Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 16.016 December 5, 2006 1) trefn/bagegenen (Muni and Carol Basman) 2) Wiesel's "Night" (Ronald Florence) 3) "Varnitshkes" (Naomi Cohen) 4) Kotsker rebbe (Sema Chaimovitz Menoras) 5) Leonard Landes (Warren Hoffman) 6) Lamed-vovnikl (Alina Polonskaya) 7) "Di frosh" (Eliezer Niborski) 8) yizker-bikher (Gloria Berkenstat Freund) 9) yizker-bikher (Paul Pinkhes Pascal) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 18, 2006 Subject: trefn/bagegenen What is the derivation of "trefn" and of "bagegenen"? Thank you. Muni & Carol Basman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 20, 2006 Subject: Wiesel's "Night" in Yiddish Dena Mandel asks about the original Yiddish version of Elie Wiesel's "Night." As far as I know, "Night" was written in French. An earlier book, "Un di velt hot geshvign," was published in Yiddish in 1956 and is sometimes considered a predecessor of "Night." Ronald Florence 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 21, 2006 Subject: "Varnitshkes" Beth Goldstein is seeking a song (Mendele 16.012) which mentions "fefer un zalts" and a "khosn." Several people suggested "Kh'vil Nisht Aza Khosn," but that song doesn't mention any fefer or zalts. Perhaps what she heard was the song "Varnitshkes," which begins "Gevalt! Vu nemt men?" The refrain relates the ingredients sought to make this dish: fefer, zalts, heyvn, shmalts (pepper, salt, yeast, fat) and concludes that what is really needed is a bokher to eat the varnitshkes. Using the Freedman database at the University of Pennsylvania (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/freedman/), I was able to identify sheet music as well as several recorded versions of this song, also known as "Dos lid fun altn bokher." Naomi Cohen 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 23, 2006 Subject: Kotsker rebbe Dear Mendele Does anyone know the background of the Yiddish song "Kotsk," sung by Sol Zim and perhaps others. The song talks about the great simkhe of davke traveling by foot, and not by transportation, to visit Kotsk. Going to Kotsk, the song says, is comparable to the great simkhe of being a biblical "oyle reygl," when the Jews went only by foot to the Beys hamikdesh. What puzzles me is that the Kotsker rebbe was known as a harsh, demanding Hasidic leader whose requirements of his followers were rigid and rigorous. The Kotsker rebbe's reign did not engender the joy-inducing environment that other Hasidic rebbes produced, and his followers were limited in number because of that. So what made going to Kotsk such a simkhe? Sema Chaimovitz Menoras 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 28, 2006 Subject: Leonard Landes Does anyone have any biographic information on Yiddish doctor/writer Leonard Landes? In the early part of the 20th century, he wrote a series of short books focusing on the topics of sexual relations, sexual health, men and women, and other related issues. I have a bunch of his texts for a project I'm working on, but know very little about Landes himself. Where was he born? Where did he train? Any insights? Thanks, Warren Hoffman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 29, 2006 Subject: Lamed-vovnikl khosheve fraynt mayne! Ikh heys Alina Polonskaya. Ikh bin a lererke fun yidish in Moskve. Mir haltn in leyenen "Khumeshlider" fun Mangern un hobn do a kashe: vos meynt a "lamed-vovnikl" inem lid "Rokhl geyt tsum brunem nokh vaser"? Ikh tsitir: "khirik! a lamed-vovnikl khirket in tifn groz."Se zenen do tsvey deyes: s'iz a metafor tsi in der emesn a kleyn foygl. Tsum badoyern iz bay undz in Moskve nito keyn verterbukh fun khayes un geviksn vu me volt gekent araynkukn. Zayt azoy gut un helft undz! Mit frayntlekhe grusn, Alina Polonskaya 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 4, 2006 Subject: "Di frosh" Martin Baker darf dringendik hobn dem tekst funem lid "Di frosh" far zayn zunele. Ot iz der nusekh funem lid vi es hot zikh gedrukt in der nyu-yorker togtsaytung "Der Tog", dem 25stn may 1919: der lid fun der frosh (a kinderlid) fun Yehoyesh gevezn a frosh in a grin samet kleyd, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, mit a shirtsl a vaysn fun fornt farshpreyt, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak. ir kamer geflastert mit grinem air, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, fun shtraln di fenster, fun vaser di tir, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak. hot gepintlt di frosh mit di oygelekh shmol, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, ver hot aza mantl, un ver aza kol, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak. fun breg inem taykh, un fun taykh oyfn breg, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, a zung un a shprung, azoy geyen di teg, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak. biz gekumen a bushl a hoykher tsu geyn, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, di fis vi di shpener, der shnobl fun shteyn, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak. genumen di frosh mitn grin samet kleyd, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, un di kinderlekh zayne a sude gegreyt, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak, kvak-a-vak. Mit di beste grusn, Eliezer Niborski 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 4, 2006 Regarding Jack Berger's posting about yizker-bikher translations: I don't know how many Mendele subscribers know about the wonderful JewishGen Yizkor Book Project headed by Joyce Field located at www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. The JewishGen Yizkor Book Project is already the clearing house that Jack Berger seeks. The JewishGen Yizkor Book Project accepts donations of Yizkor Book translations, as well as contributions to fund additional translations. In addition, it provides an easily accessible home for the Yizkor Book translations on its website. Gloria Berkenstat Freund 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 5, 2006 Subject: yizker-bikher Khaver Jack Berger draws our attention to the importance of having yizkor books translated, and for the sake of the sadly increasing numbers of Yiddishly-impaired I say omeyn to that. With regard to the example of the two Bilgoraj yizkor books translated by Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, he wonders "how to propagate this experience into a more broadly based initiative...It also strikes me that we need a clearing house for such undertakings." Khaver Jack need wonder no longer. There already exists a robust and systematic long-term project which has been coordinating the translation of these precious books under the leadership of Joyce Field and the aegis of /Jewishgen /(the unique internet website portal to vast networks of Jewish genealogical resources, and an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage). This project has been on-going for some years now, and has accomplished much. Almost all of the translation is done by volunteer efforts--a chapter here, an essay there, a book or two if you have time. The quality of the rendering varies, but mostly it goes from nishkoshe to pretty good, sometimes exceptionally good. (Mendelnikes who care to explore the translations to date, and/or even contribute with their linguistic talents (a mitzve! a mitzve!), can find the project at http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/translations.html.) Paul Pinkhes Pascal _____________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 16.016