Green Eggs and Ham. In Hebrew

Cafe Society
1

I saw a copy of this on Saturday. The title is translated as “I’m not Hungry and I don’t Like It”, which seemed weird until I realized that observant little Hebrew speakers probably wouldn’t be eating Ham, anyway.

Seuss’ drawing is obscure enough (It’s a blob of stuff on a tray) that you could get away with ignoring the nature of the stuff, which isn’t named in the book.

The guy who had this had an entire collection of translated “Green Eggs and Ham” books from other languages, including Virent Ova! Viret Perna!, the Latin version I have.
In the Hebrew version, Sam’s name is rendered as a form of Shmuel. In Latin, he’s called Pincerna, which means “Waiter” or “Butler”

2

You’re overestimating the observancy level of most kids whose parents are going to be reading them Dr. Seuss books. I doubt anyone would particularly care.

BTW, “sus” means “horse” in Hebrew, and an Israeli-American friend of mine once told me that she conflated the two for years and years and didn’t realize until she was an adult that his name wasn’t Dr. Horse.

3

I’m pretty sure most young Hebrew-speakers would have no idea what ham (in Hebrew: pig-thigh) was. It’s a foreign food they’d unlikely to have ever encountered.

4

Not really. We had Jewish friends over for Easter dinner. We served Ham.
Their idea.

But still, the idea of a Hebrew “Green Eggs and Ham” is a bit like “Let’s Eat Steak on Good Friday” for Catholics. It’s not forbidden, but it raises eyebrows.

5

Or they could just tack on the alternate ending that’s been floating around the Internet.

6

Well, I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem like a big deal to me.

Alessan, you’re ruining my image of Tel Aviv as a center of sin and corruption. I thought everyone walked around in bikinis while eating bacon cheeseburgers all the time?

7

But they do!

Bacon is readily available; ham, OTOH, is virtually unheard of. I think there just isn’t a niche for it.

8

This reminds me of another Dr. Seuss book altered for Jewish readers:

“One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Gefilte Fish”

9

Ah, okay. My vision of Tel Aviv is restored. The world is once again in balance.

10

Bear in mind that he does not like it and will not eat it.

Now what rhymes with “meshuggenah”?

11

‘I am not hungry and will not eat it’ is a short, snappy, and rhyming phrase in Hebrew, FWIW.

12

I’m snug as a bug in a
Rug–but meshuggenah.

13

Really? I know a fellow who lived in Israel in the seventies, and he’s commented that pork was readily available back then as “white steak.” Not so?

14

My dad tells me he was once at a wedding, and the waiter was serving chicken. Dad said he wanted the white meat (basar lavan) and everyone looked agast. Turned out that in Israel, pork isn’t the other white meat.

15

My knowledge of pig parts is sadly limited; I have no idea whether “white meat” is ham or some other pork-related product. It’s sold in stores as steaks, and not as those big triangular things, so there’s that.