Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.084 November 12, 1998 1) dead language? (Bruce (Borukh Mitshel) Mitchell) 2) Send no flowers (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Demise of Yiddish (Gail Gaston) 4) Baseball in Yiddish (Sema Chaimovitz Menora) 5) "Oy I like she" (Vivian London) 6) translating yiddish poetry (Sylvia Schildt) 7) Clarifications for the "Translation in Forward" (Leah Zazulyer) 8) "Froyds teorye fun khaloymes" (Miroslawa Bulat) 9) Sholem Aleichem's "Korohod" (Giancarlo Canton) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 16:37:57 -0500 (EST) From: Bruce Mitchell Subject: dead language? Regarding Comments about Ruth Wisse In response Dovid Robboy's recent message, I can only express my total dismay that a self-professed academic can call a language spoken by at least 200,000. Americans (1990 U.S. census figures - a fact, not emotional dismay, prejudice, politics, etc.) "dead". Facing the fact that Yiddish is spoken by an ever-growing, extremely traditional Jewish population (haredim) is sound scholarship. Systematically dismissing this linguistic group simply because one does not like haredim is not sound scholarship and borders on a blatant misrepresentation of reality, a "crime" for academics who are committed to educating others. If Yiddish has suffered a demise among secular Jews, then this does not mean that the language is dead, but rather that its group of speakers has shifted from secular circles to more pious ones. This is a trend in Europe and Israel as well as in America, which statistics will amply verify. If people disagree with Ruth Wisse's opinions, this can hardly be considered "bashing". Academics should be able to disagree with one another without taking things personally. I have not read any "vicious" comments about Ruth Wisse on Mendele or elsewhere. If anything, I have perceived a bitter attitude, if not contempt, for a renewed Yiddish popularity in Ruth Wisse's essays. Understandably, labeling a language still spoken by hundreds of thousands "dead" just may have provoked negative comments. For those academics who believe that haredim are not interested in Yiddish literature, I suggest they start reading haredi Yiddish publications where they will find pious poetry and various forms of Yiddish narrative. A casual glance at Yiddish language schoolbooks destined for hasidic school children will also contradict statements made by leading "scholars" in the field of Yiddish, not mentioning any names in particular. For a critical analysis of haredi literature in Yiddish, consult "London's Haredi Periodicals in Yiddish: Language, Literature, and Ultra-Orthodox Ideology", due to appear in "European Judaism", Autumn 1999. For reading in Yiddish, please consult "Yidish in der Lubavitsher Vetl un der Algemeyner Shurnal", Yerushalaymer Almanakh, 26, 1998. For an essay on a renewed academic interest in Yiddish among secular Jews, consult "Yiddish and the Hebrew Revival: A New Look at the Changing Role of Yiddish", Monatshefte, Summer 1998. Bruce (Borukh Mitshel) Mitchell Oxford p.s. 31 years old, NOT an old, nostalgic academic 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 18:59:23 -0500 (EST) From: Lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Send no flowers Consider a benign (but discouraging) process. Consider the very short step between 1) advice that Yiddish is "irrelevant" and 2) advice that it ought to be mourned as dead. One Mendelyaner recently took that step, and advised us all to mourn the death of Yiddish. My advice? Put that mourning on hold. Better yet, forget it. Louis Fridhandler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 02:43:00 -0500 (EST) From: Gail Gaston Subject: Demise of Yiddish Concerning David Robboy's comments in defense of Ruth Wisse. Others have already replied and I don't want to belabor the issue, but as a newcomer to Mendele, I feel constrained to add my 2 cents worth. I don't know or care about Ruth Wisse's politics (well, maybe I do, a little), but I do care a lot about her abandonment of Yiddish. She may feel that the language is dead, but the culture, the literature, the music, the traditions that still do exist - are they destined for the trash heap of Yiddish history? If she loves the language, culture and literature as David stated she did, she should be fighting to preserve it. That's what takes real courage, not facing the grief of losing it. I am not a Yiddish scholar, an "old crank" or a part of the "haredim". I just think that Yiddish is worth preserving and in that context, I will be attending a program at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The program is being offered by Elderhostel and is entitled "In Love With Yiddish: Experience the richness, versatility, origins and history of the Yiddish language and the culture surrounding it. Become acquainted with its idioms, blessings and curses, its humor and proverbs. For those interested in, nostalgic about, or curious to discover the uniqueness of this beautiful, resonant and vibrant language." And this is a dying language?? Good for Elderhostel, but should they be leading the effort to preserve YIDDISH, OR SHOULD WE? Gail Gaston. 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 02:25:33 -0500 (EST) From: Lights4607@aol.com Subject: Baseball in Yiddish In November 4th personal announcements, Binyumen Schaechter talks about the yiddish weekend in 1999 where, among other things, "Beysbol" will be played. l had learned the word for baseball in Yiddish was Hilke Pilke, yet never seem to hear it used. Anyone know why not? Sema Chaimovitz Menora Chicago, Il 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 03:00:29 -0500 (EST) From: Vivian London Subject: "Oy I like she" A friend asked me to inquire if anyone out there knows the rest of the words to a song that begins: Oy I like she, Oy oy oy I like she. You can reply to her directly at Thanks. Vivian London Jerusalem, Israel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 19:10:13 -0500 (EST) From: Pcreativa@charm.net (Sylvia Schildt) Subject: translating yiddish poetry Ikh'll dos makhn b'kitzur. Me redt un me redt un me shushket zikh. Der