Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.079 October 19, 1997 1) Food in Song (Dorothy Wasserman) 2) davnen (Esther Goffstein) 3) zol mir zayn far dir (Iosif Vaisman) 4) Yiddish music (David Robboy) 5) "Indianer" (Pamela Lapham) 6) Yiddish music (Andrey Bredstein) 7) Yiddish version of The Nightmare Song from Iolanthe (Al Grand) 8) tum balalayke (Alexander Maxwell) 9) dukhenen (Rita Falbel) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 19:59:39 +0000 From: "Dorothy Wasserman" Subject: Food in Song Ir fregt vegn esnvarg in yidishe lider. Do iz di poeme fun Shneyer Vaserman's (fun Chelm un shpeter Buenos Aires ). Ikh gib do iber di verter velkhe mir hobn gezungen, zey zaynen abisl andersh fun di origonele. S'geven populer in mayne yinge yorn. Shifre Lehrer hot dos gezungen mit asakh kheyn. dos broytele der tate hot a broytele in shtibele gebrakht; iz dos broytele nor eyns un mayler zenen akht. git di mame dos broytele oyf shtikelekh a shnit, eynem git zi s'reyftele a tzveytn fun der mit. un farn same pitsele, vos hot nokh nit kayn tseyn - iz genug fun broytele di skorinke aleyn. un azoy hot di mame dos broytele tseteylt, knakn ale tseyndelekh zey tantsn azh far freyd. knakn ale tseyndelekh, nor: kha-kha-kha! vi sheyn: s'hot di gute mamenyu fargesn ------ zikh aleyn... Dorothy (Dobe) Wasserman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 02:30:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Esterel@aol.com Subject: davnen According to Max Weinreich: History of the Yiddish Language (Pg.24) the word was "doynen" (old Yiddish) before it changed to "davnen". "The grandparents might still have said /zaver and /doinen/ for zoyer (sour) and davnen (to pray)." According to Weinreich, the word "davnen" is of uncertain origin (P.680). Apparently, Dovid Katz agrees. A gut yontev un a gut yor! Esther Goffstein 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 11:47:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Iosif Vaisman Subject: zol mir zayn far dir Mikhoyel Basherives [07.077] and Ellen Prince [07.078] pointed out that Jews share many customs and superstitions with coterritorial cultures. It is also interesting, that some other customs seem to be unique or rare. I beleive that one of the very interesting examples is Jewish parents' desire to avert real or apparent illnesses, ordeals, and other dangers from their children by calling those misfortunes upon themselves, in what James Matisoff (Blessings, curses, hopes, and fears: psycho-ostensive expressions in Yiddish / Philadelphia : Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979) classifies as "pro forma auto-malo-petition" (by the way, I think in many cases it is quite sincere rather than _pro forma_). Two constructions I've heard most are "zol mir zayn far dir / zol mir zayn far dayne beyner (beyndelekh)" [let me be affected instead of you] and "vey iz mir far dir" [woe is me instead of you]. There are no such expressions in Russian and Ukrainian, and it seems that they don't exist in Hebrew and German. I was not able to find equivalents in other languages, except Armenian, where it literally translates into "I will take your pain", and is used in the same context as in Yiddish. I would be grateful for pointers to the equivalents of "zol mir zayn far dir / vey iz mir far dir" in other cultures and for information about regional variations/usage in Yiddish. Does somebody know if similar incantations exist in Ladino? Iosif Vaisman Chapel Hill 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 09:48:51 -0700 (PDT) From: David Robboy Subject: Yiddish music I don't know the early history of the song "Dona Dona" or whether it existed before the Yiddish theatre, but it became a folk standard in America in the early '60s, and it was sung in English at camps and on school buses by non-Jewish children. Sholem Secunda is the only Yiddish composer I know of who had two songs that became well known to the general non-Jewish public, the other being Bay Mir Bist Du Sheyn, which in 1938 was the biggest hit record ever up to that time (in English, of course. The Andrews Sisters). David Robboy 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 11:06:54 -0700 From: "Pamela Lapham" Subject: "Indianer" "Indianer" - I have never heard of Indianer meaning turkey (Truthahn, Truthenne, or Pute(r) in German. In my experience, it has always been used for the original inhabitants of America. There is a round pastry covered with chocolate in Austria -- an Indianerkrapfen. I checked my German dictionaries to follow up and found no mention of any relation between turkey and Indianer (WAHRIG, DUDEN, LANGENSCHEIDT'S MURET-SANDERS, and HARRAP). But it sure would make sense, whether in the dictionary or not:-) Pamela Lapham 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 22:28:16 +0300 From: "Andrey Bredstein" Subject: Yiddish music Here is some some information concerning Loic Audrain's request [07.078] which I happen to know. 1. To the song "Belts". Alexander Olshanetsky (1895, Odessa - 1946, Atlantic-City) came in USA in 1925. He wrote music for Jewish theaters and used to be a treasurer in the Union of the American Jewish Composers. 