Three Yiddish Poems (translated by Seymour Mayne)

Sutzkever, Abraham

THREE YIDDISH POEMS OF ABRAHAM SUTZKEVER TRANSLATED BY SEYMOUR MAYNE If AU That Remains Of Us Is Merely A Cipher If all that remains of us is merely a cipher then I can only berate you:...

...Whoever saw this ammunition strapped round the brave Jewish boys in the ghetto, saw Jerusalem struggling for life, the fall of those granite walls...
...Only the word endures, homely as it is and yet resonant...
...Narocz Forests January 30, 1944 Abraham Sutzkever was born in 1913 in Smorgon, a small town near Vilna...
...He has translated poetry from the Yiddish, Polish and Russian, and has edited a number of critical texts in Canadian literature...
...Seymour Mayne, who teaches at the University of Ottawa, is the author of ten collections of poetry, including Name (1975), which won the J.I...
...Jewish bravery once hidden in words must now strike back with shot...
...Poems, appeared in 1937...
...In 1963 his collected poems were published in two volumes, and since then he has continued to write and publish, adding to the significant body of work that marks him as one of the leading Yiddish writers in the world today...
...How else do I address my rifle: Transform yourself in my hand, become a viper, if tomorrow's child will not hear this shot I have just aimed...
...It's all the same whether I climb aloft on my ribs or fall— the word's mine...
...To the thin vein in my head I entrust the last loveliness: A wind...
...He was a member of the literary group Young Vilna in the 1930s, and his first book...
...As once again we lifted the seal to enter into the shelter of the ancient cave, armored with shadow, lit by lamps, we spilled the letters—line after line— just as our forefathers in the Temple «mpm own r...
...And all seven wisdoms the whirlwind wants to sow plunge away with plucked wings like hail against a pane...
...His most recent work is The Impossible Promised Land: Poems New and Selected, which was published in 1981...
...1945...
...The Fortress (1945) and Ghetto Poems (1946), were complemented by his prose account, From the Vilna Ghetto (1946), and were followed by such books as Jewish Street (1948) and Secret Town (1948...
...Vilna Ghetto September 12, 1943 To The Thin Vein In My Head I'm entrusting myself completely to the thin vein in my head...
...My word nurtures on its crystal cadenced dust...
...His collections...
...One molten line from Babylon, another from Poland, flowed into the same mold...
...The Leaden Plates Of Romm's Printing Works Like fingers reaching out between the bars to seize the bright air of freedom we moved through the night to steal the leaden plates of Romm's Printing Works...
...During the early part of World War II, Sutzkever found himself trapped in the Vilna Ghetto, but he and his wife managed to escape and joined the partisans...
...THREE YIDDISH POEMS OF ABRAHAM SUTZKEVER TRANSLATED BY SEYMOUR MAYNE If AU That Remains Of Us Is Merely A Cipher If all that remains of us is merely a cipher then I can only berate you: vanish from memory...
...Whoever understood the fiery words recognized their voices in his heart...
...In the pupil of death—a reflection of flame...
...It was during the ghetto years that his poetry became more public and passionate...
...Segal Prize in English-French literature...
...He finally settled in Israel where he has edited the foremost Yiddish literary quarterly, Di Goldene Keyt, begun in 1949...
...By the casting of bullets the lead illumined thoughts—letter after letter melted...
...Grass...
...Dreamers who had to become soldiers we converted spirit of lead into bullets...
...I love the single-minded word that does not perjure itself— and not the wishy-washy hybrid of dubious taste...
...The night's concluding star...
...However great my generation—its smallness is greater yet...
...wr?ta ? poured the oil into the festive menorahs...
...May all the graves sink deeper and no dust remain from the ashes of history...

Vol. 8 • May 1983 • No. 5


 
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