★★★★☆ “Nu, mein offizier, zye a mentsch.”

Inside, Outside

Herman Wouk

** spoiler alert **

I'm not sure when I read Inside, Outside. Some time around 1984 I read Herman Wouk's Henry Family books because War and Remembrance appeared on a list of the greatest novels of all time. They were certainly very good. (In fact, I remember telling one of my colleagues that War and Remembrance was like the American War and Peace. He dissented vigorously -- in his opinion War and Remembrance was far superior.) I subsequently read everything I could find by Wouk. They are, of course, not all as good as the Henry Family books, but most of them are nevertheless very good. (I have to confess, though, that I did not succeed in finishing Youngblood Hawke, and Marjorie Morningstar dragged in places.)

Inside, Outside is a Bildungsroman about a Jewish boy/man Israel David Goodkind, who grows up in New York, becomes a naval officer, and eventually an advisor to President Richard Nixon. Much of Goodkind's biography resembles Wouk's, although as far as I know Wouk never worked in government.

Inside, Outside lodged firmly in my memory because of one moment, which I am about to tell you about (spoiler ahead). Goodkind speaks to his father just before the latter's death

“Nu, mein offizier, zye a mentsch.” (“Well, my officer, be a man.”) He was dropping off to sleep under sedation.

Those were the last words I ever heard from him. I was not there when he died. Still trying, Pop. Time’s getting short, and it’s uphill all the way, but I’m trying. You fooled me, making it look so easy.

I remember thinking when I read it that no higher tribute could be paid.

Now, the translation "Be a man" is inaccurate. The Yiddish noun "mentsch" doesn't mean "man" -- it means "person" or "human". "Zye a mentsch" could be said equally well to a woman, or any person. I understand why Wouk translated it as he did -- there is really no good translation into idiomatic native English.

Digression follows -- feel free to stop here.

I was reminded of this by a case of language envy. English doesn't have a word equivalent to the German noun "Mensch", and it is a lack. (I also envy Germans the word "schön".) Mensch just means "person" or "human". But those English words have a feeling of formality that "Mensch" does not. When I was a little kid my sister and I used to use the phrase "human bean" to convey this meaning. It is telling that a six-year-old native English speaker could not get this right -- "human being" is not easy, natural English. I am fairly certain that a six-year-old German child would be entirely comfortable with the word "Mensch".

German Mensch gave rise to Yiddish "mentsch", but they are not quite the same. "Mensch" is, I believe, a neutral word. (I am not a native German speaker, so I could be mistaken about this.) "Sei ein Mensch" would make little sense in German -- the natural response would be "Mensch bin ich schon!" But in Yiddish the word "mentsch" carries moral weight, as shown by the way it is used in Inside, Outside. It is a compliment to say that someone is a mentsch, an insult to say one is not. In fact, even the English translation "person" has taken on this weighted meaning among Jewish speakers of English. I remember one of my colleagues saying of someone she disapproved, "He is not a person."

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