מענדעלע

At Louis Fridhankler's suggestion, I am posting Abraham Sutzkever's entire poem, "Mayn Mame." This is my transcription the poem as published in Sutzkever's _Poetishe Verk_, band ayns, Tel Aviv, 1963, pp. 265-269.

Khaver Friedlander has given me permission to post these following comments, which he wrote to me, by way of an introduction to the poem:

"Sutzkever's poem is a stunning, heroic piece of work. To endure such pain, suffering, loss, loneliness and horror beyond description, and yet survive with mind, body and soul so much alive and strong is a wonder of wonders. Incredibly, he composed the poem in the very midst of and a target of those unspeakable crimes. He still could go on to create a triumphant body of work. I would guess his triumph was possible not only because he is so gifted but because he had the strength and courage to face all of that head on. None of us who was not there can blame those survivors who want only to forget. How lucky we are, though, to have those like Sutzkever who can teach us the truth.

It hurts, but we'll handle it, and that's the way it is."

Mayn Mame Abraham Sutzkever

1 es vorket a fraytik-tsu nakhts oyf a boydem, tsukst bay der shayn fun levone in sider. es davnen di shpitsn bay dir fun der late un tsukn vi teyln fun mentshishe glider.

es trift mit levone fun dayne shvartsaplen, di mamishe tropns baloykhtn mayn gloybn. dayn tfile dermont mir on vareme khale, du kormest mit hartsiker tfile di toybn.

in yeder dayn kneytsh iz bahaltn mayn lebn, ikh her vi du hust un du tsiterst, az keyner dem hoykh zol nit heren -- vayl do, in a vinkl, farshotn mit erd, lign oykh mayne beyner.

es dremlt dayn hant oyf mayn shtern: zay ruik, a tog oder tsvey di yeshue -- a gikhe. dayn andere -- haltstu bay mir oyfn oyer, ikh zol nit derhern di shtim fun retsikhe.

2 vest mikh nit narn: ikh veys du bist toyt. khotsh du lebst in mayn kholem. vos brenen in dayn hartsn dray royzn in sharlakhn royt? farshtel nit. ihk veys ver dos zenen!

farshtel zey nit mame, vos narstu dayn kind, vi kumen do royzn tseblite? ikh ze dokh dray purpurne koyln atsind: an ershte, a tsveyte, a drite.

3 tsimblt, ir tsimblen, derfreyt a gelekhter, fartoybt a geshrey. durkh felder itst yogt men mayn naketer mamen, ir layb iz a shtral in di shpiglen fun shney.

un zi, vi tsum oysleyz, yogt ergets gikh, gikh un durkh der farfroyrener trer, vu di zun glit gefangen oyf eybik, derzet zi itst mikh.

un tsvishn ir vide shtikt zi ariber a bentshung dem zun. es knaln di biksn. zi falt vi a toyb oyfn tron fun der zun.

4 un vu bin _ikh_ geven, beys undter tsimblen hot men dikh geshlept tsum eshafot? -- in hintisher bude fargrobn s'gebeyn, mit hintisher freyd vos farshilt zikh aleyn, oyf lipn -- a piavke, in oyer-- a shpin, hob ikh gelugt durkh a shpeltl ahin, vu unter levone, vos shpiglt der nakht, shpilt zikh der vint mitn perlnem shney. un di shneyen-kapelie, s'geheyme gedrey oyfn fon fun levone -fun vanen di prakht? s'hot itlekher perele shney zikh geshpilt mit zayn eygenem shotn, un mir hot dos bild farshaft aza teyneg, az kh'hob azsh gebilt-- -- -

5 laykhtn mir drey koyln in der nakht, loyf ikh zey tsum oysleyzn fun shotn. kum ikh tsu a geln toyer mit a shild bavakht: "akhtung! do iz krets. far nit-yidn -- farbotn!"

bays ikh durkh di shteyner mit di tseyn un farn likht fun oysgezetste shoybn-vayslen ze ikh: di hayzer -- on neshomes. Kh'bin aleyn. di gasn -- a farloshener mizbeyekh.

hob ikh moyre ontsuzen dayn shoyb, otemt mit dayn ksise yeder shtapl. zukh ikh mitn moyl dayn mindsten shtoyb, fil ikh dikh in vintishn getsapl.

fal ikh tsu a shteynerdiker shvel: -- mame, ikh bin do tsurik, zolst visn! in di koyln veytikdik un hel brenen in dem umru fun gevisn.

