_The Mendele Review_: Yiddish Language and Literature (A Companion to _Mendele_) --------------------------------------------- Contents of Vol. 01.004 May 4, 1997 1) "Traduttore, traditore" (Leonard Prager) 2) Pru urvu and not peru urevu (Leonard Prager) 3) An identifying footnote to TMR.001 (Leonard Prager) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 03 May 1997 10:30:03 +0300 From: lprager@research.haifa.ac.il Subject: "Traduttore, traditore" Larry Rosenwald's review (TMR 01:001) of Golda Werman's recent translation of three David Bergelson stories (Syracuse University Press, 1986) has, hopefully, sent us back to the Yiddish text and has set us rethinking the subject of translations from Yiddish literature generally. Only a handful of Yiddish authors have enjoyed any kind of success in translation and a great many translations from Yiddish literature are problematic in regard to their fidelity to the original. It is rare to find a translator who knows Yiddish and is intimately acquainted with what the late Irving Howe called "the cultural aura" of Yiddish(1), as well as writing English with grace and imagination. The renditions of such a translator are generally aimed at a minority audience. Verse translations are especially problematic. Here a team of two or more may be engaged rather than a single lone translator: one prosaic translator/scholar provides a literal rendering of the Yiddish poem; one (sometimes distinguished) poet or competent stylist transforms this raw material into a finished English poem.(2) In the case of prose fiction there may be one or more editors who adjudicate between what the literal translator says the text "says" and their own imaginative and sometimes remote-from-the-text's plain-sense creative reconstruction. These improbable procedures often work very well, as evidenced in such teams of two as Irving Howe and ELiezer Greenberg, Benjamin and Barbara Harshav). All translations feel the pull between the poles of fidelity and felicity -- fidelity to the original and felicity of expression in the target language. Syntactical and even sound similarity is achievable if translating, say, from one Romance language to another; the matter is more complex if one is rendering a Slavic text into a Semitic one, or a Finno-Ugric one into a Germanic one. Yet Teodor Gutmans, in comparing translations of Sholem-Aleykhem's "Dos tepl" ('The Little Pot') in English, German, Hebrew, Russian and Ukrainian, found the two Slavic ones closest to the spirit of the Yiddish original, reflecting the world of the story. Moreover, he found the Ukrainian translator stayed closest to the Yiddish text and unlike all the others (and especially the Russian), never sacrificed accuracy in the name of stylistic elegance.(3) Prose, unless it is highly rythmical and otherwise veers towards verse, is easier than most verse to translate, regardless of language, but verse translations that are poems-in-their-own-right are relatively rare. For every John Keats swayed into ecstasy by Chapman's Homer, dozens have concurred with Matthew Arnold that, (I add, especially in translation), "Homer nods." MANN AND PROUST Few of the giants of modern literary translation have retained their eminence. Many of us were nurtured on H.D. Lowe-Porter's English translations of Thomas Mann (_The Magic Mountain_, _Doctor Faustus_, etc.) and C.K. Scott Moncrieff's of Marcel Proust (e.g._Remembrance of Things Past_). (We may even have felt they were equal to the original texts!) But these two household names have been replaced by others, their work now seen as inadequate in some respect. The challengers, too, have not won full acceptance.(4) Discovery of better manuscripts, closer lexicological analysis are but two of the causes for such revisions. Always there is the fact that language constantly changes, yesterday's apposite verbal equivalents today sounding archaic or quaint or even obsolete. In biblical translation there is permanent revolution; the Greek and Latin classics are not far behind. Though requiring great talents, translation has rarely been generously rewarded, financially or otherwise. There are, of course, exceptions. Alexander Pope (assisted by a small factory of helpers) made a fortune and reaped reknown translating Homer into brilliant heroic couplets ("Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring / Of woes unnumber'd, heav'nly Goddess, sing! / That wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign / The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain: / Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore, / Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore....'" _The Iliad_, Book I, lines 1-6). It is not known in the annals of Yiddish literature that M.