Full Description
Translations of selected poems by the Yiddish writer, covering the full scope of his oeuvre.
Described by Ruth Wisse as one of "the most original and distinctive voices in Yiddish poetry," Moyshe-Leybe Halpern (1886-1932) was born in Zlochov, in present-day western Ukraine. When he was twelve, his father sent him to Vienna to study sign painting, and during his ten years there he studied German literature and wrote his first poems in German before returning to Zlochov in 1907, where he began to write in Yiddish. The following year, he immigrated to New York, where a diverse community of Yiddish writers awaited him. During his lifetime, he published two volumes of poetry—In New York (1919) and The Golden Peacock (1924). A third volume was published posthumously, in 1934. Drawing from these three volumes, poet and translator Richard Fein offers a selection of Halpern's poetry that covers the full scope of his career. Fein's translations appear alongside the original Yiddish while an introduction by Larry Rosenwald situates Halpern in his historic and literary context.
Contents
A Note
Richard Fein
Introduction
Larry Rosenwald
from In New York (1919)
1. A Rogue's Prayer
2. Gingili
3. Your Life
4. Try to Get Rid of Them
5. R. — B.
6. You, My Restlessness
7. A Good Dream
8. Memento Mori
9. A Strange Thought
10. In You —
11. You My Wild One, You
12. Isaac Leybush Peretz
13. My Restlessness From a Wolf
14. Just Because
15. Who Cries
16. The Last Poem
17. Who Is?
18. Why Don't You ...?
19. Brother
from The Golden Peacock (1924)
20. The Bird
21. Zlochov, My Home
22. The Tale of the Fly
23. Considering the Bleakness
24. In the Light of the Lamp
25. You'll Never Catch Me Saying
26. From a Letter of Mine
27. Harshber, the Coalman
28. Man the Ape
29. The Story About the World
30. Abie Curley, the War Hero
31. The Last One
32. My Will
33. The Sorrow of the World
34. Sunrise
35. Who Will Save?
36. Hey, You Naked Man
37. I, Your God
38. Hey, Jew, My Brother!
39. At Midnight
40. When the Sun Goes Down
41. Zarkhi to Himself
42. Zarkhi, My Brother
43. It's Not So Much
44. The Face of the Ocean
45. Zarkhi, Zarkhi!
46. Zarkhi, Zarkhi!...
47. The Dead King's Lament
48. Zarkhi's Family
49. We Go Walking
50. I Ask My Dear Wife
from Moyshe-Leyb Halpern: Volume One (1934)
51. Sacco-Vanzetti
52. Evening
53. Strangeness Between Us
54. In the World
55. In Central Park
56. Kol Nidre
57. Evening
58. A Velvet Dress
59. Song of the Dead Nobleman
from Moyshe-Leyb Halpern: Volume Two (1934)
60. Sunset on Trees
61. The Hasidic Rebbe
62. Shalamoyzn
63. My Shouting
Afterword
Moyshe-Leyb Confronts Me
Notes
