Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 19.016 December 8, 2009 1) song identification sought (Avraham Yehoshua Kahana) 2) serpnzaytik (Denise Braunschweig) 3) Yehupets (Les Train) 4) petsha (Jules Rabin) 5) folktale sought (Lisa Anchin) 6) "The Tempest in Yiddish" (Rebecca Joy Fletcher) 7) "Uncle Joe" (Rebecca Joy Fletcher) 8) kibber (Victoria Lunzer-Talos) 9) shvartser (Eli Rosenblatt) 10) Laurence Olivier and Yiddish (Zevi Ghivelder) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 30, 2009 Subject: song identification sought Hello all, I would highly appreciate if anyone could figure out which song this is. The following words I managed to poorly transliterate from a video excerpt where my great uncle gives his testimony to the USC Shoah Institute. He says he will sing a bit of a song his father used to sing (at Shabbat or during Pesach?), which talks about missing a city called "Slutsk" (this is how I understood the name of the city): mayn tate beyn feygblenken fin/fem dem mentshn un zmiros fleygte zingen azoy sheyn* Thank you in advance, Avraham Yehoshua Kahana 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 19, 2009 Subject: serpnzaytik In a poem of Rochel Korn she wrote, "serpnzaytik klor." I looked the word up and found that "der serp," means the sickle. So, does this mean, that something gets sharply clear? Thank you for help and suggestions Denise Braunschweig 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 28, 2009 Subject: Yehupets The supposed etymology of the (fictitious) place name Yehupets was first dealt with in August 1993, when Z. Baker cites Petrovsky's hypothesis that it might come from the Ukrainian Yehipet (Egypt). However, after reading T. Schrire's "Hebrew Magic Amulets their Decipherment and Interpretation," and taking into account the popularity of amulets (kameas) by Hasidic Jews, I wonder: might the name be a variant of one of the midrashic shemoth (holy names of God) that appear regularly on amulets? Since the four- letter name of God (tetragrammaton) is so holy, writing it out is not permitted on amulets. Thus, the mekubalim and kabbalists came up with elaborate and substituted names, and these are in common use on amulets. The first three letters (assuming that the name is "originally" spelled according to Hebrew orthography) are the first three letters of the tetragrammaton (4-letter name of God) and the last two letters - peh and tsade - are another vov and heh, and are found in shemoth such as mem-tsade-peh-tsade - a form of the tetragrammaton wherein letters are substituted according to the "atbash" code, where aleph is substituted for the last letter of the hebrew alef-beys, beys is substituted for the second last letter "shin," etc. Shemoth such as Patspatsia (atbash: vov-heh-vov-heh-yud-heh) and Tsaftsafia (atbash: heh-vov-heh-vov-yud-heh) are "some of the commoner shemoth which appear most frequently" (page 112); in both, there is the peh-tsade combination duplicated. Therefore, in Yehupets we might find Sholem Aleichem poking fun (gently) at the whole concept of amulets! For historical context, since the spread of Hassidism - and mysticism - after the Baal Shem Tov (late 18th century), not only Hasidim but "even among this sturdily rational group (the misnagdim), amulets were in regular but concealed use in childbed and in times of personal troubles and difficulty" (page 40). If anyone has any comments, or wants to "zogn mevines" about the whole inyen, I'd be glad to hear. Les Train 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 27, 2009 Subject: petsha On the trail of the petsha of my boyhood, I have an uncertain memory of a word something like "shmeyelen" (accent on the first syllable) that might have referred to the process of burning off the hair covering of a severed cow's leg. Does anyone have an accurate idea of the meaning of "shmeyelen" - if the word isn't a figment of mistaken memory? A friend has suggested that I might have mistaken "shmeltsn" ("to melt") for "shmeyelen," but I don't think so. The words sound too different from each other; and I think that the meaning of "shmeltsn," "to melt," is too distant from what I remember the reference of the mystery word to have been: the burning off of animal hair. More history: on the 8 or 10 occasions I can remember, when my mother made petsha, which we all relished, she began with the hairless leg-bones, sawed at the local butcher shop into trim cookable pieces. My father once -- only -- brought home a pair of intact legs, with their hair-covering and hooves intact. With fire and, I suppose, axe, he converted the legs into a set of pot-ready petsha