Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.053 July 16, 1995 1) Toyvye (Bob Hoberman) 2) Mitsvevaser (Vera Szabo) 3) Ideas for a symposium call for papers (Maryellen Read) 4) Moyshe Rabeynus kiele again (Ruben Frankenstein) 5) Memleket (Sholem Yafe) 6) Hemshekh Dor Ohavei Yidish: Gezang betziber (Leybl Botvinik) 7) Shepn oder shlepn naches (Mottel Lakin) 8) Dafke shlepn nakhes (Arre Komar) 9) Dafke shlepn nakhes (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 17:12:03 -0400 (EDT) From: rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu Subject: Toyvye I forget where the discussion of Tuvia/Tevye ended up a few weeks ago, so if the following is redundant, zayt moykhl. In any case, the other day in shul I heard an elderly man use the name in requesting a mishebeyrakh. I didn't talk with him, but his davening-Hebrew (I hope nobody minds the English word "davening") sounded thoroughly Yiddish, so I assume he is a native Yiddish speaker. He pronounced the name Yankev ben Toyvye, precisely. Bob Hoberman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 19:15:42 -0400 (EDT) From: vs55@columbia.edu Subject: Mitsvevaser Does anyone know what "mitsvevaser" means? Answers are welcome on my private e-mail address, because of some urgency. Vera Szabo 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 15:41:19 -0500 (CDT) From: mread@creighton.edu Subject: Ideas for a symposium call for papers We (The Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University, Omaha, NE) are putting together a call for papers for the 1996 9th Klutznick symposium. The topic we would like to explore is Yiddish, meaning the whole culture revolving around Yiddish-theatre, language, humor, history, literature- the whole thing. The trick, as I see it, is to get as broad a spectrum as possible (we are making the effort to get away from strictly "academic" symposia), and most important- to appeal to a broad an audience as possible. This means a call for papers that would entice Jewish AND non-Jewish participants and audience. I hope you can help me do this. Can you suggest/list relelvant topics, phrases, resources (including potential participants) for me to investigate in composing the call for papers? I appreciate any and all suggestions. Maryellen Read 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 13:12:32 +0200 (MESZ) From: frankens%mibm@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Moyshe Rabeynus kiele again A sheynem dank aykh, Bob Rothstein (Mendele 5.036). Aeby`s dissertation is indeed a most interesting source and gives the key to the etymology as you explained: just as the pagan Freya was replaced by the christian Mary so the God`s little cow was replaced by the jewish Moyshe Rabeynu. It is a pity Miss Aeby did no notice of the yiddish and hebrew names. I must again insist on that the one who introduced the name of Master Moses lady-cow into the Hebrew was our national poet - Chaim Nachman Bialik. In his poem "Zohar", lines 24-27 you may read: "Zevuv home, "ben-suso shel moshe rabeynu" Kulamo khamadeti vayihyu li re`im Vakhavivim mikulam tsafrirey ha`ora." The foal Bialik introduced was then translated in the yiddish version of the poem by Y.Y. Schwarz into: "Di kielekh Moyshe Rabeynus di royte - zey zaynen geven mayne fraynt di fartroyte. Nor liber fun ale, un nenter, un trayer - di friike sheydelekh fun glants un fun fayer." ("Dos lid fun likht"). Ruben Frankenstein 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 18:54:55 -0400 From: lakejaffe@aol.com Subject: Memleket In Mendele Vol 5.045, Shleyme Axelrod gave some interesting information about the 7-year-old girl named Memleket who, in 1936, was highly honored in the Soviet Union as a Stakhanovite (high-productivity worker), and about whom a song was sung which he learned at banketn and kontsertn which his Com- munist parents took him to. He asks for the words and the music. i, too, was taken to similar banketn and kontsertn, and in addition had the advantage that my father was a member of the khor -- and I still have his song books. So here are the words (first stanza only): af a feld, vi a blumen buket, shteyt di yunginke