Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.159 October 31, 1994 1) Yitskhok Berliner (Bob Freedman) 2) Bonkele (Dovid Braun) 3) Sholem Aleichem: Attention Deficit? (Louis Fridhandler) 4) Yiddish Sentence Revised as Criticized (Zellig Bach) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Oct 1994 11:23:23 EST From: rfreedman@shrsys.hslc.org Subject: Yitskhok Berliner I am trying to locate the following book: Shtot Fun Palatsn, published in Mexico in 1936 by Yitskhok Berliner (1899-1957) and illustrated by Diego Rivera Bob Freedman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Oct 1994 13:32:19 EST From: dovid@MIT.EDU Subject: Bonkele To Soreh Benor: I don't have anything very revealing to say about _bunshke_, but I'm told that my grandmother used to call my mother _bonkele_ when she was a tot. Makes you wonder... Dovid Braun 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 30 Oct 94 16:30:30 EST From: 74064.1661@compuserve.com Subject: Sholem Aleichem: Attention Deficit? Re: Harvey Spiro's "Did Sholem Aleichem have Attention Deficit?" I don't think there is any reason to conclude that Sholem Aleichem had an attention span problem. First of all: I caution against mistaking an author for his characters. E.g., there is no clue suggesting that Shakespeare was crazily ambitious for power like Lady Macbeth or as indecisive and depressed as Hamlet. Mark Twain was neither Huckleberry Finn nor Jim. All art is autobiography, and there are author-character identifications but not identities. Sholem Aleichem labored over his work for many hours and days and weeks in deeply concentrated attention. This is evident from contemporary observers. In addition to Yiddish and Hebrew authors, and Talmud and Tanakh, Sholem Aleichem read the Russian authors, and Mark Twain, Dickens, Thackeray, et al. in Russian translation. This _must_ have taken intense, concentrated attention. He neglected business affairs to great financial loss through attention to his writing. From my perspective, there is no reason to diagnose in Sholem Aleichem an Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He made some rash decisions at times, but don't we all? In early youth, he hardly reread his own work before sending it off. This changed as be became an experienced writer, and often revised and re-edited. As to Tevye, Sholem Aleichem makes him artfully change focus to back and fill in and toss off revealing comments. Tevye certainly pays attention to the main thing: concern about feeding his family and maintaining his "family values," but makes a mistake or two. Further, in the Tevye stories, there are two characters: Tevye the monologist plus Sholem Aleichem the silent listener paying close attention through a a long story. (Incidentally, in the original version of the first story, Sholem Aleichem is _not_ silent). The stories became tragic as the years go by. Sholem Aleichem continues patiently listening, very attentively. In "An Eytse," Sholem Aleichem is again the listener, not the one seeking advice. Sholem Aleichem listens very attentively to the nudnik at first, but finally loses both patience and temper, a rare occurrence. Motl seems not unmanageable. He is bright and observant and often cooperative. His language changes from childish to poetically adult, an author's device. Of course, as child, he changes focus, but from a child's perspective the world demands attention in so many directions at once. The child better change focus to absorb what he needs to become a mentsh. I can only guess he did not need Ritalin, but that's up to _very_ careful, experienced, attentive diagnosticians. For insight into Sholem Aleichem, we ought to look at his life _and_ work. For one thing, his evident, much too close, identification with his father led, in my opinion, to an earlier death than he might otherwise have suffered. See my article, "Was his Death Too Soon?" in "The Three Great Classic Writer of Modern Yiddish Literature, Volume II, Sholem-Aleykhem," Malibu, CA: Joseph Simon Pangloss Press, 1994, p. 17. Louis Fridhandler 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Oct 1994 17:44:25 -0500 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Yiddish Sentence Revised as Criticized A Mendele member wrote that he "stopped reading Mendele a while back because [he] was sick of the grammarians" (4.119,4). Then he "flamed" me for having the audacity of analyzing critically a Yiddish sentence in Steven Pinker's recent book _The Language Instinct_ (4.118,1). He continued: "Boy, things are getting worse. Poor Pinker, the MIT linguist, gets slammed... all because of a few words in Yiddish about grandmothers, grandfathers, and balls. A shande, I tell you." Well, if you and I can be corrected for faulty spelling and incorrect grammar, why not--especially--a linguist? Pinker himself did not find it a "shande," nor a "kharpe". In his reply in Mendele (4.129,1) there was no indication whatsoever that he felt the least bit insulted, and no sign at all of any degree of defensiveness. He wrote: "I was _amused and enlightened_ (Italics added) to read the recent discussion in Mendele (kindly forwarded to me by several colleagues)... and I had already received several letters, pointing out that [the sentence] was puzzlingly nonstandard." He added that he already changed the words and spelling of the sentence to the YIVO standard, for the next edition. In an E-mail letter I asked him to advise me the revised sentence, with permission to publish it in Mendele. Back came his prompt and friendly reply: He has no objection to discussing his revised sentence in Mendele. This is the new, revised text: Az di bobe volt gehat beytsim volt zi geven mayn zeyde. Mendele readers may recall that this revision corresponds exactly with my word analysis of the original mangled sentence ("Az der bubbe vot gehat," 4.118,1). Zellig Bach ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.159 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) 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 Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. 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