Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.172 November 20, 1995 1) Sol Liptzin (Noyekh Miller) 2) Esther Markish (Shoshana Balaban-Wolkowicz) 3) Lamed-vovnikl (Bob Rothstein) 4) Yak reydele to reydele (Bob Rothstein) 5) Yak reydele to reydele (Daniel Soyer) 6) Lessons from the Powell interview (Zellig Bach) 7) Shraabn dialektish (Khayem Bochner) 8) Got fun Avrom (David Sherman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Nov 1995 From: nmiller@shakti.trincoll.edu Subject: Sol Litpzin The Times of November 18 reports the sad news that Sol Liptzin has died in Israel at the age of 94. Liptzin, the author of many works including _A History of Yiddish Literature_, taught at City College and was I believe the first in the United States to establish Yiddish as an academic field. Mendele invites those who knew Sol Liptzin to share their recollections of him with us. Noyekh Miller 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 18 Nov 1995 17:52:24 -0800 From: shoti@eworld.com Subject: Esther Markish kumt tzu Perets Markish-Academie Esther Markish, di almone fun groysn poet-martirer Perets Markish, kumt fun Isroel tzu der spetzyeler academye vos fartzeykhny dos 100ster geboyrn yor fun Perets Markishn. Esther Markish velkhe hot ongeshrybn a bukh vegn dem mord fun di ydishe shrayber in 1952, git itzt aroys in 3 shprakhn -- ydish, hereysh un rusish -- dy bavuste Markish-Poeme "Tzu a yiddisher tentzerin". In New York vet zi zikh bateylikn in der Markish-Academye vos kumt for Suntik, dem 10tn December, 1 nokhmitog, in Arbeter-Ring Center, 45 East 33rd St, NYC. Tzuzamen mit Esther Markish veln oikh oiftretn Dr. Eugene Orenstein (fun McGill-Univ.) Emil Gorovetz (naye music tzu 3 Markishes lider), Shifre Lerer, Moishe Loyev (veln leyenen fun Markishes shafungen). Forzitz: Itche Goldberg. Der tzunoyfkum vet durkh vort un gezang untershtaykhn dos lebn un dem tragishn toyt --- ober, beyker, di zeltene sheferishkayt fun groysn Perets Markish. Der tzunoyfkum vert oganizirt fun der Zhitlowsky-Foundatzye un fun jurnal "Yiddishe Kultur". Der arayngang iz $7.00. Shoshana Balaban-Wolkowicz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Nov 1995 18:42:46 -0500 (EST) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Lamed-vovnikl (cont.) Ron Robboy asks (5.171) about my source for _lamedvovnikl_ meaning 'cricket, grasshopper' (my query in 5.170). In one of Itzik Manger's _khumesh-lider_ ("Rokhl geyt tsum brunem nokh vaser") we read: Zi geyt. Un ibern tunkeln feld blitst shnel farbay a hoz. --Tshirik! -- a lamed-vovnikl tshiriket in tifn groz. The glossary (compiled by Ch. Turniansky and M. Wolf) to the edition of _Medresh Itzik_ published by the Hebrew University (third edition, 1984) gives for _lamed-vovnik_ "also: grass- hopper, cricket." (The poem is on p. 53 of that edition.) Ron's visualization of the two letters as a schematic orthopteran is creative, but I still wonder if there isn't a more philological explanation. Bob Rothstein 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Nov 1995 18:44:08 -0500 (EST) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Yak reydele to reydele Since Mendy Fliegler reminded us of Daniel Soyer's query (5.158) about a line from Sholem Aleichem's _Motl Peysi dem khazns: in Amerike_, I took another look at the sentence ("yak reydele to reydele, abi dobre meynele"), consulting Tamara Kahana's English translation (no help at all) and M. Shambadal's Russian translation (a big help). Since _reyd_ can mean 'word' and 'meyn' can mean 'intention' or 'meaning', what Mother is saying is something like: "The words don't matter as long as the meaning is right." Bob Rothstein 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 19 Nov 95 20:05:24 EST From: 74212.2700@compuserve.com Subject: Yak reydele Thanks to Mendy Fliegler for his suggestions concerning my recent posting conveying Sholem Aleichem's