2. To the song "Dona, Dona". There is a CD: "YANKELE: Chansons yiddish" / M. Leiser, A. Flammer, G. Barreaux. OPS 30-107. Opus Production, Paris, 1994, where Moyshe Leiser sings it in his modern way. Andrey Bredstein 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 15:41:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Savoyid@aol.com Subject: Yiddish version of The Nightmare Song from Iolanthe No sooner did my Yiddish version of Gilbert and Sullivan's Nightmare Song from the opera IOLANTHE appear in the current issue of The Forward (Oct. 17, 1997 - _Der Yiddish-Vinkl_) than I started receiving phone calls (A) to ask me to clarify the name of the opera and (B) to request that I publish the rest of the song. I'd therefore like to share with Mendele readers all corrections, additions and explanations. As for the name of the opera - the Forward spelled it totally incorrectly thusly: _Lolanathe_. The correct name, as I indicated in the paragraph above, is IOLANTHE. In regard to the rest of the lyrics, the Forward has them and may eventually print the entire song. Non-Mendelyaners will have to wait for them to do so. To accommodate our own readers please see (below) the complete original followed by the full Yiddish version. I must emphasize that I wrote a Yiddish _version_ rather than a translation. But in doing so I labored to adhere faithfully to Gilbert's rhyme scheme and to his meter (seven metric feet to the line). While doing so I also had to keep thinking of Sullivan's music in order to maintain a perfect match of verbal to musical cadence so that the lyric would conform to the accentuation and rhythm of each musical phrase. Finally, I should like to point out that I interpolated this number in my Yiddish version of The Pirates of Penzance (DI YAM GAZLONIM) at the point where the Major General finds it hard to get a good night's sleep owing to his feelings of guilt for having lied to the pirates about his being an orphan. The Nightmare Song will be one of the selections at a reading of DI YAM GAZLONIM presented by Zalmen Mlotek at the January 10th (1998) meeting of The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of New York, at Cami Hall, 165 West 57th Street (near 7th Avenue). Additional information about Mr. Mlotek and this presentation is at this website: http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/DYG NIGHTMARE SONG--LORD CHANCELLOR. (from Iolanthe) When you're lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is taboo'd by anxiety, I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in, without impropriety; For your brain is on fire--the bedclothes conspire of usual slumber to plunder you: First your counterpane goes, and uncovers your toes, and your sheet slips demurely from under you; Then the blanketing tickles--you feel like mixed pickles--so terribly sharp is the pricking, And you're hot, and you're cross, and you tumble and toss till there's nothing 'twixt you and the ticking. Then the bedclothes all creep to the ground in a heap, and you pick 'em all up in a tangle; Next your pillow resigns and politely declines to remain at its usual angle! Well, you get some repose in the form of a doze, with hot eye-balls and head ever aching. But your slumbering teems with such horrible dreams that you'd very much better be waking; For you dream you are crossing the Channel, and tossing about in a steamer from Harwich-- Which is something between a large bathing machine and a very small second-class carriage-- And you're giving a treat (penny ice and cold meat) to a party of friends and relations-- They're a ravenous horde--and they all came on board at Sloane Square and South Kensington Stations. And bound on that journey you find your attorney (who started that morning from Devon); He's a bit undersized, and you don't feel surprised when he tells you he's only eleven. Well, you're driving like mad with this singular lad (by the by, the ship's now a four-wheeler), And you're playing round games, and he calls you bad names when you tell him that "ties pay the dealer"; But this you can't stand, so you throw up your hand, and you find you're as cold as an icicle, In your shirt and your socks (the black silk with gold clocks), crossing Salisbury Plain on a bicycle: And he and the crew are on bicycles too--which they've somehow or other invested in-- And he's telling the tars all the particulars of a company he's interested in-- It's a scheme of devices, to get at low prices all goods from cough mixtures to cables (Which tickled the sailors), by treating retailers as though they were all vegetables-- You get a good spadesman to plant a small tradesman (first take off his boots with a boot-tree), And his legs will take root, and his fingers will shoot, and they'll blossom and bud like a fruit-tree-- >From the greengrocer tree you