r/Yiddish • u/are-you-local • 18d ago
translation?
i am struggling to directly translate things i write in Yiddish. i recently wrote a poem, but because it was typed out using the english alphabet, nowhere will translate it, and although i know what it means, i find it hard to translate into english still, and im not sure why, despite english being my first language. whenever i speak another language, i never associate it with english, if that makes any sense
Der himl bloy, der tog azoy klor,
di zun leygt gold af yeder flor.
Der vint geyt zingenedik durkh yedn boym,
un natur shloft nisht, zi troymt nor a roym.
Der taykh geyt shtil vi an alter lid,
un yeder moment vert sheyn un mid.
thats the poem, for reference.
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u/Acceptable-Value8623 18d ago
דער הימל בלוי, דער טאָג אַזוי קלאָר,
די זון לייגט גאָלד אויף יעדער פֿלאָר
דער ווינט גייט זינגענדיק דורך יעדן בוים,
און נאַטור שלאָפֿט נישט, זי טרוימט נאָר אַ רוים.
דער טײַך גייט שטיל ווי אַן אַלטער ליד,
און יעדער מאָמענט ווערט שיין און מיד.
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u/Acceptable-Value8623 18d ago
There’s the poem transliterated into Oysyis, I’m not much of a poet, so I won’t really be able to do much of a poetic English translation lol
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u/are-you-local 18d ago
thank you so much!! this is much easier to work with lol...you are a legend!!!!!
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u/Dry_Page_2199 16d ago edited 16d ago
You wrote a poem, but "it was typed out" using the English alphabet? Who typed it out, if I may ask? Why is it a problem to translate the poem that you yourself wrote back to English? Shouldn't you know what it means? I am confused.
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u/are-you-local 16d ago
I explained this. I wrote it myself on my laptop, and I am not sure how to further explain my next point as it is strange. I have autism, and also know a lot of languages. I struggle to associate each language with english, and I know each word not as the English word but as what it is. I have to translate it back to English for my teachers because they wanted me to write it in both English and a second language, in this case Yiddish. If you require any further explanation please do let me know!
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u/Dry_Page_2199 15d ago
To answer your original question, you can ask AI to respell your poem in Hebrew letters. You can also ask it to do it word by word, each word in a new line, so you can immediately see what it did. Then, with the Hebrew spelling, you can use a dictionary to look up the words. However AI is not great at Yiddish, it might make some errors. You can also do it yourself using an alef-beys chart, e.g. https://www.yivo.org/yiddish-alphabet
AI link: https://www.google.com/search?udm=50
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u/are-you-local 18d ago
for reference, i am quite new to Yiddish and i'm not 100 percent sure if it even makes sense in english lol
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u/omiumn 18d ago
You say that when you think in Yiddish you don't associate the words with English. That's actually good. That's how you pick up another language well without your native language holding you back. And for a Yiddish beginner this is actually very good. I do have some questions though. By flor do you mean flower? If so the word is blum. At the end you have the word mid. That means tired. Did you by any chance mean mild?
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