A Yiddish Poem – By Gene Wilder
If you can understand this, you: (a) Are probably as old as I am (b) Have a good worldly education (c) Are Jewish (d) Grew up with a Bubbe living with you, or close by... (e) All of the above 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 interrupt, But you are speaking narishkeit..... And ...A gezunt auf dein kop!"