Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 6.266
March 16, 1997

1) Introduction (Blume Mann)
2) Introduction (Zitta Baker)
3) Fis oyf di pleytses (Velvl Golman)
4) Fis oyf di pleytses (Mendy Fliegler)
5) Fis oyf di pleytses (Mechl Asheri)
6) "Sold to Shame" (Bob Hirshan)
7) Klezmorim in literature (Chana Mlotek)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 16:28:12 -0800 (PST)
From: bmann@garnet.berkeley.edu
Subject: Introduction

I've been reading/watching the Mendele list for a few years now, since
attending the YIVO summer program, and am extremely grateful for the
learning and experience that is so freely shared over the screen. The
sometimes-struggle through the phonetic Yiddish is always worth it,
for the authentic Yiddish voice I hear at the end.  I heard some
Yiddish as a child growing up in New York, and am told I speak with a
Rumanian inflection, from the bube whom I don't much remember much,
but from whom I absorbed an accent somehow.

Barbara (Blume) Mann

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 21:00:55 +0000
From: bakern@accountant.net
Subject: Introduction

My name is Zitta Baker and Yiddish was my second language. I'm
currently teaching a basic conversational yiddish class at my local
JCC. I'm not a teacher by training and really never learned yiddish
formally in school.  I also am not very familiar with the YIVO
standard but hope to become more familiar as time goes on.

My parents were holocaust survivors originally from Czecholslovakia.
It was the language my parents insisted we speak at home. My mother
wouldn't answer us if we didn't speak Yiddish "English vest du kenen
ober Yiddish must du kenen", was their motto.  By the way, French was
my first language, English my third. All this by the age of 4.

Zitta Baker

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 16:59:10 EST
From: walgol@juno.com
Subject: Fis oyf di pleytses

if memory serves, the expression appears in sholem aleichem's "motl
peyse dem khazns."  in the "kvass" episode, motl's brother elye has
manufactured  batches of kvass, which motl is peddling on the street.
one batch, though, goes bad, having been made with waste water.  the
customer complains loudly, a crowd gathers, and the attention of the
local "gardevoy" (or "gradevoy," if you prefer) is attracted.  as he
approaches,  a friendly man in the crowd advises motl to "nem di fis
oif di pleytses," that is,  "make tracks" or "scram." motl does.

Velvl Golman

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 18:50:13 EST
From: emenems@juno.com
Subject: Fis oyf di pleytses

Es kikt take oys, az men hot Goldele Morgentaler 6.264 keynmul nisht
gefregt vi azoy men geyt oyf a shverer veyg....

Ven ikh bin geven a kind in di tzendklike yurn, hob ikh bedarft geyn
_tsufis_ kmat finf mayl tsu khapn a otobus tsu geyn in 'hay skul' !!.
un di Mame hot mir shtendik gezugt as zi ken mikh nisht brengen tsum
bos yeydn tug..... 'Nem, hot zi mir gezugt, shtel di fis oyf di
pleytzes un gey..." Denkst du az ikh bin gegangen mit "verve and
energy  (un mit freyd)"  yeydn tug???  'Khob es gemist tun un
fartig...... a shverikayt...finef mayl.

Un dus take meynt as es iz du tzvey ayndrukn farn dozikn vertl. Eyner
a negatif un 'amul', a positifer....un efsher mer. (Un ir zayt
gerekht, a katz veyst vi azoy.....) Nu, ver iz gerekht, un farvus, un
fun vanent??

Zayt gezindt un shtark.

Mendy Fliegler

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 22:05:08 +0200
From: donnom@netvision.net.il
Subject: Fis oyf di pleytses

Goldie Morgenthaler (6.264) is right as can be: the phrase is "nemn di
fis oif di pleytses". That said, I have usually heard it as, "nemn di
fis oif di pleytses un vayivrakh", meaning to pick up one's feet and
flee. "Makhn (a) viyivrakh" is also heard with the same meaning
(origin Gen 31:21 "vayivrakh hu" -- He (Jacob) fled. Oddly enough,
Yiddish is not alone in "nemn di fis oif di pleytses". Spanish also
has it: "echar los pies a la espalda", a literal rendering of the
Yiddish phrase (or vice-versa -- who knows which came first?) meaning
simply to go away.

Mechl Asheri

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 11:49:08 -0500
From: shirshan@ix.netcom.com
Subject: "Sold to Shame"

Sheryl Harawitz asked (6.264) about Yiddish play "Sold to Shame".

Connection to the following web site -

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/varstg:@FIELD(author+@band(+Silb
ert,+Jacob+and+Dr.+Waltzman+)) -

will give Sheryl access to graphic (*.tiff format) facsimiles of the
original script. The pages can be viewed and/or copied to disk for
future study at her leisure.

Bob Hirshan

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 12:13:03 -0500 (EST)
From: emlotek@aol.com
Subject: Klezmorim in literature

Apropos David Goldberg's post (6.264), I just wanted to note that I
once wrote an article "Muzik un lid in Sholem Aleykhems lebn un shafn"
which Henry S. might find useful. I describe among other things Sholem
Aleichem's love for the violin, how he learned to play it, and later
played it with sensitivity. My article was published in "Di goldene
keyt" no ll5, l985, pp. 92-l05.

Chana Mlotek

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 6.266

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