Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 7.028 June 29, 1997 1) Overheard German (Adrienne Maltz) 2) Say It in Yiddish (Ellen Prince) 3) Sholom Aleichem and Translation (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 4) bashteyn dos shtetl (Andrey Bredstein) 5) Weinreich's "Say it in Yiddish" (Joseph Ross) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 20:59:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Adrienne Maltz Subject: Overheard German Today, after attending my weekly Yiddish study group, I was walking through a department store when I overheard three people conversing in German. Each and every word used was also a Yiddish word, but I knew I was overhearing German, not Yiddish by the way the words were formed by the lips of the speakers -- I am not referring to pronunciation. What phenomenon was I becoming aware of? I'm sure the linguists among us must be familiar with this, but I don't know what it is called (not that it is necessary to call it anything) and how it is recognized. Again, I emphasize that I am not referring to pronunciation. All knowledge (or guesses) much appreciated. Adrienne Maltz Potomac, MD 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 02:41:47 EDT From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Say It in Yiddish I have received a number of msgs informing me that my assumption was wrong that the Weinreichs intended for Say It in Yiddish to be witty [7.025], and so I am acknowledging my error publicly. Alas, this is one truth I am sorry to have learned... I would also like to add that I for one do not feel that Yiddish or Ashkenazi culture is demeaned by not ever having traffic court judges or customs officers or airline personnel -- but, hey, we are all free to feel insulted by whatever we like. Ellen Prince 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 10:25:26 -0400 (EDT) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Sholom Aleichem and Translation Ikh hob do gefunen in Evanston a mekhayedike velt mit genutste bikher oyf Yidishe temes. Zeyer gring tsu leyenen, "My Father, Sholom Aleichem" by Marie Waife-Goldberg, (dos iz zayn fifte kind, di tokhter Maroussia) dertzeylt sheyne, perzenlekhe mayselekh vegn ir tatn un zayn tifer tsugegebnkayt tsu Olga and di kinder, khotsh er hot gedarft durkhlebn shverikeytn in farlustn, parnose, un gezunt. In zayere gute yorn (1913, 1914) hot men oyfn literarishn yarid gevolt iberzetsn zayne verk oyf rusish un hobn gezukht feyike iberzetser. Azoy vi The Mendele Review hot zikh dershaynt mit a critik vegn iberzetsung un taytsh, vil ikh ibergebn vos Sholom Aleichem aleyn hot gehaltn vegn iberzetsungen. "Those who knew my father's work in the original had always maintained, as some still do, that his writing was untranslatable. His yiddish was so rich, so idiomatic, earthy, folksy, allusive, that no equivalents for it could possibly be found in another language that would carry the same shade of meaning, association and mood. My father, who knew several languages, a couple of them perfectly - and had a special sense for Russian - was not pessimistic about the possibility of translation. "He had his own notion of what a translation ought to be, a rendition not of the same words or phrases, but of the idea and mood the original sought to convey; he explained this in detail, with examples, in a letter to my brother Misha, who wanted to try his hand at translating our father's stories into Russian. So the Yiddish idiom, "From hurrying comes no good" (Fun aylenish kumt keyn guts nit aroys) becomes in Russian, "The quieter you ride, the farther you get" (Tishe yedesh dalshe budesh); and the (ironic) Yiddish, "Some jump!" (Folg mir a gang), becomes the Russian, "He hit the spot in the sky" (Popal palchem v nebo)" Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 19:58:50 +0400 From: "Andrey Bredstein" Subject: bashteyn dos shtetl Khoshever khaver Mendy Fliegler iz dray mol gerekht [7.027] : es iz take di rekhte tzayt "tsuriktsugeyn un dermanen zikh veygn a pur Yidishe vertlakh...". Yo, onshtot firn milkhomes vegn der Bikher-tsentrale oder arumreydn undzere sonim (vos mir hobn, nit tsu farzindikn, gants genig), iz beser araynkukn in a yidishn seyfer: aza vertl hot kh' Fliegler dermonen! "Er/zi vet zikh dos eygen(e) shteytl bashteyn" iz gekumen glaykh fun khumesh. In "Yidishe shprikhverter un rednsartn" fun Ignats Bernshteyn shteyt geshribn: "Loy toymar ani heesharti es Avrom - ikh ken mir mayn shtetl aleyn bashteyn. (azoy hot gezogt Avrom tsu dem melekh fun Sdoym in Bereyshis yud"doled, khof"giml)". Ver veyst, agev, efsher trakhtn hot Avrom ovinu getrakht af yidish, nor zogn in azelkhe vikhtike, tanakhishe faln muz men take bloyz af loshn-koydesh... Der emeser pshat derfun iz "du zolst nit zogn ikh hob raykh gemakht Avromen"; makht Rashe: "Vorem hkb"h hot mir tsugezogt er vet mikh raykh makhn, vi es shteyt in posek: hkb"h hot gezogt tsu Avromen, ikh vel dikh bentshn [mit gelt]. Veys ikh gevis, az ikh vel raykh vern! Nokhdem vestu zogn, nit hkb"h hot mikh raykh gemakht, nor du host mikh raykh gemakht". Vi nitst men dos vertl, veys ikh nisht: kh'hob es keynmul nisht gehert in a lebedikn geshprekh tsi ergets vu in a bikhl. S'kon zayn: "er/zi vet zikh aleyn spraven mit epes; keyn hilf badarf men nit, adank far der eytse", ua"v. A gute vokh, Andrey Bredstein. 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 16:58:51 -0400 (EDT) From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" Subject: Weinreich's "Say it in Yiddish" I've had a copy of "Say it in Yiddish" for a long time. The book is part of a series of phrase-books in various languages, including Hebrew, French, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, etc. And they all follow the same pattern. I would guess that the publishers simply hired Weinreich to translate the standard phrases into Yiddish without really thinking about the issues we've raised. Since they were putting out a series of phrase books for travellers, the real mystery is why they saw fit to do a Yiddish book in their series at all. A. Joseph Ross Boston, MA ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 7.028