Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 226 April 26, 1992 1) Gefrishte matse (Dvoyre Sperling) 2) Gefrishte broyt, gefrishte matse (Dovid Braun) 3) Eli Katz (Mikhl Herzog) 4) Gut-morn, gut-yor (Dovid Braun) 5) Matse bray un gezaltsn hering (Vicki Fromkin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 09:31:39 EDT From: Devorah Sperling Subject: RE: Gefrishte matse Gefrishte matse is a variant of matse bray. A mixture of matse meal, egg yolks, water and salt, with the egg whites folded into, is spread on matse boards. Then you fry the matse, batter side down, until golden. As the matse fries, the remaining batter is spread on the other side --then flipped to fry. Gefrishte matse is served warm or at room temperature with cinnamon sugar. a gutn appetit, Dvoyre Sperling / dsperlin@warren.med.harvard.edu 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 12:06:31 -0400 From: David Braun Subject: gefrishte broyt, gefrishte matse M. Herzog, isn't (op)gefrishte broyt 'French toast' and not stam 'toast'? If so, then it's clear how gefrishte matse is what's more commonly known as matse-bray -- gefrishte must mean (by extension) 'bread (or bread-like food) fried with egg'. B.t.w., I say 'more commonly known' because matse-bray is the form used in the "New Country". I don't know whether this or gefrishte matse was more common in the Old Country. Does the Atlas know? Incidentally, in the Philadelphian English of part of my family, French toast is known as _egg toast_. Anyone familiar with this? Dovid Braun 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 13:39 EDT From: ZOGUR%CUVMB.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.225 Too modest, Eli, too modest. Tell us about the Cambridge Codex, etc. Zay visn, that Volume 1 of The Atlas is in press. And, of course, zay gezunt. Mikhl. 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 17:28:42 -0400 From: David Braun Subject: vos far a gut-morgn, aza gut-yor As many of us know, Yiddish greetings that have _gut_ in them (gut-morgn, gut-yontev, gut-shabes, gutn ovnt [pronounced: gut-novnt], etc., etc.) receive the reply _gut-yor_, or the hearer of the greeting will repeat the 1st greeting and continue with _gut-yor_ (e.g., Person A: gut-morgn. Person B: [gut-morgn,] gut-yor). Also, upon departing with a gutn shabes, a gutn yontev, etc., the answer is _a gut yor_. It's been frequently pointed out that numerous of Yitskhok Bashevis [Isaac Bashevis Singer]'s work have never been published in book form in their original language -- mame-loshn. Many have only been printed in serialized form in the Yiddish press (particularly, the _Forverts_). Furthermore, it's been noted that many of Bashevis' writings have been translated into scores of languages -- from the *English*. Nu, perhaps one can't much complain about the translations from English into Japanese (although there actually have been numerous Japanese who have studied Yiddish over the past twenty years) But even the translations from the Yiddish original into English, it seems, leave something to be desired. (All the more reason to be wary of the retranslations of these works into languages other than English.) Khaye-Ester (Corinne) Karlin, a Penn student in Beginning Yiddish, showed me this translated line from Bashevis' _The Penitent_ (translation of _Der bal-tshuve_), pg. 123: "'Good evening, good year,' I replied." The Yiddish original is, of course: - gutn ovnt. - gutn ovnt, gut-yor - hob ikh geentfert. In her words, "If I weren't studying Yiddish, I would have no idea why he said this and would try to interpret some hidden meaning into it." The translator, by the way, is Joseph Singer (Bashevis' nephew). Dovid Braun 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 15:08 PDT From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: Re: Mendele Vol 1.225 It's wonderful that recipes vary as much as dialects of Yiddish. Both my grand mothers, and my mother (and me) would not think of making sweet motzah brie. But then my father even salted herring before he tasted it. (No, he didn't have high blood pressure). Vicki Fromkin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.226 Submissions: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu Business: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.