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Someday everyone will know exactly what you did
1. I called the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst and ordered a fifteen-year-old back issue of Der Pakn Treger, because it contains, as far as I can tell, the only complete English translation of Sholem Asch's Got fun nekome (God of Vengeance, 1907) since Isaac Goldberg's in 1918, which I do not recommend. I cannot figure out how I never heard of this play until last night. Seriously, first lesbians of the Yiddish theater? Will report back when I have read it. Also maybe see if ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
strange_selkie wants to direct a production.
2. Bydgoszcz is a real place. I had always vaguely assumed Harlan Ellison made it up for "The Last Will and Testicle of Trees Rabelais"—nothing about the rest of the story, including the title, would encourage one to believe otherwise. Nope. It's quite a large city. It's where one finds the Bydgoszcz Canal and Casimir the Great University. It came up in the course of my job, which has heretofore mostly been teaching me about fast food in Finland and small Indonesian streets.
3. I am pleased beyond words that someone appears to be coming out with a full translation of the Brontoscopic Calendar of Nigidius Figulus. It's a seventh-century Etruscan omen text translated into Latin in the first century BCE and surviving in a sixth-century Greek edition; it's incredibly awesome. Also, it's just that much fun to say.
4. I had coffee this afternoon (all right, they had coffee, I had herbal chai) with a pair of philosophers at Café Gato Rojo in Harvard Square. The conversation turned to Robert Musil and then someone quoted Wittgenstein.
5. I wish I hadn't missed A Taste of Honey (1961) on TCM. I read the play last week.
strange_selkie wants to direct a production.2. Bydgoszcz is a real place. I had always vaguely assumed Harlan Ellison made it up for "The Last Will and Testicle of Trees Rabelais"—nothing about the rest of the story, including the title, would encourage one to believe otherwise. Nope. It's quite a large city. It's where one finds the Bydgoszcz Canal and Casimir the Great University. It came up in the course of my job, which has heretofore mostly been teaching me about fast food in Finland and small Indonesian streets.
3. I am pleased beyond words that someone appears to be coming out with a full translation of the Brontoscopic Calendar of Nigidius Figulus. It's a seventh-century Etruscan omen text translated into Latin in the first century BCE and surviving in a sixth-century Greek edition; it's incredibly awesome. Also, it's just that much fun to say.
4. I had coffee this afternoon (all right, they had coffee, I had herbal chai) with a pair of philosophers at Café Gato Rojo in Harvard Square. The conversation turned to Robert Musil and then someone quoted Wittgenstein.
5. I wish I hadn't missed A Taste of Honey (1961) on TCM. I read the play last week.
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Lots of sheet music, which caught me by surprise--the Yiddish-language musical theater isn't something you hear a lot about these days, but there was a whole wall which consisted mainly of huge heaps of sheet music from the nineteen-and-single-digits. They were all much like the Yiddish answer to "While Strolling Through The Park One Day" and "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-de-ay". I'm going to buy some of it sometime and learn to sing it.
I'm curious, what does your job entail?
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It depends on where you listen!
I'm curious, what does your job entail?
I'm a manual rater for Nokia: I find out whether their search engine has its head screwed on straight. It's incredibly boring, but it pays.
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Yes--assume I'm an academic paper, and for "you hear a lot" read "I hear a lot". (As well as for "It is widely remarked that...", read "somebody told me once".)
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Your job sounds very intriguing!
**WHOA! Brontoscopy: divination by THUNDER!
That.
Is awesome, and I want to try doing it.
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Observation of thunder and lightning is one of the major forms of divination in ancient Rome, the others being auspicy (birdflight) and haruspicy (entrails, especially the liver). Birdflight was not so much a concern for the Etruscans, but they went for storm-omens and livers in a serious way. I should own more books on this subject than I currently do.
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God, it's a pipe dream; I'll be lucky if we get a reading together! But I'm very glad you approve!
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We'll be getting a reading together. It has boobies.
Nicole is in, by the way. I mean, I haven't asked her, but she can act, and she has a rather impressive rack, which can only help morale.
