Re: [Cz-L] In German, about German and Yiddish in Czernowitz

German, our much beloved German were has it gone ?
 Down the drain !
  In 1918 the Austrians withdrew their troops and officials and went back to
  Vienna leaving their faithful subjects behind the Carpathian mountains
  prey to the Eastern hordes.
        Here the region underwent a degermanization process in stages :
      1. Romanization - enforcement.
      2. Germans repatriation. The 1940 call by the Vaterland.
      2. Deportation of the Jews .
      3. Sovietization.
      4. Exodus - abolition of Yiddish schools.
      5. Multiple population exchange leaving no german speakers.
      6. Ukrainean Independence - german can only be heard at the
University.
          Celan is a street and J. Schmidt is a memorial plate.
    Today you don't hear German on the streets of Czernowitz.
     Yiddish neither.
        Here is the story :
   " Czernowitz in Bukowina der Sage wohlbekannt,
      Die Hoehe, wo vorzeiten die Stadt der Juden stand,
       Die Stadt ist noch vorhanden , doch ist von Juden leer.
        Und fragst du nach den Juden, du findest sie nicht mehr."

        This is a free adaptation from the german poem "Das
         Riesenspielzeug" and says roughly this:

                 Czernowitz in Bukowina ,as well known by the tale,
          The height were time ago , the town of the jews stood,
           The town is still existing but of the jews is void,
            If you're asking for the jews , you find them no more.

   ( The original german poem is written by Chamisso who was a French
nobleman.
      The translation is by Hardy who is neither french nor nobleman).

Hardy

Hardy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Taylor" <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
To: <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 5:45 PM
Subject: [Cz-L] In German, about German and Yiddish in Czernowitz

I am writing this in German, because that is how it came to my mind.
Had I a Yiddish keyboard, I would also write it in Yiddish.
After the German version, there is an English translation.

Liebe Mitglieder der Czernowitz Liste,

Das Besondere in Czernowitz war nicht dass wir gut oder schlecht Deutsch
sprachen, dass wir ja oder nicht Jiddisch sprachen,
sondern dass wir beide Sprachen zusamen und gemischt mit Ukrainisch oder
Ruthenisch so benutzten, dass wir uns am besten und meist bunten ausdrücken
konnten.
Sogar jetzt, viele Jahre nach dem wir Czernowitz verlassen haben, sind zwei
oder mehr Czernowitzer zusammen, sprechen wir in unserem Czernowitzer
³luschen² und füllen uns gemütlich.

Wir hatten beide Sprachen lieb, wir verehrten Schiller und Sholem Aleichem,
und eigentlich warum nicht? Kann man nicht beide, Kornbrot und Kuchen gerne
essen? Meistens verehrten wir Heine, weil er beide Deutsche und Jüdische
Kultur vertrat.
Das Besondere an Czernowitz, war nicht dass wir alle sehr gebildet waren,
sondern dass wir alle hohe Achtung für die Bildung hatten.
Der Vater konnte ein ungeschulter Tagelöhner sein und der Sohn ­ ein Arzt
oder Mathematiker.

Alles Gute zum neuen Jahr,

Mimi

English translation:

------------------------------------
The unique about Czernowitz, was not that we spoke German well or badly,
that we did or did not speak Yiddish, but that we used both languages
together, mixed with Ukrainian or Ruthenian, so as to express ourselves in
the best and most colorful way.

Even now, many years after leaving Czernowitz, if two or more Czernowitzers
meet, we speak in our special language and feel comfortable.

We loved both languages, we admired Schiller and Sholem Aleichem, and why
not? Can one not love to eat Rye bread as well as cake?
The unique about Czernowitz, was not that we were all of us cultured, but
that we all held culture in high esteem. The father could be a day-labourer
and the son a physician or a mathematician.

All the best for the new year.
-------------------------------------

Oscar Wilde said:
"We all live in the gutter, but some of us look at the stars."
Czernowitzers certainly did, but not without a measure of sarcasm.

Mimi
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Received on 2010-09-10 12:02:42