Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.030
June 17, 1994

1) Eynikl = Slavic??? (Holger Nath)
2) Unoka (Vera Szabo)
3) Y.Y. Trunk on Sholem Aleichem (Noyekh Miller)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jun 17 08:49:31 1994
From: hn6@columbia.edu
Subject: Eynikl = Slavic???

I do not think that anyone questions the German origin of _eynikl_ (cf.
German ~_Enkel_), as so many have pointed out on Mendele.  But that is
stating the obvious.  However, my posting on Mendele regarding the query
on the Hungarian _unoka_ (`grandchild') may have been misread as linking
Yiddish _eynikl_ with Slavic.  Sometimes it is worthwhile to take a few
more minutes to read a posting carefully to find out what was really
meant.

To Bob Rothstein:  Thanks for your reference to Vasmer.

Holger Nath

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jun 17 09:36:19 1994
From: veszabo@theo.jtsa.edu
Subject: Unoka

Ikh veys nit, fun vanen shtamen eyniklekh af yidish, ober dos ungarishe "unoka"
shtamt funem slavishn (loyt dem ungarishn etimologishn verterbukh, vos zogt
nit, spetsiel fun velkher slavishn sprakh). Dos daytshe vort "Enkel" shtamt
oykhet fun slavish (loyt dem daytshen etimologishn verterbukh).
Nu?

Vera Szabo

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jun 17 11:53:57 1994
From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu
Subject: Y.Y. Trunk on Sholem Aleichem

Thanks to Louis Fridhandler [vol4.025] for the interesting quote
from Y.Y. Trunk about Sholem Aleichem ("..he was one of the 'little
people' (kleyne mentshelekh).  No doubt, these intellectual defects
blocked Sholem Aleichem's avenue to his own depth.").

That was 1937.  In 1954 Jacob Pat published _Shmuesen mit Yidishe
Shrayber_, which includes a lengthy interview with Trunk.  Here is
a brief excerpt.  The translation is mine.

"A true writer produces only a single work in his life. That work is,
speaking cabalistically, his nekuda, his essence.  It's what 'bothers'
him.  All earlier works are mere preparations, approaches to the main
task. All later writings are simply elaborations and amplifications of
the principal work.  Without the nekuda the earlier and the later
writings would have no meaning at all."

He offers examples from world literature.  His own principal work, he
says, is his book on Sholem Aleichem.

"That," he says, "is where I introduced my Jewish view of the world and
of the cosmos.  Without the book on Sholem Aleichem, it would have been
impossible to write 'Poyln'."

"I don't consider myself a master.  As I said, I've written only one
book.  Every organic writer has written only one book.  If one has
written two books it means that he has no center, no foundation; he keeps
hopping between two opinions."

"And Sholem Aleichem himself?" I prod.

"Sholem Aleichem," he answers sharply, warmly, shutting and opening his
eyes, "wrote only one book.  Menachem-Mendl and Tevye are one book.
That's why Sholem Aleichem is recognized.  When a writer writes one book,
people recognize him.  If he's not recognized, it means that he's always
someone else.  He's not trusted."

"What do you consider to be the very essence of Sholem Aleichem?" I ask
him.  "Tell me his whole teaching while standing on one foot."

"Sholem Aleichem," he answers thoughtfully, pulling out the idea as one
would a full, heavy bucket of water from a deep well, "was the first to
show Jewish history working itself out through ordinary Jews.  His base
was Jewish history."

                     ***********************

A brief note about Trunk is in order but I'm not the one to write it,
having only read the first 3 volumes of _Poyln_.  At any rate, a
fascinating man who wrote about a period that we should be at special
pains to understand and remember.  It's especially galling that Bashevis
Singer's self-serving deceptions may become for many the "official"
history of inter-bellum Polish Jewry.  At the very least surely other
deceptions have rights, not to mention the occasional truth.

About Jacob Pat I know nothing whatever.  But on the last page of his
book (and this underscores my feeling that a work of remembering--not
remembrance--is in order) appears this note:

                 Bikher fun Zelbn Mekhaber

Der mekhaber fartsaykhent l'zikorn zayne bikher, vos zaynen umgekumen
bimey Hitler in Poyln tsuzamen mit milionen andere Yidishe bikher:

[Bundistn (dray bikher); Hirsh Lekert; A Rayze (Ratn-Farband, 1935), etc.]

                     ***********************

Noyekh Miller

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