iker iz az nor durkh yidish ken men b'emes farshteyn vos a yidisher poet vil zogn. Un yidishe poezie iz ayngezapt in vos, in der yidisher geyst-- afile ven ikh hob ibergezetzt mayne eygene lider, iz dos geven di emese horevanye -- un ikh bin nokh nit tzufridn mit di eygene iberzetzungen. Zikher muz men prubirn - fun eyn zayt -- far di vos kenen kin yidish nit. Ober nokhamol, af mame loshn iz beser -- un ikh meyn az es iz an avle a greyse az di yenige vos hobn azey fil lib yidish (azey zogn zey) viln zikh nit bamiyen oystzulernen leyenen yidish. Durkh iberzetzungen kumt men nit tzum hartz fun di poezie -- es iz gringer b'nugeye drame un proze. Eyb men iz sheyn azey vayt az men "hot lib" yidishe poezie iz, shtaytsh -- lernt zikh sheyn oys leyenen. I'll make it short.We talk and we talk and we don't get to the point. The thrust is that only in YIddish can we really understand what a Yiddish poet wants to say. And Yiddish poetry is deeply drenched in what, in the Jewish spirit -- even when I translated my own poetry, it was such hard work -- and I am still not pleased with my own translations. Of course we have to try -- on the one hand -- for those who know no yiddish. But again, it's better in mame loshn -- and I think it is a big sin that those who love Yiddish so much (so they say) won't make the effort to learn to read Yiddish. Through translations you don't come to the heart of the poetry -- it's easier in drama and prose. If one is already so far as to love Yiddish poetry -- why not learn to read it? I'll say this part in English only because it's intended for the English-speaking Mendelyaner specifically. Yiddish poetry is more than the sum of its parts -- the rhyme, the meter, the cadence, the idiom -- that's difficult enough to capture from any language into another -- but the Yiddish poem does not exist in a vacuum -- it is wrapped up in a complex something that eludes translation. What did the great Peretz call translations in his words for the Czernowitz conference? - teyte oysyes -- dead (would lifeless be better?) letters. If you are not for Yiddish literature, who is? If not now, when ? Sylvia Schildt Baltimore, Maryland 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 07:26:17 -0500 (EST) From: Leah Watson Subject: Clarifications for the "Translation in Forward" (08.075) It was not my intent to be patronizing to anyone, least of all an accomplished translator... On the other hand it was not my intent to argue for totally literal translations. The amount of discussion in reaction to my note seems to me to indicate that steering a course between highly adaptive translations and highly literal translations is a topic that bears discussion. Since much of Yiddish poetry will come to future generations in the form of translation, it behooves us to render it in a manner that is compatible with 20th century poetic modes so that in the eyes and ears of those who come to it ,it will not sound quaint or stilted. In my experience Americans are astounded when they are exposed to translations they can relate to, astonished that Yiddish poetry can "speak" to them in today's world. But that can be said of any translation from a prior time, place, or culture. Yes it is hard to translate, to translate poetry, to translate from ANY language, not just Yiddish. Leah Zazulyer 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 13:16:17 -0500 (EST) From: "Miroslawa Bulat" Subject: "Froyds teorye fun khaloymes" (vol. 08.081, no.1 Moishe Kijak) The play "Froyds teorye fun khaloymes" was translated from Polish. In the original it is a comedy in 3 acts by Antoni Cwojdzinski (1896-1972). The title of the original is "Freuda teoria snow". It was staged in Polish for the first time in Teatr Maly in Warsaw in 1937. It was published (in Polish) in the volume: A. Cwojdzinski, "Komedie naukowe", PIW, Warsaw 1968, pp. 95-171. The play was translated into Yiddish by Diana Blumenfeld. It was staged for the first time in Yiddish in December 1938 in Biblioteka Judaistyczna (Yudaistishe Bibliotek) at 5 Tlomackie Street. It was said to have 125 performances in Warsaw. After the end of the season in Warsaw, in June 1939, J. Turkow and D. Blumenfeld went on a tour. It included Western Galicia with Cracow and Eastern Galicia with Lvov/Lemberg. In Cracow the play was performed by Turkow and Blumenfeld (it is a two-actor play) in Zydowski Teatr Letni (Jewish Summer Theatre) "Pawilon" at 11 Stradom from July 26 to July 30. There were 7 performances of this play in Cracow. The total income from the first performance was devoted for weapon for the Polish army preparing for the war. In the Warsaw ghetto J. Turkow and D. Blumenfeld performed this play on November 8, 1941 in the same building at 5 Tlomackie Street as before the war. With the best wishes from Krakow/Kroke/Cracow, Miroslawa Bulat 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 12:26:01 -0500 (EST) From: "prof. Giancarlo Canton" Subject: Sholem Aleichem's "Korohod" Sholem Aleichem's "Shir hashirim"(first part,cap. 9) contains a word I didn't find in my yiddish dictionary:.....(di karlikes) spilen ganze teg "korohod". The protagonist, Shymek, is speaking to Buzie of the dwarfs (di karlikes) who are descendants of the warriors of King David's time and live only on candies and they all dance rounds together. So Curt Leviant in his translation of Sholem Aleichem's Shir hashirim (Simon & Schuster Editions 1996). Aliza Shevrin (A Treasury of Sholom Aleichem Children's Stories) who translated the first part of Sholem Aleichem's wonderful novella, translates (p. 301): "and (the dwarfs) dance in a circle." The German translator, Jrgen Rennert (Scholem Alejchem, Schir-ha-Shirim. Lied der Lieder. Roman einer Jugend, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a.M.1985) doesn't translate this expression: "und dazu tanzen sie alle zusammen einen znftigen Kohorod". I think "Korohod" is a dance (perhaps a slavic dance). Is "korohod" a Russian or Ukrainian word? Mit di beste grusn Giancarlo Canton ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.084 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://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html