Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 26.001
July 12, 2016

1) gefrintshlt (Andrew Firestone)
2) va-yikhbeshuha be-adu (?) (Eliezer Niborski)
3) mitzvah (Hershl Barshady)
4) shlogn-oder a shlafn (Martin Jacobs)
5) searching for a lost humorous song (Jane Peppler)
6) Yonah Rosenfeld (Rachel Mines)
7) galeen (Feigl Libby)
8) folksong in Hirshbeyn (Feygl Libby)
9) Bashevis bibliography (Itsik Goldenberg)
 

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 5 April
Subject: gefrintshelt

Dear Mendelyaner,

A Yiddish speaking family  from White Russia say "gefrintshlt" [gefrintchled] and mean "offended"  -  can anyone shed light on this please?

Andrew Firestone
Melbourne


2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 7 April
Subject: Va-yikhbeshuha be-adu (?)

Yael Chaver [25.009] fregt zikh nokh vegn dem opshtam fun a modnem tsvey-verterdikn posek in Katsiznes "Shtarke un shvakhe".

Dos gantse retenish nemt zikh derfun vos di tsvey loshn-koydeshdike verter zenen beyde fargrayzt.

Eyn toes iz shoyn geven in der ershter oyflage (Vilne 1929): a hey anshtot a shlos-mem inem ershtn vort
In der emesn iz es dos vort "vaykhbeshum" fun Yermiohu 34, 11: "un zey hobn zey batsvungen"

Dos tsveyte vort iz geven rikhtik gedrukt in der ershter oyflage, ober mit laykht farmekte oysyes. Hot men, a ponem, baym iberdrukn shoyn nisht gevust vos tsu ton dermit.
S’iz dos vort "bookhu" fun Breyshis 41, 2: "in dem taykhgroz"

mit grusn

Eliezer Niborski


3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 22 April
Subject: mitzvah

Dear Mendelyaners,

An incident came up that seemed to me likely to have a Yiddish expression in which to describe it, but I don't know what it is.  Perhaps others more knowledgeable can help me express this sort of thing in Yiddish.  It happens in one way or another to many people.  Here is the incident:

A colleague asks me whether  would I take over his classes next Wednesday (let us say).  He has been requested to meet with Internal Revenue Service on that day.  I agree.  Next Tuesday afternoon he calls me and says the issue with IRS has been resolved.  I need not take over his classes tomorrow. He thanks me for having  agreed to take his classes, tells me it is a kind of mitzvah I have agreed to help him, but that it will no longer be necessary.

My question: what kind of”mitzvah” is this that hasn’t been fulfilled? And how do you express it?

A sheynem dank to all.

Hershl Bershady


4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 10 May
Subject: shlogn-oder a shlafn

The expression "shlogn-oder a shlafn" occurs in Bashevis's "Kuntsnmakher fun Lublin". Can anyone tell me what it means? 

Context: "Zi hot ... gekont ... aroysraysn bay a hun a pipitsh, shteln bankes, piavkes un afile shlogn-oder a shlafn." 

Many thanks in advance. 

Martin Jacobs 
Brooklyn, NY


5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 14 May
Subject: Searching for a lost humorous song

Found in the American Yiddish Penny Songs collection, the song begins:

"Mayn ersht vayb iz geshtorbn farayorn liber fraynd, yitgadal vyitkadash shmey raba / Ikh hob oyfgeshtelt a yartsayt likht, un ikh vel zogn haynt yitgadal..."

Any ideas for me? 

Thanks, 
Jane Peppler in North Carolina


6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 30 May
Subject: Yonah Rosenfeld

I’m translating some stories by Yonah Rosenfeld, who sometimes writes unbelievably tangled sentences I can’t work out. Any help with the following is appreciated.

The context is this: a man and a woman meet on the beach. He, wanting to show off and impress her with his swimming abilities, swims off into the distance.  My attempted translations are below. Any ideas? 

Thanks,
Rachel Mines

1) A fremder, vos hot bavizn fun ershtn oygenblik zi tsu zikh magnetish a tsi tsu ton, hot er zikh plutsling mit ir shuld, zikh opgerisn fun ir un iz fun ir a fremder avek un hot zi tsugebundn mit zayn velen zikh bavayzn far ir un mit zayn vayt avekshvimen.

A stranger, who, from the very first moment, had managed to magnetically draw her to him, he was suddenly at fault [he suddenly owed her something?]. He’d torn himself away from her, and, still a stranger, had left, at the same time tying her to him with his wanting to show off in front of her by swimming so far away. 


2) Funm bel-boy hot zikh dertrogn un gebrakht fun yenem’s shtilkayt, fun yenem, vos m’ hot gornit gehert un ir hot zikh gedakht, az itst klingt es andersh.

It [a clanging sound] came from the bell-buoy, bringing with it the silence of the man she couldn’t hear at all, and now the sound seemed different.


7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 30 May
Subject: galeen (Feigl Libby)

In "Notes From The Warsaw Ghetto," the word "galeen" is used again and again.  It seems to refer to the Gestapo. Can someone please explain the derivation and etymology of this word?  

Here is a reference from Der Groyser Verterbukh fun der Yidisher Shprakh:

galeen

untertsuhern. moser. "a katshke az di galeen [=gestapo] gedungen fir toyznt yin als a' in yedn hoyf", farshribn fun ringelblumen in varshever geto 10tn may 1941.

Thanks,
Feygl Libby


8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 30 May
Subject: folksong in Hirshbeyn (Feigl Libby)

In the play "Miryam" also known as "Barg Arop," Peretz Hirshbeyn has a character singing from a folk song.  Here are some of the words she sings over again and again:

elnt bin ikh vi a shteyn.
gelozn hot men mikh aleyn
hot rakhmones, gute layt!
kh'zol nit faln far der tsayt. 

I am searching for the rest of this song, the composer, the melody, etc. Any information about this song would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Feygl Libby


9)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 22 June
Subject: Bashevis bibliography

There are 2 bibliographies published for the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer: David Neal Miller's for 1929-1949, and Roberta Saltzman's for 1960-1991. Miller refers to a bibliography he had prepared for 1950-1959 in the journal Yiddish.

Does anyone know whether Miller ever had it published or where a copy might be available?

Itsik Goldenberg

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 26.001

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