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keylim
- From: Itzik Gottesman <itzik...>
- Subject: keylim
- Date: Tue 22 Feb 2000 00.08 (GMT)
In reply to Mote Berlin's message -
Has anyone mentioned that "keyle/keylim" by itself means the instrument in
Yiddish. The fiddler Moyshe Nussbaum whom I recorded told the other
musicians, "Heybts di keylim" - lift the instruments - "Let's play!"- when
it was time to play. In Irme Druker's novel "klezmer" (kiev 1940,p.7) we
read, "Af ale keylim ken er shpiln, un af yeder keyle mit ale keylim". [He
can play on all the instruments, and on each instrument he plays with
everything he's got], a pun on the word "keyle", which can mean several
things.
(By the way - notice that in the two literary works I referred to in this
and my previous posts, the plural form of "klezmer" is "klezmer." This is
the Ukrainian Yiddish variant of the standard "klezmorim".) - Itzik
-----------------------------------
Dr. Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman
Assistant Professor, Yiddish Language and Culture
Department of Germanic Studies
University of Texas at Austin
EPS 3.102
Austin, TX 78704-1190
NEW PHONE NUMBER (512)232-6360 work
(512)444-3990 home
NEW WEBSITE! http://Yiddishlandrecords.com
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