Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 15.049
March 6, 2005

1) Vu iz dos gesele? (Jean Pauline)
2) Vu iz dos gesele? (Norman Buder)
3) "Shut In" (Janneke van de Stadt)
4) Child's finger game/varnishkes (Yelena Shmulenson)
5) Child's finger game (Chassie Margolis)
6) Child's finger game (Barbara M. Kaplowitz)
7) "Jewish" joke (Lyuba Dukker)
8) kuznye (Ruth G)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  February 22
Subject: Vu iz dos gesele?

The San Francisco Jewish Folk Chorus often sings Vu is Dos Gesele. I'm a 
member of that wonderful group and have the words:

Vu iz dos gesele, vu iz di shtib?
Un vu is dos meydele vos ikh hob lib?
Do iz dos gesele, do is di shtib,
Do iz does meydele vos ikh hob lib.

Vu iz dos taykhele, vu iz di mil?
Un vu iz dos derfele, vu iz di shil?
Do iz dos taykhele, do iz di mil,
Do iz dos derfele, do iz di shil.

Arayn in dem shtibl, mayn veytik iz groys,
Alts iz geblibn, a khurbn iz do bloyz.
Nito mer dos gesele, nito mer di stib,
Nito mer dos meydele, vos ikh hob lib.

And we also sang the first stanza in Russian as follows:

Gde eta ulitsa, gde eto dom,
Gde eta baryshna shto ia liubliu
Vot eta ulitsa, Vot eto dom
Vot eta baryshna shto ia liubliu.

In case you need a translation of the whole song, here it is:

Where is the little street, where is the house?
And where is the little girl whom I love?
Here is the little street, here is the house,
And here is the little girl whom I love.

Where is the little stream, where is the mill,
And where is the little village, where is the synagogue?
Here is the little stream, here is the mill,
Here is the little village, here is the synagogue.

Going into the little house, my pain is great,
Everything remains but only it's a catastrophe,
No more street, no more house.
No more little girl whom I love.

Jean Pauline
2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 22 February
Subject: vu iz dos gesele?

Lynda Kraar can find both the words and music of "Vu is dos gesele" on 
pages 60-61 of Sheva Zucker's excellent book "Yiddish: An Introduction to 
the Language, Literature & Culture," Volume I.  The book is 
availablethrough Amazon.com.

Norman Buder

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: February 23
Subject: "Shut In"

I wonder if members of the list could help with a question regarding
Avraham Reizen/Avrom Reyzin's story "Shut In."  It has a host of
thematic commonalities with Isaac Babel's "Awakening" and I am very
interested in finding out its publication history, especially date
and venue.  So far, I have failed miserably.  I have been in contact
with Curt Leviant, who has translated a number of stories by Reizen,
as well as the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA and The
YIVO Institute.

Does anyone have any information about "Shut In"'s publication
history or insight as to how I might proceed from here?

Many thanks!

Janneke van de Stadt

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: February 23
Subject: child's finger game/varnishkes

The game that you ask about is a Russian "This little piggy went to the
market" game.

This is in Russian, and I don't think there is any Jewish connection. 
It's just a child's game that all the mothers play in the former Soviet 
Union.

"Soroka-vorona kashu varila, detok kormila" - "A magpie-crow was
boiling porridge, feeding [her] children" (or the variation that you have 
"Soroka-vorona detyam kashi navarila" which translates roughly the same 
way)

Then you count the fingers:
"Etamu dala, etamu dala, etamu dala" - she gave it to this one and this
one and this one.

And usually it ends with holding the pinky and saying: "A etamu ne
dala" -  But she didn't give it to this one.

You seem to have a variant of the ending.  "Meshala, meshala, meshala"
means "and she stirred, and stirred and stirred".  I am not sure what
the tickle in the arm is.  There is another game that ends that way -
it's about a well with very cold water in it, but you don't mention any
words that are connected with it.

The word "varnishkes" is used without "Kasha". The Russian word is
'Vareniki" (in Yiddish "varnishkes") and they are dumplings with potato
and onions or farmer's cheese or cherries. I hadn't heard of "kasha
varnishkes" until I moved to the US.

Hope this helps,

Yelena Shmulenson


5)----------------------------------------------------

Date: February 23
Subject:  Child's Finger Game (Soroka Vorona)

This is a Russian game depicting a black crow that cooks a kasha for its 
children and feeds it to each child (each
finger depicts a child). Then it says, "here are the woods" (the narrator 
indicates the wrist), "here is the well" (indicates the elbow) and "here 
is the cold water" (indicates the arm pit).

The Russian words for the game are as follows:
(You spit 3 times in the child's palm [moving] in a circular movement with 
your finger)

Soroka vorona (a black crow) (a shvartse kro)
Kashka navarila (cooked a kasha)(hot ongekokht a kashe)
Na pripetchko studila (placed it on the hearth) (avekgeshtelt afn 
pripetshik)

Repeating for each finger, bending each finger:

Eto mo dila (gave some to each child) (git yeden kind)

Then, across the wrist:
Tut pain (here are the woods)(do iz der vald)

At the elbow:
Tut krenitza (here is the well)(do iz di krenitse)

In the arm pit:
Tut khalodnika voditza (here is the cold, cold water) (do iz dos kalte, 
kalte vaserl)

My grandmother taught this to me and I have played that game with my
children, grandchildren and many of my families' children. They all
loved the ditty and I had to repeat it many, many times.

Chassie Margolis

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 3
Subject: Soroka Vorona

I remember my mother and grandmother (born in Minsk) playing it thus: Spit 
in the child's palm first.  Then tap the palm as you say: Soroka vorona 
kashka verila heterboojili, heterboojili, then tickle up the arm saying 
szuzhi kush kush kush kush.  I was born in
1945.

Barbara M. Kaplowitz

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: February 23
Subject:  "Jewish" joke

I would like to clarify Mr.Zevi Ghivelder's statement in Mendele
15.045. I am positive, based both on oral accounts of my family and 
written history, that the saying, which he quotes, has been a famous
anti-Semitic Jewish conspiracy joke, and not a "Jewish" one. See, for 
example, this excerpt from a Lithuanian Yizker book:

http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Dusetos/dus033.html

"...Nechamka-Anna Silver (Slep): After the revolution, I arrived in Dusiat 
on a visit from Dvinsk... During that time, the gentiles used to say that 
Russia was controlled by three Jews: the tea - by Wissotzky, the sugar - 
by Brodsky, and the state - by Trotsky..."

Regards,
Lyuba Dukker

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: February 23
Subject: kuznye

Does anyone know the definition of kuznye from the song "In der kuznye bay 
dem fayer, zingt a shmidt un er shmidt...."?  I would appreciate the words 
to the song if anyone knows them.  Moyshe Oysher sang it in the video 
"Yankel, der shmid".

Thanks,
Ruth G



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