Yiddish Mailing List, Issue #16 January 2, 1990 108 lines =============================== Understanding Yiddish (Rechnitzer Rejects) License Plate (Melekh Viswanath) Yiddish Folktales (Seth Rosenthal) ------------------------ Digest-Message: 16/1 From: dave@lsuc.on.ca (David Sherman) Subject: "Understanding Yiddish" parody, Part 1 Date: Tue Jan 2 13:51:19 EST 1990 The Rechnitzer Rejects have two cuts (on Vols. III and IV) with "Understanding Yiddish" skits, in which they play a conversation between two people in Yiddish, followed by the "rough English translation". Here are excerpts from the first. For fun, cover over the right half of the screen when you first read it, and follow the conversation in Yiddish only. Ikh darf shoin bentchn. "I need a nice seat." Ikh hob meine eigene tsuris. "I have children of my own." Mein doctor farshteyt a krenk. "My doctor knows a sick man when he sees one." Mein accountant farshteyt a krenk. "My accountant recognizes what could be interpreted as a tax-deductible medical expense." Iz er a goy? "Is he a nation?" Zikher. "Go look for him." Zol er geyn in drerd. "He must come down to earth." Du bist oikh nisht ay-ay-ay. "You are also not a member of triple-A?" Hak mir nisht keyn tshainik. "Don't hit me with a kettle." Du host a kashe? "Have you some buckwheat?" Ikh hob fargessn. "My name is Ferguson." Ikh bin moikhl. "And my name is Michael." Fur gezunterheit. "Go away sneezing." ------------------------ Digest-Message: 16/2 Date: Thu, 23 Nov 89 10:57:00 EST From: VISWANATH@draco.rutgers.edu Subject: RE: post reshime ... agav, dos yiddish vort far automobile license plate iz oyto-shildl. dos vort kenstu gefinen tsufelik in dem letstn numer yugntruf, in pesakh malevitsh's artikl, 'fun rusland mit libshaft'... [Zeyr an interesanter artikl gevezen. A dank. -DS] ------------------------ Digest-Message: 16/3 Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish From: sethr@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (seth.r.rosenthal) Subject: Yiddish Folktales Message-ID: <3192@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> Date: 6 Dec 89 16:17:06 GMT [reposted from soc.culture.jewish] I have enjoyed reading the d'Var Torah postings that many on the net have been contributing, so I thought I would offer another possible posting. I recently bought a book by Weinreich called "Yiddish Folktales". It is chock full of fables, legends, etc from the old countries (usually Poland Russia, Lithuania, with an occasional Romanian story thrown in). The topics are frequently based on Judaism, with tales of messengers from god, evil angels and other spirits, even one about Napoleon. They are selected from the YIVO archives, assembled between about 1900 and 1931. Many of them come with the name and town of the story-teller so some of you out there might recognize family names. Some tales are Chasidic concerning famous rebbes but that is not the main purpose of this collection. Let me know by E-mail if these would be of interest. If enough people think its a good idea, I'll start posting them about one per week. Might even take requests for tales that came from a particular town or region (if I can find an example for you). Some of the original Tales of Chelm are included. The sources are listed at the back of the book. Seth Rosenthal ------------------------ END OF ISSUE #16 ------------------------ David (Daniel Moishe) Sherman, Toronto Moderator, mail.yiddish { uunet!attcan {AT&T Sites}!att pyramid!utai utzoo } !lsuc!dave dave@lsuc.on.ca attcan!lsuc!dave@uunet.uu.net