Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.082 October 22, 1997 1) dukhnen (Arthur S. Abramson) 2) Tum balalayke (Peggy Davis) 3) Peddlers in Vietnam, too? (Bob Werman) 4) dukhenen (Hugh Denman) 5) zol mir zayn far dir (Shirley Simon) 6) tonguetwisters (Wolf Krakowski) 7) Sneeze protocols (Harvey Spiro) 8) Tum balalaika and superstitions (Ruth Etkin) 9) Tum Balalayke in Vietnamese and Yiddish in Libraries (Faith Jones) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 22:14:31 -0400 From: abramson@uconnvm.uconn.edu (Arthur S. Abramson) Subject: dukhnen Rita Falbel asks, "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." >From the meaning of the word and its Hebraic spelling I have always thought _dukhn-en_ had to have come from the Hebrew _dukhan_ 'platform' (_dukhon_ in the surely Ashkenazic Hebrew source). The members of the priestly class, the kohanim, on whom it is incumbent to pronounce the priestly blessing upon the congregation on certain holidays and, in some parts of the world, every Sabbath, face the congregation with their backs to the ark containing the Tora scrolls while, under the leadership of the prayer leader, pronouncing the blessing. Commonly, then, they are on a dais or platform where the ark stands. Arthur Abramson Mansfield, Connecticut, U.S.A. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 23:21:01 -0500 From: phd@crocker.com (Peggy Davis) Subject: Tum balalayke Alexander Maxwell (Vol 07.079) asks about the line in Tum balalayke 'vos ken vaksen, vaksen on regn --> a shteyn kan vaksn, vaksn on regn'. [what can grow without rain? A stone can grow without rain.] The thought that comes to my mind when singing this line is of anger, which becomes like a stone, growing harder with time. Khaye Zlatokowsky (Peggy Davis) 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 08:03:09 +0200 From: Robert Werman Subject: Peddlers in Vietnam, too? Melekh Godfrey tells of tum balalayke also being a Vietnamese song. The following, perhaps related story, was told to me 40 years ago by a famous musicologist whose son was a musico-ethnologist. The son attended a conference where one of the more exciting papers was given by a man who had succeeded in reaching an isolated South American Indian tribe, never before visited by white men with a battery operated tape recorder and recorded their music. When he played the tape, one of the audience caused a disturbance by jumping up and shouting, "Those are Polish Jewish Hassidic melodies." The story becomes more interesting when the researcher presented a paper a few years later in apology. The new story, prompted by the reference to Hassidic melodies, was as follows. One of the older Indians remembered that some 60 years earlier a peddler had come to the village and was trapped there for a long time, more than a month, perhaps even as long as two. At that time, as they warmed themselves, taking shelter from the rain, he would sing to them and teach them his songs. [Intrepid Jewish] Peddlers in Vietnam, too? Best to all and Hag SameaH. Bob Werman, Jerusalem 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 10:54:35 +0000 From: Hugh Denman Subject: dukhenen Rita Falbel raises an interesting question [07.079:9] re the etymology of 'dukhenen' on which I have pondered before without coming to any very definite conclusion. At first sight, it seems obviously derived from Hebrew ''alah ladukhan' 'to ascend to the platform or deliver the priestly blessing', but when one reflects that Polish 'duch' means 'spirit' and 'stan duchowny' means 'priesthood or clergy' [there are cognate Ukrainian expressions that need not detain us] two other possibilities suggest themselves, viz. 1. this is once again a case of polygenetic, mutually reinforcing derivation or 2. and potentially more interesting, if it could be substantiated, that the Hebrew expression (not, of course, the word 'dukhan') is derived (by a kind of Volksetymologie) from the Yiddish 'dukhenen' and hence ultimately from a Slavic source, rather in the way that the familiar Israeli tag 'mah nishmah?' comes by way of 'vos hert zikh?' from Polish 'co slychac'. Of course, if the phrase cited from _Shulkhn orekh_ by Yussil Weiss [07.080:8] can be shown to come from Caro's original text and not from Isserles or a subsequent Ashkenazic commentator then this second possibility collapses. Can someone instruct us on this point? Hugh Denman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 08:50:11 -0500 From: Norbert Simon Subject: zol mir zayn far dir... I remember that my mother, when she held her grandchildren, would always chant: "mir far dayne beyndelekh" and "mir far dayne tseynedelekh". I had never heard it used by anyone else and always thought it unique to her. Thanks to Mendele I now see the connection. Shirley Simon Evanston, Illinois 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 13:17:03 -0500 From: "Wolf Krakowski, Paula Parsky" Subject: tonguetwisters. Try repeating this one quickly: Kelberene lingeleyber'l, milikhdik meser'l. (Calve's little liver, little dairy knife). Twistin' the night away, Wolf Krakowski 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 13:59:49 -0400 From: Harvey Spiro Subject: Sneeze protocols In Mendele 7.078, Ellen Prince reports her family's sequence of responses to sneezes (to ward off evil), including: 'Tsum gezunt!' and 'Lang lebn!' She reported mysteriously that the familially correct response to the third sneeze was "'Nis deroyf!' or something like that." My family had similar protocols for sneezes: `Tsum gezint (revealing my Galitzianer roots),' `Tsum leben,' and `Tsum lange yuer.' However, we occasionally used Ellen's mysterious third protocol, which didn't sound Yiddish to me. I heard it as `nazdrovye.' When I was older, I finally figured out that the expression was simply the Russian `Na zdarovye,' which I believe means simply `to health,' and is one of many toasts used in Russia for that ever-present shot of vodka. Harvey Spiro Vienna, Virginia 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 16:24:29 -0400 From: "Ruth Etkin" Subject: Tum Balalaika and Superstitions I'll take the opportunity to comment on two postings. Referring to Alexander Maxwell's query about what "..a stone can grow without rain" means, it was explained to me that it described simple wind erosion around any boulder or stone that would make it appear larger and larger. It sounded perfectly logical to me as a child..and still does. As for Ellen Prince's litany of superstitious practices, I found myself nodding my head in recognition as I read them. I'd like to add one of my Bubba's. When my husband was drafted during the Korean War she made him a little fabric packet sewn around a piece of the afikomen from the last seder and told him to keep it with him all the time. He kept it in his wallet/pocket all during the duration and, I must say, it certainly didn't hurt since he brought it back safe and sound (him and the packet) (For the record...I still have it in my "memory box"!) Happy Simkhat Torah to all.... Ruth Etkin; Boca Raton, Fl 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 15:38:02 GM+5 From: "FJONES" Subject: Tum Balalayke in Vietnamese and Yiddish in Libraries I too found out that Tum Balalayke has made it into the Vietnamese repertoire -- by hearing it in Vietnamese in a restaurant. It was a very disconcerting experience. And yes, it was played very slowly with a lot of pathos. About a week after that, I heard Yidishe Mama in Japanese, also in a restaurant. Anyone want to conjecture about how either of these songs migrated? On a more serious note, I am looking for information regarding Yiddish and libraries. I'm a graduate student in Library Studies and I haven't narrowed my topic so any citations on any aspect of Yiddish in librarianship would be useful at this point. You can e-mail me directly. Thank you. Faith Jones ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.082 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html