The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth CenturyWiener, Leo
History
The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century
Wiener, Leo
Yiddish literature -- History and criticism
In the very centre of the Eastern wall, in the same spot where the pious
Gütele had been praying thirty years before, one may even now discern a
woman, nigh unto fifty years, sitting quietly and sadly, like one struck
dead, with closely pressed lips. Her eyes look into the open
Prayer-book, but they do not see the words.
Farwās wēint sie nit?
Is' ihr asō gut zu Muth, as selbst Jonkiper känn sie ihr Harz nit
zuthun, zu dermāhnen, as kēin Gut's is' nit ēbig un' der lebediger
Mensch wēiss nit, wās morgen känn sein?
Oder is' sie nit a jüdische Frau, a Frau vun a Mann un' Kinder, un'
welche jüdische Frau hāt nit ergez ēine oder mehrere Ursachen,
wegen wās Jonkiper zu betten un' a hēissen Trähr lāsen fallen?
* * * * *
Is' sie efscher asō hart un' asō schlecht, asō stolz un' vornehm
bei sich, as ihr passt nit zu wēinen, Leut' sollen ihre Trähren nit
sehn un' nit klähren, sie is gleich zu Allemen?
Nēin! Chanele, "die Gute, die Kluge" is' ihr Namen,--ihre jetzt
truckene Äugen sāgen noch Eedes, as see hāben in sejer Zeit viel,
viel gewēeint; sie is' nit stolz un' schämt sich nit zu wēinen,
bifrat Jonkiper, wās wēint sich memeele!
Farwās-e wēint sie nit?
Es kucken auf ihr viel Äugen un' wundern sich: Wās is' heunt mit
ihr der Mähr mehr als alle Jāhr? Nor sie kuckt trucken, wie
varstēinert, in ihr Ssider; nit sie wēint, nit sie dawent. A Pāar
Māl hāt sie dās Vorhangel varbōgen, a Kuck gethun in männerscher
Schul, sich bald zurück aweggesetzt un' jeder Māl alls traueriger
un' beklemmter wie früher.
* * * * *
As der Chasen hāt āngehōben dawnen Mussaf, hāt sie noch a Māl a
Kuck gethun durch dās Fensterl, die Äugen senen unruhig umgeloffen
über der ganzer Schul,--sie hāt sich zurück aweggesetzt.
"Er is' noch alls nitdā!" hāt ihr Harz geredt innerlich, "Zu Mussaf
afile hāt er nit gekönnt kummen?
Why does she not weep?
Is she so happy that even on the day of Atonement she cannot prevail
over her heart to consider that no good is eternal, and mortal man does
not know what to-morrow may be?
Or is she not a Jewish woman, a woman having husband and children? and
where is there a Jewish woman that has not some one or more reasons for
weeping on the Atonement day, and shedding hot tears?
Is she, perhaps, so hard of heart and so bad, so haughty and conceited,
that she does not think it proper to weep, lest people should see her
tears and deem her equal with the others?
No! Chanele,--they call her the good, the wise Chanele,--her very dry
eyes are witness that she has wept much, very much in her time; she is
not proud and is not ashamed to weep, especially on the Atonement day,
when tears come of their own accord!
Why, then, does she not weep?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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