Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.105 January 10, 1999 1) Abraham Karpinowitz (Gershon Winer) 2) standard Yiddish vs. the dialects (David Herskovic) 3) a lid (David Herskovic) 4) Mazepevke-Kasrilevke substitutions (Louis Fridhandler) 5) Yiddish Music of Birobidzhan (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 6) Shtetl house (Alla Sokolova) 7) A Yiddishist of the far left (Noyekh Miller) 8) der bavebter yid, numer 3.1 (Refoyl Finkl) 9) Porgy & Bess (Mikhoyel Basherives) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 19:37:29 +0200 (IST) From: Nechama & Gershon Winer Subject: Abraham Karpinowitz This is in response to a recent inquiry about the Yiddish author Abraham Karpinowitz. Karpinowitz has been a resident of Tel Aviv for about half a century. He is the author of numerous books, nearly all related to the place of his birth, Vilna. In my own library there are five such volumes: --Tzu Foos Kain Eretz Yisrael --Oif Vilner Vegn --Vilna Mein Vilna --Geven Geven Amol Vilna --Di Geshichte fun Vilner Ger Tzedek, Graf Valentin Patocski - a beautiful volume in content, typography and appearance. Karpinowitz has been chairman of the World Council for Yiddish Culture, is a leader of the Yiddish Writers Union and is a lecturer at the annual one month Yiddish seminars in Russia, sponsored by the World Council for Yiddish Culture. Some of his books are available at Peretz Publishing House, 14 Brenner St., Tel Aviv Gershon Winer 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 17:10:07 -0500 (EST) From: David Herskovic Subject: standard Yiddish vs. the dialects Mr Neugroschel is absolutely correct when he compares the insistence of using dialect Yiddish over standard Yiddish to one insisting on Liverpudlian or Mancunian English over the standard language. As to what standard Yiddish is, Reb Joachim suggests that the rule books lie with YIVO and to make his point adds that most Yiddish writers wrote in standard Yiddish. So far so good. But my question is when exactly were these rules formulated and when did these writers write. Perhaps a further analogy with English would be of assistance. The Concise Oxford Dictionary, first published in 1911, is now in its ninth or tenth edition; Fowler's Modern English Usage, first published in 1926, is now in its third edition. This seems to suggest that English, far from being a standard language with a set of rules for all times, is, to the contrary, constantly in flux. Yiddish, on the other hand, has its Wienreich dictionary first published in 1968 and is still in its first edition. This suggests that either Yiddish is frozen in time, as indeed it may be in some circles, and so is in no need for an updated version, or, as some 'squawkers' may suggest, the self proclaimed guardians of Yiddish either wilfully ignore or are ignorantly oblivious to large communities for whom Yiddish is, like any other spoken language, in a constant state of change. It is the same with Yiddish writers. Most of the Yiddish authors wrote at the turn of the century and in the inter war period. Relying on them for a standard is no different than relying on Victorian writers for a current English standard. They may be useful guides for many aspects of Yiddish but they are pretty useless for the state Yiddish is currently in. David Herskovic 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 17:10:30 -0500 (EST) From: David Herskovic Subject: a lid Owing to a recent career change I am occasionally forced to leave home early and return home late (and spend less time on mendele!). My brother, teasingly, faxed me the following lid which I thought would be nice to share with you. ikh hob a klaynm yingele a zindele gor fayn ven ikh derzey im dakht zikh mir di gantse velt iz mayn gor zeltn zeltn zey ikh im mayn shaynm ven er vakht ikh tref im imer shlofedig ikh zey im nor baynakht di arbayt trabt mikh fri aroys in lozt mikh shpeyt tsurik a fremd iz mir mayn aygn layb! a fremd mayn kinds a blik Does someone have details on the author? David Herskovic 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 13:36:35 -0500 (EST) From: Lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Mazepevke-Kasrilevke substitutions and translation problems In The Mendele Review (TMR) 2.034, 3, Leah Krikun provided a transcription of A Gebentsht Land, a letter from Menakhem-Mendl to Sholem Aleichem. (If you have not read it yet, go read it, you'll like it!) Pains were taken to pinpoint some textual differences between the version printed in Fargesene Bletlekh, FB, (Kiev, 1939) and Menakhem-Mendl, MM (Tel-Aviv, 1976). However, at the first instance of the word, Kasrilevke, there is no mention in TMR of the fact that Kasrilevke is _NOT_ mentioned in FB. As a matter of fact, Kasrilevke is nowhere to be found as well in the version printed in Sovetish Heymland in 1969. This clearly indicates that Kasrilevke was absent in the original text. Most of the textual differences