מענדעלע

I've been attempting to find the words to *Di Grine Akvaryum* by Setzkever. I would be most indebted to anyone who could post it (hopefully both in Yiddish and in English) on Mendele.

Ray Berger

In reaction to Gitl Dubrovsky's note on davenen [7.073] I should like to say that daven does not stem from Hebrew, but from german 'daune' which comes from the Middle High German word 'don' (or Low German 'dune'). This means: song, melody. The word is related to the Dutch word 'deun' which has the same meaning. In Dutch this word is still in use. From 'don' also stem the German word 'Ton', English 'tone' and Dutch 'toon'.

Ariane Zwiers Amsterdam

The great Yiddish linguist and philologist (sic!) Solomon Birnbaum not too long ago wrote a wonderful analysis of the etymology of davenen,in Origins of the Yiddish Language, edited by Dovid Katz (Oxford and NY: Pergamon Press, 1987), pp. 11-14. He analyzes nine different etymological sources which have been proposed over the years: Hebrew daf, Lithuanian davana, English dawn, Latin devovere or divinus, Arabic diwan, Hebrew-Aramaic d-ovinu (all of which he calls "bizarre, absurd and phonologically impossible", plus Arabic da`wa and Middle High German doenen, plus a few others tossed in along the way. In the end he finds every one of these hypotheses to be false and impossible, and concludes that "The problem of davenen is still waiting to be solved."

I seem to remember a similar discussion somewhere of parev, but can't remember where or by whom.

Anyone who's got an idea for the etymology of davenen (or other Yiddish words of mysterious origin) ought to check out Birnbaum's concise discussion, which I think should be comprehensible to non-specialists, to see what kinds of factors need to be considered when one wants to evaluate any hypothetical etymology.

Bob Hoberman

Here is a children's song with a single food in a pivital role. Mayn mame hut es mir gesungen ven ikh bin geven a kind. I can sing the simple tune, but alas, not transcribe it. I don't know its title or provenance, but _nisl_, _niselakh_ or _dray niselakh_ would be my guess for the title. (Why, oh learned ones, does my ear dictate the insertion of an e in the plural form?) I may have the words a bit muddled, but the gist is here. (It is that truncated third stanza that looks suspect.) As food songs go, it doesn't hold a candle to Roumania, but it is a nice childrens' song.

mayn mame hut dray niselakh, dray niselakh gehat. dray gute, shayne niselakh, dray niselakh a prakht.

iz ayns geven far berele, dos tsvayte far khayem shmerele. dos drite beste nisele, hut zi gelozt far zikh.

ir vundert zikh bisl, farvos nisht mir a nisl?

ikh hub aykh opgenart, ikh hub gevust ir vart, vayl nisl, nisl, nisele, dos nisele bin ikh!

marvin engel

Re David Edelstadt's songs are still sung by Anarchists [7.073]. Well, not sung, but listened to, certainly. My copy of 'Vakht Oyf' and 'In Kamf' comes from a tape called "Songs of Anarchism and Revolution" (which also had a Russian [tsarist era] song, titled 'hey! hey! down with the police') that was produced in the mid-1980s by Spectacular Times (London). I have no idea about where the sound recordings originally came from (maybe the CIRA archives in France or switzerland). I think a new compilation of Anarchist songs (including the ones by Edelshtadt) is in the pipeline. The main source i have for information on Edelsatadt is an article on the Freie Arbeter Shtime (of which Edelshtadt was the first editor) in the Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review. it gives translations of the two songs listed above.

In Kamf (In Struggle) We are driven and despised, we are tortured and persecuted, for we cherish the poor and the weak. We are shot and hanged, robbed of our lives and our rights, for we demand truth and freedom for downtrodden slaves. Cast us into your iron chains, tear us apart like bloody beasts - you can only kill our bodies, you will never destroy our spirit. Murder us, tyrants, but new fighters will come and we will fight on and on, until the world is free.

Vakht Oyf! (Awake!) How long will you remain slaves and wear degrading chains? How long will you produce riches for those who rob you of your bread? How long will you stand with backs bent - humiliated, homeless, and weak? It's daybreak, awake, open your eyes, and see your own strength. Ring the freedom bells everywhere, gather together the suffering slaves, and fight for your sacred rights! [source: Eleanor Gordon-Mlotek Mir Trogn a Gezang (NYC workmens circle 1977, 2nd ed. p80)]

Another possible source is M. Goncharok's 'tsu der geshikhte fun der anarkhistisher prese ayf Yidish' (1997). In the course of preparing my Yiddish Anarchist bibliography i've come across a memorial book and what looks like a standard agitational pamphlet, but no collections of songs. One of our Mendele subsribers has come across David Edelshtadt befriending his great-grandfather in Cincinatti in 1883. There's doubtless more information - about his life and songs - waiting to be tracked down. Any further information would be appreciated.

john Patten

Both Alexander Maxwell [7.071] and Stan Nadel [7.073] failed the test on an important linguistico-philological topic: correct dating of the seminal work by the great linguist and big friend of Yiddish, Comrade Stalin "Marxism and the National Question" (originaly entitled "Social Democracy and the National Question"). The essay was written and published in 1913, long before Stalin, first as the commissar of nationalities and later as the commissar of everything else, started practical implementation of his and his friends' linguistical and other theories.

Stalin's definition of nation from this work seems to be well known. Another excerpt from his article might be of greater interest for this list. It is also appropriate to quote it now, because Stalin's demagogic attack on Bund serves as an excellent tribute to the organization, whose 100th anniversary is celebrated this year.

Social-Democracy strives to secure for all nations the right to use their own language. But that does not satisfy the Bund; it demands that "the rights of the Jewish language" be championed with "exceptional persistence", and the Bund itself in the elections to the Fourth Duma declared that it would give "preference to those of them (i.e. electors) who undertake to defend the rights of the Jewish language."

Not the general right of all nations to use their own language, but the particular right of the Jewish language, Yiddish! Let the workers of the various nationalities fight primarily for their own language; the Jews for Jewish, the Georgians for Georgian, and so forth. The struggle for the general right of all nations is a secondary matter. You do not have to recognize the right of all oppressed nationalities to use their own language; but if you have recognized the right of Yiddish, know that the Bund will vote for you, the Bund will "prefer" you.

But in what way then does the Bund differ from the bourgeois nationalists?

The question remains unanswered. Perhaps forever. The Bund was never given a chance to fully realize its ideas. However, the role Bund played in the Jewish history of this century in general and in the Yiddish in particular is difficult to overstate.

Iosif Vaisman Chapel Hill, NC