6 zukh ikh di libe fir vent, vu du host geotemt,

shvindlen di trep unter mir vi a vasergrub kokhik.

dertap ikh di kliamke un rays di tir tsu dayn lebn,

dakht mir: a feygele veynt in shtayg fun di finger.

kum ikh in tsimer arayn vu s'tunklt dayn kholem -

tsankt nokh dos lempele koym, vos du host getsundn.

shteyt oyfn tish a gloz tey, -nit bavizn derzupn,

tsaplen nokh finger arum oyf di zilberne randn.

bet rakhmim dos tsingele likht in tsukikn lempl -

dergis ikh in lempl mayn blut s'zol nit oyfhern laykhtn.

7 kh'gefin anshtot dikh a tserisns dayn hemd, nem ikh tsum hartsn un drik es farshemt. es vern di lekher fun hemd mayne teg un der zoym funem hemd vert in harts mir a zeg.

tserays ikh fun layb mayne kleyder un krikh in dayn ofenem naketn hemd vi in zikh. s'iz mer nit keyn hemd, s'iz dayn likhtike hoyt, s'iz dayn kalter, dayn ibergeblibener toyt.

8 redstu tsu mir azoy varhaftik ekht: -- nite, mayn kind, s'iz a zind, s'iz a zind, un undzer tseteylung nem on far gerekht

az du bist faran, bin ikh do say-vi-say, vi der yoder in floym farmogt shoyn dem boym un di nest un dem foygl un alts vos derbay.

Vilner geto oktober 1942

Tsu ale Mendelyaner - a gebentsht yor, a gut yor Lisa Duhl

While I never have seen knaydlekh made with raisins, as described in David Herskovic's posting [7.070], it sounds like something I'd like to try. But khremslekh...that I know about. My mother always prepared them..lightly fried thick pancakes made of mashed potatoes, eggs and cinnamon...as the nosh for us all to eat while we gathered and waited for the seder to begin. It was the perfect "neutral" choice because it contained no khametz (of course!) and yet it did not include any matzo or matzo meal which we didn't use until the seder actually began; we didn't eat matzo from Purim to Pesakh. Their yearly arrival on the kitchen table (not to mess up the seder table in the dining room) tasted to us as manna must have tasted! Thanks for the memory. G'mar Khasima Tova to all.

Ruth Etkin

I found on a new Cecilia Bartoli CD (Decca 452 667-2), at long last, a new recording of some of Ravel's songs.

>From his chants populaires - the chanson hebraique, sung in Yiddish (Mejerke mein zuhn), and his deux melodies hebraiques: Kaddish (original text) and L'Enigme Eternelle. These songs were recording years ago by Madeleine Grey, but Bartoli's recordings are luscious, her kaddish haunting. I would just be interested in knowing, as I am not a native speaker, any remarks about her pronounciation.

Russell Harris

To all who helped with fisnoge, many thanks. I have managed to write an entry for the Oxford Companion to Food, and also a small article on the matter for Petits Propos Culinaires, a scholarly food journal.

The new subject which addles my brain is that of food in song. Having listened many times to 'Rumania' (and recently to Di Goyyim's wonderful version), I wonder if one can find any logic in the food items mentioned in songs (almonds and raisons, mamelige, patlezhane etc) either individually or as prepared dishes.

Thus requested are responses with name of food item and the title of the song. Please translate any obscure Yiddish words into the englishe loshen.

Russell Harris

To my pleasant surprise, I saw a name mentioned in several posts on the Mendele List that I haven't seen or heard mentioned in above twenty years--Shlomo Katz. Shlomo used to occasionally write to my late husband, who sent him one of my short stories. Even though I was only in my twenties at the time, Shlomo considered that my literary style was reminiscent of the old Yiddish writers. Indeed, many of my stories took place in pre-WW I Poland--mainly because I could not bear for this wonderful culture, so abruptly ended with WWII, to truly die out. I'm not quite sure why, but Shlomo Katz, a fine writer, himself, in addition to being a translator from Yiddish and Hebrew, became the most faithful of correspondents with me for several years until his death in the late 70's and his witty, sagacious letters saw me through a dark period in my life. Although there was an age gap of about 40 years between us and we only met briefly twice, I consider Shlomo one of the kindest and closest friends I ever had. Such is the power of the written word, even from a distance (Shlomo in New York, me in Minnesota)to forge a bond between individuals who are different in many evident ways.

