This and That
Issue: 10.02 this is column 301
February 12, 2009
Farshtaist?

Do you understand Yiddish was the secret code, therefore I don't farshtaist.
A biseleh maybe here and there, the rest has gone to waste.
Sadly when I hear it now, I only get the gist.
My bobeh spoke it beautifully; but me, I am tsemisht.
So och un vai as I should say, or even oy vai iz mir.
Though my pisk is lacking Yiddish, it's familiar to my ear.
And I'm no Chaim Yonkel, in fact I was shtick naches.
But when it comes Yiddish though, I'm talking out of my toches.
Es iz a shandeh far di kinder that I don't know it better. 
(Though it's really nishkefelecht when one needs to write a letter).
But when it comes to characters there's really no contention.
No other linguist can compete with honorable menshen.
They have nebbishes and nebechels and others without mazel.
Then too shmendriks and shlemiels and let's not forget shlimazels. 

These words are so precise and descriptive to the listener. 
So much better than a pill is to call someone farbissener. 
Or that a brazen woman would be better called chaleria. 
And you'll agree farklempt says more than does hysteria. 
I'm not haken dir a tsheinik and I hope I'm not a kvetch. 
But isn't mieskeit kinder than to call someone a wretch? 
Mitten derinnen, I hear bobbeh say. 
It's nechtiker tog, don't fear. 
To me you're still a maiven. 
Zol zein shah, don't fill my ear. 
Ah lieben ahf dein kepel. 
I don't mean to interrupt. 
But you are speaking narishkeit.
And a gezunt auf dein kop!

Annonymous

See the next item
See the site map
   
Advertisement