Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.279 January 16, 1995 1) A poem by Yaakev Glashteyn (Dan Leeson) 2) The Yiddish of Hasidim (Henry Mullish) 3) The Yiddish of Hasidim (Martin Davis) 4) Umbashrign (Anno Siegel) 5) Umbashrign (Arn Abramson) 6) Umbashrign (Mikhl Herzog) 7) Lamed-vovnik (Arn Abramson) 8) Mefunak (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 10:45:00 EST From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: A poem by Yaakev Glashteyn When I first joined Mendele about 734 years ago, I posted a poem about my number 1, favorite, absolute special composer, "Mozart." Indeed that is the title of a poem by Yaakev Glashteyn. Since that time, there have been so many new joiners to Mendele (with so many of these expressing interests in music) that I am going to post it again, if I can get it through the shames. I don't know much about Glatshteyn except for the fact that his is the only Yiddish poetry I know about Mozart and that, furthermore, he wrote many such poems about what appears to have been his favorite musical topic, too. The English translation of this poem is by Richard Fein of the State University of NY at New Paltz. The spelling and choice of Yiddish words in transliteration are mine. When this poem was reprinted about 15 years ago in an English language journal that dealt with Jewish topics world-wide, there were criticisms offered that the text was anti-Christian. I never felt that but perhaps my affection for the topic blinded me to a broader perspective. =================================================== MOZART: YAAKEV GLATSHTEYN 0 Es hot zich mir gecholomot: goyim hoben Mozarten gekreitzikt und ihm begroben in an aizel-keber. Nur yidn hobon ihm gemacht far Gotes mentsch un zain gedechenish gebenscht. [I had this dream: Gentiles had crucified Mozart and buried him in a potter's field. Jews alone revered him as a holy man and blessed his memory.] Sein apostol bin ich iber der velt gelofen un fakert yeder ainem vos k'hav getrofen. Umentum voz k'hav gechapt a krist, chob ich ihm geschmat oif a Mozarist. [I was his apostle. I ran through the world converting everyone I met. Whenever I caught a Christian I turned him into a Mozartian.] Vi vunderlech iz fun gettlechen mentsch zein musikalischer testament, vi durchgenogelt mit gezang zainen zaine lichtigeh hent. In zein grester noit, hoben beim gekreitziten zinger gelacht ale finger. In zain veinendiksten troier, hot er noch mehr vi zich alein lieb gehat dem schaines oier. [How marevellous the musical testament of a God-filled man, how nail-pierced with song are his glowing hands. In his bitterest need laughter lit up the fingers of the crucified singer. In his most painful weeping he loved, more than himself, the ear of his neighbor.] Vi orem und vi karg, antkegen Motzartem farblaib, iz di droshe oifen barg. [How poor and how meager, compared with what Mozart left us, is the Sermon on the Mount.] Can some kind soul enlighten me on who Yaakev Glatshteyn was? Dan Leeson 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 13:37:12 -0400 (EDT) From: mullish@acfcluster.nyu.edu Subject: The Yiddish of Hasidim For the benefit of those who do not have access to the Sunday New York Times I am providing below an excerpt from an article which appears in today's Sunday New York Times, Page 15 of the City Section, dated January 15th 1995. It is headed _A World of Yiddish, Lost_ and is subtitled with the rhyme /Williamsburg Today Echoes Eras Past, but the Difference is Vast/. The article seems rather provocative to me, implying strongly that the Hasidim have little use for the Yiddish language other than to protect their young from the temptations of the modern world. They totally ignore the secular aspects of the language, according to the article. Is this really the case? Are there any Hasidim on the Mendele list who feel they could contest the thrust of the article? Here is his concluding paragraph: There are Hasidic textbooks for the classroom, story books for children, religious newspapers -- all of them in Yiddish. The language lives on in the community, which is vast. But the Yiddish world that I loved, that was aboil with artistic and social ferment, that world is truly gone. And I, for one, feel the poorer because of it. The New York Times adds that Isidore Hailblum is a novelist whose books have been translated into six languages, but not Yiddish. Henry Mullish 