Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 7.050 August 15, 1997 1) az me lebt redux (Arthur Komar) 2) Yidish in Goles (Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan) 3) leykene shikhlekh (Joachim Neugroschel) 4) "Yoyvl-lid" oder "Anniversary Song" (Elliot Gertel) 5) "Yoyvl-lid" OR "Anniversary Song" (Ron Robboy) 6) Az me lebt, derlebt men (Stanley F. Levine) 7) terms of affection (Stanley F. Levine) 8) Verlaine into Yiddish (Al Grand) 9) Translations and poetry plaudits (Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:08:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Arthur Komar Subject: az me lebt redux The nearest English bon mot that I could come up with for "Az me lebt derlebt men" would be "Where there's life there's hope". A slightly more ambivalent expression would be "This too shall pass." (Ambivalent since the English expression, but not the Yiddish one, also refers to joys.) However I have never heard it used in the sense of "Vi me bet zakh azoy ligt men". That's right out of Brecht. Arre Komar 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 14:35:49 -0400 (EDT) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Yidish in Goles Here in rural, Republican, relatively Judenreyn, better-natured New Hampshire, you discover an area that is so rural the libraries still use card catalogues, so Republican that the townfolk celebrate when Newt vacations down the road at Sen. Bill Zeliff's resort, and so relatively Yudenreyn that the nearest shul is more thn an hour and a half away. Yet, for some years now, every summer the World Fellowship Center at the edge of town schedules seven days called Jewish Week, open to the entire community. Of course, it culminates in a well-attended, toe-tapping, Saturday night Klezmer Concert. The Fellowship, a rustic, very rustic, retreat for thinking ultra liberals, during Jewish week attracts as guests the former students of the leftist Ordn shulas and Camp Kinderland, and a few Yiddish activists. Last month, Eric Vieland, a Director of the National Yiddish Book Center, and Jeff Sharlett, the new editor of their expanded glossy magazine, the Pakn-Treger, officiated over three nights of lebedike lecture/discussion about Yiddish or Jewish revival and the directon the Book Center will take. I stand eternally grateful to the NYB Center for its rescue and storage of our Yiddish books. Like all Mendelistn, I had been raised in the "whoever touches a book, touches a man" genre. But I often wondered about the fate of these million books (and cartons full are still coming in daily) that could fill a small city. Would the Center build its "bridge to the 21st Century"? How? Would the aesthetically pleasing Amherst "post-modern shtetl" as Jonathan Mahler named it, be a viable homeland? Eric's and Jeff's youthful, dynamic presentations and answers about the future were youth=oriented and hopeful. The evenings of good talk were enhanced by the unlikely place they were occuring. And the realization once more crystallized that anywhere that Yiddish raises its head, be it well-coiffed or tousled, there is our homeland. Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan North Conway, New Hampshire 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 14:59:33 -0400 (EDT) From: ACHIM1 Subject: leykene shikhlekh In Bergelsons maysele "On a Nomen" (vos ikh zets hitser iber far a publikatse) redt der mekhaber tsvei mol vegn a yingeles "vayse leykene shikhlekh". veys zhe den emetser vos iz taytsch der doziker adiektiv "leyken"? Lakshiekh zenen es nisht vail zey zenen vays un nisht shvarts. un a toes in druk (far "layvnt") iz es mistome nisht vail di dozike fraze vet teykef ibergekhazert. dos dozike vort hob ikh nisht gekent gefinen in keyn shum yidish verberbuk un oykh nisht in verterbikher fun di komponent-shprakhn. Joachim Neugroschel 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 15:40:27 +0500 From: Elliot Gertel Subject: "Yoyvl-lid" oder "Anniversary Song" Mekoyekh dem onzogekhts vos kh'hob dem 8tn oygust 1997 aroysgeshikt un hot zikh in band 7.048 fun Mendele dervizn dem 12tn oygust 1997, vil ikh itster epes aleyn tsugebn. Kh'hob zint demolt dos lidl "Eniverseri song" ("Yoyvl-lid" oder "Anniversary Song"}af a disk fun Koni Frensis ("Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites," MGM E3869) gefinen un ot vayter vos kh'hob gekent deshifrirn (az kh'hob nisht gekent oystaytshn vos zi hot gezingn, hob ikh do gesthtelt an [...] un az kh'bin nisht geven zikher vegn a vort oder etlekhe, hob ikh "untergeshtrokhn" (vi vayt me ken dos tun in ayen-post) di verter ot azoy: ot lemoshl _eybelekh_. Un