Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 19.017 December 25, 2009 1) "Elisha ben Abuyah" (Ben Birnbaum) 2) folktale identified (Lyubov Dukker) 3) "Slutsk" (Nadia Rotschild) 4) Discrepancies Between Russian and Yiddish Versions of Isaac Babel's Story "Gedali" (Norman Buder) 5) "Yidish tango" (Jane Enkin) 6) dreydl rules (Tom Putnam) 7) Slutsk, Yehupets, shvartser (Paul (Hershl) Glasser) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 11, 2009 Subject: "Elisha ben Abuyah" I wonder if any list member can point me to a translation--or even a partial translation--into English of Jacob Gordin's 1906 play "Elisha ben Abuyah." I would also be interested in knowing of any scholarly or critical effort, in English, to consider the play and its reception by the theater-going Yiddish public and the literary critics of the day. With thanks. Ben Birnbaum 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 11, 2009 Subject: folktale identified This folktale [Mendele Vol. 19.016] sounds to me very much like the plot of an animated movie based on the work of the genius of Yiddish children's literature Ovsey (Shike, Ovsei, Yehoshua) Driz (1908-1971). The movie is called "Klubok" (a ball of yarn). Maybe you can trace its folktale roots from there. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480418/ Best wishes for Happy Hanukah, Lyubov Dukker 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 11, 2009 Subject: "Slutsk" an entfer tsu Avraham Yehoshua Kahana dos lid vos ir zukht heyst take "Slutsk" un iz geshribn gevorn durkh A. Lebedeff. Ikh dermon zikh itster in mayn shtetele dem kleynem Vu ikh hob di shayn tsu ersht derzen Vu ikh bin geboyrn dortn, vu ikh bin dertsoygn Vu ikh fleg als kind in kheyder geyn. Slutsk, oy Slutsk mayn shtetele, vi ikh benk nokh dir ! Tif in hartsn, heym du mayn, ligstu do bay mir A vigl oyf a shtrikele, a tsebrokhn betele Un dokh tayer bistu mir, Slutsk, oy Slutsk mayn shtetele. Fraytik nakht; di mame flegt di likht zikh bentshn Der tate in beys-hamedresh flegt zikh geyn Un fun shul oyf shabes flegt er brengen fremde mentshn Zmires zingen flegt men zeyer sheyn. zayt gezunt, un hot a freylekhn khanuke! Nadia Rotschild 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 24, 2009 Subject: Discrepancies Between Russian and Yiddish Versions of Isaac Babel's Story "Gedali" I hope Mendele readers can clear up two puzzles about Gitl Mayzil's Yiddish translation of a story by Isaac Babel."Vayter," October 2009, Number 34, page 4, publishes a Yiddish translation of Isaac Babel's story "Gedali" ("Gedalye" in Yiddish.) "Vayter" cites as its source "Di geshikhte fun mayn toybnshlak un andere dertseylungen," translated into Yiddish by Gitl Mayzil and published in Vilna by B. Kletzkin Publishing House in 1921. (http://yiddish.forward.com/node/2484. The "Vayter" text seems to have at least one line drop and several typos, the most noteworthy of which is that a word that should be "shisn" appears twice as "visn." But these errors are not relevant to my query.) Here are the two puzzles: (1) Although Babel wrote the story in Zhitomir in June 1920, the story was apparently first published in a periodical in 1924 and in the book "Red Cavalry" in 1926. (So it is claimed in "The Complete Works of Isaac Babel" translated by Peter Constantine, edited by Nathalie Babel, W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.) Thus the first puzzle is how Gitl Mayzil was able to obtain a Russian text in 1921 on which to base her Yiddish translation. (2) The second puzzle concerns discrepancies between the Russian version in "Red Cavalry" and Gitl Mayzil's Yiddish translation. The most interesting discrepancy is that the Russian text of "Gedali" in "Red Cavalry" and the English translation by Peter Constantine contain several negative references to "the Pole" and "Poles" as engaging in acts of murder against Jews. By contrast, Gitl Mayzil's translation never mentions "Poles" but in the very same passages refers instead to "pogromshtshikes," pogrom perpetrators. At least two explanations seem possible: (a) Gitl Mayzil had access to a earlier Russian version in which Babel had indeed used words translatable as "pogromshtshikes." (b) Because Gitl Mayzil's translation was published in Poland, she could not use the words "Pole" or "Poles" for fear of offending the government and therefore took the liberty of using "pogromshtshikes." Does anyone know which explanation is correct? The other discrepancy is that the first paragraph in Gitl Mayzil's translation ends with two exclamatory phrases that are absent from the 1926 Russian version and from Peter Constantine's English translation: "O, tliyendike gemores fun mayn kindhayt! O, gedikhter umet fun zikhroynes!" Again two explanations seem possible: (a) Gitl Mayzil translated phrases that were in an early Russian version but were omitted in the 1924 and 1926 publications. (b) Gitl Mayzil introduced phrases into the story without any justification in Babel's original. Does anyone know which explanation is correct? One might add a historical question: Who did perpetrate the pogroms in Zhitomir between 1917-1920? Norman Buder 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 24, 2009 Subject: "Yidish tango" Dear Mendel-folk I'd like an English translation of the song "Yidish Tango." The verse that really puzzles me is this one: Shpil zhe mir a tango oys fun sholem, Zol dos zayn a sholem, nit keyn kholem Az Hitler mit zayn raykh Zol di kapore vern glaykh, Dos vet zayn a tentsele far aykh! It would be great to hear about the history of the song as well. thanks! Jane Enkin 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 11, 2009 Subject: dreydl rules Having missed the fun of playing dreydl as a child (and much else, believe me!),I have a question about the rules, prompted by a reading of the story "Benny's Luck" by Sholom Aleichem. In that story we are told that Shin means shoot again. (Not that Benny ever needed to shoot again: his dreydl always landed on the Gimel.) Another set of rules provided by our JCC has Shin signifying "share," meaning that everyone puts into the pot. I imagine that like checkers, in which some games demand a jump if it is possible, whereas others are more friendly and don't require the jump, dreydl allows a similar variation. But is there a right rule? Sincerely, Tom Putnam 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 11, 2009 Subject: Slutsk, Yehupets, shvartser Re: Mendele Vol. 19.016 1) The song sought by Avraham Yehoshua Kahana is called "Slutsk (mayn shtet ele)" which I know from the repertoire of Aaron Lebedeff. 3) I think that the exotic etymologies for "Yehupets" are unlikely. Just as Sholem-Aleykhem nicknamed the town of Boyerke outside of Kiev "Boyberik" after a different town in Galicia, he appears to have take "Yehupets" for Kiev from a small town in the Kiev area. Why do I think this? Because Mordkhe Schaechter once reported that he had met an immigrant from the former Soviet Union on the New York subway who said that he was from "Yupets." Schaechter thought he was joking but the man said he wasn't. And since then I have found in an atlas of Ukraine a town Yahubets about 10 km west of Uman. While I can't prove that this was the source for "Yehupets," it's certainly possible. I should add that I am working on a gazetteer of Yiddish place names of Central and Eastern Europe. The list of names for present-day Poland over 800 of them is already up on the YIVO website (yivo.org under "Online publication"). I hope to post Ukraine in the next month or two - this new list will include over 1000 names. 9) "Shvartser" in Yiddish is to the best of my knowledge an euphemism, not a slur. "Neger" is probably a recent borrowing from German. Paul (Hershl)Glasser ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 19.017 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. 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