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 14:49:07 EST From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: The Yiddish of Hasidim The version of the Sunday NY Times sold in New York City itself contains a section called _the city_. Today (1/15) there is in that section a piece entitled "A World of Yiddish Lost" by Isidore Haiblum. It is nostalgic about the author's Brooklyn childhood immersion in Yiddish langauage and culture and regrets that the remaining Yiddish speakers are the Chasidm (Khasidm ? - the Times spells it "Hasidm") who reject the secular side of Yiddish culture. "It is as if the Amish were the sole surviving English speakers." I'd send a Xerox copy to any who email me their address (at least if there aren't too many :-) ). Martin Davis 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 20:25:25 +0100 From: anno4000@w172zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de Subject: Umbeshrign Jack Feldman: Modern German "unbeschrieen" may fill the bill. It can be translated as "not to shout about it" and is used much like knocking on wood. Anno Siegel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 15:59:52 EST From: abramson@uconnvm.uconn.edu Subject: Bashrigen/bashrien Jack Feldman has asked about a Yiddish word that he, or someone else, recalls as _umbeshrigen_. The meaning suggested by him reminded me of a word, _umbashrien_, often uttered by my late mother long years ago when saying something good about someone. I failed to find the word in either Weinreich or Harkavy, but I did find it in Vol. 2 of the _Groyser Verterbukh fun der Yidisher Shprakh_ (New York, 1966). It has an entry for _umbashrigen_, which tells you to see _umbashrien_, although examples are given under each of them. The second has the definition: "Vos me zol dem (der) keyn eyn-hore nit geben." That is, you say this to avert casting the evil eye upon the one that you are praising. Under the first entry we find this example: "Zi iz umbashrigen sheyn, un hot groysn kheyn..." (from a 1798 book by Arn Wolfszon). Apparently, this expression, in one form or the other, is interchangeable with _keyn e(y)n hore_ 'no evil eye.' Weinreich gives two past participles for the verb _shrayen_ 'to shout': geshrigen, geshrien. This must be the grammatical underpinning of the alternate forms of our expression. Arn Abramson 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 17:54 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Umbashrign Also _umbashriyen_ and _umbarufn_ all mean more or less the same as _keyn ayn(e) hOre_/_kinihOre_, etc. Mikhl Herzog 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 16:07:07 EST From: abramson@uconnvm.uconn.edu Subject: Lamed-vovnik Diane Robson has asked about the "lamed-vovniks," a topic from Jewish folklore. The Yiddish expression is from the names of the sequence of Hebrew letters, /lamed vav/, which stands for the numeral 36.The following is quoted from Unterman, A. (1991). _Dictionary of Jewish lore and legend_. London and New York: Thames and Hudson. See pp. 116-117. There is a belief in Jewish folklore that in each generation there are thirty- six hidden righteous men (see tzaddik) on whose meritsd the world depends. This belief is based on a Talmudic statement that there are not less than thirty-six righteous people who stand in the presence of the shekhina every day. One of these humble and unnoticed lamed-vovniks is destined to be the Messiah, if the generation is worthy. They wander in exile with their felow Jews, working as artisans, and only assert themselves when there is danger to the community. After they have acted to save the Jews from danger, they revert back to their anonymity. They are forbidden to reveal themselves to others, for if they did so, they would die. [There is more in the entry.] Arn Abramson 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 17:54 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Mefunak Berel Leiser uses the word _mefunak_, surely the Hebrew _mefnAk_ rather than the Yiddish _mefUnik_. Does it matter? Yes, because the Yiddish word yields a feminine form _mefUnitse_ as if from a Slavic suffix _-nik_; the Hebrew feminine, on the contrary, is _mefunEket_. By the way, Berel, who are the Montrealers you're looking for, the ones you refer to as "they"? Mikhl Herzog ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.279 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu