Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 20.017 April 8, 2011 1) Jewish cabaret (Dina Levias) 2) mestn feld (Les Train) 3) mestn feld (Khayem Bochner) 4) mestn feld (Lyubov Dukker) 5) Hofshteyns "Friling" (Martin Horwitz) 6) Hofshteyns "Friling" (Akvile Grigoraviciute) 7) Hofshteyns "Friling" (Seth Wollitz) 8) "A katerinazh bin ikh" (Jane Peppler) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 15 Subject: Jewish cabaret In answer to Jane Peppler and anyone else interested in Jewish cabaret in Poland between the wars, I suggest you contact Mike Aylward, to my mind the best authority and the compiler of the largest discography on Yiddish songs, theater, cabaret, etc.! www.yidisher-gramofon.org Dina Levias 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 15 Subject: mestn feld feld (field = graveyard) is a synonym for kvorim (graves). Les Train 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 15 Subject: Lena Watson writes: I am somewhat stumped by the meaning of the expression "mestn feld." Niborski's Yiddish-French dictionary has "feldmestn," defined as "rite superstitieux consistant entourer une tombe juive d'un fil de coton, ce qui confrerait celui-ci des vertus magiques" Our (http://www.verterbukh.org/) draft translation: "superstitious custom of surrounding a Jewish tomb with cotton thread,supposedly giving the thread magical powers " How, if at all, is it different from "mestn kvorim"? That's beyond me, I'm afraid. But note that "feld " can be used (euphemistically) for "cemetery," so it wouldn't be surprising if "feldmestn" and "mestn kvorim" meant the same thing. Khayem Bochner 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 15 Subject: mestn feld I believe both are referring to one and the same superstition. I have heard it called Feldmestn. When somebody is sick, a relative can go to a grave of a tsadik to measure it with a thread and then this thread is put into candles for the synagogue. Lyubov Dukker 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 17 Subject: Hofshteyns "Friling" I asked a native speaker acquaintance re: the lines in question and got the following answer: s'darf zayn "storks " "IZ GEKUMEN A BUSHL A HOYKHER TSU GEYN, DI FIS VI DI SHPENER, DER SHNOBL FUN BEYN. KVA-KVA, KVA-KVA. " Martin Horwitz 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 28 Subject: Hofshteyns "Friling" May I point out that the actual lines read: alts gringer varft der kop zikh inderheykh in [not 'un'!..] shnur farbrokhenem di busheles tsu tseyln . . . So the translation of Mr Hartman "It's ever-easier to throw one's head back/to count the storks in their broken strings (of flight)" is a decent one. Akvile Grigoraviciute 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 10 Subject: Hofshteyns "Friling" Dovid Hofshteyn's verse is singularly difficult because he uses mainly the German based origins of Yiddish in a tortured syntax. My reading is: even easier the head faces upward to count the storks, [flying in] a broken line. Hofshteyn's verse is probably the tightest in all Yiddish poetry. Sincerely, Seth Wolitz 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 22 Subject: "A Katerinazh bin ikh" Hello, friends, A friend whose father was a Russian orchestra leader/arranger just dumped four boxes of his music on me and I am sorting through it. Here is a little booklet saying "our folksinger Ben Yakkov in the great hit "A Katerinazh bin ikh." Elsewhere in this little page it is spelled katerinarzh, and in the English transliteration it says, "Der Katerinchik." It is actually a tango which starts "Ikh makh kuntsn in gas / dos lebn makht khoyzek, spas / ven mayne glider tut vey lakh ikh un zing un shray ... " The refrain begins "A katirinazh bin ikh on broyt un borves on shikh, keynem art dos nit... " (note yet another spelling of organ-grinder, that's about five) I understand Olshanetsky wrote an opera called the organ-grinder. Is this song from that show? Anybody know anything about Ben Yaakov? I note that in the Freedman catalog this first line is also titled Gasn Zinger or Der Komediantshik or Komediant - did Peysakh Burstein rewrite it to suit his own occupation? Thanks! Jane Peppler ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 20.017 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. 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