Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.092 August 22, 1995 1) CAJE20 Mendele session (Marcia Gruss Levinsohn) 2) Chicken-footed demons (Jascha Kessler) 3) Willows and chicken-footed demons (Daniel Soyer) 4) Willow song (Bob Rothstein) 5) Willows (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 6) Pocket book (Martin Davis) 7) Shrayber un zeyere leyener (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Aug 1995 23:41:26 -0400 (EDT) From mashinke@wam.umd.edu Subject: CAJE20 Mendele session Yiddish is at CAJE20 [Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education / Conference for Alternatives in Jewish Education]. We're having a wonderful time. Mendelyaner Bob Rothstein, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, has joined us. This message is being created as a demonstration of how to use Mendele. Also here is Yosl Kurland who is very excited about the possibilities of furthering his Yiddish activities, including music of which he is a "meyvn." He wishes to announce that "The Wholesale Klezmer Band" will be performing at Yugntruf week, Thursday, August 31 in Copake, New York. (Ruvn, is there room for non-campers to attend the concert?) Yosl plans to subscribe to Mendele when he gets his modem. Mendelyaner Henia Lewin is busy with her added session, showing her slides of Vilnius, Steve Dowling has been busy selling books and Naomi Kadar after a workshop of showing the latest resources available from the Workmen's Circle, (34 East 44th street) left the conference early. Several prospective Mendelyaners have taken down the address for subscribing to Mendele and we're looking forward to 'seeing' all of you on Mendele. a bagrus fun CAJE di ale Mendelaniyar.. Marcia Gruss Levinsohn 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 12:04:01 +0000 From: jkessler@ucla.edu Subject: Chicken-footed demons [Regarding 5.090] Is not that famous Russian witch someone in the form of a house on chicken legs? Very famous in South Russia. Her name escapes me, though a wonderful satirica novel was written with that name, as I recall during the Cold War years, in the 70s. Jascha Kessler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 21 Aug 95 10:52:21 EDT From: 74212.2700@compuserve.com Subject: Willows and chicken-footed demons Regarding two recent queries on Mendele. The words to "Di verbe," [see 5.089] originally written in Hebrew by Bialik and translated into Yiddish by I. Ma Yofis, can be found in Eleanor Gordon Mlotek and Joseph Mlotek's _Pearls of Yiddish Song_ (NY: Workmen's Circle, 1988). It concerns at young woman who decides to ask the willow who her husband will be: "A gevirete, a groyse/ Iz di verbe, altsding veyst zi. /Bay der verbe vel ikh vegn/ Mayn bashertn take fregn." About demons with chicken feet, I can't give any exact citations. But I have heard of this, and I believe that they show up in the writings of I.B. Singer. Daniel Soyer 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 23:12:54 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Willow song The song that David Neal Miller asked about (5.089) is "Di verbe" ("Nit bay tog un nit bay nakht..."), the text of which is a translation by Yisroel-Avrom Ma-Yofis of a Bialik poem. The Yiddish words (and the music) can be found in the Mloteks' col- lection, _Perl fun yidishn lid_. There is also a Slavic tradition of consulting trees, but at the moment I can't provide any documentation except for a Russian popular song (in folk style) of 1954, in which the heroine asks a mountain ash (or rowan tree, Russian _riabina_) to help her choose between a lathe-operator and a smith. The song is called "Ural'skaia riabina." Bob Rothstein 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 07:49:08 -0400 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: Willows David Neal Miller's shayles stir memories from decades ago. Don't know if the following is the Chava Albershteyn song he seeks, but my dad used to sing a song, "Di Verbe", to us. "Nisht baytog un nisht baynakht Gey ikh arum fartrakht Nisht oif barg un nisht oif tol Shteyt a verbe fun amol. "A gevirte a groise Iz di verbe altsding veyst zi Bay der verbe vel ikh vegn Mayn bashertn take fregn. "Un zi vet mir alts dertseyln Tzi mayn gelibter kumt fun Poyln Tzi fun Lite tzi fun ... ...................... "Iz er a blonder, a bruneter, A bokher, tzi a gegeter, Tzi efsher gor an altn yidn Bin ikh, tate, nisht tzufridn. "Vel ikh zogn tate, toyt mikh Un nisht tzum shidakh greyt mikh Oy ikh vel dos nisht oyshaltn Ikh vil, tate, nisht kayn altn." Oy! Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan North Conway, New Hampshire 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 16:50:15 -0700 From: martind@cs.berkeley.edu Subject: Pocket book My mother called her purse a "pocket book." My father who made his living embroidering these items was said to work "by pocket books." There was some idle discussion of this term the other day in which it was suggested that the term was confined to the East Coast and that it is no longer used. I wondered whether just possibly it was a literal translation from Yiddish: tashen bukh. Information would be appreciated. Martin Davis 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 From: nmiller@trincoll.edu Subject: Shrayber un zeyere leyener K'yedue, fleg Yitzkhok Bashevis zikh oft barimen mit dem vos er iz geven efsher der eyntsiger fun hayntige shrayber tsu derhaltn a spetsiele farbindung mit zayn publikum vayl zayn shraybn iz tkhiles aroysgekumen in di bleter fun Forverts; un di leyener fun Forverts hobn keynmol tsurikgehaltn di meynungen zeyere. Vos iz gelign afn harts, hot men gezogt. Hot Bashevis gevust, fun vokh tsu vokh, vi es tut zikh mit zayne romanen. Amol is dos geven a geveyntlikhe zakh. Der bakanter Englisher mekahber Anthony Trollope hot zikh tsugehert tsum oylem (er hot afile opgeharget Mrs. Proudie--a klipe sh'b'klipes--vayl zi iz zey gevorn nimes). Un azoy trakhtendik vegn Anthony Trollope iz mir arayn in kop a gedank: vos volt geven gesheyn ven Trollopes a guter-bruder, Henry James, volt gehat geshribn farn Forverts? Vos voltn _im_ geshribn undzere zeydes un bobes? A tchikove frage? Ober dos mamoshes iz oft mer modne vi an oysgetrakhte maynse. Vos zogt ir ven ikh dertseyl aykh az nit lang tsurik hot men gefunen in alten Forverts binyen (haynt-tsu-tog a khinezisher kloyster nebekh--a gantse genize fun papirn, briv, kitvey-yad, khezhboynes un nokh azelkhe; un az tsvishn di ale dokumenten hot men gefunen simonim az mit lange yorn tsurik hot Henry James take gedrukt a roman in Forverts?! Un bakumen briv vegn dem? Nisht tsu gloybn? Ot iz der bavayz. In a kumenden numer natirlikh. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.092