RE: lyrics question: iz + geven

[Dick Rosenberg <drosenberg...>]

>From my college German (which is where I get most of my Yiddish), "iz
geveyn" would be analagous to the German "ist gewesen", which is a form
of the past tense of "to be". So (in the third person), "iz" translates
to "is" and "iz geveyn" translates to "was".

If I am mistaken, would somebody more knowledgable in pure Yiddish
please correct me.

Dick Rosenberg
>----------
>From:  Kevin Cohen[SMTP:kevin (at) cmhcsys(dot)com]
>Sent:  Monday, March 30, 1998 10:42 AM
>To:    World music from a Jewish slant.
>Subject:       lyrics question: iz + geven
>
>can anyone help me understand what it means to use a form of "zayn" followed
>by "geven"?  e.g., in the klezmatics song "honikzaft",
>
>zayn fon iber mir iz libshaft geven 'his banner over me was love'
>
>a sheynem dank,  kevin
>
>