Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.087 November 18, 1998 1) Translations (Louis Fridhandler) 2) Ars Translationa (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 3) Translations (Hershl Hartman) 4) A book of possible interest to Mendelyaner (Larry Rosenwald) 5) translation of Prague documents (Zelda Kahan Newman) [Moderator's note] 6) dray doyres fun i. opatowska (Feygl Infeld Glezer) 7) Itzik Feffer recordings (Heynekh Sapoznik) 8) Galitzyaner cooking (Yosef Gilboa) 9) Shreib in Yiddish! (Yankel Kurtzman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 11:40:20 -0500 (EST) From: Lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Translations The recent contributions on English translation of Yiddish poetry introduces a welcome breath of new life. L'khayim khevre! Though I have tried my hand once or twice, I have no expertise in translation of Yiddish poetry. However, let me float a couple of thoughts: Even though a translation may be apt, the translation often only points to the original, it is ABOUT the original, it rarely matches it. An absolute match is most likely to be achieved in a technical exposition. Der man iz tsugegangen tsu zayn ferd. "The man approached his horse." Who can argue with that translation? However, suppose the Yiddish says: der man iz tsugegangen tsu zayn ferdele. The diminutive adds a feeling tone. It suggests a bond of affection. Rendering that as "The man approached his little horse" would miss the point. Accurate but wrong. The original (either English or Yiddish) is rendered in a tone and rhythm all its own, an idiosyncratic music. That music, or an essential element of the music, is often lost in a translation. Yehoash translated Longfellow's Hiawatha into Yiddish. He preserved the rhythm in Yiddish but lost the majestic tones of the English (in my opinion). His was a massive and valiant effort. I am curious as to what Yiddish readers (who could not read the original) derived from reading Yehoash's translation. The point I suggest is that transmitting the feeling tones in a translation is a huge and mostly intractable problem. Substitutes may be found. Rarely, the translation is even more effective than the original. Is it, however, justifiable to "improve upon or punch up" the original, to bring on tympani and trumpet blasts? In my opinion, sometimes yes, a cautious yes. What powerful tone is inevitably missed in one phrase may sometimes be compensated by "punching up" the next. I hope we will soon read in Mendele many examples contributed by those who are knowledgeable in Yiddish poetry and its translation into English. Given the supreme importance of the English language in this world's communication systems, this is a most worthy discussion. Louis Fridhandler 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 09:49:40 -0500 (EST) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Ars Translationa The fascinating Battle of the Z's S'iz mir a khidish that the different perceptions of poetry translations evoked so minor a skirmish on Mendele. In one corner, Zumoff the physician says catch and pin down the butterfly. Cut it open to extract its meaning. Forsooth, it must be killed to be dissected. Leah Zazulyer, keensighted (unlike her namesake), says lets marvel at its colors, listen for its song, glide with its flight. Only by gathering all its aspects can we arrive at the meaning of the butterfly. Troim Handler tells of Aaron Kramer when translating her father, Menke Katz's poetry. If it rhymes in the original, it must rhyme. We must capture mood, sounds, style, he proclaimed. All of this makes meaning. I cast my ballot for Aaron, Leah and Ars Poetica. "A poem should be palpable and mute As a globed fruit.. A poem should not mean But be." Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 14:26:50 -0500 (EST) From: Hershl Hartman Subject: Translations I've held off commenting on the ripostes to my response to Leah Zazulyer's post on the question of translating Yiddish poetry into English (or any other language, I suppose), partly due to the press of other activities and also to allow all potential participants in the discussion to have their say. Now, I get the feeling that it's my turn again. First, I'd like to thank Larry Rosenwald, Jordan Finkin, Gitl Dubrovsky, Barnett Zumoff and Sylvia Schildt for their contributions to the discussion, especially since most of their comments underlined how dismally I'd failed to get my points across. Let me try again, more clearly, I hope: I am not advocating that translators of Yiddish poetry strive to retain the rhyme and meter of the originals to the exclusion of sense, meaning, feeling, tone, accuracy or any of the other equally vital cited aspects of poetry. I insist that rendering ALL those aspects PLUS rhyme and meter is the duty and should be the goal of Yiddish poetry translators. It's not an easy task. It can mean that many hours or even days are spent on a single verse. iz vos? (So what?) My concept does not stem from theory nor from any of the distinguished theorists cited in the discussion, from Perets to Nabokov. Rather, it was imposed on me by the reactions of non-Yiddish speakers in my classes on Yiddish literature. After reading translations of poets about whom I'd enthused, the students admitted that they could not understand what all my praise was about. The poets' ideas and feelings were clear enough, but their skill-their genius, if you will-in putting those ideas and feelings into metered, rhyming verses was totally absent from the translations. "Prosaic," after all, means just what it says. A word about the rehash of arguments against translation in principle and the demand that those who want to enjoy the richness of Yiddish poetry should do so by learning to read and understand Yiddish. Those arguments-"it's impossible to truly translate Yiddish and, besides, one shouldn't"-played a significant role, I believe, in the decline of Yiddish, especially in North America. Denied access to knowledge of the riches available in Yiddish literature, the children of Yiddish-speaking immigrants were content to think of Yiddish as a dispensable "kitchen" language and nothing more. The "let 'em learn Yiddish" argument sounds to me very much like the merchant who insists "I've got good products-why should I advertise?" As an example of what I'm trying to convey-sacrificing as little as possible of ALL of a poem's elements-and as a khanike gift to all Mendelyaner, here's Morris Rosenfeld's turn-of-the-century anthem to a secular understanding of the midwinter festival: o, ir kleyne likhtelekh/ir dertseylt geshikhtelekh/mayselekh on a tsol./ir dertseylt fun blutikayt,/heldishkayt un mutikayt-/vunder fun amol. (O, you little candles bright:/Tales and legends in the night,/Legends without an end./You tell of battles waged in blood,/Heroes who withstood the flood,/Courage that would not bend.) ven ikh ze aykh pintlendik/kumt a kholem finklendik,/redt an alter troym:/yid, du host gekrigt amol;/yid, du host gezigt amol-/akh, dos gloybt zikh koym! (When I see you sparkling so/Ancient flames begin to glow,/There speaks an ancient dream:/Jew, you were a warrior once;/Jew, you were victorious once-/O, how strange that seems!) Hershl Hartman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 16:16:54 -0500 (EST) From: Larry Rosenwald Subject: A book of possible interest to Mendelyaner I thought that some readers of this list might be interested in a book that recently came out from New York University Press; it's edited by Werner Sollors, and called _Multilingual America: Transnationalism, Ethnicity, and the Languages of American Literature_. It has a surprisingly large amount of material on Yiddish-language literature, and on the representation of Yiddish in English-language literature, and the essays on these subjects are, in my biased opinion, excellent; they include Matthew Frye Jacobson's "'The Quintessence of the Jew': Polemics of Nationalism and Peoplehood in Turn-of-the-Century Yiddish Fiction"; Aviva Taubenfeld's "'Only an "L"': Linguistic Borders and the Immigrant Author in Abraham Cahan's _Yekl_ and _Yankel der Yankee_"; Hana Wirth- Nesher's "The Languages of Memory: Cynthia Ozick's _The Shawl_"; my own ( hence the bias of my opinion) "American Anglophone Literature and Multilingual America"; and Jules Chametzky's "Reflections on Multilingualism." If you have questions, I'd be happy to answer them or forward them to Werner Sollors. Zayt mir ale gezunt un shtark, Larry Rosenwald 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 17:51:19 -0500 (EST) From: "david