[Mendele] Mendele Vol. 24.001 [I hope this version will be free of the spacing defects and omissions that disfigured this morning's mailing--Untershames Bers]

Victor Bers victor.bers at yale.edu
Sun Dec 7 17:18:19 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

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 24.001

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