Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 16.026
April 5, 2007

1) shpitsleve (Bob Rothstein)
2) shpitsleve (Leyzer Gillig)
3) shpitsleve (Yael Chaver)
4) curse (Zulema Seligsohn)
5) Yiddish songs about/by women (Jillian "Yidl" Tallmer)
6) pagira (Leonard Fox)
7) pagira (Les Train)
8) Sam Liptzin (Linda Jiminez)
9) Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus" (Esther Schor)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 20, 2007
Subject: shpitsleve

Dagmar Mirre asks about the word "shpiltsleve" in Kulbak's "Zelmenyaner."
The Russian translation has "vspyl'chivyi" 'hot-tempered, irascible,' and
the Russian-Yiddish dictionary edited by M. Shapiro et al. translates the
Russian adjective with Yiddish "hitsiker," "spilshlive(r)," marking the
latter as colloquial. The adjective "spilshlive" is also in Stutchkoff's
"Oytser" under #510 (heysblutikayt), alongside of "heyskepik."

Bob Rothstein

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 21, 2007
Subject: shpitsleve

I would hazard a guess that "shpiltsleve" is akin to the familiar Yiddish
phrase "af shpilkes", i.e., on pins and needles, anxious.

(Szpilka is the Polish word for pin.) The K in Polish words frequently
changes to a C (pronounced ts) in oblique cases - Polska, Poland >  w
polsce, in Poland. So szpilka might be changing to szpilclowy, which would
be an adjectival form.  Like I said, it's a guess.

Leyzer Gillig

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 21, 2007
Subject: shpitsleve

Es ken zayn az "shpiltsleve" shtamt fun "shpilke"--der feter Zishe ken nit
zitsn ruik oder nit redn, khotsh er hot bashlosn shvaygn; zayn tsung iz af
shpilkes, azoy tsu zogn, un er aleyn iz shpiltsleve.

Yael Chaver

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 23, 2007
Subject: Curse

Until I read a very well-explained piece a few years ago in "The New
Yorker," I didn't really know what "yebyenye matire" meant.  It is a small
sample of a very large language sub-genre called MAT with a soft T, quite
prevalent among Russian speakers.  My father, who was born and educated in
the Ukraine, would use it as an expletive rather than a curse directed at
someone.  My mother would always object and say "Maltshi," meaning "be
quiet" or "stop that."   Since my mother generally objected to religious
profanity (being an atheist), I thought it meant something like "Blessed
Mother."  It took me seventy years to find out different.

Zulema Seligsohn

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 23, 2007
Subject: Yiddish songs about/by women

Do you know of any Yiddish songs written by women (words and/or music) in
the last 20 or 30 years? Or new songs written by men, but about women?

The theme of my next sing-along is women and girls.

I will be including Chave Alberstein's "Mayn Shvester Khaye" and Beyle
Schaecter-Gottesman's "Harbstlid."

Thanks,

Jillian "Yidl" Tallmer

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 23, 2007
Subject: pagira

Could this word be "peyger" < "peygern" "to die," but referring
specifically to animals - or to those whom one equates with beasts, and
therefore used in a pejorative sense?

Leonard Fox

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 25, 2007
Subject: pagira

"pagira" is from the Hebrew and means death of an animal and, by extension,
death of anybody subhuman (an enemy, someone whom you're cursing, etc).
Peygern zikh is the infinitive for "to kick the bucket," croak, etc.

Les Train

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 26, 2007
Subject: Sam Liptzin

I'm looking for (short) biographical information on Sam Liptzin. I have a
weekly English-language segment--English Corner-- on the Spanish Jewish
internet radio station-- www.radiosefarad.com-- and will be reading a
Passover story by Sam Liptzin. I'd like to give a little biographical
information, but can't find any anywhere. Can anyone help?

Linda Jimenez

9)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 25 2007
Subject: Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus"

Can anyone kindly point me to a Yiddish translation of Emma Lazarus' "The
New Colossus" -- or to allusions to that poem in Yiddish poetry?

Thanks for your help.

Esther Schor

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 16.026


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