newman" Subject: translation of Prague documents I've been asked to translate some documents written by one Rabbi David Weismandel in Prague during World War II. The documents are purportedly in Yidddish, but from what I can tell they are in a German-based creole which has been sprinkled with some whole Hebrew phrases. Native German speakers I know claim it is by no means German, and it certainly does not look like any dialect of Yiddish that I know. The papers are of some historical import.They are (from what I've been able to dope out) about negotiations for the possibe release of Jews from Czechoslovakia in exchange for bribes to be given to the Germans. The youngsters now living in Prague who would like this stuff translated claim there is now no one in Prague who understands these documents. I myself find them extremely hard to crack. There is no money to be had in this translation; the kids who want it done are a mixed bag of impecunious youngsters looking for their Jewish roots. For some one who can do this, there is some historical interest (as well as code words, spies...) and the knowledge of a mitsve done in the name of furthering Jewish identity. I am willing to send a fax of one page to any one who thinks he/she would like to have a crack at it. Zelda Kahan Newman [Moderator's note: The described texts were probably written by Rahmad (Rabbi Mikhoel Dov) Weissmandel (1904-1957) from Bratislava, one of the most prominent (and tragic) figures of Jewish spiritual resistance during the Holocaust. Many of his war-time writings were encoded. Some are already translated into Hebrew and English. For more details and further references, see: Abraham Fuchs, Karati ve-en `oneh : za`akato shel Rahmad Vaismandel bi-tekufat ha-Sho'ah / Yerushalayim : A. Fuks, 1983. 222 p. English translation: The unheeded cry / Brooklyn : Mesora, 1984. 288 p. -i.v.] 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 21:00:06 -0500 (EST) From: yiddish1@juno.com (Feigl I Glaser) Subject: dray doyres fun i. opatowska Oyb ikh gedenk rikhtik hot di shrayberke fun der untn-ongegebener poemegeheysn i. opatovska un gevoynt in sovyetn farband. Mir, kinder in der Yidisher shul, hobn gedarft di poeme zikh oyslernen fun oysnveynik. Oyb imetser ken mir oysbesern oder tsugebn vos ikh loz durkh oder gedenk nisht gut, bet ikh aykh mir dos tsushikn. Mayn bobe hot gevust -- dos tepl un dem sider, Un nor a shmoln veg -- fun kikh in shil. Di zibn teg in vokh hot zi zikh fest tseglidert -- Zeks oyf mi un zorg, shabes ru un shpil; Tanaysim opgehit, vi got hot ir gebotn, Nedoves mogere geteylt; Di elterngefolgt, nor dos eygene harts tsetrotn Un khasene gehat mit dem vos tate-mame hobn oysgeveylt. Un az der tate hot dernokh geheysn mitn man zikh sheydn -- Der man, der apikoyres reykhert shabes a tsigar; Iz ver vet geyn dertseyln im fun libe-leydn? Shtiler harts, nit zay keyn nar! Mayn mamen hobn shoyn di enge vent genumen drikn. Tsu an ander lebn hot ir harts geglust; Hot zi zikh gepruvt di enge vent tserukn Un an otem ton mit fuler brust. Vegn breytere hot zi far zikh gefunen -- Hot der ershter veg gefirt in shul; Nisht ahin vu shtile tfiles rinen, nor vu yunger seykhl vert geshtolt. Hobn di vent zikh mitamol geton a vakl -- s'iz aropgefaln a heytl fun ir blik; Shvartse oysyelekh oyf vays papir sakh-hakl, Un es nert gedanken un es kvikt. Un es geyen yorn, kinder vaksn unter Un di mame rayst tsvishn shul un shtub; S'iz der mamen tayer i shul, i shtub bazunder; aynhitn zey beyde hot zi zikh gepruvt. Der bobes eynikl, der mames tokhter -- ikh! Langzam geyen teg, nor yorn flien gikh! A ringele a drits in langer doyres-keyt Un ale zaynen nor in eybikayt farzeyt. Oysgeloshn zaynen itst di fayern fun kikh, Gevorn zaynen ire vent tselekhert durkh un durkh. Mit pen in hant, mit nodl oder tsvang Mir mener glaykh, mir shteyen yorn-lang. Un nit in shtilshtand nor -- Mit mener zeynen mir oyf shlakhtfelder geven Fargesn hobn mir in ru fun shtile vent. Ayer, Feygl Infeld Glezer 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 09:38:48 -0500 (EST) From: Sapoznik@aol.com Subject: Itzik Feffer recordings I read with great hanoe the two poems by Itzik Feffer which reminded me of the time I began my tenure as the sound archivist in the YIVO. I was consolidating the sound recordings located throughout the