Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 53 August 8, 1992 1) The ptsha wars (Fishl Kutner) 2) Goyishe Kop (Bob Hoberman) 3) Lachoudisch (Hersh Basser) 4) The borscht wars (David Sherman) 5) Untranslated plays (Bob Hoberman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1992 05:00:02 -0700 From: Philip Kutner Subject: farkilter fus Oy mame zey makhn khoyzek fun unzer farkilter fus. Az ikh zitz do bayem kompyuter ken ikh nokh zen dayn shmeykhl afn ponem un vi mir ale hobn gevart far dayn araynbrengn dem teler mit der farkilter fus. Di mame hot arayngeton eyer un a sakh knobl. Vi azoy ken zey makn khoyzek fun "The Jewish National Dish"? Noyakh, siz a shande! Please forgive my delay in transmitting my feelings. The only ceremony which can match it is the Piping in the Haggis. How can one even put these two delicacies in the same sentence? Yes, in our home the similarity would be in the ceremony. I can see everyone looking front and center as mom came in, and how our salivary glands began to shift into overdrive. Uncle Sam, Aunt Bella and the cousins all came over when mom called, and told them we were having farkilter fus far shabes. I must be truthful. No, my darling wife does not make this delicacy. She is a marvelous lady, a beautiful person, a tremendous insurance CSR, but she does not know how to make this delicacy. Alas, all of you who have not developed the taste for this delicacy do not know what you are missing. Fishl 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 04 Aug 1992 14:33:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: Goyishe kop No surprise if English-speakers (r-dropping New Yorkers, maybe?) said "goyishe kop", even if they weren't Litvaks. They can do such things with French, why not Yiddish? There was a line of clothing sold in department stores some time ago called "Petite Garcon". Bob 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1992 13:58:08 -0400 From: fishbane@epas.utoronto.CA Subject: Re: Lachoudisch Looshen koydish is both written and oral. Its exact meaning is difficult to ascertain. Some have propsed it is "the language of the sanctuary" and have translated it as such. Others see it as the language of the Holy One. Others as "holy and pure language", containing no explicit words for genitals. The early rabbis used the expression and may have coined it. It used to be avoided in mea shaerim but in recent years Hebrew is gaining ground and many young hassidim speak it fluently. But many years ago I was in an "Israeli" book store in mea shearim in Jerusalem. Two hassidim were in the store haggling with the owner. Finally one said in almost decent Hebrew-- arba sefarim (4 books i'm buying) -- his friend screamed, looshen koydish! looshen koydish!-- Nu vus iz? and the screamer replied "in looshen koydish meer toor nisht zoogen arba sefarim, zoog besser arba'a sfoorim." correcting his grammar. Hershel Bolsheviker 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Aug 92 13:25:38 EDT From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.CA Subject: re: Country Yossi revisited Ellen Prince writes: > *my* problem with country yossi and his ilk is that (1)his > audience tends to think this is yiddish music, (2)it is not > yiddish--it is english (or yinglish) with lots of > borrowings, (3)his audience (not you, of course) tends not > to listen to 'real' yiddish music. if he's taken for what > he is--a contemporary version of burlesque, in english, and > with a missionary zeal in his proselytizing--then i have no > complaint or criticism. Maybe we're finally veering towards agreement here. I'm surprised to hear you say that Country Yossi is played on the radio as Yiddish music. I have certainly never heard it on the Yiddish hour on Toronto radio. I know him only through his tapes. Of course it isn't Yiddish music. Of the six tapes we have, I can think offhand of only 3 or 4 songs that are entirely in Yiddish (one is a Yiddish version of Allan Sherman's "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" letter from camp -- how's that for takeoff of a takeoff?). I call this kind of music (Rechnitzer Rejects and Schlock Rock included ) "fruppie" music. I would also temper somewhat the comment about "missionary zeal in his proselytizing". That's how it looks to you from the outside, I'm sure, and if it's played on public radio I'm sure that's how some of it will come across. I see it as aimed for the frum market, however, where observance of mitzvos is a "given" in terms of human goals. Thus, it's not proselytizing so much as an entertaining way of dealing with and expressing existing goals. For me, a song about, say, how pleasant Shabbos is is descriptive rather than prescriptive. And some of the takeoffs are just plain funny. The "Kivi and Tuki" tapes by Country Yossi, which are specifically aimed at kids, are definitely on the "prescriptive" side, along with Uncle Moishy, Torah Island, 613 Torah Avenue, Marvelous Midos Machine and lots of others that have sprung up over the past few years. That's a different genre entirely, but again one which is mostly aimed at kids *within* the frum world. David Sherman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 07 Aug 1992 13:41:48 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: Untranslated plays A student here would like to work on a Yiddish play which has not been translated into English, or at least not within the past 50 years or so. He's especially interested in the 10 one-act comedies by Sholem Aleykhem, or perhaps something by Perets or our eponymous Mendele. Does anyone know whether those short plays of Sholem Aleykhem's (don't you hate it when ignorant journalists or literary people call him "Aleykhem", for short?!) have been translated (and whether they're worth working on), or have any other recommendations? Bob Hoberman rhoberman@sbccmail.bitnet, rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.53 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.