memleket; un ful iz ir farbik kleyd, mit flaks, vi mit vayser freyd. inem gantsn land fun tadzhik iz nito nokh -- zukh hin un tsurik -- aza kleyninke flinke hant, memleket iz di blum fun ir land. My source is gezang un kamf, aroysgegebn fun Yidishn Muzikalishn Arbeter Farband, New York, 1937, no. 5. the book gives 6 stanzas, one of which -- referred to by Shleyme -- is as follows: m'iz gekumen fun feld un fabrik tsu bagrisn dos kind fun tadzhik, tsvishn zey oykh gedrikt hot ir hant khaver stalin -- der firer fun land. As for the melody, unfortunately, I have'nt figured out a way of representing it within the constraints of this inflexible medium. Sholem Yafe West Orange, NJ 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 Jul 95 09:28:32 IDT From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: Hemshekh Dor Ohavei Yidish: Gezang betziber dem kumendikn motse-shabes (22-7-1995 -- 21:00) vet forkumen an ovnt fun gezang betziber organizirt funem hemshekh dor ohavei yidish. Der ovnt kumt for oyf rehov Ben Gurion 13, Raananna. kumt, un brengt ayere fraynt oykh. vegn informatsie / for information: (09) 453-360 leybl botvinik netanya 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 15:30:14 -0400 (EDT) From: mlakin@acpub.duke.edu Subject: Shepn oder shlepn naches I always understood the term to be the former (shepn) as in "shepn vasser fun'm brunem; drawing water from a well. It's always difficult to get naches from Kinder, but to shlep it from them is well nigh impossible. Martin Lakin (Mottel) 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 22:55:49 -0400 (EDT) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Dafke shlepn nakhes A dank, Paul Pascal. Ikh hob gefunen dafke oyf p.114 Harkavy, davke vi in di reklame :-). Ober men ken ibersetsn davke oder "unexpectedly" oder "despite". e.g. : Although he does not like poetry, he (davke) loved ..... davke in this case can be understood as "unexpectedly" but more colloquially would be understood as "in spite of that fact" or "despite". Thus spite does enter into davke, but in a softer sense. As to shepn vs. shlepn nakhes, I have always heard the idiom used as shlepn rather than shepn. I have also inquired among Yiddish speakers vos shtamen fun di zelber gegend, un zey aykhet zogen shlepn un nit shepn. I always understood the idiom to mean that the deeds that provided the nakhes were so modest that they were hard to observe or appreciate except by a doting parent. Hence shlep and not shep. Shep radically alters the meaning, indeed the pathetic effacement implicit in the expression. Arre Komar 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 From: nmiller@trincoll.edu Subject: Dafke shlepn nakhes Since, as Patty Becker has written, I urged her to bring up this matter, it's only fair that I add my two cents at this point. I was sure that she was not the only one who thought that shlepn was right, nor was it a question of mishearing. Arre Komar's post confirms that. My guess is that shepn became shlepn in pretty much the same way that the once ritzy phrase "I couldn't care less" became "I could care less" by the time it reached the shopping malls. Maybe our linguists will tell us the technical name for the process. I vaguely remember seeing other examples of established solecisms in English and French. Of course it's wrong, and of course it's part of our role on Mendele to do what we can to straighten things out. But I wouldn't want to stake anything substantial on the likelihood that all those doting zeydes and bobes in Columbus's medine will see the light any day soon. Bad Yiddish abounds and in surprising places. As Shleyme Axelrod will attest, there has been recently been (on Usenet) some atrocious mangling of the language by a Boro Parknik who has _taught_ Yiddish (this fits with Stephen Dowling's reference (5.052) to the bad Yiddish of a Bet Chana book). Even worse is the case of a Lubavitcher rov who sought to teach the Boro Parknik some of the finer points of the tongue. Disclaimer: no religious wars intended. I say "in surprising places", implying that this may be unusual. Alevay. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.053