seem to me to be trivial, and fail to justify the statement in that issue, "...neither is a completely satisfactory text for the translator." On the other hand, the absence of Kasrilevke is not trivial, and assumes major significance when combined with other facts about Menakhem- Mendl's home town. In 1892, in Kol Mevaser Tsu Der Yidisher Folks-bibliotek, Menakhem-Mendl writes home to Sheyne-Sheyndl in Mazepevke. I have seen a copy of that publication with corrections made in Sholem Aleichem's handwriting. No changes are evident with regard to Mazepevke. Those changes appeared in the 1910 compilation of the Menakhem-Mendl letters, the so-called "canonized" version. There, Mazepevke was replaced by Kasrilevke when Sholem Aleichem was still alive. Looking at versions of Menakhem-Mendl letters published before the 1910 compilation, it is very clear that Menakhem-Mendl stems from Mazepevke, not Kasrilevke. Even Tevye's Golde comes from Mazepevke, despite that fact that it was changed to Kasrilevke for the Folksfond Oysgabe. Since that edition was published posthumously, we may suspect that Golde's change of home town may not have been authorized by Sholem Aleichem. My impression is that Kasrilevke, being more famous and popular, was considered to offer better commercial prospects. In my opinion, that change and other such changes in other works were artistically infelicitous. The nature of the fictional town colors the nature of the fictional inhabitants, and deeply influences how the author intended for us to understand a character. Mazepevke has a most unpleasant air about it. Kasrilevke, on the other hand, while it is poverty-stricken and its citizens must cope with tragedies at times, the people are warm (mostly), helpful, optimistic and resilient. Kasrilevke seems to be a place to which one might want to return to be among buoyant neighbors. In one piece, Sholem Aleichem describes Mazepevke as a heap of garbage. Who would want to return there? Is that why Menakhem-Mendl starts to return, but repeatedly gets intercepted by some fly-by-night deal? Is it that he does not want to go back to dreary Mazepevke? If so, it is understandable. In MM Kasrilevke is added, but Mazepevke is retained. Elsewhere, Mazepevke is simply removed to be replaced by Kasrilevke. In light of that, I sum up: The important changes for the translator are not the kind of minor changes detailed in TMR 2.034, 3, but in the addition of Kasrilevke in MM which reflects the substitutions of Mazepevke by Kasrilevke in accessible versions of Menakhem-Mendl. Even if Sholem Aleichem himself authorized those changes, the translator may have to allow for the influence of commercial over the artistic interests of the author. Kasrilevke was famous and beloved by readers while Mazepevke was not. It is, of course, exceedingly presumptuous of a translator to overrule the author's judgment, but in this case, I think Sholem Aleichem (or surrogate) made a mistake if he authorized some of these changes. Mazepevke as home town is, I think, truer to Sholem Aleichem's concept of the nature and enduring identity of Menakhem-Mendl. Whenever you think you appreciate the complexity of the translators' problems, you bump into other complexities. Here's what I think: Each and every translation is a work in progress. Just look at some serviceable English translations of a generation or so ago. There are some defects due to errors in understanding the original, but most other defects have only to do with changes in the English language itself, and NOT with any defect in the translator's understanding of Yiddish, or his/her English rendering of the original Yiddish. As English changes, new translations may be needed. This notion, if correct, poses a hard reality that is not an encouraging thought for a translator. [For more about shtetl names, see my article, "Place Names and Their Meaning in Sholem-Aleykhem's Work" in The Three Great Classic Writers of Modern Yiddish Literature, Vol. II, Sholem-Aleykhem, ed. Zuckerman and Herbst, 1994, p. 30.] Louis Fridhandler 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 10:18:00 -0500 (EST) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Yiddish Music of Birobidzhan Birobidzhan - Zionist Utopia or Soviet Hoax? We visited the Ziff Jewish Museum of Florida to view a controversial exhibit, "Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Jewish Homeland" which comes here from the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, CA (with the Historical Museum of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Russia). The Dlugatsh posters of stalwart, happy farmers, the enlarged photos of heroic Halutzim with hoes in hand, the imposing schoolhouse with Yiddish signs, stirred childhood memories of a world in Yiddish. One older cousin of mine was a farhitste IWO linke and used to teach us songs about Birobidzhan as she described this 'homeland' and tried to raise funds to send there. One