Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.339 February 24, 1995 1) Hannah and her sisters (Jascha Kessler) 2) Words ending in -em (Rick Gildemeister) 3) Mentsh (Harvey Spiro) 4) Khinezishe mentshlekhkayt (Meyshe-Yankl Sweet) 5) Shmuel Rozhanski (Sarah Traister-Moskovitz) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 95 21:48 PST From: ime9jfk@mvs.oac.ucla.edu Subject: Hannah and her sisters Since Leonard Prager mentions a young Yiddishist named Hannah, I thought it might not be inappropriate, while reminding the world of poets, to remind the Mendele list of a first rate poet who died a few years back, steeped in years, but writing to the end, in Yiddish, in Berkeley: Malka Heifetz Tussman. I had the delight of knowing this beautiful woman, but not as well as I should have done, I mean, life is full of busy distractions, and when two people meet passionate ly, as we did, once in long while is enough... writers in America are like elephants, who graze apart, or like bulls, in their own separate fields, male and female, and Malka was 1000% passionately female. I even had the pleasure of meeting Glatshtayn at her apartment here in Santa Monica, in the late 1960s. An evening of tea and cakes and light chitchat. Malka adored and respected him, and he basked in her glowing respect. Malka, however, is a poet as fine and powerful as he was, and there was an element of embarrassment that flickered over his expression as she honored him time and again, with her respect: he knew her worth, but he was the great one, I mean Great One. Malka published her books, I believe, in Israel, Goldene Kayt. She deserves full attention, and Englishing s...I did only a dozen poems with her in the 1960s, again to my regret. They were published in England by Daniel Weissbort, in his journal of Translation in the 60s. She would be a delight for eager new students, I believe, and well worth a thesis, MA, or even PhD, or two. Her husband was the founder of the Hebrew Teachers Union in LA, a fighter for minimal decent wages, as you might imagine. Her son was a professor of philosophy at Berkeley, and she moved up there, as a widow in the 70s, to be near him. Marcia Falk translated some of her work, too. Irving Howe had my versions, but neglected them in the end in his anthology. He was not too good at that sort of job: a prosaic professor, good for prose, that is, and criticsm of of American fiction, but not much else, I think, in the end. I offer Malka to this world. She would be happy in heaven to hear from you all, about her work, in this sublunary sphere. Jascha Kessler 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Feb 95 08:25:34 EST From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Words ending in -em There are a number of interesting words that serve as a reminder to us to be careful when making correspondences between present day Yiddish and modern High German. I was home sick, and decided to do some exploring. The phrase that kept ringing through the haze of the antihistamines was: Az der rebe heyst, shist a bezem oykh! bezem (Yiddish) = Besen (German) = bezem (Dutch) buzem = Busen = boezem = bosom (Eng.) boydem = Boden = bodem = bottom fodem = Faden = vadem = fathom All these nouns have German forms in "n". Boydem iz interesting because its cognate's meaning in German is "the ground". Boydem shares its additional meaning of "garret" or "loft" with Boden. But the Yiddish word in addition to this latter meaning, has the sense of "attic," a real shift in meaning. Vadem in Dutch has nothing to do with thread; its meaning is more like "fathom". "Drinen oyfn boydem shtibl voynt mayn tayer Reyzele" I know we've dealt to death with bargoens, but I did run across some likely candidates. I found these as I was hunting for "gauw" (see previous posting) goochem (clever, knowing) goochemerd (wide awake person) gannef gappen (to steal) Rick Gildemeister 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Feb 24 09:26:43 1995 From: hjs@nrc.gov Subject: "Sweetheart" is not "mentsh" In the "mentsh" debate earlier this month, someone offered the (slightly dated?) term "sweetheart" as a possible equivalent. In my view, that's someone whose "heart is in the right place," well beyond expectations, or in contrast with others whose behavior is less generous. I contend that mentsh is a more complex concept than that. Let me demonstrate by resorting to the popular current Paul Newman movie, "Nobody's fool." Newman, as the lead character, is caring, generous, and giving. In my mind, he's a "sweetheart," or has a "heart of gold." But he also drinks to excess, loses his temper often, spends much of his time unemployed because he is irresponsible, and abandoned his wife and child when the child was small. Is this a mentsh? I say no. His "heart is in the right place," but his "head is not on straight." To be a mentsh, you need both. Harvey Spiro Vienna, Virginia 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 95 09:20:20 CST From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Khinezishe mentshlekhkayt A final stray thought about the "mentsh" thread--agree with those who point out the occurance of dual meanings of human/humane in diverse cultures. The Chinese word "ren" has a similar meaning to mentshlekhkayt, at least according to Mencius, and is phonologically identical and etymologically related to "ren," person. This was long before there were Chinese Jews, so this was definitely an independent development. And thanks to those who rescued me from the horns of my rogele dilemma (oy!). Meyshe-Yankl Sweet 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 08:00:46 +0800 (PST) From: hcedu012@huey.csun.edu Subject: The death of Rojanski Er iz avek Der gigant tsevishn unz Der mayster shafer fun di Musterverk Der tsuzamenbrenger fun Kolhaminim Unter dem dach fun zayn teyve Er hot dermutikt di farvorfene fun unzer heymloze shprach Arayngenumen unz in karahod Tsevishn tovlen ligt zayn likht tsuzamen mit dem oitzer vos er,der getrayer hot durch yorn ongeklibn tsu farzikhern di kinder Sarah Traister-Moskovitz ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.339 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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