"Forward", an English-language Jewish weekly newspaper published in New York, is the lineal descendant of the old Yiddish-language daily "Forverts". Its weekly "Der Yiddish-Vinkl" column discusses Yiddish literature, often including anecdotes or verse in Yiddish. In the November 15 issue, the column presents a translation of "the Star-Spangled Banner" ("O zog! Kenstu zen...") and "a very condensed version of Rudyard Kipling's 'If'", with the translation by Gus Tyler and transliteration by Goldie A. Gold. Here it is, in its entirety:
"Oyb"
Oyb du kenst tsvishn folk dayn verde trogn
Geyn mit gekroynte, dokh farblaybn kil;
Oyb s'kon nisht faynd tsi fraynd dayn ikh dershlogn,
Oyb du akhst yedn mentsh, nor nisht tsufil;
Oyb du filst on minut dayns, nisht farhite,
Mit zekhtsik reges-loyf in tsukunft-ram,
Iz dayne di erd -- mit ale ire ghiter;
Un vos nokh mer -- vest zaybn, mayn zun, a man!
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with kings nor lose the common touch.
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you
If all men count with you but not too much.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with 60 seconds' worth of distance run
Yours is the Earth and everything in it
And -- what is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!
(The English version is _sic_ from the Forward column. The first two lines of it do not appear in the Yiddish text as printed in "Der Yiddish-Vinkl".)
The Yiddish-Vinkl column uses Roman transliteration rather than the modified Hebrew alphabet commonly used for Yiddish. I imagine that the entire poem has long ago been translated into Yiddish and printed in the traditional orthography; someday I'll have to check with the National Yiddish Book Center to see if this is indeed the case.
Fred Lerner
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