tomer emetser farmogt dem dozikn bukh: _Encore! Music Jerry Sperling,_ Tara Publications katalog numer CO-JSP-20B, ken men _efsher_ dortn gefinen dem lidtekst funem dozikn lid. Un tomer emetser ken mir dokh bashtetikn dem tekst un dergantsn dos lidele far mir un farn oylem, vet es aykh zikher kumen a hartsikn dank! In reference to my own August 8 post in Mendele Vol. 7.048, August 12, 1997, on the lyrics of "Anniversary Song," I have since found and listened to Connie Francis singing the song on "Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites," MGM E3869. I managed to decipher most of the song and list what I found below. In a few places where I couldn't make out the text, I have placed a bracketed ellipsis [...] to stand for the (to me) indistinct word or words. For words I wasn't sure of (I know some of my ear identifications must be off the mark), I wrote what I thought I heard and underscored it as best as one can in e-mail as e.g. _eybelekh_. The book, _Encore! Music Jerry Sperling,_ Tara Publications catalog # CO-JSP-20B MAY contain the Yiddish lyrics. If anyone can confirm what I may have heard and fill in the gaps, I'd be grateful. "Anniversary Song" Baarbet fun Dzhordzh Shau (George Shaw) fun "Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites," MGM E3869 (langshpiliker disk); transkribirt nor teylvayz. Der letster ferz hot zi gezingen af english. Agev, s'iz dokh a mekhaye tsu hern vi azoy zi zingt af mame-loshn! S'zenen avek lange yorn zint kh'hob tsum letsn mol gehert dem dozikn disk. Adapted by George Shaw from "Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites," MGM E3869 (33 1/3 long playing record); lyrics partially transcribed. Last verse in English. I really enjoyed listening to her Yiddish singing! Quite a number of years have passed since I last heard this record. Akh, in a nakht, In a gliklekher nakht, A freyd on a shier far uns beydn gebrakht. Tsum ershtn mol ven ikh hob dikh derzen, geshpilt af [...] Un muzik azoy sheyn. _Tsveyele_ hertser keseyder geveyn, _libes_gefiln_ un _shildet_ (?) un _reyn_, _gedrikt_ hob ikh dir azoy tsertlekh tsu mir, zikh _eybelekh_faln_ in dir. Dear, as I held you so close in my arms, Angels were singing a hymn to your charms, Two hearts gently beating And murmuring low: "My darling, I love you so." Elyet Hersh Gertl (Elliot H. Gertel) Boka raton, Florida 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 15:09:47 -0700 From: rrobboy@cts.com (Ron Robboy) Subject: "Yoyvl-lid" or "Anniversary Song" This will probably be of no help to Elliot Gertel in his quest for Yiddish lyrics to the "'Yoyvl-lid' OR 'Anniversary Song'" [7.048], but I hope other Mendelistn will find it as interesting as I do. The melody of the so-called "Anniversary Waltz," according to the _New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians_, dates from 1880. It was composed on the Viennese model as part of a larger waltz suite entitled "The Waves of the Danube" by Joseph Ivanovici, a Rumanian who had studied in Iasi (among other places). Its incarnation as an Anniversary Song with lyrics, however, is surprisingly recent, the story of which would take us well beyond the scope of a Yiddish-related discussion but for its mirror-image symmetry to that of the English-language popular song "Bei Mir Bistu Schoen." In my posts 6.251 and 6.257 -- which were responding to posts by Ellen Prince [6.241] and Harold Orbach [6.249] concerning the Russian song _Ochi chornia_ appearing in a Vitagraph "race film" -- I described songwriter Saul Chaplin's account of the famous story of his having heard Sholom Secunda's original _Bay mir bistu sheyn_ sung in Yiddish by an African-American duo at a theater in Harlem, which led him and his partner Sammy Cahn to make an English-language swing version. I recounted that, in Chaplin's recent book _The Golden Age of Movie Musicals and Me_ (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), he described his own work at Vitagraph studios, cobbling together quick musical arrangements for low-budget films, and I speculated that the "jazzed up version of ochi chornia...then into a pure jazz number" (as Ellen described it) might have represented another Chaplin-Cahn effort. By emulating the "Bei Mir Bistu Schoen" evolutionary process: Yiddish song --> jazz number --> mass media version they might have produced: Russian song --> jazz number --> mass media version. Not so coincidentally, it was the very same Saul Chaplin, ten years later and moved to Columbia Pictures in Hollywood, who was working on arrangements for _The Jolson Story_ (1946). (Al Jolson, of course, was the cantor's