[Mendele] Mendele Vol. 24.001

Victor Bers victor.bers at yale.edu
Sun Dec 7 11:08:20 EST 2014


Mendele: Yiddish literature and language

____________________________________________________



Contents of Vol. 24.001

December 7, 2014



1) Meldung (Redaktsye)

2) shabash (Moyshe Valdman)

3) French horn (Perets Mett)

4) Vartn af Godo (Astrid Starck)

5) Homer in Yiddish (Melissa Weininger)

6) Morris Rosenfeld? (Maurice Wolfhtal)

7) Dissertation 'Kurant' (Hilde Pach)

8) info: "Nakht in Step"? (Binyumin Schaechter)

9) Adam Biro (Marjorie Hirshan)

10) di grine kusine author(s) (Hélène B. Katz)

11) farhaken a koo (Leslie Train)



1)----------------------------------------------------

Date: December 7

Subject: Meldung



Mir zaynen do! Nokh a (tsu!) langer hafsoke vet undzer Mendele

vider aroysgeyn. Mit a bisl yerides-hadoyres dertsu: Kalman Weiser,

der redaktor zint 2006 hot letstns ibergegebn di makht Gershn Praysn

(Josh Price). Avigdor Bers (Victor Bers) vet blaybn undzer getrayer

untershames, farshteyt zikh, af eybik.



2)----------------------------------------------------

Date: April 28

Subject: shabash



[The moderators refer readers to Mendele 23.015, 23.016, and 23.018

for previous discussion of this term.]



As I said, shabash has NO connection with the Ukraine ("shabash (shabbes)

nik” seems to be a small stove and relates to shabbes and NOT to shabash!

or to Kurdistan (well maybe a Muslim connection there) --



It is a Persian-derived exclamation and means Great! Excellent! Well done!,

Fabulous! etc.  So please--no Yiddish interpretations for the word are
relevant.



A dank

Murray/moyshe Woldman/valdman.



3)----------------------------------------------------

Date: May 8

Subject: French horn



Does anyone know how to say French horn (the musical instrument)

in Yiddish?



bloz-horn? vald-horn? Something else?



With thanks

Perets Mett



4)----------------------------------------------------

Date: June 25

Subject:  Vartn af Godot



Dear Mendelianer,



How can I get the Yiddish translation of Godot by Shane Baker? And the

DVD of the play? I have the one by Gisela Shkilnik from German. This is

not the original language.



With many thanks and kind regards



Astrid



5)----------------------------------------------------

Date: July 14

Subject: Homer in Yiddish



Does anyone work on translations of Homer into Yiddish (or know if there

are any)?  A colleague is looking for someone to write an article on the
topic

for an anthology.  Please let me know if you are interested in writing for

such a project and I can put you in touch with the editors.



Melissa Weininger

mirele at rice.edu



[The moderators point Ms. Weininger to Worldcat:

(
http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AHomer.&fq=ln%3Ayid&dblist=638&start=1&qt=previous_page


and to the last section of Shriftn*,* vol. 3 (
https://archive.org/details/nybc210538) and encourage

mitglider to be in touch directly with her.]



6)----------------------------------------------------

Date: July 14

Subject: Morris Rosenfeld?



Can anyone identify this poem or song, which may have been written by
Morris Rosenfeld on behalf of striking furriers in 1912?



Es meg di beste futer

Oykh khapen der “nit-guter”

Dos varemt uns nit, nayn!

Mir shnayden un mir neyen

Un hobn tser un veyen

Un hunger un gevayn.



Maurice Wolfthal

Houston



7)----------------------------------------------------

Date: August 24

Subject:  Dissertation 'Kurant'



Dear Mendelyaner,



This summer I defended my dissertation on the Kurant at the University of

Amsterdam, Netherlands. The full title of the dissertation is: Arranging
Reality.

The Editing Mechanisms of the World’s First Yiddish Newspaper, the Kurant

(Amsterdam, 1686-1687).



Follow this link for the digital edition of the dissertation:
http://dare.uva.nl/record/479585



Hilde Pach

www.hildepach.nl



8)----------------------------------------------------

Date: September 7

Subject:  info: "Nakht in Step"?