get grapes and green pea, cauliflower, pineapple, and cranberries, While the pastrycook plant cherry brandy will grant, apple puffs, and three corners, and Banburys-- The shares are a penny, and ever so many are taken by Rothschild and Baring, And just as a few are allotted to you, you awake with a shudder despairing-- You're a regular wreck, with a crick in your neck, and no wonder you snore, for your head's on the floor, and you've needles and pins from your soles to your shins, and your flesh is a-creep, for your left leg's asleep, and you've cramp in your toes, and a fly on your nose, and some fluff in your lung, and a feverish tongue, and a thirst that's intense, and a general sense that you haven't been sleeping in clover; But the darkness has passed, and it's daylight at last, and the night has been long--ditto ditto my song--and thank goodness they're both of them over! (Lord Chancellor falls exhausted on a seat) NIGHTMARE SONG from Iolanthe Yiddish version copyright 1988 Al Grand Ven ikh leyg zikh in bet in der nakht zeyer shpet un es krikht mir a tsore in kop arayn, Un ikh lig shtilerheyt vayl der kop iz fardreyt un der oyskuk far mir iz nit azoy fayn. Az ikh heyb oyf dem kop falt der kishn arop un s'iz kalt vayl di fentster shteyt ofn, Un dos betgevant rayst vayl a groyse vants bayst shray ikh, "Ziser Got lomikh shoyn shlofn!" Oy s'iz yetst zeyer shpet un ikh drey zikh in bet un ikh ken nit gefinen kayn sholem, Un es brenen di oygn, ikh lig oysgetsoygn un s'kumt on a shreklikher kholem: Dan kholemt zikh mir az men efnt di tir un s'kumen arayn makhetonim, Varfn zey tsu mir gikh, zeyere farblotikte shikh zol dos trefn tsu undzere sonim. Bald antloyf ikh fun zey (oy der kop tut mir vey!) un azoy loyf ikh shneler un shneler, Zits ikh shoyn bay dem tish, es ikh hiner mit fish un dos hindl shpringt oyf fun der teler. Loyf ikh vider avek, azoy groys iz mayn shrek ven dos hindl yogt mir af a groysn ferd, Un dos ferd loyft mit mir zeyer shnel durkh der tir kh'fal arop oysgetsoygn bald af der erd. Vart ikh dortn un blayb, un ikh ze shoyn mayn vayb vi zi ligt bay a top un zi kholemt, Bald shlept zi mir bay'm kop, varft mir arayn in der top, un ikh ver shoyn dertrunken in tsholent. Fun der top kh'fal aroys, s'do a galakh in hoyz un bald fangt er on makhn a brokhe, Plutzling efnt zikh di tir, s'kumen loyfn tsu mir mayne fraynt un mayn gantse mishpokhe. Shrayen zey, "Mazl tov!" vert der galakh a rov un er zogt tsu mir, "Hob nit kayn moyre, Du bist draytsn yor alt, nem dem khumesh un halt es un leyen di gantse haftoyre." Un ven ikh heyb on leynen di mentshn zey veynen, "Far vos redstu Poylish?" baklogn zey, Mit a mol vakh ikh of fun mayn umruikn shlof rayb zikh di oygn un shray oys, "Vos zogn zey"? Oy der kop tut mir vey, un ikh gib a geshrey, di hent zaynen mir kalt, un der kop mayner shpalt! s'iz mir trukn dos moyl, un ikh shray "Shma Yisroyl!" ikh bin nas mit a shveys, un mayn kerper iz heys, in di oygn, oy! brent, un es tsitern di hent, bald a flig flit arum, un di kishn iz krum, un ikh zog "Oy a klog!" vayl s'iz klor vi di tog az ikh hob nit gants ruig geshlofn. - Shoyn di nakht iz farbay, fun mayn shlof bin ikh fray, oy di nakht iz tsu lang -- shoyn genug mayn gezang -- danken Got az di oygn zayn(en)ofn! Al Grand 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 15:54:15 -0500 From: Alexander Maxwell Subject: tum balalayke Audrain Loic's query about the song "tsum balalayke" [07.078] reminded me of a conversation I had with my Yiddish prof about this song. I asked him to explain the question-answer pair 'vos ken vaksen, vaksen on regn --> a sheyn kan vaksn, vaksn on regn'. [what can grow without rain? A stone can grow without rain.] He said that it didn't make much sense to him either, and that _he_ had, back in his youth, asked someone to explain this line, and had been told that it was a 'sexual allusion.' Does the collective wisdom of Mendele have any comment on this explaination? My venerable prof also said that he had seen the song preformed as a 'Russian folk song', without any reference to its Yiddish origin, and had had a good laugh over it. Zayt gezunt! Alexander Maxwell 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 17:00:39 -0400 From: Rita Falbel Subject: dukhenen Many thanks to Ellen Price for the comprehensive review of superstitious practices. I have a few additions: If I sneezed while someone was talking about something, it was proof that that was a true statement, usually stated (as best I can remember) as "dos var es". In addition to red ribbons on my undershirts, I wore corals around my wrist or neck to protect me from the evil eye. The discussions on the derivation of davenen reminded me of another word that my father used, to refer to the kohanim's blessings during the high holidays. Does anyone recognize the word dukhenen, and know what the derivation might be. A sheynem dank. Rita Falbel ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.079 Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html