Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.354 March 7, 1995 1) Songbooks with Yiddish lullabies (Kathryn Hellerstein) 2) Songbooks with Yiddish lullabies (Marcia Gruss Levinsohn) 3) The young shtifer, Sholem-Aleykhem (Louis Fridhandler) 4) Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger (Ruben Frankenstein) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 5 Mar 1995 15:22:21 -0500 (EST) From: khellers@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Songbooks with Yiddish lullabies In answer to the query by Sam Abrash, _ Mir trogn a gezang_ (available from the Workmen's Circle) has the words and music for "Rozshinkes mit mandlen" and other lullabies. I'm sure that others on Mendele will recommend the other songbook available fromthe Workmen's Circle (I don't recall thename just this moment and my copy is far away across the ocean). B'sha'a tova, to the father-to-be and the mother-to-be, as well as the daughter-to-be! Kathryn Hellerstein Tel Aviv 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 20:36:02 -0500 (EST) From: mashinke@wam.umd.edu Subject: Songbooks with Yiddish lullabies Sam Abrash bet undz far vig-lider. The Workmen's Circle Song Books, "Mir Trogn a Gezang " or "Favorite Yiddish Songs" by Eleanor Mlotek are the same book and contain "Rozhinkes mit Mandlen," "Patshe Kikhelekh," "Yankele," "Oyfn Pripetshik" and more. Jewish Book Center/Workmen's Circle, 45 East 33rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10016. "Jewish Folk Songs" compiled with English adaptations by Ruth Rubin contains "Amol Iz Geven A Mayse," which is one my mother would sing to me. Also "Bay Dem Shtetl Shteyt a Shtibl," "Dremlen Feygl Oyf Di Tsvaygn," "Mayn Yingele" "Shlof Mayn Kind, Mayn Treyst, Mayn Sheyner" and more but no "Rozhinkes..." "The Yiddish Song Book" by Jerry Silverman contains "Rozhinkes..," "Unter Dem Kinds Vigele," Shlof, Mayn Feygele," "Shlof, Mayn Kind," "Vigndig a Fremd Kind," "Bay Dem Shtetl..." & more. All three books can be gotten from the Workmen's Circle or the National Yiddish Book Center, I'm sure. Often a local Jewish Book Store will have the book or can order it. All three contain the words in English and Romanized Yiddish, the melody notes with chords. Silverman has guitar chords but no Yiddish with Hebrew letters. Rubin contains delightful illustrations with the Yiddish in the back; Mlotik fine illustrations and the Yiddish printing with each song. Marcia Gruss Levinsohn 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 05 Mar 95 16:57:28 EST From: 74064.1661@compuserve.com Subject: The young shtifer, Sholem-Aleykhem My family's Yiddish was shaped by Sholem-Aleykhem's Yiddish which is my favorite. When I read Sholem-Aleykhem I seem to hear my family speaking again. No wonder I am curious about the character and personality of Sholem-Aleykhem. Others probably have a similar curiosity. His writing is so widely loved. In childhood he was a shtifer (a mischievous prankster). A charmingly mischievous child often receives adults' encouragement, and sometimes grows up to try similar shtiferay. An anecdote by J.H. Ravnitski offers a glimpse of Sholem-Aleykhem's shtiferish bent in young adulthood (age 29). In 1888 Sholem-Aleykhem walked into Ravnitski's printing shop in Odessa and... Ravnitski writes: Beshas drukn *Stempenyu* hob ikh zikh dos ershte mol perzenlekh bakent mit Sholem-Aleykhemen. Ikh zits in druk, kumt arayn a yungerman un git a freg dem druker, vu men ken gefinen Ravnitskin, un yener vayzt im on af mir. "Ikh kum itst fun Kiev," zogt mir der yungerman, "Un ikh hob aykh gebrakht a frayndlekhn gris fun a gutn bakantn." "Avade fun Sholem-Aleykhemen." "Glaykh vi getrofn." Ikh nem zikh derfregn baym yungenman vegn Sholem-Aleykhemen, un er entfert mir af eynike shayles, nisht af ale, vayl er ken im eygntlekh nor fun dem vos er bagegnt im oft, kemot yedn tog, af der berze. Azoy dertseylt er mir un bavayzt nisht derbay keyn simen fun a shmeykhl. Biz ikh hob fun eyn tshuve zikh ongeshtoysn, az dos iz nisht mer vi a shpas, un der yungerman iz take Sholem-Aleykhem aleyn. Ikh muz zikh moyde zayn az tsum onheyb bin ikh geven a bisl antoysht. Der shpas iz mir nisht ingantsn gefeln, un bikhlal hob ikh zikh nisht azoy oysgemolt Sholem-Aleykhemen. HaZot na-ami? [Hebrew interjection?] Ot der oysgeputster, frantisher yungermantshik mitn kaylekhikn hitl in a zayt, mitn gantsn oyszen fun a halb berze-soykher halb artist -- dos iz Sholem-Aleykhem, der barimter shrayber? My translation: I met Sholem-Aleykhem in person for the first time while printing *Stempenyu*. I'm at the printing shop when a young man walks in and asks the printer where Ravnitski might be found. The printer points to me. "I've just come from Kiev, and bring you warm regards from a confrere you know very well," says the young man. "That must be from Sholem-Aleykhem." "Right on target." I begin to ask questions about Sholem-Aleykhem, and he answers some of them, not all, of course, because he knows him only through meeting him almost every day at the stock exchange. That was his story, told without the slightest trace of a smile. Finally, I gathered from one of his replies that this was just a prank. The young man was none other than Sholem-Aleykhem. I must admit that at first I was somewhat disappointed. I was not entirely pleased by the trick, and I hadn't visualized Sholem-Aleykhem like this. So elegant? This here well-dressed, foppish young guy with a round little hat cocked to one side, all in all appearing to be half stock merchant, half artist -- this is Sholem-Aleykhem, the famous writer? [Tsum Ondenk Fun Sholem-Aleykhem (In Memory of Sholem-Aleykhem), ed. I. Zinberg, and S. Niger, Petrograd: I.L. Peretz-Fund, 1917, p. 50] Because of length I didn't set the two languages side by side. Louis Fridhandler 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 11:48:32 +0100 (MEZ) From: frankens@mibm.ruf.uni-freiburg.de Subject: Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger was like her second cousin Paul Celan a most talented poet from Czernowitz in the Bukowina. She died just 18 years old in the Concentration Camp Michailowka, Ukraina in July 1942. Just 57 poems could be saved: 51 originals in German, 6 translations. One of a Rumanian poet, one by Paul Verlaine translated into Yiddish "Harbst-lid" and into German and two translated from Yiddish into German: Itzik Manger's "Ikh bin der veg keyn mayrev" un H. Lejwik's "Shloflid". In the printed facsimilie just the two first stanzas in Selma`s own hand-writing are given: Leyg dem kop(f) oyf meyne kni, s`gut azoy tsu lign. Kleyne kinder shlofn shoyn, groyse muz men vign. Kinder hobn shpilekhlekh, shpiln ven zey viln. Groyse shpiln nor mit zikh, muzn eybik shpiln. Who knows the last two stanzas of this wonderful song of Lejwik? Ruben Frankenstein ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.354 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