Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.288 January 22, 1995 1) Introduction (Sam Juni) 2) Mzinke (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 3) Glatshteyn, Mozart, Sholem-Aleykhem (Shleyme Axelrod) 4) More Glatshtayn (Binyomin Weiner) 5) Tseylem kop (Al Strauss) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 12:48:21 EST From: juni%snybksac.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Introduction Post-WWII baby (from the left-over Jews' baby boom). Parents Polish, Hungarian, Carpathian, Czecheslovakian, Russian, Belgian, Roumanian (imagine if they had an air-miles program then). Orthodox hasidic-like early upbringing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Educated in mainstream yeshiva in N.Y. went on (left turn) to Brooklyn College, YU, SUNY at Buffalo. PhD in clinical psychology, specialize in differential diagnostics (no, don't know what that means). Spoke only Yiddish until I was able to reach the top shelf of our ice-box. Read all Yiddish language books in the N.Y. Public Library Boro Park Branch until I left for boarding yeshiva at age 14. I am fluent in Yiddish, and hope to become fluent in English (If I can break my Internet addiction and get some time to study). Eek out a meager living being a psychology professor at NYU, which makes my mother proud (but also sad, since I'm not a rabbi). I she would rather I was a rabbi, in which case she would be really proud (but sad that I was not a professor). My career has precious little to do with Yiddish, and my diagnostics practice has precious little to do with Jews. I also subscribe to Mail-Jewish and Psy-Jewish. Given my subscriptions and occasional meals and purges, I have roughly 9 minutes left daily to go to minyan at the local shtibl and to settle world crises with the person in charge (my mother). There is a term used in the Carpathian Yiddish circles "shalaten shames." It pertains to one who is basically a gopher, a shames who is not even a (quasi)important shames. (No offense to our dear moderator, who seems to wear this badge with distinction.) It may relate to an underling whose job it is to prepare shalaten (lettuce of some sort?). My nephew is a budding linguist in Toronto who was curious about this, and he annoyed my mother (who, as a mother, is a linguist by definition), and neither knows the true deriva- tion of this term. Is there perhaps a shalaten shames on the list who can help us with our dire family problem before my Mexican brother and his sons get involved and make it an International affair? Sam Juni 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 12:13:17 -0500 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: Mzinke Ver ken zogn, ver ken dertseyln, vos der mineg badayt vegn dos lid, "Di Mzinke Oisgegebn" un oikh fun vanen shtamt di blumenkroyn und tantz? A dank. Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 17:01:05 -0500 (EST) From: ptyaxel@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Glatshteyn, Mozart, Sholem-Aleykhem Another translation of Yankev Glatshteyn's _Mozart_, this one by Ruth Whitman, in her bilingual _An anthology of modern Yiddish poetry_. New York: October House, 1966: I dreamed that the gentiles crucified Mozart and buried him in a pauper's grave. But the Jews made him a man of God and blessed his memory. I, his apostle, ran all over the world, converting everyone I met, and wherever I caught a Christian I made him a Mozartian. How wonderful is the musical testament of this divine man! How nailed through with song his shining hands! In his greatest need all the fingers of this crucified singer were laughing. And in his most crying grief he loved his neighbor's ear more than himself. How poor and stingy-- compared with Mozart's legacy-- is the Sermon on the Mount. ---------------------------------------- The middle stanza, specifically as it alludes to laughter through pain, reminds me of the epitaph that Sholem-Aleykhem wrote for himself: do ligt a id a posheter geshribn idish-daytsh far vayber un farn prostn folk hot er-- geven a humorist a shrayber. dos gantse lebn oysgelakht, geshlogn mit der velt kapores. di gantse velt hot gut gemakht, un er--oy vey--geven oyf tsores! un davke demolt ven der oylem hot gelakht, geklatsht, un fleg zikh freyen, hot er gekrenkt--dos veys nor got-- besod, az keyner zol nit ze'en. ---------------------------------------------------- (Was this actually inscribed on his gravestone, can anyone say?) Shleyme Axelrod 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 00:07:12 -0500 (EST) From: bmw6@columbia.edu Subject: More Glatshtayn Before the Glatshtayn discussion wans, I want to share my favorite poem. The text and translation are as they can be found in "An Anthology of Modern Yiddish Poetry," selected and translated by Ruth Whitman, and published by October House inc. (1966.) "Vi Mide Baymer" Di nakete khave hot mir getaylt dem letzten bis fun epl. A farshemter hot got zikh farshtelt far an elektrish knepl. Ich hob es gegebn a barir, s'iz gevoyrn likhtik tvishn mir oon ir. Gebentsht zolstu zayn, hob ich ir gezogt. Kh'hob farcholomt in zich a mider an ayntsike regah, mit azoy fil ershtikn toonkl in myne glider, fon ootzr fon yene getsaylte teg, vos hobn zich bislekhvayz genoomen zamlen mit yeder trit oyf oondzer veg in shtiker tzayt; foon yene nogoondike shtamlen, vos zenen gevorn bateyt. Dermonst zich? Dermonst zich, vi mir hobn zich gefedert oon gekumen yoongerhayt, ober gott hot shoyn far oondz altz gehat tsugegrayt. Vi fri mir zenen gekumen, iz er gekumen a bisel friyer. Mir hobn tamid gefregt: ver iz geven ersht, er tsi mir? Mir hobn shoyn gehat a gantzn vald mit zingendike faygl, shtarke khayos oon getrayte likht. Oon ale mol iz er tvishn oondz oysgevoksn oomgerikht. Dermonst zich? Mir zenen gezesen oyf der erd, gegesn di ershte froocht fun shvays. Geplaplt. A pardrimlter hot er zich tsugehert. S'iz geven koym, okersht ersht, s'iz zikh nokh gornit farlofn. Vi mide baymer zenen mir ayner in andern shotndik arayngeshlofn. "Like Weary Trees" Naked Eve shared the last bite of the apple with me. God, bashful, disguised himself as an electric button. I touched it and there was light between her and me. Blessings on you, I said to her. Wearily, with my limbs full of first darkness, I dreamed of a single moment out of the treasure of those numbered days that, with every step of the way, slowly gathered into pieces of time; dreamed of those crude stammerings that became eloquence. Do you remember? Do you remember how we rose early and came, in our newness, but God had already prepared everything for us? No matter how early we came, he came a little earlier. We always asked: Who was first, he or we? We already had a whole forest of singing birds, strong beasts, faithful light. And all the time he kept turning up unexpectedly between us. Do you remember? We sat on the ground, ate the first fruit of our sweat. Prattled. Drowsily he listened. It was just barely first, nothing had yet happened. Like weary trees, interlaced, shadowy we fell asleep. Binyomin Weiner 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 21 Jan 95 14:10:55 EST From: 74722.1215@compuserve.com Subject: Tseylem kop A polyisher id hot zach a mol tsukrigt mit a litveshen. Hot er em gezidlt kol mine zilzulim. Nor der litvak hot geshivign. Iz der polyisher gor shtark in kas gevorn un aussgeshrien: "Du shvaygst? treyfener beyn eyner! Bist doch treyf vi chazer! Host doch a tseylim in kop!" Entfert zich der litvak gelasn: "A tseylim in kop? nu, nu! To kush mich nit in kop." (From Royte Pomerantsn by Immanuel Olsvanger) Al Strauss, Baltimore ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.288 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. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu