Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.265 March 14, 1997 1) Kasrilevke on the Mississippi (Etan Cohen) 2) "Afn Fidl": serial or not? (Henik Sapoznik) 3) Folg mir a gang, kets un fis (Elye Palevsky) 4) Af tish un af benk (Elye Palevsky) 5) Keseyder immer (Dovid Braun) 6) Der Amerikaner (Diana Wilner) 7) Farkukn zikh (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 14:10:06 -0500 From: ecohen@husc.harvard.edu Subject: Kasrilevke on the Mississippi I was wondering if anyone had access to a script of "Kasrilevke on the Mississippi," a TV dramatization of a fictional meeting between Sholem Aleichem and Mark Twain. It aired on NBC in 1955 as part of the "Frontiers of Faith" series. The show is mentioned in YIVO's "Sholem Aleichem in America." (p. 31) I'm writing my undergraduate thesis on the phenomenon of the pairing of these two authors and would be curious to read it. Thanks in advance, Etan Cohen 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 14:36:45 -0500 (EST) From: xanajew@aol.com Subject: "Afn Fidl": serial or not? A sheynem dank for all the answers to my frage. I may be overstepping myself in my interpretation of "Afn Fidl" as a serial but for a line from the end of chapter khes: " ...a groyser umglik vus vert do bashribn inem kapitel tes." ("...a big problem which will be written about in chapter Tes") which I see as a anticipatory linking devise popular with serial writers to sustain interest between chapters. As Louis Fridhandler points out it was published in the monthly _Der Yidisher Familye_ might it have been serialized there? (I translated mine from a 1928 Hebrew Publishing Company pamphlet where it is coupled with _A vigrishne bilyet_.) Henik Sapoznik 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 14:40:58 -0500 (EST) From: epalevsky1@aol.com Subject: Folg mir a gang, kets un fis nemen di fis af di pleytses klept zikh tsu folgn a gang vi an arbes tsu der vant. folg mir a gang iz take ven eyner vi dem tsveytn gebn tsu farshteyn az zayn hamtsoe oder firleyg iz nit zakhlekh nit reyal oder stam narish. af eynglish volt men tsvishn andere gezogt "you've got to be kidding , yeah..right! , come on now! " un nokh azelkhe oysdrukn tsugepast tsu der lage. nemen di fis af di pleytses iz a komisher oyfn tsu bashraybn vi me trogt zikh aleyn avek fun ergets. mir dakht zikh az in motl peysi, kapitl kvas, b'shas se nemen onkumen politsey, zogt men im "nem di fis af di pleytses un makh pleyte". vos shayekh kets un vasser is kimat a farkerte lage vi folgn a gang: di hamtsoe iz grade a gute ober vi firt men zi adurkh? Elye Palevsky 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 14:52:09 -0500 (EST) From: epalevsky1@aol.com Subject: Af tish un af benk der oysdrukh shtamt dakht zikh mir fun min lernen in bismedresh, b'khavruse , un ven es vert rekht lebedik blyabt men nit zitsn af di beynkelekh nor me nemt zikh shteln af tish un af beynk, es tut zikh af tish un af beynk heyst az es kumt for a vahisroytsetsu oder farkert se nemt vern gor freylekh. Elye Palevsky 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 23:38:29 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Keseyder immer With reference to Arre Komar's question [6.263]: keseyder = 'constantly, consecutively; continually' imer = 'always' (the use of this dates and types a person; natively, a speaker will say _ale mol; shtendik; tomed_) Incidentally, this information can be found in the "classic" Yiddish dictionaries: Uriel Weinreich, _Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary_ Alexander Harkavy, _Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary_ Dovid Braun Cambridge, MA 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 22:14:58 PST From: deeee@juno.com Subject: Der Amerikaner I have been trying to get information about a weekly periodical that my father read in the 1920's--1930's. As I remember it was a literary/human interest Yiddish weekly, a sort of Yiddish New Yorker without cartoons albeit not so cynical nor sophisticated. I don't know who published it nor where, but when it was read in our home we lived in Brooklyn New York and our daily news- paper was Der Morgen Zhournal. I remember a short poem written by, A. Vaynper, title "A Mayse mit a Ku." The first line was "Itzkhak Moishe Yosel's, hot a ku gekoyft" Der Amerikaner had many such wonderful poems and stories that my father would read to us and teach us. I would like to be able to pass them on to our little "mamzerim" A sheynem dank. Diana Wilner Mesa,Az 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu Subject: Farkukn zikh Here's a shayle that may or may not interest linguists but I hope it will interest _somebody_. "Farkukn zikh" is on its face a Germanic expression. Harkavy defines "farkukn zikh oyf emetsn" as "to take after"; and Weinreich says of "farkukn zikh oyf" "to take after (a model)"; both close enough to the ModG "vergucken sich" to suggest common roots. But the _practice_ of farkukn zikh suggests something else. Young married women used to (perhaps still do in some places) go out of their way to stare at a learned rov or talmud khokhem, especially an adres-ponimdiker, so that their still-unborn sons might inherit the model's mayles. Indeed the practice may be traceable to Yankev Ovinu, the first (Jewish) bio-engineer, who thus improved his flock of sheep. Here is Yehoash: Hot Yankev zikh genumen faykhte shteklakh fun topol, un mandelboym, un platanenboym, un er hot oysgesheylt oyf di vayse oyssheylungen, opdekndik dos vayse vos oyf di shteklakh. Un er hot arayngeshtelt di shteklakh...in di karetes, in di vaserrines vu di shof kumen trinken...Un es iz geven, ven nor di shtarke shof hobn zikh geport, azoy flegt Yankev araynton di shteklakh far do oygn fun di shof in di karetes, kdey zey zoln zikh porn bay di shteklakh.. Now if it is a widely-shared belief among Jews that (concentrated) looking has a discernable effect on one's offspring then we might expect to find comparable expressions in other Jewish languages. Is that the case? It's also possible that this is a widely-shared belief among Europeans and that farkukn zikh is simply a Yiddish variant. What's the evidence? It goes without saying that Other Possibilities Exist. Vos zogn aderof di sharfe kep? Noyekh MIller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.265