Yiddish

[PrinceMyshkin]

Shvach iz di shprach
uhn knappe ge-endikt.
Tsurissen fun moil iz di tsung.
Verbs fun zachverter,
vi kinder fun ihrer elteren,
zenen opgezundert.
Es bleibt nit kein gantsen zatz.
Nor an otem basetzt zich
--di klentste preposityeh:
"fuhn," oder "mit," oder "tsu".

Yiddish


The language is weak,
and almost done in.
The tongue has been ripped from the mouth.
Verbs from nouns,
like children from their parents,
have been cleaved.
Not one whole sentence remains.
Only a breath carries on
--the smallest preposition:
"from," or "with," or "to."


J. Newman, The Deronda Review Vol. 1, no. 1, Fall-Winter 2007

[Sweets America]

Thank you for the explanation, it makes sense. It has an historical weight but I first saw the first level of it, the references to the language. But both are linked. I see what you mean with your closing line, but to me it meant the fact that those people were struggling to maintain their unity (the linking words).
Hey, in the Yiddish version of this poem, I recognized the words 'uhn' and 'kinder'. Wow, after four months of intense learning, that is an outstanding performance! :lol: :lol:

(thank you for creditting me, ehehe. I had to threaten you so much though before you would do so!)

[PrinceMyshkin]

(thank you for creditting me, ehehe. I had to threaten you so much though before you would do so!)

Hehehe, the only threats from you that might possibly have and effect from me would be the threat of withholding dessert!

[Virgil]

You write in Yiddish Prince? Interesting.

[symphony]

What i like about this one is: it sounds perfectly alright in english! I've always found it very disturbing that poems lose their zeal when set in another language. 'Course there're good translations but there's always a "but..." left. I find it very itchy. I dont know if this one has lost it too, since i dont know yiddish, but the english form looks quite good to me.

Why cant i translate my bengali poems like that? They sound so fragile when converted to english. :(

oh and i forgot to say how much i admired ur choice of the smallest prepositions...

and forgot my over-used 'wow'.


Wow!
:)

[PrinceMyshkin]

You write in Yiddish Prince? Interesting.

WHAT! You thought my other poems were in English? No wonder you had dificulties with some of them!

As for whether I write in Yiddish, it depends on what your understanding of writes is. I wrote that one in Yiddish after what I thought of as my "Gentile" son took a Yiddish course his first year of univesity then proposed that he & I correspond in Yiddish, an embarassment since I had never studied it formally but only spoke it well enough as a kid to converse with my beloved immigrant grandmother. So, after Adam proposed that to me, I enrolled in a Yiddish class. Early on, the instructor assigned us to write a poem in Yiddish. The title is a form of synechdoche, in that the language, Yiddish, is meant to represent those eastern Europeans who spoke it as their lingua franca. Hitler & co. therefore came close to eradicating the language as well as the speakers of it. Today, as far as I know, the only groups that speak it as their daily language are the Hassidim.

Perhaps there ought to be a word - linguacide - for what Hitler very nearly accomplished. Indeed, is not the soul of a people embedded in their language?

[mazHur]

Catch a Tiger
With bare hands
or a paper dagger
Burma Shave
Banglar Jadu !

If"s and But's
change the meaning
try your guts
Banglar Jadu
Burma Shave !

How is it??

[PrinceMyshkin]

Why cant i translate my bengali poems like that? They sound so fragile when converted to english. :(

Could it be that the Bengali poetic traditon favours a more delicate or suggestive diction which, in Eglish, looks like fragility?

[symphony]

Catch a Tiger
With bare hands
or a paper dagger
Burma Shave
Banglar Jadu !

If"s and But's
change the meaning
try your guts
Banglar Jadu
Burma Shave !

How is it??nice, but a little irrelevant in prince's thread, since he's yet to know about my feeble attempt in translating certain things... *cough* i didnt say anything.



Could it be that the Bengali poetic traditon favours a more delicate or suggestive diction which, in Eglish, looks like fragility?
That + i think its the difference of sentiments in east and west.

[mazHur]

True, but I wrote these lines to see if they convey the magic of Bangala as is the case with translation of Yiddish or any other language. I think translation cannot convey the real spirit of the original no matter what you do.
I tried to translate Shakespeare in Urdu but came out with a total failure,,,a mess. Hence I gave it up.

[Virgil]

WHAT! You thought my other poems were in English? No wonder you had dificulties with some of them!

As for whether I write in Yiddish, it depends on what your understanding of writes is. I wrote that one in Yiddish after what I thought of as my "Gentile" son took a Yiddish course his first year of univesity then proposed that he & I correspond in Yiddish, an embarassment since I had never studied it formally but only spoke it well enough as a kid to converse with my beloved immigrant grandmother. So, after Adam proposed that to me, I enrolled in a Yiddish class. Early on, the instructor assigned us to write a poem in Yiddish. The title is a form of synechdoche, in that the language, Yiddish, is meant to represent those eastern Europeans who spoke it as their lingua franca. Hitler & co. therefore came close to eradicating the language as well as the speakers of it. Today, as far as I know, the only groups that speak it as their daily language are the Hassidim.

Perhaps there ought to be a word - linguacide - for what Hitler very nearly accomplished. Indeed, is not the soul of a people embedded in their language?

Yes, I would agree that the soul of a people are in their language. I pick up a few Yiddishisms living in NY and being Jewish on my wife's side. ;)

[PrinceMyshkin]

Yes, I would agree that the soul of a people are in their language. I pick up a few Yiddishisms living in NY and being Jewish on my wife's side. ;)

Well, if and when you learn a few Yiddish songs by heart - say, Die Rebbe Elimelech, or Rozjinkes mit Mandlen for starters - what say you and I get on the phone and sing them together? If need be, I have a file of lyrics. I could send you the index from which you might pick out the songs you would like to sing and if you needed the lyrics I'd forward them to you.

Mandy Potemkin has a CD called Mammeloshen that you might enjoy.

[Virgil]

Well, if and when you learn a few Yiddish songs by heart - say, Die Rebbe Elimelech, or Rozjinkes mit Mandlen for starters - what say you and I get on the phone and sing them together? If need be, I have a file of lyrics. I could send you the index from which you might pick out the songs you would like to sing and if you needed the lyrics I'd forward them to you.

Mandy Potemkin has a CD called Mammeloshen that you might enjoy.

:lol: Well, I only catch a word or two. I can't even pronounce them. :p

[PrinceMyshkin]

:lol: Well, I only catch a word or two. I can't even pronounce them. :p

Dude! (Or if I might say boichik, without meaning any condescension), just pretend you're talking German but with a bad accent, and throw in the occasional Hebrew, English, Polish or Russian word.

(Oy gevalt! There aren't any Yiddishists on this site, are there? Because if there are, I'm gehakte leber. And that is chopped liver!)

[SleepyWitch]

Dude! (Or if I might say boichik, without meaning any condescension), just pretend you're talking German but with a bad accent, and throw in the occasional Hebrew, English, Polish or Russian word.


that could prove difficult seeing as Virge doesn't speak German, either. or do you Virge?
hey, you've posted this poem on on one of my threads before, haven't you? this time round I understood all the Yiddish without reading the translation :)

[PrinceMyshkin]

that could prove difficult seeing as Virge doesn't speak German, either. or do you Virge?
hey, you've posted this poem on on one of my threads before, haven't you? this time round I understood all the Yiddish without reading the translation :)

Oh! I'm happy to hear that and enormously proud to tell you that my VERY BRIGHT 12 year old grand-daughter (a poet in her own right) translated that poem into Swiss-German! I will try to find her translation as well as a poem she wrote in German on assignment at school.

I have missed hearing from you or your secretary in quite some time.