Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 20 June 11, 1991 1) Mostly to Leonard Prager and a query (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 91 19:58 EDT From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.BITNET Subject: Mekhutn, etc. 1) In reply to Leonard Prager [Vol 1.17]. Concerning "vos biste mir far a mekhutn?": Leonard: Reyshis, biste gerekht; The sentence "Vos bistu mir far a mekhutn" is better translated 'Who [or what] are you to me?' If I were writing a bilingual phraseological dictionary, I'd say it just that way. Now, where there's a reyshis there must follow a Sheynis; blayb ikh fort gerekht. After all, I wasn't translating the expression. I was offering UW's English gloss, 'pretender' whose meaning is delimited by an example of usage; i.e., probably not 'pretender to the throne' (How would you say that in Yiddish?); something you'd expect to find in a bilingual college dictionary, s.v. mekhutn. If we were writing a truly sophisticated defining dictionary, a la the OED, I'd try to work in everything you said ("expresses rejection of familiarity, close- ness or intimacy which is in some way seen as not being bona fide, i.e. pretended, unearned, unjustified, etc.") in a paragraph beginning "One who . . . ". 2) Leonard, I am not a mekhutn in matters pertaining to literature. Nevertheless, I did like your translation. In other word, a khazn bin ikh nit, nor a meyvn af khazones bin ix yo. You sing well. 3) Leonard, as a mayvn on Shakespeare, what would you have Ophelia say in the Yiddish translation in reply to Hamlet's "Get thee to a nunnery? Shmuel Lapin, olevasholem (whose father was himself a Yiddish poet and translator of Shakespearean Ballads) proposed: "mit eytses-toyves, adoyni prints, bin ikh shoyn, borekhashem, bazorgt". 4) If there is a Slavist in the crowd, would anyone propose a good English gloss for Yiddish "onitses/onitshes" (first syllable stress). They are 'leg wrappings' (for warmth). Is there a better gloss?