Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.249 March 2, 1997 1) Place names (Bob Rothstein) 2) "Yiddish" music in a Race Film (Harold L. Orbach) 3) Tsadik, tsadi (Sema Chaimovitz Menora) 4) Dos klonirn (Sholem Berger) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 12:49:27 -0500 (EST) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Place names Alluding in 6.237 to the change of names from Stanislav (in Tsarist Russia) to Stanislawow (diacritics omitted, in pre-1939 Poland) to Ivanofrankivs'k (in post-1939 Ukraine), David Herskovic asks rhetorically, "Ver volt zikh meshadekh geveyn mit an Ivano Frankever aynikl?" While I'm sure that friend Herskovic meant no offense to the memory of the great Ukrainian writer (poet, novelist, playwright, publicist) Ivan Franko (1856-1916), I hasten to point out that Franko was a friend and supporter of Yiddish literature who, for example, translated Velvl Zbarzher into Ukrainian. In a recent book (_Poshuky, rozdumy i spohady..._, Drohoybych: Vidrodzhen- nia, 1994) Marten Feller quotes Franko on one of his earliest memories of his Jewish neighbors in a Ukrainian village: My mother once came back from the village and brought several Jewish matzos that she had gotten from the innkeeper's wife. "Children," my mother called to me and my brothers and sisters, "look at what Sura gave me for you." She broke up the dry wafers and divided them up among us. "Eat them, this is Jewish "paska." To be sure, people say that they contain the blood of Christian children, but that's nonsense." This was the first impression of Jews that remained with me from my childhood. At the same time, it was the first time I heard the fairy tale about blood. My mother expressed her thoughts about that so calmly and decisively that we merely opened our eyes wide in amazement, without the usual horror that much older and more educated people evince in discussions on the subject. At the same time my mother gave the best proof that she didn't believe in the fairy tale about blood by eating together with us the pieces of bread that she had brought. Bob Rothstein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 18:46:18 -0600 (CST) From: hlorbach@ksu.edu Subject: "Yiddish" music in a Race Film The "one reeler" Ellen Prince saw/heard (6.245) was titled _The Black Network_ with sub-title of _1945-1946_ but it was not a true "race film" as it was made by the Vitaphone company (with a copyright of 'mcmxxxvi'). The star was the estimable Nina Mae McKinney who made many such shorts with Vitaphone (a "Jewish" firm by the way). The particular number Ellen refers to was by a group called "The Washboard Serenaders" -- a jazz combo with the addition of a "washboard" player and a "kazoo" played into a glass for reverberation effects. The song was "Dark Eyes" [Ochi Chornia] all the way and it was introduced by the leader saying that he was going to play "my own nationality song...a Russian number... would you pardon my Yiddish accent..." and, after a standard tempo kazoo-led playing of the tune, he then did a pseudo-Yiddish take on "Dark Eyes" [schane maiden...schane oygen... etc.] while the band played it in a semi-slow version and then "jazzed" it up to a "hot jazz" tempo. It also was sung in English with lots of "re-writing" of the words and some "scatting" ...but no Russian words were tossed in. The fact that a New York black jazz combo in the mid-1930s would toss some "Yiddish" into a number like "Dark Eyes" is no surprise considering the mix of Jews and blacks in Harlem in the early 20th Century. Central Harlem below 125th/135th street was Jewish before it became black. It was in Harlem (116th Street) that Sholem Aleichem lived and died. The Hebrew Orphan Asylum was on 136-137th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, across the street from CCNY's Lewisohn Stadium and only a few blocks from "Sugar Hill" where the black "upper class" lived. Harold L. Orbach Manhattan, Kansas 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 23:50:26 -0500 (EST) From: lights4607@aol.com Subject: Tsadik, tsadi The discussions about ende/shlekhte tsadik by both Joachim Neugroschel (6.242) and David Herskovic(6.244) are quite interesting, but I am curious to know when and where the term tsadik (as it is used in the Yiddish) became dominant over the original (Hebrew) term tsadi, which is still used in Hebrew today. Sema Chaimovitz Menora 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 11:19:11 -0500 From: bergez01@mchip00.med.nyu.edu Subject: Dos klonirn (cloning) Ir hot avade oder geleyent dem "tayms"-artikl, oder gehert andershvu di yedies vegn di shof vos di englender hobn opkopirt. (Af yidish heyst dos "klonirung.") Ikh hob baklert dem inyen nekhtn bay nakht shpatsirndik afn gas, un zikh ongeshtoysn in eynem a rusishn yid--fartroyert, tseveytikt, farnetst mit trern di bakn. Er hot mir gezungen zayn umetike mayse, vos di verter ire breng ikh do far aykh. Di melodye bin ikh leyder nisht bekoyekh tsu transkribirn in a blitsbrivl.) **** You've probably either read the news in the New York Times or heard it from someone: they're cloning sheep. Thinking about the matter I bumped into a Russian Jew last night on the street. Depressed and woebegone, he sang me this song which I decided to transcribe for you. (Unfortunately, I don't know how to transcribe the melody with e-mail.) **** Klonevanye Yidn, hert oys vos di biologn tuen-- Zey nemen shoyn kopirn mentshn! Tomer feln tsores fun di, vos faran, Vil men mit di zelbike undz bentshn. Akh, klonevanye! (Refreyn:) Oy, oy, oy, klonevanye. Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy! Oy, oy, oy, klonevanye-- Me darf zikh hitn far a kopye. Oy, klonevanye! Ot iz a mayse shehoye un vor, Kurts, un gring tsu farshteyn. S'geyt in a meydl mit gildene hor Un a sod vos ikh hob gedarft dergeyn. Oy, klonevanye! (Refreyn) Ikh hob zikh farlibt in a meydl aza-- Gor on dem mindstn khisorn-- Zi hot gearbet in "international law." Letstns iz zi af mir tsekast gevorn. Akh, klonevanye! (Refreyn) "Vu bistu geven mit a por teg tsurik?" "Mit dir hob ikh geshlofn!" "Af mayne sonim "Un in der erd mit di menershe shtik-- Du host gor geshlofn mit mayn klone!" Oy, klonevanye! (Refreyn) Ikh gey zikh itst tomid arum afn gas, Bakler zikh gor tif di gehirn, Shelt di doktoyrem un di denkndike klasn Vos mekhabed hobn undz geven s'klonirn. Akh, klonevanye! Oy, oy, oy, klonevanye. Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy! Oy, oy, oy, klonevanye! Me darf zikh hitn far a kopye! Sholem Berger Nyu-York ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.249