[Yidish do untn:]



I have in front of me a choral arrangement of a folksong entitled (at least
on

the score), “Nakht in Step”.  It could elsewhere be entitled simply “In
Step”.

I'm looking for any information on the original poem and/or the original
folksong:

what book might have it, from what region/country it might emanate, etc.?  The
lyrics

(as they appear on the score) are as below.  Any information would be
appreciated.



Ikh hob ba mir a khor-aranzhirung fun a folkslid vos heyst (lepokhes af der

partitur), “Nakht in step”.  Se volt oykh gekent heysn, andersh vu, poshet
“In step”.

Ikh zukh informatsye vegn dem origineln lid: in voser bikhl se gefint zikh,

fun velekhn rayon se shtamt, ud”gl.  Der lidtekst (vi se gefint zikh af der
partitur)

gefint zikh do untn.  Vosere protem ir veyst derfun volt ikh opgeshatst.



Mit korener zatkeyt otemt der step,

Otemt mit nakht un mit vinder.  [vunder]

Ikh zits in mayn kleyninkn tsimer un shtep

Hemdelekh tsvey far di kinder.



Der tog iz avek mit zayn loyterer hits,

Avek in der vaytkeyt tsum zimer.  [zumer]

Hemdelekh proste fun roytinkn tsits

Shtep ikh in tunkeln tsimer.

Der tate vet kumen fun felder haynt shpet

Gantse teg shnaydt men broyt unter himlen.

Vos hekher es royshn in vaytkeyt di shtet,

Iz gringer in step do tsu drimlen.



Fun yener zayt fentster kholemt der step,

Kholemt mit nakht un mit vinder.  [vunder]

Ikh zits in mayn kleyninkn tsimer un shtep

Hemdelekh tsvey far di kinder.

A dank aykh.



Ayer

Binyumen Schaechter



9)----------------------------------------------------

Date: September 20

Subject: Adam Biro



The leader of our Palm Beach Leyenkrayz, Shulamis Levine, the warm, witty,

wily, wonderful (daughter of Yankov Levin, our group's learned,
outstanding,

Arbeter Ring mitlshul teacher and motivator, author, Nayvelt camp director,
etc.,)

is searching for information about author Adam Biro. Are any of his books
in Yiddish?



She has discovered that he has written “Two Jews on a Train” and “Do It For
Jews,” and one is

also in Hungarian.



Thank you for any answers.



Marjorie Hirshan

Boynton Beach, Florida



10)----------------------------------------------------

Date: October 7

Subject: di grine kusine author(s)



I found this information about the song “di grine kuzine” in Milken Archive:



“Abe Schwartz was the first to copyright this tune and its lyrics (though
the

music copyright is only for his arrangement), but one Yankele Brisker,
pseudonym

for Jacob Leiserowitz, also claimed copyright for the lyrics, listing the
tune as a

“folk melody.” Yet a third claimant to the song was Hyman Prizant.
Eventually it was republished

and re-copyrighted, crediting Prizant with only the lyrics and Schwartz

with the music—although again, in a particular arrangement. Meanwhile,
Leiserowitz

initiated a lawsuit, but did not prevail. Still, the truth about the
authorship is impossible

to know. “



Besides, in the book “Mir trogn a gezang”, Eleanor Gordon Mlotek mentions

the copyright crediting Prizant and Schwartz, but attributes the lyrics to
J. Leiserowitz.



Does anyone have more informations on who did really write the lyrics of
the song,

and from where the melody was taken, before Abe Schwartz arranged it?



A dank in foroys,

Hélène B. Katz



11)----------------------------------------------------

Date: November 2

Subject: farhaken a koo



My father-in-law's White Russian grandfather was known to be able to
'farhaken

a koo'; to stop a straying cow in its tracks by sticking a knife or hatchet
into a wall

and saying some sort of spell. As far as I can tell, the only other mention
of this

can be found in a yizkor-bukh from the town Lenin, also in White Russia.
Has anyone

else ever heard of such a thing, and is it attested anywhere else or among
other ethnic

groups? The closest I have seen is in 19th century Pennsylvania, where
placing an

open pair of scissors in a bible would cause the cow to return, after
reading some

chapter in the bible...



Leslie Train



______________________________________________________

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