Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 24.001
December 7, 2014

1) Meldung (Redaktsye)
2) shabash (Moyshe Valdman)
3) French horn (Perets Mett)
4) Vartn af Godo (Astrid Starck)
5) Homer in Yiddish (Melissa Weininger)
6) Morris Rosenfeld? (Maurice Wolfhtal)
7) Dissertation 'Kurant' (Hilde Pach) 
8) info: "Nakht in Step"? (Binyumin Schaechter)
9) Adam Biro (Marjorie Hirshan)
10) di grine kusine author(s) (Hélène B. Katz)
11) farhaken a koo (Leslie Train)
 
1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 7
Subject: Meldung

Mir zaynen do! Nokh a (tsu!) langer hafsoke vet undzer Mendele vider aroysgeyn. Mit a bisl yerides-hadoyres dertsu: Kalman Weiser, der redaktor zint 2006 hot letstns ibergegebn di makht Gershn Praysn (Josh Price). Avigdor Bers (Victor Bers) vet blaybn undzer getrayer untershames, farshteyt zikh, af eybik.

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 28
Subject: shabash

[The moderators refer readers to Mendele 23.015, 23.016, and 23.018 for previous discussion of this term.]

As I said, shabash has NO connection with the Ukraine ("shabash (shabbes) nik” seems to be a small stove and relates to shabbes and NOT to shabash!  or to Kurdistan (well maybe a Muslim connection there) --

It is a Persian-derived exclamation and means Great! Excellent! Well done!,Fabulous! etc.  So please--no Yiddish interpretations for the word are relevant. 

A dank
Murray/moyshe Woldman/valdman.

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 8
Subject: French horn

Does anyone know how to say French horn (the musical instrument) in Yiddish?

bloz-horn? vald-horn? Something else?

With thanks
Perets Mett

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: June 25
Subject:  Vartn af Godot

Dear Mendelianer,

How can I get the Yiddish translation of Godot by Shane Baker? And the DVD of the play? I have the one by Gisela Shkilnik from German. This is not the original language.

With many thanks and kind regards

Astrid

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: July 14
Subject: Homer in Yiddish

Does anyone work on translations of Homer into Yiddish (or know if there are
any)?  A colleague is looking for someone to write an article on the topic
for an anthology.  Please let me know if you are interested in writing for
such a project and I can put you in touch with the editors.

Melissa Weininger
mirele@rice.edu

[The moderators point Ms. Weininger to Worldcat (http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AHomer.&fq=ln%3Ayid&dblist=638&start=1&qt=previous_page  and to the last section of Shriftn, vol. 3 (https://archive.org/details/nybc210538) and encourage mitglider to be in touch directly with her.]

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: July 14
Subject: Morris Rosenfeld?

Can anyone identify this poem or song, which may have been written by Morris Rosenfeld on behalf of striking furriers in 1912?

Es meg di beste futer
Oykh khapen der “nit-guter”
Dos varemt uns nit, nayn!
Mir shnayden un mir neyen
Un hobn tser un veyen
Un hunger un gevayn.

Maurice Wolfthal
Houston

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: August 24
Subject:  Dissertation 'Kurant'

Dear Mendelyaner,

This summer I defended my dissertation on the Kurant at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The full title of the dissertation is: Arranging Reality. The Editing Mechanisms of the World’s First Yiddish Newspaper, the Kurant (Amsterdam, 1686-1687).

Follow this link for the digital edition of the dissertation: http://dare.uva.nl/record/479585

Hilde Pach
www.hildepach.nl

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: September 7
Subject:  info: "Nakht in Step"?

[Yidish do untn:]

I have in front of me a choral arrangement of a folksong entitled (at least on the score), “Nakht in Step”.  It could elsewhere be entitled simply “In Step”.  I'm looking for any information on the original poem and/or the original folksong: what book might have it, from what region/country it might emanate, etc.?  The lyrics (as they appear on the score) are as below.  Any information would be appreciated.

Ikh hob ba mir a khor-aranzhirung fun a folkslid vos heyst (lepokhes af der partitur), “Nakht in step”.  Se volt oykh gekent heysn, andersh vu, poshet “In step”.  Ikh zukh informatsye vegn dem origineln lid: in voser bikhl se gefint zikh, fun velekhn rayon se shtamt, ud”gl.  Der lidtekst (vi se gefint zikh af der partitur) gefint zikh do untn.  Vosere protem ir veyst derfun volt ikh opgeshatst.

Mit korener zatkeyt otemt der step,
Otemt mit nakht un mit vinder.  [vunder]
Ikh zits in mayn kleyninkn tsimer un shtep
Hemdelekh tsvey far di kinder.

Der tog iz avek mit zayn loyterer hits,
Avek in der vaytkeyt tsum zimer.  [zumer]
Hemdelekh proste fun roytinkn tsits
Shtep ikh in tunkeln tsimer.
Der tate vet kumen fun felder haynt shpet
Gantse teg shnaydt men broyt unter himlen.
Vos hekher es royshn in vaytkeyt di shtet,
Iz gringer in step do tsu drimlen.

Fun yener zayt fentster kholemt der step,
Kholemt mit nakht un mit vinder.  [vunder]
Ikh zits in mayn kleyninkn tsimer un shtep
Hemdelekh tsvey far di kinder.
A dank aykh.

Ayer
Binyumen Schaechter

9)----------------------------------------------------
Date: September 20
Subject: Adam Biro

The leader of our Palm Beach Leyenkrayz, Shulamis Levine, the warm, witty, wily, wonderful (daughter of Yankov Levin, our group's learned, outstanding, Arbeter Ring mitlshul teacher and motivator, author, Nayvelt camp director, etc.,) is searching for information about author Adam Biro. Are any of his books in Yiddish? 

She has discovered that he has written “Two Jews on a Train” and “Do It For Jews,” and one is also in Hungarian. 

Thank you for any answers. 

Marjorie Hirshan 
Boynton Beach, Florida

10)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 7
Subject: di grine kusine author(s)

I found this information about the song “di grine kuzine” in Milken Archive:

“Abe Schwartz was the first to copyright this tune and its lyrics (though the music copyright is only for his arrangement), but one Yankele Brisker, pseudonym for Jacob Leiserowitz, also claimed copyright for the lyrics, listing the tune as a “folk melody.” Yet a third claimant to the song was Hyman Prizant. Eventually it was republished and re-copyrighted, crediting Prizant with only the lyrics and Schwartz with the music—although again, in a particular arrangement. Meanwhile, Leiserowitz initiated a lawsuit, but did not prevail. Still, the truth about the authorship is impossible to know. “

Besides, in the book “Mir trogn a gezang”, Eleanor Gordon Mlotek mentions the copyright crediting Prizant and Schwartz, but attributes the lyrics to J. Leiserowitz.

Does anyone have more informations on who did really write the lyrics of the song, and from where the melody was taken, before Abe Schwartz arranged it?

A dank in foroys,
Hélène B. Katz

11)----------------------------------------------------
Date: November 2
Subject: farhaken a koo

My father-in-law's White Russian grandfather was known to be able to 'farhaken a koo'; to stop a straying cow in its tracks by sticking a knife or hatchet into a wall and saying some sort of spell. As far as I can tell, the only other mention of this can be found in a yizkor-bukh from the town Lenin, also in White Russia. Has anyone else ever heard of such a thing, and is it attested anywhere else or among other ethnic groups? The closest I have seen is in 19th century Pennsylvania, where placing an open pair of scissors in a bible would cause the cow to return, after reading some chapter in the bible...

Leslie Train

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