song kept reverberating in my mind, and softly, I sang my cousin Tillie's song, "Dortn in Sovyetnland in dem land dem frayen, boyen zikh di Yidelakh a lebn gor a nayem...." The docent, excited, saying she never heard songs from that era, wanted to call the curator to have it taped and added to the exhibit. Since I am no Adrienne Cooper, I promised to try to get a pianist and a shtikl chorus to tape some songs for the exhibit. So - helft - where can we find music, and the songs of Birobidzhan? Amazing fact: 200,000 people today live in Birobidzhan of which a handful are Jews. There still exists a Yiddish newspaper, and a synagogue (it looked huge) that they share with the Seventh Day Adventists. If the exhibit travels your way, it's certainly worth viewing. Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 03:52:34 -0500 (EST) From: "Alla Sokolova" Subject: Shtetl house Hello! My name is Alla Sokolova. I am a researcher from Petersburg Jewish University (Russia). I study architecture of traditional Jewish houses in former shtetls of Podolia (Ukraine). Every summer (beginning with 1989) I undertake expeditions to former shtetls in Podolia where I do my field studies. The results of my studies were published in a 7 articles. Among them I would like to mention two articles written in English: A Study of the Architecture of the Ancient Jewish Towns of Eastern Podolia, Including the Graphic Reconstruction of a Typical Jewish Market Street of the Beginning of the 19th Century // Research Support Scheme Network Chronicle, No. 2. Prague 1995, pp. 10 - 12; Architectural Space of the Shtetl-Street-House // Trumah, No. 7. Berlin 1998, pp. 51 - 85. I would like to ask a number of questions to the scholars who study Yiddish. Each room in the typical set of rooms in traditional shtetl house has its own name in Yiddish. I am interested in the following matters: - when did these names appeared in Yiddish language; - what was the geneses of these words. Here is the list of Yiddish names of some rooms in traditional Jewish house: Zol' - a kind of a sitting room, Uz - a stable, Bashke - a basement of the house Anfur - a hallway through the house (Have you got any evidence that this word was also used for the name of an inn in the shtetl?). Gonek - a gallery in front of the house facade (Are there any other names for the gallery in Yiddish?) . I know that there is a special name for the building which is being a block of two houses. These two houses may contain two sets of rooms adjoining each other along the central axis of the building. May be you know the name of this building? I shall be very grateful for any help in this matter, Alla Sokolova 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 03 Jan 1999 20:31:33 -0500 From: nmiller@mail.cc.trincoll.edu Subject: A Yiddishist of the far left A long and interesting article in the January 4 issue of the Paris newspaper _Liberation_ is centered around the career of the man who in his time was responsible for printing a great many legal as well as clandestine tracts for the far left. His name was Joseph Schachter. Born in Moldavia, he was a founder of the Romanian Communist Party before emigrating to France in 1937. He played a crucial role for the French resistance during the war, being responsible for turning out _L'Humanite_ as well as other work. After the war he became involved with French Trotzkyists. He died in 1992 at the age of 86. None of which would merit mention in Mendele except for this: among the products of his printery was at least one book in Yiddish. No further details. But I'm intrigued and perhaps others too might want to know more about a man who printed much of the ultra-left student broadsides of the 70's while publishing at least one Yiddish book and who in his last years was working on a history of the Jews. Perhaps our French Mendelists have more information. Noyekh Miller 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 13:55:58 -0500 (EST) From: raphael@cs.uky.edu (Raphael Finkel) Subject: der bavebter yid, numer 3.1 a nay yor, a nayer numer bavebter yid! kumt tsu gast tsu http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/bavebter/ un shept hanoe fun numer 3.1 fun der eyntsiker yidisher vebs-zhurnal, der bavebter yid. frierdike numeren ken men bashteln af khatsi-khinem. It's a new year, and there is a new issue of Der Bavebter yid, the one-and-only Yiddish web journal. Come and enjoy! See the URL above. Back issues are now available at half price. Refoyl Finkl 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 16:28:39 -0500 (EST) From: Mikhoyel Basherives Subject: Porgy & Bess This may seem an odd enquiry but a member of a local Jewish theater is seeking a Yiddish translation of "Porgy & Bess". I thought I had once read a posting about such a thing. Can anyone help? thanks, Mikhoyel Basherives ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.105 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