[Mendele] Mendele Vol. 22.008

[Victor Bers]

Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
____________________________________________________

Contents of Vol. 22.008
November 8, 2012

1) frand (Dina Levias)
2) frand (Hershl Hartman)
3) frand (Leyzer Gillig)
4) Yoshke Pandre (Bennett Muraskin)
5) Findjan (Helene B. Katz)
6) Yiddish: A New Arab-Jewish bridge? (Hershl Hartman)
7) Tfise-lid (Jane Peppler)
8) Translation help (Ruth Murphy)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 14
Subject: frand

My untutored guess would be that the writer meant "fraynd", i.e. friend.
Probably, not having mastered Yiddish, the writer used "frande" to address
a woman
under the impression that this was the feminine form for fraynd and
therefore an
appropriate way to address his female correspondent.

Dina Levias

[Moderator's note: Similar responses were received from Barry Goldstein,
Lena Watson,
and Stephen Berr, who adds, "I would, however, have written "fraynt" not
"frande."  The
structure of the greeting and closing is quite standard."]

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 16
Subject: frand

I'm sure I won't be alone -- or even the first -- to assure Martin Jacobs
that the salutation
and signature lines of the letter he's dealing with refer to "friend" Madam
Berman and
"friend" Bibi. It's also possible that difficult penmanship may be
obscuring "frayndine,"
the feminine form.

Hershl Hartman

[Moderator's note: a similar response was received from Zulema Seligsohn.]

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 17
Subject: frand

"Ayer frande Bibi"...It would appear to me from the context that the person
was merely
misspelling "fraynd," friend. The "ay" diphthong when pronounced by
tsentral-yidish
reders indeed often sounds more like "a."  The "e" at the end - fraynde as
opposed to
fraynd -  might be a daytshmerizm or a kosher dialectical variant, since
Bibi is apparently
a single individual.

Leyzer Gillig

[Moderator's note: similar responses were received from Maurice Wolfthal
and Tom
Wisniewski.]

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 14
Subject: Yoshke Pandre

Pandre or Pandera was, according to Jewish sources, the last name of
Joseph, the father of Jesus--or in some sources, the name of a Roman
soldier who was supposedly the father of Jesus.

Bennett Muraskin

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  November 4
Subject: Findjan

Dear Mendelyaners,

We just released a new page in the website "yidlid" at the address:
http://rama01.free.fr/yidlid/chansons/findjan.htm

but I have a couple questions unanswered still and I thought somebody here
might know about this song's history.

The questions are:
Who is the author of the Yiddish version of this song?
and
Is the Yiddish version anterior or posterior to the Hebrew one?

Zayt gezunt!
Helene B. Katz

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 16
Subject: Yiddish: A New Arab-Jewish bridge?

Check out this story from Al-Monitor, a new publication covering the
Middle East:

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2012/10/the-surprising-students-of-the-
c.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Hershl Hartman

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 31
Subject: Tfise-lid (Vet shoyn do undzer keyver zayn)

Hello friends,

Does anybody have a tune for this song?

First verse:
Vet shoyn do undzer keyver zayn
Zenen mir shoyn do farloyrn
Zen veln mir nisht mer di likhtike shayn
Farsholtn zenen mir fun geboyrn

refreyn:
Farlirt keyn mut nisht bruder
Der goyrl undzer iz shoyn aza
Shaynen vet di zun far undz nokh vider
Dinen zol undz di fray...

Second verse:
Dort gelozn froy un kind
Bay "nash brat" iz dos tayer...
Do muz men zin flogn erger vi hint
Brenen zol es vi a fayer...

Jane Peppler

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 30
Subject:  Translation help

Dear Mendele List,

I need some help please with a Yiddish poem I am translating. I have two
questions: one
concerning the eighth line and a more general translation question. The
poem is "Viglid"
by Eliezer Shindler. Here are the first eight lines, so you can see the
context. I've
italicized the parts I have questions on:

Shlof mayn kind un hob hanoes, Iber dir di himlen bloe: Zilber-volkn sheyn
geshlifn,
Shvimen shtolts vi vunder-shifn. Firn oystres gold fun ufir Un meshiekh's
geule-shoyfer.
Tsederbeymer fun levonen, Mastn far di (khores? kheyres? khet-resh-vuv-sof)
-fonen.
(combination word khores/kheyres-=
fonen).

Here is my iberzetsung thus far (very rough, not the final copy): Sleep, my
child, and be
happy Above you are the blue skies Beautiful silver clouds so polished
Swimming
proudly like wonder-ships. They carry golden treasures from Ophir And the
meshiekhs
geule-shoyfer. Cedar wood from Lebanon, [Masts of (?) for (?) the kh
ores/kheyres-flags.]

My questions are, please: I am having a hard time with the last line shown.
I think he
means masts as in masts of ships, but I am not sure. I know cedar was used
for that
purpose. The word khey-resh-vuv-sof I could not find in any of my Yiddish
or Yiddish-
Hebrew dictionaries, but I saw in an online Hebrew dictionary that it can
mean
"independence" or also "engraved, embroidered." I have no idea what the
author is
saying. If you have some ideas, and/or can speak to the imagery he is using
so
beautifully, that would be really helpful to me.

The author uses the term "hob hanoes" and also "shlof mayn kind mit groys
hanoes."
I know that phrase as "enjoy, etc." I am having a hard time to translate it
into something
in English suitable in a lullaby. To me, you would want to say something
soothing: a
version of "Good night, sleep tight." You would want them to be peaceful
and think
happy thoughts as they drift off to sleep, the blue skies and silver clouds
above them. Can
anybody please tell me about different ways to use the phrase "hanoes hobn"
that would
fit here, perhaps slightly different meanings from the more standard ones?
I can send you
a .jpg of the entire poem in the original Yiddish if you like. I welcome
all comments and
thoughts, positive or negative. I am just learning how to do this, so any
and all ideas are
very much appreciated. Please feel free to reply through the list or email
me at
murphy.ruth at rocketmail.com.

A gute vokh aykh,
Ruth Murphy

__________________________________________________________________________________


End of Mendele Vol. 22.008

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