Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.396 April 21, 1995 1) Help for a beginner (Art Sheppard) 2) Hotzmekh (Pearl Handler) 3) Hotzmekh (Perl Teitelbaum) 4) Hotzmakh (Bob Rothstein) 5) Baw Dayn Templ (Michael Wex) 6) Bobover Rebe's song (Bob Rothstein) 7) Bitsiklers (Ruvn Millman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 13:53:14 -0700 From: spaceman@gn2.getnet.com Subject: Help for a beginner Can anyone out there help a beginner. I've just started learning Yiddish and I would like to find a simple text on how to read and understand simple words and/or sentences. Also, if some one who sends in a small poem could also provide a translation it would be a valuable tool for learning Yiddish. Art Sheppard 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 16:34:59 -0700 (PDT) From: phandler@kaiwan.com Subject: Hotzmekh My folks used the phrase "hotzmekh boydem" and I believe it is a colloquial expression meaning "putting on airs." If someone seemed to be impressed with him/herself, they would say, "kik nur un hotzmekh boydem." Boydem is an attic, I believe, so the phrase does contain some logic. Pearl Handler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Apr 95 20:41:07 EDT From: 74031.775@compuserve.com Subject: Hotzmekh Vegn Bernanrd Greenbergs onfrage -- Hotzmekh iz a personazh in Avrom Goldfaden's pyese. Er iz a pedler vos farkoyft farshidene kleynikaytn. Ikh gedenk a stsene vi er farkoyft a kleyn meydele nodlen un er nart ir op ven er tzeylt. Es geyt mer veyniker azoy: Hotzmekh: Vifl nodlen darfstu, meydele? Meydele: Fertsik. Hotzmekh: Eyns, tvey, dray...Vi alt bistu? Meydele: Akht. Hotzmekh: Akht, nayn, tsen... vi alt iz dayn mame? Meydele: Tsvey un draysik. Hotzmekh: Tsvey un draysik, dray un draysik, fir un draysik... Un azoy vayter. In an anderer stsene di kinder tantsn arum Hotzmekhn un zingen: Hotzmekh iz a blinder/ vos iz dos fara vinder/ vu zayt ir ale kinder?/ ot zaynen mir ale do! Hotsmekh a gitn yontef ;) Perl Teitelbaum Queens, NY 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 00:25:52 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Hotsmakh Bernard S. Greenberg asked about the term "hotzmekh," used by his mother (4.389) to describe someone unkempt. It may well be an allusion to the peddler Hotsmakh in Avrom Goldfadn's operetta _Di kishef-makherin_ (also known as _Koldunye_ or _Di makhsheyfe_). Bob Rothstein 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Apr 95 23:32:56 EDT From: 76252.147@compuserve.com Subject: Baw Dayn Templ A quick note about the "Baw dayn templ shire" song about which Eliyohu Juni was asking.The word shire here comes from the Middle High German "schiere" meaning "soon, right away", and is not, Germanically speaking, any kind of yekar hamtsies. The song itself--the Yiddish version of Adir Hu, that is--is generally attributed to the Holy Shelah, Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, known as the Shelah after the title of his book Shney Lukhos (or Likhes, if you prefer) Ha-Bris, The Two Tablets of the Law, a work of ethical kabbala which was, and still is, of great influence on hasidism. Whether or not the attribution is correct, it's generally accepted in the hasidic world. While I've seen the song printed a number of times (I have a version, but the book is in genizah by my father), I've never heard it live: I've been told, however, that it can still be heard once in a while, if you're lucky, at gatherings of the Reb Arelekh, the followers of Reb Arele Roth, in Jerusalem. At what type of gatherings, I don't know--I do recall that I've never seen it referred to as a song specifically for Pesakh in those printed versions which I've seen. Michael Wex 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 00:25:03 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Bobover Rebe's song The song from the Bobover Rebe quoted by Berel Leiser (4.393) is interesting in a way that he may not realize. Kipnis's second collection includes a two-stanza version in which the second stanza is similar to the one quoted by fraynd Leiser, but the first one is in Polish (cited here in transliteration from Kipnis): Matka kazala, kazala, kazala, ozshekhuv urvatsh; [bis] yak visoko dzshevitski, yak nizko khlopatski, nye mogon dostach. [bis]. Di mame hot geheysn, geheysn, geheysn, di niselekh reysn; [bis] oy, vi hoykh zenen di boymelekh, oy, vi kleyn zenen di yidelekh, zey konen nisht dergreykhn. [bis] (The Yiddish text is a more or less faithful translation of the Polish version [or vice versa].) Beregovski refers to another version of the song, published in 1907 by A. N. Birnbaum, with text in Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish. Birnbaum attributes it to Reb Ber of Radoszyce. Bob Rothstein 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 00:47:19 GMT From: roland.millman@weiser.com Subject: Bitsiklers [[[[[[[ : : ~MM; :MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM9 * * *I