Ah, loved this. My first boyfriend (age 15-23 ) had parents in Westchester County, NY, from Germany and Cuba respectively. From a little ,stultifying WASP town on the South Shore of Boston to their home, I was embraced as a daughter amongst their 5 sons, and to evade us all , they would quickly switch from Yiddish to Spanish to German and back. I loved all the Yiddish words, that sounded so expressive, like condensed experiences, and to this day, when too tired or too stressed, out comes a lilting New York accent, filled with all the Yiddish I learned. In my practice, often the best known , eg. oy vai iz mir, would come out, making my Israeli clients turn about and look with surprise.
A Yiddish Poem by Gene Wilder
Yiddish was the secret code, therefore I don't farshtaist
A bisseleh maybe here and there, the rest has gone to waste.
Sadly when I hear it now, I only get the gist,
...
My Bubbe spoke it beautifully; but me, I am tsemisht.
So oi vei 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 to Yiddish though, I'm talking out my tuchas.
Es iz a shandeh far di kinder that I don't know it better
(Though it's really nishtgefelecht 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 mentshen:
They have nebbishes and nebechels and others without mazel,
Then, too, schmendriks and schlemiels, and let's not forget schlemazel.
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 Choleria,
And you'll agree farklempt says more than does hysteria.
I'm not haken dir a tshainik and I hope I'm not a kvetch,
But isn't mieskeit kinder, than to call someone a wretch?
Mitten derinnen, I hear Bubbe say, "It's nechtiker tog, don't fear,
To me you're still a maven, zol zein shah, don't fill my ear.
A leben ahf dein keppele, I don't mean to inte rrupt,
But you are speaking narishkeit.....
And ...A gezunt auf dein kop!"
A bisseleh maybe here and there, the rest has gone to waste.
Sadly when I hear it now, I only get the gist,
...
My Bubbe spoke it beautifully; but me, I am tsemisht.
So oi vei 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 to Yiddish though, I'm talking out my tuchas.
Es iz a shandeh far di kinder that I don't know it better
(Though it's really nishtgefelecht 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 mentshen:
They have nebbishes and nebechels and others without mazel,
Then, too, schmendriks and schlemiels, and let's not forget schlemazel.
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 Choleria,
And you'll agree farklempt says more than does hysteria.
I'm not haken dir a tshainik and I hope I'm not a kvetch,
But isn't mieskeit kinder, than to call someone a wretch?
Mitten derinnen, I hear Bubbe say, "It's nechtiker tog, don't fear,
To me you're still a maven, zol zein shah, don't fill my ear.
A leben ahf dein keppele, I don't mean to inte rrupt,
But you are speaking narishkeit.....
And ...A gezunt auf dein kop!"
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