Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.062 July 19, 1994 1) Argentine YIVO Bombed (Zachary Baker) 2) Lamed-feh-kuf & lamed-sof=tzadik (Leybl Botvinik) 3) Yivole (Dovid Braun) 4) Khazn Zavl Kvartin (Dovid Braun) 5) Translation problems (Louis Fridhandler) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jul 94 07:04:06 PDT From: BM.YIB@RLG.Stanford.EDU Subject: Argentine YIVO Bombed The appalling television images and newspaper photographs of the terrorist bombing of the building in Buenos Aires that housed a number of major Jewish organizations reveal something of the dimensions of the human tragedy -- the loss of at least 26 innocent lives, the physical destruction of the nerve center of a major Jewish community. Today's NY Times has an article in which two of the organizations located at 633 Pasteur -- destroyed in yesterday's bombing -- are mentioned: AMIA (the Central Ashkenazi community) and DAIA (the representative body of Argentine Jewry -- equivalent to the Canadian Jewish Congress). The third floor of that building housed the Argentine branch of YIVO, and it is now apparent that one of the great Jewish archival and library collections (with particular strengths in Yiddish literature and Argentine Jewish history) has now been obliterated. If anyone has further details, please pass them along. I will also update the story as the picture emerges. Zachary Baker 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jul 94 20:21:48 IDT From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: lamed-feh-kuf & lamed-sof=tzadik Michael Shimshoni hot geshribn in mendele funem 5tn yuli (Vol. 4.047) vegn etlekhe peyrushim fun di roshey-teyves lamed-feh-kuf. hob ikh gezukht in maynem a seyfer tzu forshn vos se shteyt bay mir geshribn. der seyfer heyst "otzar rashey teyvot" fun shmuel ashkenazi un dov yarden, farlag "Rubin Mas" (yerushalayim, 1978). dort shtayt take dos 'lefkudat' un oykh dos 'lifrat katan'. ad kan -- iz altz in ordenung. az der seyfer iz shoyn ofn, hob ikh getrakht tzu leyenen vayter, vel ikh efsher lernen epes nays. mit etlekhe shures vayter, ze ikh, az es shteyt lamed tzadik [= lo tzarikh, lekhem tzar,...] un glaykh nokh dem, lamed-sof=tzadik ! vos ken dos zayn? freg ikh zikh. sof-tzadik is dokh nit 'rosh-teyve', nor take tzum sof... un vos meynt ir vos shteyt take dort der peyrish? nit mer un nit veyniker "leybush peretz" ! iz mayn ershte frage tzu undzere khokhomim: tzi zaynen do andere faln fun 'roshey teyves' geboyte fun di sof oysies fun verter? un di tzveyte frage: tzi is peretz geven bakant untern nomen "letz" (bekitzur)? 'yal=peretz' hob ikh ye gehert (yal = yud lamed). leybl botvinik 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jul 94 15:39:12 EDT From: dovid@MIT.EDU Subject: yivole sholem-aleykhem, doktor bak, un borkhabo! mir iz bakant di mayse mitn yingl _yivole_ un gevis nit fun "der alter heym" - kh'bin dortn nokh keyn mol afile nit geven. iz fun vanen zhe veys ikh fun dem? oyb der zikorn nart mikh nisht, iz do in yoyvl-band fun di yivo-bleter a reshime eksponatn fun an oysshtelung lekoved dem yivos yoyvl. tsvishn di zakhn iz geven a foto (?) tsi vos nit iz funem yingele _yivole mark_. in der reshime shraybt zikh, az dos kind iz umgekumen. hob ikh, heyst es, ye gezen dem inyen in druk un der yivo hot, heyst es, arkhiv -materyaln vos zaynen negeye dem o kind. der yoyvl-band iz aroys in di frie akhtsiker yorn, dukht zikh mir. dovid braun 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jul 94 16:02:27 EDT From: dovid@MIT.EDU Subject: Khazn Zavl Kvartin If I remember correctly, Khazn Zavl Kvartin wrote an autobiography. Ms. Feins is sure to find an endless amount of information there about her roots. (I'm sorry I don't have the book at hand, nor do I remember the title.) Dovid Braun 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Jul 94 19:19:05 EDT From: 74064.1661@compuserve.com Subject: translation problems I want to join the discussion on the problems of translation. All the suggestions I've seen from the Mendele khevre apply in one situation or another. The most generally applicable comment, in my opinion, was that the translator must be adept at writing in whatever language into which he is translating the Yiddish. There is another problem which applies to all writing, but especially to poetry. All writing must sound right, but it is vital in poetry. Here's what I think is a striking example. In "Yankev Glatshteyn" (by Janet Hadda, Twayne's World Authors Series, TWAS 566, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980) the author discusses poems of Yankev Glatshteyn. Of particular interest in this context is her quotation of a Yiddish poem, "On Yidn". The poem is published in English translation in the High Holy Day Prayer Book (Reform), Gates of Repentance, The New Union Prayer Book for the Days of Awe, ed. Chaim Stern, New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1978, pp. 436-438. The translation begins, "Without Jews there is no Jewish God," and ends, "Is this not the sin of all 'good' people?" The poet addresses God (p. 437 in the Prayer Book): Who will dream You? Who will remember You? Who deny you? Who yearn for You? Who, on a lonely bridge, Will leave You - in order to return? The English is fine. As a poem, the English stands on its own as respectable poetry. Further, it is a good translation as to essence of meaning. For the ear, however, it falls short. The sounds are too mellifluous. It fails to evoke the harshness of the topic: the Holocaust. The sounds of the Yiddish more truly convey the anger and reproach. Ver vet dikh kholemen? Ver gedenken? Ver vet dikh leykenen? Ver vet dikh benken? Ver vet fun dir, af a farbenkter brik, Avek fun dir, kedey tsu kumen tsurik? In addition to the meaning of the Yiddish words, The sounds of the k's and the kh's speak volumes. In the last line, the harsh sounds of the k's and the ts's underline the depth of desperately disappointed feeling. P.S. Sadly, I found no acknowledgments in the Prayer Book of 1) Glatshteyn as author, 2) the translator, nor 3) that it is a translation from Yiddish. Louis Fridhandler ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.062 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. 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