building when I came across a listing which read "Khasene in Biro-Bidjan" and "Birobidjaner Freylekhs". Thinking they were music field recordings I anxiously located them and instead found they were Itzik Feffer himself reading his poems while in America in 1942 raising funds for the Anti-Fascist Committee. Recorded for broadcast on WEVD by the late founder of Folkways records Moe Asch, they were thrilling and moving readings of this heroic and tragic figure. The recordings and their preserved copies should still be in the YIVO sound archives. Heynekh Sapoznik 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 04:37:08 -0500 (EST) From: AJ Gilboa Subject: Galitzyaner cooking All this talk about Galitzianer vs. Litvak cooking brings back memories of growing up in a "mixed marriage" home. My mother was of Litvak origins, my father - Galitzianer. Somehow, my mother developed a refined style of cooking that toned down the intense sweetness of the G. as well as the fiery pepper of the L. So it was an eye-opener (in more than one sense) when we went to visit a maternal aunt in Bridgeport and I ate, for the first time, real Litvak gefilte fish - pure pepper. We also were treated from time to time with grated black radish and onions with shmaltz and pepper (just a touch). I think my father must have abstained on that one. Then I was young enough not to know what heartburn was. Last Shabbat, I was inspired by Mendele to prepare my own "refined" version of the heartburn special, using daikon instead of black radish, chives instead of onion, vegetable oil instead of shmaltz and just a dash of salt and pepper. It tasted great and I was up half the night with heartburn! Yosef Gilboa 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 15:16:15 -0500 (EST) From: "Gilda and Bob Kurtzman" Subject: Shreib in Yiddish! On another occasion I shall add my voice to the on-going discussion on Yiddish--fact or fantasy? Today I want to advocate a few ground rules for participating in Mendele e-mail. No matter how bad your Yiddish is all communications should be in mama loshen and for those whose Yiddish vocabulary is limited, write in English, for I have found most queries and remarks were significant. I will ask those who accept the "rule" to follow the Yiddish with an English translation or summary With the exception of the Yiddish press most discussion about Yiddish the language the culture the music and the theater is in English, Hebrew, Spanish Dutch and other tongues. I learned Hebrew and Yiddish best where the language of instruction was Hebrew or Yiddish and the teaching staff would only speaak to you in Hebrew or Yiddish. And to demonstrate my personal commitment to the above ground rules henceforth--alles in mama loschen. Dorneshtig und Freitig die voch iz rosh chodesh Kislev und bald,ot ot vellen mir firen der yom toff Chanukah. Ich demon zich in die berimte Chanukah liedel voss mein mitter (yaw, ich bin foon die Rissheshe chasidim voss zogen mitter, pitter brider anshtat mutter, putter, bruder ober mein tatte hat mir gelarynt az literaturische Yiddish iz Litvak Yiddish.)flegt zingen noch dem bentscen Chanukah licht und zingen Ha-nairos hallawlu und Mo-os tzur. Ich gedenk nor etliche versen Ich bin zicher az dorten in Mendel-land iz emitzer vawss vaist alle versen oder ken mir shreiben vee ich ken bakommen die verter foon die gantze liedel. Oy yeshaina lichtalach Ihr dertzelt geshichtelach Maisselach un tzall Ihr dertzelt foon behrenschaft (?) --------------vunder foon amawl Az ich zey eich flinkendik (?) Kommt awf mir a ? Mehr gedenk ich nisht Thursday and Friday this week mark the beginning of the month of Kislev. Soon we will be celebrating Chanuka. Can anyone out there in Mendel Land write me the missing words and verses to the popular Chanuka song my mother used to sing after lighting the Chanuha candles and singing Hanayros hallawlu and Mawauss tzur? Above are the words I recall. A fraylichen Chanuka tzu allemen (Happy Chanuka to one and all). Yankel Kurtzman [Moderator's note: It is preferable to use YIVO romanization rules (http://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/Translit/) for the Yiddish transliteration. -i.v.] ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.087 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html