challenge to translate a certain phrase from Motl Peysi in America. The phrase was "yak reydele to reydele abi dobre meynele." Sholem Aleichem then adds something like "anu zayt a berye un zetst dos iber af english" (I don't remember the exact words). Mendy's response seems to indicate that I was not clear in what I was asking for. I do know Yiddish (and English), so I understood the rest of the passage in which Motl's mother mixes English words in with her Yiddish (mixing up "kitchen" and "chicken" in the process). I think I even understand the gist of "yak reydele..." -- that is that it doesn't really matter how one speaks, as long as it is understood what one means. I was hoping that someone might confirm that understanding of the phrase, and even come up with a good way to say it in English. By the way, it is also very hard to translate into English a Yiddish passage whose whole point and humor depends on the use of English words in the Yiddish. Perhaps I should also clarify that this passage is not an excerpt from the Morgn Frayhayt, as Mendy suggested. I simply cited the Morgn Frayhayt edition of the complete works of Sholem Aleichem. Daniel Soyer 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Nov 1995 20:42:25 -0500 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: The lessons of the "interview" with Gen. Powell Little did I imagine that my quotation-marked "exclusive interview" in _Yiddish_ with Colin "Peysekhke" Powell (5.137) would create such a hoo-ha and hullaballoo. If you want to become the proverbial fifteen-minute "celebrity" invent a plausible pretext to interview a "big shot" and the media will soon be after you. It was naturally never my intention to mislead anyone, and if some readers misconstrued the interview, it was with total inadvertence on my part, still I beat my chest and say "al khet" -- mea culpa. Zellig Bach Lakehurst, NJ 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Nov 95 23:04:31 -0500 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: Shraabn dialektish In 5.169 fregt Bob Poe vegn shraybn oyf a dialekt. Git. kh'vel duu probiirn tsi shraabn of maan tate-mames luushn, dus hayst of dem dialekt vus ikh'ob gehert in der haym. A gitn bayshpiil fin an eynlekhn dialekt ken men gefinen in Eliyahu Junis brivl in 5.125. Bob hot gefreygt spetsiyel veygn shraabn di lange vokaln. Vi ir zeyt, iiyekh shraab zay toplt. Khaver Juni tit dus nisht; efsher iz baa eym nishtuu ken intershit? Oder efsher zeyt dus 'm ows nisht vikhtik? Efsher vet er ints geybn tsi farshtayn. Mit aza miin shraabn ken men nisht ibergeybn ale pruutim; nor afile mit fonetishe simboln git men nisht alts iber. kh'bin nisht in gantsn tsifriidn mit dem sistem vus kh'nits duu. Lemuushl, baar ints hert men be'emes nisht ken "raysh" in aza vort vi "der". Der vokal iz ober a bazinderer, un kh'vays nisht vi azoy kh'zol dus shraabn. Shraab ikh dervaal a "r". S' zenen duu andere klaynikaytn owkh, nor kh'gay nisht araan in deym yetst. A klal, geniig git far visnshaftlekhe pinktlekhkayt iz es nisht, ober kh'mayn az me ken gants git ibergeybn dus gefiil finem dialekt. Caveat lector: please don't take this as an authoritative picture of any particular dialect! It's just my attempt to extrapolate my knowledge of written Yiddish backwards towards the patterns I remember from home. And I've deliberately glossed over things like the differences between my father's dialect and my mother's. (Don't want to overload the audience with too much linguistics! ;-) Khayem Bochner 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 18 Nov 95 18:56:43 EST From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Got fun Avrom Bob Rothstein asks where to find Got fun Avrohom. It's in the ArtScroll siddur (now the standard siddur in many Orthodox congregations), on p. 620. David Sherman Toronto ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.172