Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.089 August 20, 1995 1) Can you be "cool" in Yiddish? (Kiva Weidenbaum) 2) Concerning a Yiddish Font (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Sing-along (Moshe Sheskin) 4) Consulting willows (David Neal Miller) 5) A nay klayd/Rokhl Korn (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 6) Klor vays tsigele (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Aug 1995 18:21:08 -0400 (EDT) From: ckevin@ocvaxa.cc.oberlin.edu Subject: Can you be "cool" in Yiddish? My daughter has asked me if there is a Yiddish equivalent for the English word "cool." She doesn't mean in the temperature sense, but in the "ok", "neat", or "groovy" sense. I guess "cool" has retained this meaning over the years so that even today's teenagers refer to something being cool as a way to express their general, if not strong approval. So, for example, a teenaged girl might tell someone that a particular boy she is fond of is cool. My meager knowledge of Yiddish is too weak to have encountered some equivalent. Thanks for your help. I am prepared to tell my daughter that there is no equivalent because slang need not be translatable. Kevin (Kiva) Weidenbaum 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 Aug 95 00:01 EDT From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Concerning a Yiddish Font The _Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry_ uses a rather unusual text system named Signum, previously supported only by the Atari, but now available for the MacIntosh as well. It is _not_ Microsoft compatible. Signum is produced in Heidelberg but the person who can provide me with the name and address of the company is now travelling in America. Perhaps one of our subscribers in Germany can help with this information. In any event, we have created a Signum font for the Atlas which has all the unique letters and letter combinations, diacritics and all, that distinguish Yiddish from Hebrew. Indeed, Signum permits one to create variations on the font without any difficulty. It provides the possibility of using as many as seven fonts in a document, and the capability of moving freely from left to right and right to left. Should any Mendele subscriber acquire Signum for the Atari or the Mac, I would be happy to supply him/her with a copy of our Yiddish font. (However, I will be out of reach for the next 9 or 10 days.) Mikhl Herzog 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 Aug 1995 08:23:46 GMT From: sheskin@netmedia.co.il Subject: Sing-along We are a group of people from many parts of Israel who get together from time to time in order to sing Yiddish songs. Our next session will be held on October 30th at Kibbutz Hulda at 8:30 p.m. If you intend to visit Israel or will be there by that date, you are invited to join us for what should be an enjoyable evening. In Israel you may call me at 08-445-292. Moshe Sheskin Kibbutz Hulda 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Aug 1995 00:46:59 -0400 From: miller.3@osu.edu Subject: Consulting willows I wonder whether anyone could provide information (personal narrative, textual sources, scholarly discussion [other than those enumerated in Weinreich and Weinreich's bibliography of _Yiddish Language and Folklore_) regarding the custom of consulting willows to foretell the future. I know that this practice was part of my great-grandmother's consultancy (curer, clairvoyant, opshprekher[i]n), but there my knowledge ends. Did one visit the willow (Yid. _verbe_) or merely consult its leaves? If the former, did one look for specific signs or commune with it more generally? Were there attendant rituals? Did anyone have access to the verbe's wisdom, or only (wise) women? What was the practice called in Yiddish? Was it shared by coterritorial non-Jews? Do other Mendelyaners remember a song in which Chava Albershteyn's persona announces her intention to visit a willow which would "alts dertseyln" about her intended? Note, possibly lehavdil, that Disney's Pocahontas consults a willow to the same end. Many thanks in advance. David Neal Miller 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Aug 1995 09:50:01 -0400 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: A nay klayd/Rokhl Korn A dank aykh ale velkhe hobn mir geshikt di prakhtfule verter fun Rokhl Korn's lid. Ikh vil tsugebn az Sheva Zucker hot geshribn az dos lid ken men gefinen in Korn's bukh, "Bashertkeyt" un az ale hobn ongevizn Ruth Whitman's iberzetzung. (A spetsyeln dank Shleyme Axelrod, un Mikhl Herzog.) I found Bernard Katz's comments (Vol.5.084) regarding the translation most rewarding in their intensity, and I stand in his corner, especially in regard to the last line. Whitman's "heavy as a stone" disregards the nuance and process implied by Korn in the tear petrifying and turning to stone for its new perpetual life as a mere glass button. I have special pride in Korn (1898-1982), a Galitzianern, who started writing in Polish, began learning Yiddish (and embraced it) to respond to the pogroms following the first World War. She continued writing in Yiddish after WW11 (emigrated to Montreal), and went on to receive the Manger Award in Yiddish Literature in 1974. Dos heyst a Galitzianer kop.... Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan North Conway, New Hampshire 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Aug 1995 09:51:12 -0400 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: Klor vays tsigele/lady in the dark Iosif Vaisman in Mendele Vol 5.084 posted an excerpt from a critique about Rozhinkes un Mandlen that leaves me very much a lady in the dark, along with all the hartzike people who clamor for it at simkhes where it is performed by unaware artists. I would appreciate any clarifications as to why Caplan says this melodic lidele vos hot ayngevigt azoy fil zeese yidishe yingelekh un meydelekh is so offensive and intellectually dangerous. Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan North Conway, New Hampshire ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.089