Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.176 November 11, 1994 1) Oifn Pripitchek (Chane Honig) 2) Games with young children (Stanley Werbow) 3) Redt/ret (Meylekh Viswanath) 4) Feygelakh un zomerfeygelakh--videramol (Meyshe-Yankl Sweet) 5) Freylakh lider (Andrew Cassel) 6) Costumes for Fiddler on the Roof (Avremi Dashefsky) 7) A new way of getting back issues (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 10:51:23 -0500 (EST) From: ahonig@mailbox.syr.edu Subject: Re: Oifn pripetchek David Ferleger asks about the origins of Oifn Pripetchek brent a fyerel..un in shtub siz hes...und der rebbe lernt kleyne kinderlach dem aleph bayz. I do not know the orining but I remember this as my earliest memory of Iddish sog. I was a baby in my crib on one side of the orom. On the other, my mother lay very ill with diphtheria ( the days before vaccinations of course ..she is almost 94 now). Weakly , she sang oifn pripetcheck...and i tried hard to get myself up to hol on to the crib bars and listened. My father nursed her through that awful time...but i have never forgotten the special ness of this song...it must have been special for a long time...for her to choose to communicate with me whenshe could not even lift her head off a pillow.... For many years I have been a Yiddish folksinger...but this song will always remain very precious.. I would like to nknow not only who wrote it, but how it achieved the popularity it did by the late 1920s. Chane Honig 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 10:54:44 -0600 From: s.werbow@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Games with young children In response to Miki Safadi's request for bube-baby games, does he know "Soreke, voreke?" It is spoken or chanted while pinching the skin on top of the child's hand while the child does the same to the hand of the other player, who says: "Soreke, voreke, kashe mit milekh, ver s'vet veln, deym'l ikh geybn, ver s'vet veynen, deym'l ikh shlugen." At the conclusion of which both throw their hands up in the air and laugh, maybe with tickling. Stanley Werbow 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Nov 94 21:54:22 EST From: pviswana@andromeda.rutgers.edu Subject: Redt/ret unser shames zugt: > That's more like it: azoy redt men! Ikh vil ober visn, zugt men take 'redt' tsi 'ret?' meylekh viswanath 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 22:47:16 -0600 From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Feygelakh un zomerfeygelakh--videramol Many of you will remember the contentious and interesting thread we had on the subject of "feygele" and kindred Yiddish words for gays/lesbians, that we had last March-April, and which culminated in a column on the subject by the pseudonymous Philologos, in the Forward. This has been simmering in my brain for a while, and I'd like to put together a little paper on the subject, with all due acknowledgements to Mendelnikes who contributed postings on this. Don't want to repeat what's already been discussed, but have a few questions on which I'd be grateful for any speculations: 1) Zomerfeygele is obviously a dialect word for "butterfly." But in which dialect (s) of Yiddish is this known? 2. Any Slavicists out there know of any sexual connotations of "butterfly" in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, etc. ? 3. Does anyone know how to get in touch with Eve Sicular, who is (was?) a curator at YIVO. In March she posted that she was publishing an article entitled "A Yingl mit a yinl hot epes a tam" in the Journal of Jewish Folklore and Ethnography later in the year. I'd very much like to read this article, but we don't have the journal in the UW library, and I don't want to wait for the interminable workings of ILL. Has anyone seen this article, and know how to procure it? Don't know if #2-3 would be of general interest to others on the list. Use your judgement-feel free to send to my email address. A sheynem dank in foroys tsum alemen. Meyshe-Yankl Sweet 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Nov 94 11:34 edt From: acassel@philly.cerf.fred.org Subject: Freylakh lider After being blown away by the Klezmatics in concert here the other day, I'm happily humming several tunes from their first recording, "Shvaygn = Toyt". I'd enjoy it all the more if I could find a copy of the lyrics, which don't appear on the cassette I purchased. Can anyone direct me to, or better yet post, the words to "Dzhankoye" and "Ale brider"? A sheynem dank in faroys ... Andrew Cassel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Nov 94 10:58:05 EST From: dashef@uconnvm.uconn.edu Subject: Costumes for Fiddler on the Roof The University of Connecticut Dramatic Arts Department is staging Fiddler on th e Roof. They request of me advice on authenticity of costume design. What advice do you have for me as to whom to contact or what to suggest? A sheynem dank Avremi Dashefsky 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Nov 94 13:19 EST From: nmiller@trincoll.edu Subject: A new way of getting back issues For Mendele subscribers in the United States: Here is a new alternative for those who would like a complete file of Mendele but are either daunted by the time-consuming process of downloading or unable to use ftp: Mendele on disks. You can have a set of Mendele from Vol. 1.001 to the most recent number. And perform a mitsva. Here is the procedure. 1. Send three 3.5" formatted HD disks to the address below. They _must_ be formatted. They _must_ be HD.* They _must_ be accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope (SASE). Be sure that the return postage is sufficient. 2. Indicate whether the formatted disks are for a PC or Macintosh. 3. Include a check (minimum $18 but $1000 would be better) made out to: Exprinter International Bank, N.V. Account # 36083629 In addition, please enter the following in the Memo area: Instituto Cientifico Judio -IWO- Argentina, Reference #11159 (sorry, but _all_ of this _must_ appear on the check) These funds will be used to repair and rebuild the bomb-damaged Argentine branch of YIVO that has played such a vital role not only for the Yiddish-speaking Jews of Argentina but for Jewish culture throughout the world. The disks will include a utility for uncompressing the files on PC machines. Unfortunately it is technically impossible to include a comparable utility for Macintoshes. Mac owners who don't already have one can download one from the Mendele archives by anonymous ftp from the Mendele archives. Its name is: Be sure to set the transmission at binary. Please note: disks will not be sent unless _all_ of the conditions are met. Don't court disappointment by sending the shames money for _him_ to buy stamps, etc. He's notoriously lazy and won't do it. Besides, he's not to be trusted with cash and there are four bookstores in the half- dozen blocks between his house and the post office). So be forewarned and bear in mind that your check will go off to Argentina in any case. If you have any questions before sending off your disks, an e-mail message will be answered promptly. You can also phone. Noyekh Miller 53 Lawton St. Brookline, MA 02146 nmiller@trincoll.edu 617-566-6208 * A HD disk has 1.4 mb capacity and is easily identified because it has _2_ square holes (one opposite the write-protect hole). ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.176 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. 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