Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.123 February 1, 1999 1) YIVO autobiographies (Lisa Epstein) 2) zelig berdichever (Avraham Chasid) 3) Yiddish for a complete beginner (Shimen Kass) 4) suggestions for poetry to set to music (Rhoda (Rokhl) Bernard) 5) Jesus in Yiddish (Gershon Freidlin) 6) "fremde" translation (Liebe Denner) 7) 'Huldah and Bor' (Gilad J. Gevaryahu) 8) treyf, sreyfe, etc. (Rick Turkel) 9) Bashke and scuba diving (Shaya Mitelman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 01:25:10 EST From: yivo@lrw.net Subject: YIVO autobiographies In 1932, 1934, and 1939, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in Vilna held contests calling for Polish-Jewish youth to submit their autobiographies. These autobiographies were to serve as material for YIVO's work in Yugntforshung, studying contemporary Jewish youth, its concerns, hopes, values, and the problems it faced. Over 600 autobiographies were submitted. Today, the YIVO Institute in New York plans to publish some of these autobiographies and is seeking information about the participants in these contests. Due to privacy considerations, they do not wish to post the names of the participants publicly. If you were a participant, or you know of someone who sent in their autobiography to YIVO, please contact: Dr. Lisa Epstein Director of Research YIVO Institute for Jewish Research 555 West 57th Street, Suite 1100 New York, NY 10019 USA Phone: 212-246-6080 Fax: 212-292-1892 Email: yivo7@metgate.metro.org Thank you. Lisa Epstein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 05:58:53 +0200 From: Abe Chasid Subject: zelig berdichever shalom Does any maven or mumkhe have information about the Rumanian song writer Zelig Berdichever? Does anyone know thw words of his "ele bele" ? A groiser dank for any & all information Avraham Chasid 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 23:16:23 -0500 (EST) From: kass@umbsky.cc.umb.edu Subject: Yiddish for a complete beginner In response to Elan Freydenson (8.114): Try Sheva Zucker's vol. 1 of her introductory Yiddish, which come with an audio tape. In the mid-1980's I attended Oxford's Summer Programme. There I met a young Swiss, not Jewish, who had studied Yiddish on his own. In a few years he was himself teaching in the Oxford summer Pgme. So, take heart! Shimen Kass 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 14:34:36 -0500 (EST) From: "Rhoda Bernard" Subject: suggestions for poetry to set to music After the success of my setting of "Di Lererin Mira," I have been asked to set more Yiddish poetry to original music for an upcoming event in Boston. Do Mendalyaners have any suggestions? Poems that rhyme are easiest to set, but rhyming is not necessary. Feel free to email me off-list if you prefer. A sheynem dank in foroys, Rhoda (Rokhl) Bernard 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 05:11:43 -0500 (EST) From: Olivia Hibel Subject: Jesus in Yiddish In response to David Herskovic (8.113): Jesus was pejoratively referred to as " yoshke pandre" -- the pandre meaning panther -- a slur that his mother had had an affair with a Roman officer named "Panther". This later became corrupted to Pan drek -- Sir Drek.... Informatively, Gershon Freidlin 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 15:35:01 -0500 (EST) From: bdenner@sonic.net (bruce denner) Subject: "fremde" translation Re: Inquiry about English translation of Mani Leib's poem "fremde" The bilingual edition of the Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse contains a translation by John Hollander, "Strangers," on page 136. Enjoy-- Liebe Denner 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 12:24:04 -0500 (EST) From: Gevaryahu@aol.com Subject: 'Huldah and Bor' You can find more about the legend, in English in my article (co-authored with Vera Moreen) 'The tale of "Huldah and the well": Judeo-Persian version of a Talmudic Tale' in Medieval Encounters, Vol. 3, No.1, March 1997. There are many referenses there to other sources. Gilad J. Gevaryahu 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 19:12:48 -0500 (EST) From: rturkel@cas.org (Rick Turkel) Subject: treyf, sreyfe, etc. Bill Weigel asked about the above, and why the former lost its final Hebrew vowel while the latter didn't when both were borrowed into Yiddish. My guess is that it is because the Hebrew treyfa is a noun (meaning a "torn" animal), not an adjective as treyf is in Yiddish. The Yiddish form of most predicate adjectives lacks any adjectival endings (grin, poshut, hoykh, kleyn, kalt, u.a.v.), and by analogy with them, treyf lost its ending. sreyfe iz gevorn a substantiv in hebrayish un blaybt a substantiv in yidish, heyst es there was no reason for it to lose its final vowel. zayt gezunt un shtark. Rick Turkel 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 22:40:01 -0500 (EST) From: Serge Mitelman Subject: Bashke and scuba diving. Alla Sokolova asked about the word "bashke" [vol.8.105.6]. Bashke simply means basement, cellar (bashke-shtub, halb-bashke) and stems from Moldavian (basca). Moyshe Shapiro (1899-1973, linguist) calls it "a moldavizm" and translates it as "pogreb" (Shmuesn veygn yidisher shprakh, baylage tsum zhurnal "Sovetish heymland", numer 5, farlag "Sovetsky pisatel", Moskve, 1989; pp. 108-110). Scuba diving and snorkeling / untervaser-shvimen mit akvalang tsi mit a rerl (untervaser-sport): shvimen (toykhn, (unter)tukn zikh) mit an akvalang; a rerl (maske, fusruderlekh) far untervaser-shvimen; akvalangist; akvanavt [Shira Lerner, vol.8.113:6]. Shaya Mitelman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.123 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