son who starred in his own virtual autobiography _The Jazz Singer_, the 1927 motion picture which ushered in the age of sound and defined the shape of the popular culture that came to dominate international media by century's end.) As Chaplin tells it in his book, he needed something -- and he needed it fast -- for *background* music for a scene depicting the wedding anniversary of Jolson's parents. Because Ivanovici's music was long since in the public domain (lapsed copyright, no licensing fees), it seemed ideal, and he quickly dashed off some lyrics to it (in English, of course). Though Chaplin thought he was only doing background music (his own critique of the metrics and phonetics of his throwaway lyric is priceless -- see pp. 108-11 of his book), Jolson's recording of the song became a hit and was seemingly instantly absorbed into quasi-folk repertory as The Anniversary Song. Now on Mendele we have arrived upon a discussion of the Yiddish version of the song. Though I can't supply the lyrics, I can offer one more Chaplinesque paradigm, this time scrambling the elements in a new permutation: Russian-Habsburg waltz --> mass media version --> Yiddish song. Ron Robboy 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 19:16:32 -0400 From: "Stanley F. (Shimke) Levine" Subject: Az me lebt, derlebt men Michael Krantz (Mendele 7.047) suggests "comme on fait son lit, on se couche" and similar as translations of "az me lebt, derlebt men." I am under the impression that the Yiddish proverb does not imply any judgment on the good/bad/prudent/imprudent behavior of the subject, but rather refers to simple longevity. I suggested in a private message to M. Steinlauf the translation "If you live long enough, you'll see everything!" I believe the meaning of this, as many expressions, can change according to the context. It can mean that simple endurance will get you through hard times, which will eventually end, or that one's hopes will be fulfilled if one does not give up. I wonder if it can also be used in a negative context? I offer these thoughts very tentatively, and would welcome corroboration or correction from anyone more informed than I. Stanley F. Levine Aiken, SC USA 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 19:20:44 -0400 From: "Stanley F. (Shimke) Levine" Subject: terms of affection Rivke asks about terms of endearment [7.047]. Troym-hendler (daughter of the Yiddish poet Menke Katz) is the person to contact. At the recent WC Yiddish fest in Connecticut she listed hundreds of romantic and erotic terms in Yiddish. Stanley F. Levine Aiken, SC USA 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 08:09:46 -0400 (EDT) From: Savoyid@aol.com Subject: Verlaine into Yiddish In one of the three versions of Verlaine's _ IL PLEURE DANS MON COEUR, (Mendele - Vol. 7.047) M. Litwin translates _Quelle est cette langueur / Qui penetre mon coeur?_ thusly: Fun vanen kumt tsu mir In hartsn der kumer? I received a couple of inquiries about the meaning of _kumer_. I couldn't find it in Weinreich but I did find it listed in section 512 of Stutchkov's _Der oytser fun der yidisher shprakh_ (page 555 in my edition) along with _zorg_, _dayge_, _umru_ and _angst_. Thus I assume that the meaning of _kumer_ has something to do with sorrow, grief, worry, etc. Inasmuch as I'm no scholar, I appeal to the academicians on this list to supply us with a more specific gloss on _kumer_ and, if possible, to offer a conjecture as to why it doesn't appear in Weinreich. One of my inquirers asked, "Who is M. Litwin"? I have no information on him and would be grateful to hear from anyone who does. Al Grand 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 11:55:00 -0400 (EDT) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Translations and poetry plaudits After reading the excerpt from Chaim Grade's _Elegy for the Soviet Yiddish Writers_ which Iosif posted for us, I feel compelled to express, maybe even to advertise, how fortunate we are to have Cynthia Ozick, like a poet laureate, on our team. Her translations are so superb, so true, so neshomedik, each poet she touches sings anew with perfect pitch. Also, Grade's masterful elegy invoked the bereft feeling "of wearing out the hurt" for Dovid Edelstadt who died too young, who filled the centerfold of last week's Forverts. Plaudits to the Mloteks for again breathing life into the powerful, passionate poems of Dovid Edelstadt in last week's _In Der Velt Fun Yidish_ . To have died at 26 and to have left such a legacy - we still sing his songs - is not to have died at all. Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 7.050