Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.418 May 11, 1995 1) Vegn alfonsn (Moises Kijak) 2) Change of venue for the Manfred Lemm concert (Sheine Mankovsky) 3) Koyletch (Meyshe-yankl Sweet) 4) Tsar Alexander (Meyshe-yankl Sweet) 5) Tsi tut kravyets myeshka? (Bob Rothstein) 6) Tsi tut (Moises Kijak) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 13:07:34 -0300 From: administ@kijak.recom.edu.ar Subject: Vegn "alfonsn" Joseph Sherman fregt zij nokh vegn "alfonsn". Di _Algemeine Entziklopedie_ band 3 zait 259, definirt es azoi:" tzunomen far ienem min mener vos lebn oifn kheshbn fun prostitutkes un handlen mit zei. Der nomen iz oifgekumen fun der komedie "Alfons" fun Alexander Diuma (1873)." Az es iz shoin oisgekumen tzu redn vegn alfonsn, vil ikh shteln a retenish: tzu vemen gehern ot di ferzn? In shkheineshaft fun oifgekumene -- az vind un vei! derleizer, lordn, makht-alfonsn un kadetn; tzu shveln tunkele fun geule-kabinetn vi zol ikh brengen vider s'lid fun vaisn shnei? Moises Kijak 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 May 95 17:56:04 EST From: sheine_mankovsky@cclink.metrodesk.metrotor.on.ca Subject: Change of venue for the Manfred Lemm concert I have been advised that the venue for the Manfred Lemm concert scheduled for May 18, 1995 in Toronto has been changed to the Goethe Institute, 1067 Yonge Street. Admission is free. If you are interested, please call Sylvia Lustgarten or Suzanne at the Committee for Yiddish, Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto at 635-2883, Ext. 155, to arrange for tickets. Sheine Mankovsky 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 19:41:41 -0600 (CST) From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Koyletsh What is the difference between koyletsh and khalla? Weinreich has them as synonomous, but in a story by Perets they are clearly two different types of bread. Khalla I know, but what's a koyletsch? Meyshe-yankl Sweet 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 19:41:41 -0600 (CST) From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Tsar Alexandr Anyone know the origin of a scabrous verse I heard as a child, whose words, nearly as I can remember, were "Tsar Aleksandr, yafunyemat.. a nafke, a blater......"[Tsar Alexander, fuck your mother, a whore, a thief....". I once injudiciously repeated this, attempting to be funny, to a Ukrainian customer in my uncle's clothing store on Pitkin Ave. The guy didn't seem to mind, but my uncle was not amused. Meyshe-yankl Sweet 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 22:46:15 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Tsi tut kravyets myeshka? The song text quoted by Michael Godfrey (4.414) seems to be taken from the version printed in Sarah Pitkowsky Schack's _Yiddish Folk Songs_, published by Bloch in NY in 1924. (Another version was published by Menakhem Kipnis in his second collection (_80 lider_ [Warsaw, 1925].) It represents a type of macaronic (_mishshprakhik_) song in which a Slavic (usually Ukrainian or Polish) sentence is interpreted as containing a mystical Hebrew message. (I described another type, with a mixed Yiddish and/or Hebrew and Slavic text, in 3.396.) Here someone is asked in Polish, "Does the tailor live here?" ("Czy tut krawiec mieszka?"). When this is reported to the rebe, he provides an interpretation: Tsi tut kravits myeshka? Rebenyu! Vos iz, mayn kind? Oy, rebenyu, er hot gezogt "tsi." "Tsi" iz a heyliger vort, "tsi" iz a heyliger vort; "tsi" iz b'gematriye -- kuf alef peomim, vos badayt az di toyre darf men lernen kuf alef peomim, kiday es zol nit zayn shikkha. Ober a malakh iz dos geven, ober a malakh iz dos geven, oy oy oy a malakh, a malakh, a malakh iz dos geven. Rebenyu! Vos iz, mayn kind? Oy, rebenyu, er hot gezogt "tut." "Tut" iz a heyliger vort, "tut" iz a heyliger vort; "tut" iz a simen oyf tales un tfilin, vos badayt az di toyre darf men lernen in tales un tfilin. Un vifil darf men lernen? Kuf alef peomim, kiday es zol nit zayn shikkha. Rebenyu! Vos iz, mayn kind? Oy, rebenyu, er hot gezogt "kravits." "Kravits" iz a heyliger vort, "kravits" iz a heyliger vort; "kravits" iz a simen az-- kol rina v'yeshua b'ohalay tsadikim, vos badayt az di toyre darf men lernen b'ohalay tsadikim. Un vi darf men lernen? In tales un tfilin. Un vifil darf men lernen? Kuf alef peomim, kiday es zol nit zayn shikkha. Rebenyu! Vos iz, mayn kind? Oy, rebenyu, er hot gezogt "myeshka." "Myeshka" iz a heyliger vort, "myeshka" iz a heyliger vort; al tikro "myeshka" elo "mashke," vos badayt az di toyre darf men lernen mit a bisele mashke. Un vu darf men lernen? B'ohalay tsadikim. Un vi darf men lernen? In tales un tfilin. Un vifil darf men lernen? Kuf alef peomim, kiday es zol nit zayn shikkha. The Kipnis text is called "Tsi tut kravyets meshka?" Each stanza cumulates the previous interpretations, but not in question and answer form. The first stanza explains: Do iz geven a sheygets. A sheygets? Vos hot der sheygets gezogt? Der sheygets hot gezogt "tsi"... Bob Rothstein 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 05:09:44 -0300 From: administ@kijak.recom.edu.ar Subject: Tzi tut Michal Gogfrey shraibt vegn lid "Tzi tut..." Ikh bin nisht kain spetzialist in mish-shprakhike lider. Ikh hob ober gehert Profesor Dov Noys a konferentz, beeis er iz geven bai undz in Buenos Aires, vegn ot der teme. Er hot gebrakht dos lid vi a baishpil. Loit vi ikh gedenk git a gresere un tifere fartaitshung. Mistome hot er es ergetz gedrukt. Men ken zikh farshtendikn mit im in der Bar Ilan universitet. Oib emitzer fun aikh kumt in kontakt mit im, bet ikh er zol zikh bai im nokhfregn. Moises Kijak 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 09:54:15 -0400 (EDT) From: cassel@philadelphia.libertynet.org Subject: Chagall's seven-fingered hand This morning's Wall Street Journal reviews a fascinating show of early Marc Chagall works from Russia, now on display in Paris. The review contains the following passage: "...Still, Vitebsk is never far away. In "Self-Portrait With Seven Fingers" (1907), the town church is shown on one side, and a window view of Paris on the other, as the artist sits poised before an easel, holding up a seven-fingered hand (an image of thoroughness in Yiddish metaphor)..." Can anyone recall the phrase in question, and its derivation? Andrew Cassel Elkins Park, PA ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.418 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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