מענדעלע

Volume 16 of Comparative Criticism, ed. E.S.Shaffer, and entitled Revolutions and Censorship has just appeared, Published by Cambridge University Press, ISSN 0144-7561, ISBN 0-521-471990-0, with a tranlation of a Bergelson story, by Golda Werman.

The dust jacket says, ". . . David Bergelson, shot in the Lubianka prison on his sixty-eigth brithday, whose fine story `Remnants' is translated and introduced by Golda Werman (commended in the 1991 BCLA Translation Competition).

[Note submitted proudly by Golda's husband, who regrets that the book arrived a day _after_ Golda's birthday.]

Bob Werman

It may be of limited interest, but there is a very nice collection of=20 Yiddish proverbs translated into Ukrainian: it contains about 2000 entries,= =20 arranged by Hersh Polianker and based on B.I.Kuperman's collection.

TITLE: IEvreis'ki prysliv'ia ta prykazky / uporiadkuvannia ta vstupne slovo Hryhoriia Poliankera ; pereklala z ievreis'ko=EF Hanna Shnaiderman ; khudozhnyky V.D. Kozh= uryn i N.I. Prysiazhniuk. PUBLICATION: Ky=EFv : "Dnipro," 1990. DESCRIPTION: 253 p. : ill. ; 14 cm. SERIES: Mudrist' narodna ; zbirnyk 49 NOTES: Title in colophon: Evreiskie poslovitsy i pogovorki. SUBJECT: Proverbs, Yiddish. SUBJECT: Proverbs, Yiddish--Translations into Ukrainian. ADDED ENTRY: Polyanker, Hirsh, 1911ADDED ENTRY: Evreiskie poslovitsy i pogovorki.

Another nice book for children:

TITLE: [Yidishe folks-vertlekh / sostavitel' Kh.V. Beider ; khudozhnik E. Chudnovskaia]. PUBLICATION: Moskva : Malish, 1990. DESCRIPTION: 1 v. (unpaged) : chiefly col. ill. ; 22 cm. NOTES: Cover title. NOTES: Colophon title: Evreiskie poslovitsy na idish. SUBJECT: Proverbs, Yiddish--Juvenile literature. ADDED ENTRY: Beyder, Khayim, 1920ADDED ENTRY: Chudnovskaia, E. (Ekaterina) ADDED ENTRY: Evreiskie poslovitsy na idish.

Iosif Vaisman

Anno Siegel:

The switch in verbs is solely for comic effect. In the third verse (the verse in question), the balagola (wagon driver) is judging the khazen. Tying in to what Anno Siegel suggests, the implication is that wagon drivers are less refined, more prost, than either the more demure shneyder or shuster. The "brr" sound in the word "gedabrt" may also be comically imitative of the driver's horse.

I don't know how common its use in Yiddish, but "gedabrt" is a Yiddishized verb from the Hebrew root "DBR," meaning "to speak." I believe that Harkavy lists the verb, but don't remember the precise meaning -- something like "utter," I recall.

Harvey Spiro

There is _no_ variant of "dav(e)nen" with "r". You're right to suggest that it's an attempt to characterize the gruffness of the character--the "balagole", as I recall. I think Jan Pierce also sang it that way.

The variants of the word 'to pray' are davnen, davenen/dovenen, and rarely, doynen.

There _is_ a word "dabern" derived from Hebrew "ledaber" 'to speak' which is used cryptically, especially in Western Yiddish:

daber nit, der seyg iz meyvn kol diber.

I've asked before, to no avail: does anyone know the origin of Western Yiddish "seyg", fem. "seygistn" referring to a non-Jew.

Happy New Year all.

Mikhl Herzog

Actually the purpose is explicitly to characterize the speaker as a "balegolchikl", a teamster. Brr or prr were sounds used by eastern European horse drivers to make the horses go, the equivalent of "giddyup" in the U.S.

Eli Katz

In my wife's family, when something is very old (often something that's been forgotten, say, in the refrigerator), they say it's from "Cholomitzki's day." Is this a common expression? Does it refer to Chmielnitzki? Thanks for clearing this up.

Ted Steinberg

In the Yiddish Forward of December 23 (page 17), Miriam Shmulevitch-Hoffman - a gezint in ir pupik - concludes her article about Mendele, "Yidish - A Gantze Makheteneste Oifn Yarid fun E-Mail." Her joyous closing paragraph follows. Put on your dancing shoes and read.

"Dermit shlies ikh die hayntike sesye fun der internatsyanaler nets vos badient toyzenter kompyuters iber der velt mit elektronisher post (E-Mail) vu der hoibt mkhitn iz Reb Mendele un die hoibt makheteneste iz die mame yidish. Un ver es leygt tzu an oyer ken mamesh hern vie die klezmorim shpieln a freylakhs un die khevre mendelniks tantsn un hopkn un freyen oif der yidishe khasene vos vert transmitirt yedn tog oif dratloze khvalyes un tzefirn dos yidishe vort arum der velt."

Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan