Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.025 June 4, 1993 1) Translation job (Khaim Bochner) 2) Funem yarid (Khaim Bochner) 3) Noah Pandre (Ted Steinberg) 4) Toytn bankes (Mark Pinson) 5) Learning Yiddish (Allan E. Blair) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 3 17:01:47 1993 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: translation job I've just been in touch with someone in the Boston area who's looking for a Yiddish to English translator. He's got 300 pages of letters from his grandfather to his father, written between 1921 & 1941. The sample I saw was in difficult (very cursive) but legible handwriting. The style is the educated "daytshmerish" of the time; the sort of style where I end up using a German dictionary more than the Yiddish ones. I turned down the job because I don't have time to take on a job that large. Even 30 pages would take a long time :-(, and he wants the entire collection translated. He's willing to pay, although I'm not sure he's realistic about how much it will cost: he was clearly taken aback by my suggestion of $15/page. (By the way, in this case what I mean by page is one side of a legal-sized sheet.) If anyone's interested in pursuing this, let me know, and I'll put you in touch with the owner of the letters. Also, I'd be interested in getting some idea of what other people charge for translation work. $15/page sounds high to the customer, but it's low compared to what I make as a programmer. Maybe I'm just a slow translator? Khaim 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 3 17:18:46 1993 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: funem yarid Dovid Braun suggested in (3.014) that I was finding Sholem Aleykhem's "Funem Yarid" dull because he (S.A.) didn't live long enough to revise it. Well, I suspect he might have shortened the early childhood chapters if he had lived long enough! I've finished the second volume now, and I can report that I liked it much better than the first. But there hasn't been a outpouring of interest in talking about this book, so I won't go on. Would anyone else care to suggest a topic for literary discussion? I'm open to suggestions as to what I might read next ... Khaim 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 3 18:42:01 1993 From: "Ted L. Steinberg" Subject: Noah Pandre Someone recently asked whether there was a novel called Noah Pandre. The answer is that the Yiddish-Hebrew writer Zalman Shneour wrote a novel called Ha-Dod Zyame, a sequel to his Anshei Shklov. The hero of the sequel is Noah Pandre, a Jew who fights back. These books were published in the late 40's. In the early 50's, when Shneour moved to Israel, he made the latter story into a play that he called Pandrei ha-Gibbor. If I'm not mistaken, the sequel was translated into English as Noah Pandre. I know how difficult it is to interpret silence, but should I understand the lack of response to my question of whether anyone is teaching Yiddish literature outside of specific Yiddish literature courses to mean that no one is? That would be a shame. The literature deserves to be taught. Ted Steinberg 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 3 22:14:38 1993 From: PINSON%HUSC3.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: toytn bankes I think the correct syntax is "toytn" is in the dative, i.e., it would help as much as "cupping" (=bankes) would help a dead man. Anyone else encountered a "frozen", archaic dative that looks like this? A propos the other shprikhvort, dimly, I remember: he should be like a X? lamp, hang, burn, stink and people should makhen a brokho over him. X cannot be shabbes, but what the adjective should be, I can't remember. mark pinson 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 3 22:23:06 1993 From: Allan E Blair Subject: Learning Yiddish Diane: I'm sure that you'll get many suggesstions, but I was in a similar position as you are. The books that I used to rejuvenate me Yiddish were: 1. College Yiddish (Weinreich) 2. Learning Yiddish in Easy stages (Zuckerman & Herbst) 3. Modern English-Yiddish/Yiddish-English Dictionary (Weinreich) I would start with #2. Weinreich's dictionary is a MUST! All of these are available at the National Yiddish Book Center or the Workman's Circle bookstore. Good luck. Keep in touch, I'd like to hear how you're doing. Allan E. Blair ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.025