(Hi, Rose! I'm shallow. Also scholarly. But mostly shallow.)
And if I don't happen to like the Neugroschel translation, which I just bought as well (sudden spike of interest in historial lesbians for the win!). I'll just light out and do my own and take
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All right: score.
And if I don't happen to like the Neugroschel translation, which I just bought as well (sudden spike of interest in historial lesbians for the win!). I'll just light out and do my own and take sovay with me.
There does seem to exist a recent well-reviewed version by Caraid O'Brien, but doing our own probably would be more fun.
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I think that's entirely reasonable.
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around here, it means rain, possibly a bit of lightening.. I think the divination aspect is nifty.
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The calendar is full of things like, "If it should thunder at all, there will be plentiful fishing, but also locusts." I'm making that one up, but only barely.
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(OK, that was an INCREDIBLY random question)
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Seriously cool article! Thanks for linking.
Also, it's just that much fun to say.
'Brontoscopic Kalendar' or 'seventh-century Etruscan omen text translated into Latin in the first century BCE and surviving in a sixth-century Greek edition'?
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Welcome! Its author is the same person who is supposed to publish the full translation with Cambridge University Press.
'Brontoscopic Kalendar' or 'seventh-century Etruscan omen text translated into Latin in the first century BCE and surviving in a sixth-century Greek edition'?
"Brontoscopic Calendar of Nigidius Figulus," but I'll admit the latter has its points.
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Gesundheit!
I only knew about it because a lot of Holocaust happened there. There was a women's subcamp of Stutthof and all the happy crap that goes along with being annexed to a thing called the Warthegau.
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Gesundheit!
See? And then Harlan Ellison used it as the lead-in to a shaggy dog-type story in Slippage (1997). You see why I doubted its reality.
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Now I feel I should introduce you to
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Yes; I'm not fluent enough that I'd like to go at a three-act play without some kind of reference, but I sort of crash-taught myself based on German in college and listened in on a night class when I was in graduate school and it seems to have taken. I couldn't hold a real conversation without practice, though.
Now I feel I should introduce you to mannoftalent who works at the Folksbeinne Theater here in New York, and also (at some point) to callylevy who does Yiddish performance in England. To say nothing of my aunt G. who pretty much is the continuity of Yiddish theater in Toronto.
You should!
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I have a vague memory that it was NOT a full translation of God of Vengeance, but instead a more correct translation of parts of it--I may be wrong, but I have a memory of summaries of parts of the play and full dialogue of other parts.
Like most drama, the play has a complicated textual history, let alone the usual problems with translation. I think that there was a silent film version as well.
But yes, Lesbian relationship between the daughter of the brothel-keeper and one of the prostitutes, enacted onstage, not just reported from offstage.
That play came up for discussion in my synagogue a few years ago, since the play's major plot engine is the whoremonger's attempt to buy salvation by paying for a Torah scroll: Our congregation had received a Torah scroll from a member who made his money cheating Merrill Lynch. Though he was tried and jailed for the crime, it seems like a much smaller sin in light of Bernie Madoff. But yes, there was a comparison between our incident and the play.
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The woman I spoke to at the Yiddish Book Center thought it was a complete translation, but we'll see.
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My copy arrived in the mail this afternoon; it's three acts and translator's commentary. I'll read it on the train to Providence.
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Safe journey. *hugs*
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Nine
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She hasn't much to do with divination. The way the College of Augurs runs, though, it happens to Jupiter all the time.
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I hope you receive your back issue soon and enjoy it muchly. Sounds a fascinating bit of writing.
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I'm glad the job has given you such an interesting discovery.
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That _is_ incredibly awesome. I'm glad to know of it.
5.
I hope they replay the movie soon and that you get a chance to see it.
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I'm looking forward to it.
Yoh, Manke, Yoh
I didn't realize your interest in Yiddish
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I don't know—was she at Brandeis? Would I know her online? I don't have anyone of that name in my immediate circle of friends right now, which is not very meaningful.
I didn't realize your interest in Yiddish
Yes; for years. It accelerated in college and grad school.