Marianne Luban

Moment, October 1997, v22 n5 p34 Change in Yiddish?

Greater New York Savings Bank ATM machines use Yiddish for the transactions in the 14 Borough Park locations. Who said that the phrasebook with "Git mir an oystsug fun mayn konte" and "Vifl batreft mayn balans?" is useless?

Harvard Magazine, July-August 1997, v99 n6 Mame-loshn at Harvard, by Janet Tassel

Probably for the first time in its history Harvard Magazine features an article title in Yiddish. A full-length profile of Harvard's first chair of Yiddish literature Ruth Wisse provides interesting insights into her scholarship and political views. The article with accompaning insets "What is Yiddish?" and "A Revival of Yiddish?" is available online at http://www.harvard-magazine.com/ja97/yiddish.html

Forward, October 3, 1997 v101 Der Yiddish Vinkl

Der Yiddish Vinkl in the last Forward claims adherence to the standard transliteration. Alevay other Forward's departments join Der Vinkl and avoid things like "tie'erer ainekel" on the first page of the same issue.

Iosif Vaisman

Alexander Maxwell writes:

Manaster Ramer's observation that Weinreich was "at least part of the time" a linguist is absolutely correct, but he wasn't being a linguist when he claimed that mideaval Yiddish was a language not a dialect, he was propagating his conception of Yiddish nationalism based on a language.

My response: I dont think that is true. Perhaps he was being a nationalist AND a linguist. Solomon A. Birnbaum, who I dont think you could consider a nationalist, took the same view re Yiddish. And I am quite sure that I have read any number of linguists who accept the idea of language and dialect as social and not linguistic facts. But I cant recall the references. This is relevant to the following as well.

Alexander Maxwell further writes:

Anyway, Linguists as such aren't interested in this status debate over languages and dialects. If you tell a linguist that Yiddish has a strong 'verb-goes-in-the-second-place" word order rule, just like German, the similarity is interesting to him. If you tell him that Yiddish reflexives don't decline by subject, but German ones do, that's interesting too. But if you use such factoids to argue that Yiddish obviously therefore is a dialect of German/is it's own language distinct from German, the pure lingust shrugs his shoulders, whatever you say, buddy.

My response: Linguists like Ellen Prince and I--probably yes. But there are loads of linguists who make their livelihood not by studying the sturtcure and history of languages (or of Language) as we do, but rather percisely by studying social attitudes to languages. I dont think they would shrug at all. There are just a lot of different kinds of linguists, you know.

Alexis Manaster Ramer

In reply to Manaster Ramer's and Slomanson's nit-picking with the criterion of mutual intelligibility for distinguishing dialects from languages, I think they missed my point. It was not that this provides a neat algorithm for deciding -- and I thought I would avoid the tedious discussions by acknowledging that from the beginning. My point was simply that Glasser's claim that linguists consider the dialect/language issue to be purely political was mistaken. If linguists consider the distinction to be theoretically relevant at all, it is on the basis of a linguistic criterion, not a political one.

As for counting Birnbaum and M. Weinreich among this set of linguists, please note that I have been using the present tense. I have been talking about linguists in 1997, individuals working today in a field called 'linguistics' and who consider themselves linguists and who are considered linguists by other linguists. Sorry for not having made this little usage quirk of mine explicit...

Ellen Prince

Sema Chaimovitz Menora asked about the etimology of "davanen". Here is my entry in this respect given in the last H-Judaic Digest:

Larry Laufman asks for the etymology of the yiddish verb "DAVENEN". 1) Salcia Landmann proposes the hebrew word "Da`avon" (=sorrow) 2) Ignaz Bernstein proposes the english word "dawn" since the main prayer is at this time of the day; 3) Immanuel Olsvanger proposes the middle-low-german verb "daven" or "doven" (=to make a noise, twittering, warbling) 4) the best etymology seems to me the one also given by Olsvanger: from the hebrew word "daf" (= leaf, page) and the double ending suits the hebrew verb "le-dafdef" - to leaf, to turn the pages, here in the meaning of turning the pages of the prayer-book.

SHANA TOVA HaTaShNacH (5758), ShNaT cHaTaN ve-NeTacH NacHaT!

Ruben Frankenstein Freiburg