bones, which my mother cooked up in the usual way. A couple of weeks ago I acquired from a neighbor a set of 4 calf/cow legs myself, with their original hair and hooves, and retracing my father's method with fire ("shmeyehlen") and axe, and my mother's handling of the cookpot, produced a good petsha. Jules Rabin 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 22, 2009 Subject: folktale sought I study Yiddish folktales and am looking for a specific story in the original Yiddish. The story is about a poor old woman who finds a ball of yarn in the woods and uses it to knit herself all kinds of items - clothing, of course, but also a little sheep and a mouse and a cat. In the story, the old woman thinks to slaughter the sheep and cook it, but her pillow hears her thought. Because everything is made from the same ball of yarn, the pillow tells her hat, which tells the mouse, who tells the cat, who tells the sheep. In the end, when the old woman goes to slaughter the sheep, the sheep is ready and runs away. However, the old woman catches it by the tail and pulls, which unravels the sheep and then the cat and the mouse... down the line... until everything comes unraveled including the old woman. I was only told about the story. I haven't even seen it printed in English and am entirely unable to find the original Yiddish. Has anyone heard of the story? Seen it printed? Know of an author? Or a collection perhaps? Any clues would be extremely helpful! Thanks! Lisa Anchin 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 8, 2009 Subject: "The Tempest" in Yiddish Friends: I am seeking a line from Shakespeare's "The Tempest" in Yiddish. Does anyone have a Yiddish verse translation of "The Tempest"? If yes, could you possibly provide me with the following line: "We are the stuff that dreams are made of and our little lives are rounded with a sleep." It would be most appreciated. It is from the early part of Act Four of the play. With thanks, Rebecca Joy Fletcher 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 8, 2009 Subject: "Uncle Joe" Friends: I have read that Marshall Pilsudski, president of Poland from 1926-1935, was named "Uncle Joe" by many Polish Jews. I am surprised by the similarity - in English at least - to Stalin's nickname given him by Roosevelt. I am wondering first off if that nickname for Pilsudski was used in Yiddish or in Polish? If it appeared in Yiddish, what was the exact wording? Was the name used "Yosl"? And has anything been written on the strange similarity between Pilsudksi and Stalin's nicknames? I welcome any feedback you may have. With thanks, Rebecca Joy Fletcher 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 17, 2009 Subject: kibber Dear Mendelyaners, In transcribing letters from Joseph Roth, we came across of him ending a letter (about him needing money) with the words "Dein alter sehr trauriger Kibber betropezter". "Betropezter" is no problem, but we are completely at loss with "kibber."Can anyone of you help us? Roth was Austrian author born in 1894 and raised in Brody/Galicia. Later, he was a (very successful) journalist in Vienna, Berlin, and Frankfurt. Roth grew up speaking German in the family, plus had a sound knowledge of Polish, Yiddish, even Russian. The letter is written in German, and Roth was of course fluent in the "Yiddishisms" generally used in Vienna as well as in the journalistic "Rotwelsch." Thank you very much! Victoria Lunzer-Talos 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 10, 2008 Subject: shvartser A guter morgn oyf aykh un oyf kol yisroel! I have a question about the etymology of the Yiddish term "Neger," which is used often in Yiddish literature to mean, according to Weinreich, "Negro." Apologetically, Weinreich translates "shvartser" as "black man" and I always understood "shvartser" to be the Yiddish translation of the n-word! However, because "neger" sounds so close to the racist "nigger" in American English, I am wondering if there is any consensus on the etymology and precise meanings of the term, since it is used primarily in American Yiddish literature. Was there any discussion about the this type of terminology and its social implications? Eli Rosenblatt 10)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 19, 2009 Subject: Laurence Olivier and Yiddish In Neil Diamond's version of "The Jazz Singer," the part of the rabbi is played by Laurence Olivier, who speaks a few lines in Yiddish better than any Jew. Zevi Ghivelder ________________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 19.016 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. 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