Jiddistik Edition und Forschung / Yiddish Editions and Research / ייִדיש אויסגאַבעס און פֿאָרשונג

This book offers annotated editions of four distinct sixteenth-century Yiddish epic poems, all preserved in single copies. Two of them retell the narrative found in the book of Joshua, and two relate the events described in the book of Judges. As typical specimens of the once popular literary genre, the Old Yiddish biblical epic, the content of the works is based on Jewish sources, while their style and form were influenced by German epic and chivalric literature. The epics often elaborate on the biblical narrative, with rich passages that echo the cultural setting in which they were composed, presumably German and Italian lands. The four epics are presented here for the first time in modern academic editions. They are studied and compared with one another, and footnotes provide information concerning the sources of additions and changes, translation methods, historical details, obscure words and idiomatic expressions, and more. As these epics represent some of the earliest examples of biblical epics in Yiddish, the discussion also touches upon the origins of the genre, tracing its path from orality to written text. The annotated edition presents the original Old Yiddish texts together with an English introduction.

“Language for the poet is more than a vessel into which he pours his magic potion; it is the potion itself, the spell itself.” (Shmuel Niger)

How powerful is the spell of foreign poetry when translated into a minority language? The present volume is devoted to the ruthlessly self-critical reflections of Yiddish translators, critics, proofreaders, teachers and scholars of translation, chiefly in Polish and Soviet cultural spaces during the interwar period.

In their extensive translational and critical work, these translators and scholars furthered the development of Yiddish secular culture and its literature by exploring and creatively adopting new artistic forms and aesthetic concepts.

In Yiddish Warsaw, intellectuals reflected on their commitment to the language, discussed translational strategies, criticized the arbitrary character of publishers’ programs and urged them to take a more systematic approach. Soviet Yiddish scholars and writers applied the emergent Russian linguistic theory of translation to their own work. Critiques of literary translation, for example of works by Krylov, Pushkin and Twain, from a scholarly, philological and editorial point of view was also widespread in North America.

The volume contains 33 essays, beginning with a small selection on Yehoyesh’s celebrated translation of the Hebrew Bible into modern Yiddish.