Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.319 April 17, 1994 1) Fun Philologusn a briv (Philologus) 2) Zdonzhen (Delphine Bechtel) 3) Sholem Aleichem's letters re: Tevye (Louis Fridhandler) 4) The Telzer Yeshiva (Misha Auslin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Apr 17 10:59:20 1994 From: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Subject: Fun Philologusn a briv Tsum shames iz ongekomen dos folgendes: Dear Mikhl Herzog, I don't know which I am more, shamed by the dressing down that you gave me over my recent column in the Forward about the Yiddish variants "mayse/manse", or pleased to be told that you are among the column's "loyal readers", but probably it's the second of the two. In apology for the mistakes that I made there, mainly my overlooking the fact that nasalization takes place in Western Yiddish too, I can only say that unfortunately, in the conflict between the need to meet journalistic deadlines and the duty to doublecheck what one thinks one knows, dead- lines sometimes win out. My situation would be better if I indeed were writing from the "perch in Jerusalem" that you mistakenly think I occupy. I actually live in a small rural town far from both Jerusalem and adequate libraries, my lack of access to which makes things difficult. Indeed, one of the reasons that I chose to use a pseudonym in writing the column, which originally appeared in a short-lived Israeli English newspaper called The Nation, was that I am only too conscious of being an amateur in the field of Jewish linguistics. In The Nation, where my columns largely had to do with Hebrew, which I am fluent in and have a good literary and historical knowlege of, the chutzpah was perhaps not so great, but in the Forward, where writing for an American Jewish audience obliges me to deal frequently with Yiddish, a language that I taught myself to read freely but never stu- died formally and do not speak well, I may occasionally get in over my head. I trust that you and other contributors to Mendele will keep letting me know when I do. And I would also like to say how much I enjoy Mendele's pages, from which I have learned a great deal. When it comes to loyal readers, you have one in me. Philologus 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Apr 17 11:54:28 1994 From: BOULANGER@MESIOB.OBSPM.FR Subject: Zdonzhen To M.Y. Sweet About the quote from ''Grine felder'': Ikh volt nit sdonzhen aza zakh tsu dzhvingen oyf di pleytses" sdonzhen: to manage to cf. polish zda,zac (I dont have the proper diacritics, it is read: zdonzhatsh: " to manage" dzhvingen: to lift, to carry, cf. Polish dzwigac (,dzhvigatsh') I encountered the same sentence years ago when I started yiddish, and it also puzzled me to see these two slavisms in one sentence. Good luck for your reading. Delphine Bechtel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Apr 17 11:58:42 1994 From: 74064.1661@CompuServe.COM Subject: Sholem Aleichem's letters re: Tevye As I indicated in my last posting, I'm sending my translations of Sholem Aleichem letters to Mordecai Spector, editor of Hoyz-Fraynd regarding preparation of the first Tevye story. These are the first two letters in a series. Letter One: Kiev, September 21, 1894 (5655) To Mordecai Spector (who was in Warsaw) Colleague! May a Happy New Year be inscribed and sealed for you. First, as our ancient tradition teaches us, I wish you, at the dawn of this brand new year, good fortune and happiness. Second, I confess I have sinned against you. Now listen to this! Your second letter came when I was away in Boyarka in a country home. So I was away from my Kiev home when your first letter arrived. It reached me later. Only then did I understand that I had falsely suspected you of failing to write, and conceived a false accusation against a righteous and utterly honorable person. Merciful God, save us! God may forgive me because I am not actually responsible. And you will surely forgive me. The eve of Yom Kippur nears. We must not put on airs, and must forgive each other all sins.... Well, then, why did I not answer you? Because I did not accept your proposal [concerning a contribution to the Yontef Bletlekh, Spector's publishing venture in partnership with I.L. Peretz.], and I have not yet been able to comply with your request for a story for volume four of Hoyz-Fraynd. To promise and not come through, now that's really a sin. And so it is better for me to delay my response to you. But when all is said and done, I will give you a story if you have space and time. Space: a full printer's sheet. Time: one month. The title will be Tevye Der Milkhiker. I composed it in Boyarka. That is, I heard the yarn from Tevye himself as he stood beside his horse and wagon, weighing cheese and butter for us. The story is interesting, but Tevye himself is a thousand times more so. I transmit his story in his own words, and I don't have to describe him for he describes himself. I say a full printer's sheet: maybe more, maybe less. My honorarium shall be a couple of hundred copies on vellum paper, bound in soft paper covers, nicely cut, elegantly wrapped. Also, you should forward the two hundred copies before the Hoyz-Fraynd appears. It's understood that I don't need the copies to do business. This won't interfere with Hoyz-Fraynd sales. If these conditions are agreeable to you, reply right away; and I will sit down on the spot to write it all down. In any case, please answer my letter conveying full forgiveness so that "if my sins be as threads of red silk, they shall become snow-white." Again, I wish you a good year with a heap of blessings from the bottom of my heart. Your constant friend, Sholem Aleichem. P.S. My brother (Vevik Rabinowitz) and sister-in-law from Berdichev send warm regards. I was their guest not long ago. Letter Two: Kiev, September 26, 1894. Dear Colleague! Lucky for you, your letter caught up with me while supper is not yet ready, my wife and children are still out, I'm starving to death and can't get down to work. No dancing before dining! So I take pen in hand to answer your letter. Agreed. Your wish is granted. In one month, that is, by October 20, God willing, you will receive the piece I promised entitled Tevye Der Milkhiker, the story of how he suddenly made good. It is told by Tevye himself, reported word for word by Sholem Aleichem. As I've already mentioned, I will not sell the 200 copies I want from you, but to put your mind at ease, send only fifty copies for the time being. The other hundred and fifty, later. And so, my friend, be inscribed favorably for 5655, which is the wish for you from Sholem Aleichem Louis Fridhandler 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Apr 17 13:34:09 1994 From: auslin@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu Subject: The Telzer Yeshiva I am currently edited my great-great-uncle's autobiography. He wrote that his father was a student in the Telzer Yeshiva in Poland in the last century. My limited collection of Judaic history has no information on this yeshiva. Does anyone have any information on the Telzer Yeshiva, such as location, date of founding, which family ran it, any famous students, and descendants of the yeshiva in the US today? Email or posted responses will be gratefully read. Misha Auslin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.319 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu