 14 Subject: Visotkis tey Felicitas Payk asks about the Yiddish song, "Visotski's Tey." It's on the Klezmer Conservatory Band CD, "A Touch of Klez." I don't know its origin. A poor Jewish woman who sells tea on the streets of Russia laments the fate of her son who has been drafted into the tsar's army, while the rich can bribe their way out of it. Maurice Wolfthal 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 14 Subject: Visotskis tey The only thing I can say about it (I think almost every one knows this) is that the most famous tea company in Israel is called Wissotzky. To day it manufactures many kinds of tea. In the beginning it used to produce only one brand. Yaffa Glass 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 14 Subject: Vizotsky's Tey Felicitas Payk asks about the song "Visotskis Tay." I cannot find anything about this song or its lyrics, but here's something about "Visotski." The firm K.W. Wissotzky & Co. was established 157 years ago and soon became one of the leading purveyors of tea in the world. Here's a bit from their current Web site, www.wtea.com: "The Wissotzky Tea Company was established in 1849 in Moscow - Russia by Klonimus Wolf Wissotzky, and prior to World War I had branches in the main East European countries. In 1907 Wissotzky had its Head purchasing office in London, then Tea capital of the world, and later became the largest Tea Company in the world with plants in Russia, Ukraine and Poland and Tea plantations in India and in Ceylon." More information can be found on the site under "History" and in the Encyclopaedia Judaica under the founder's name, but suffice it to say that the firm opened a branch in Palestine in 1936 which quickly flourished and is still in existence. The USA branch was opened in 1904 and in Canada their products were imported by the wholesale grocers, Weidman & Co. of Winnipeg, as early as the first decade of the 1900's. One can buy "Visotskis Tay" to this very day - my favorite is their "Nana Tea," a Mediterranean style of mint flavored black tea! Bernard Katz 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 14 Subject: Rokhl (Rachel) Luria Golda Shore asks about Rachel Luria. I have no information about her except for what is recorded in the Library of Congress entry for her book, Modne Menshen: Tseykhnungen fun A. Abramovits. Luria's dates are given as 1886-1929, but there no other books recorded by LC under her name. Per the LC record, the book contains short stories. Neither Yeshiva U.'s library online catalogue nor YIVO's show anything more, but the NYPL has a copy of another book of hers on microfilm: Zibn Vayber In Eyner: Dertseylung (New York: Farlag "Zweigen," 1925). It is classed as children's literature. Bernard Katz 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 7 Subject: badkhn The Budowitz recording Wedding Without a Bride, includes the chanting of the badkhn's verses by Majer Bogdanski (he recently passed away), who worked as a badkhn in Europe. See www.budowitz.com for further information. The liner notes provide extensive information about the role of the badkhn and many other aspects of 19th century Jewish weddings in Poland. In addition, the old Yiddish movies Der Dybbuk and Yidl Mit'n Fidl have scenes featuring badkhnonim chanting. Helen Winkler 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 7 Subject: online dictionary I am pleased to announce an online view of a work in progress: a Yiddish-English bidirectional dictionary. You can access it at yiddishdictionaryonline.com/beginner.htm. At either the top or bottom, you may type in a word or phrase. If you type in Yiddish, use YIVO transliteration. Use the base form (not the plural or conjugated form) of nouns, adjectives, and verbs. So use "plimenik", not "plimenikes," "sheyn," not "sheyne," "helf," not "helfn" or "untergeholfn." The output will show both likely matches (with yellow background) and unlikely ones (with pink background), along with related words. It shows some morphological information, such as part of speech, gender and pluralization(nouns), past participle (verbs), adverbial complements (verbs), gradability (adjectives: an adjective is gradable if it has a comparative and superlative). Searching for Yiddish words with Hebraic spelling is harder: you need to know my internal representation. To find, for instance, "sholem," you would type "Slm". I record a few categories along with definitions. So, type "clothing" or "sound" and you will get lists of clothing words and sound words. I also note a few grammatical items (try "indeclinable") and usage (try "inadmissable" or "taboo".) On occasion I indicate where I saw a word; try "Hoffman," "Bergelson", "note: V". As I mentioned, this is a work in progress. Let me know of any errors you find. I am sure there are lots of mistakes. This output comes from my "master list" that I also use to generate spell-corrector programs and rewrite rules (you type "sholem," but it gets converted to shin-lamed-vov-shlosmem) that the shraybmashinke uses. Refoyl Finkel 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 9 Subject: Opatoshu's "Pundika Retivta" We have a 24p. booklet (5.5"x7.5") written by Joseph Opatoshu, published in Chicago in 1933 by L. M. Stein. It's beautifully bound, with an unusual patterned cover, and contains 5 full-page illustrations by E. Glicenstein. Our copy is one of the original 200 printed. The book is a fictional tale about long ago times at an inn in Caesaria and some Jews who were spending a night there. The title of the book (and the Inn)is the Aramaic words "Pundika Retivta," presumably from the Jerusalem Talmud. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has read this book and might understand what Opatoshu had in mind when he chose that title and its meaning and relevance to the story itself. Shimon Frank ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 15.045 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, choose one of these Messages for postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Other messages to the shamosim: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu