Glass shattering in flames, our hothouse bed

[sovay]

If left to myself, I don't happen to observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but it still registers that the first news I saw when I got onto the internet after a separately difficult night was the banning of Art Spiegelman's Maus (1991) by a Tennessee school board on grounds of nudity and inappropriate language. Any impediment to the teaching of the reality of the Holocaust is, I am sure, one hundred percent inadvertent, regrettable, and just to be lived with. Nothing personal. Some people's children must be protected from knowledge that others are never permitted to live without, but then, some people's children are really people.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

I followed the link--I've met Tsibele's music before and enjoyed hearing it--and this time, while one song played, something clicked, and then I tried the romanized dictionary but failed.

Would it be okay to ask a lexical question about one Yiddish word? No worries if not, for any reason.

[sovay]

Would it be okay to ask a lexical question about one Yiddish word? No worries if not, for any reason.

If I can answer it, sure.

[sovay]

At about 1:45 in "Di svet shop," the singer repeats a word several times at the start of a phrase; it sounds to me like "vekem" or "veken." Do you happen to know what the word means?

From about 1:37–1:53, I am hearing a repetition of Ikh arbet un arbet un arbet on kheshbn / Es shaft zikh un shaft zikh un shaft zikh on tsol: "I work and I work and I work without reckoning / It creates and creates and creates without number." Which doesn't sound like what you're hearing, so if I am in the wrong place in the song, give me a minute and I'll do the bits on either side.

[thistleingrey]

Thank you--I think I mondegreened something in. selkie's suggestion of "vemen" makes sense for the lines.

I think I'm not wrong about the larger surmise, but I also know I am really apt to generate mondegreens even in English, alas. Sorry for the trouble!

[sovay]

I think I'm not wrong about the larger surmise, but I also know I am really apt to generate mondegreens even in English, alas. Sorry for the trouble!

No worries! ("Vemen" is also the closest for me based on sound, but based on repetition I was just about to ask if you were hearing something in Es shvindn sekundn, minutn un shtundn c. 2:05.) If I can ever confirm the surmise for real, just ask.

[selkie]

Man, I can’t believe I had enough crackers in the box for that. It’s a bit reassuring.

(Other people ask you so courteously for bits of your brain! If I tried that instead of hopping up and down making peeve noises, would I be responsible for the concussion when you fell over in shock?)

[thistleingrey]

Thank you again! And no, with your and selkie's romanized transcriptions, I can see where I misheard. Work does indeed cause time to dwindle incrementally :) but that's not where my kid-ear was stuck earlier.

[sovay]

but that's not where my kid-ear was stuck earlier.

So how much Yiddish did you grow up hearing, filtered in among the German?

[thistleingrey]

My part of Los Angeles ages 4-8ish had a few angles on Yiddish, ambiently--adults coming to pick up kids from school, people chatting near the deli, etc. In third grade only five of us in the room were not Jewish, counting the teacher, who'd emigrated from England. Snapshot of lost time or something. Since I was 30 or so, when I hear people chatting in similar wise, it's invariably Hebrew or Russian, not Yiddish. On the plus side, they now(ish) feel comfortable speaking Hebrew in public, which was not true of my early(ish) childhood. But I think Yiddish is mostly gone from there now.

[sovay]

But I think Yiddish is mostly gone from there now.

Unless there are Yiddishists or Hasidim, probably. That's a neat snapshot, though.

[thistleingrey]

Unless there are Yiddishists or Hasidim

Yes, true.

[selkie]

Could be וועמען, “whom,”

Es shaft zikh un shaft zikh, un shaft zikh on tsol:
Far vos un far vemen? Ikh veys nit, ikh freg nit,
(For what and for whom? I dunno, I don’t ask.)

[thistleingrey]

Thank you for this! I think I misheard "vemen," yes. Sorry for the trouble.

[selkie]

No trouble, always here for an anti-capitalist bop

[sovay]

No trouble, always here for an anti-capitalist bop

Somebody should vid that thing to the relevant scenes of Metropolis (1927). Mayn ikh vert dort botl, ikh ver a mashin.

[selkie]

Now you’re just trying to make me squee about the natural and ideal juxtaposition of Fritz Lang, the socialist garment worker, and aforementioned bop!

[selkie]

S can likely get it -- they are better at the lexical questions by affinity and training -- but in case of divergent regional meaning or spelling, I am also around to help (we grew up with different dialects).

[thistleingrey]

Thank you kindly! My question is upthread.