-L. Petshinik got rich from his Yiddish version of the _Odyssey_ (Warsaw: Yidishe universal-biblyotek, 1937; 3 volumes in 1, 469 pp.). Translation has often fallen into the hands of hacks or of able writers who simply had to work too fast to turn out competent work. Many of the best translators today are poets and scholars who translate for the love of the craft and of the texts they interpret rather than for pay, which can almost never recompense the translator for the time and effort he or she invests. When one considers the enormous role of translation in the history of civilization, one is struck by the disparity between its influence and importance and its actual status. SHALOM ASCH Only two Yiddish writers have won a wide readership outside of Jewish circles: Shalom Asch (Y.: Sholem Ash) a half-century ago and Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer (Y.: Yitskhok Bashevis) in the past few decades. Both these authors have been translated into many languages. Asch has largely been forgotten but his Christological novels (_The Nazarene_, etc.) were very popular in their day. At least three of Asch's novels (_Three Cities_, _Salvation_, _Mottke_) were translated by Willa and Edwin Muir from the German and Yiddish was not even mentioned in the front material. _Af tsu lokhes_ these may be among the more readable of Asch's novels in English.(5) MAURICE SAMUEL Asch had some of his novels translated by Maurice Samuel, who knew, loved and respected Yiddish (see his splendid _In Praise of Yiddish_, 1971, which makes Leo Rosten's _The Joy of Yiddish_ 1968, look like a shmate), and was a consummate English stylist. Samuel also translated I. J. Singer's very popular (mainly among Jews) _The Brothers Ashkenazi_ (1936) and several other of his books. Samuel's work as translator deserves serious study. For some reason, in dealing with the ancient biblical world in Asch's _Moses_ (1952), he fell into a wooden style, his characters sounding as though they were acting in a Sunday School play: "And when Dan ben Joseph had received the pyx of solidified perfume, which the Egyptians carried on their heads, so that it might melt and drip over their bodies, he turned again to his lord: 'Hast thou not thought of a sheep, a calf, a young steer, a pair of ducks and geese? Thou wouldst not have me appear empty-handed before my God, and have Him send scorpions into thy house. Thou rememberest the frogs, dost thou not?'"(6) In the past five decades the measured prose of the King James Version of the Bible has lost much of its authority and aping it the length of an entire novel inevitably sounds silly. But was it equally silly fifty years ago? Moreover, when a high-status novelist hires a translator, the latter is often no more than a proletarian-with-a-pen who must satisfy the boss's whims. Maurice Samuel may have been commissioned by Asch to give his _Moses_ a biblical ring and he did his best, laughable though it may now seem to us. In dealing with a realistic novel of the modern period, Samuel captures I.J. Singer's plain, often staccato style. Here is the ending of Chaper 55, "The Soviets", in the above-mentioned _The Brothers Ashkenazi_: "There came over him the abysmal despair, the dark, impenetrable wretchedness which had assailed him long ago, when the Polish workers had changed a May Day demonstration into a pogrom against the Jewish weavers of Balut. #He crawled wearily into his tiny room, threw himself on his narrow bed, buried his head in the pillow, and sobbed for the great triumph he lived to salute and which he was not permitted to share. #All night long, shots rang in the streets of Petrograd."(7) ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER When we turn to Yitskhok Bashevis, the translation problem becomes very complicated. At an international conference on his work in London several years ago, a small group of participants, this writer among them, maintained that the Yiddish Bashevis was often radically different from the English and translated-from-English Isaac Bashevis Singer. Irving Sapoznik years ago registered the point that the endings of the Yiddish and English versions of _The Family Moskat_ were completely different.(8) I showed that the hero of the Yiddish _Der knekht_, in harmony with the physical world and nature largely through his union with the gentile woman Wanda, discovered and affirmed the value of physical resistance to oppression; whereas the hero of the English _The Slave_ and all the translations made from this version, is a pacifist, a veritable disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. We know that in his last years Bashevis participated in translating his own works (despite the fact that he did not know English well), often writing a story from Yiddish notes rather than a finished Yiddish text. His editors shaped much of his fiction; intimidated by their supposed sophistication, he let their guesses stand. He may actually have believed that his writing was more impressive in English than in Yiddish. It is of course true that Saul Bellow's version of "Gimpl Tam" (mistranslated "Gimpel the Fool") is a very catching piece of English prose. Does that make it a "good translation"? SHOLEM-ALEYKHEM IN HEBREW In Israel today there continues to flicker and sometimes even to flame, the discussion as to which version of Sholem-Aleykhem in Hebrew is most "authentic." The great humorist's son-in-law, Y.-D. Berkovits, is in the eyes of many who grew up on him, the only purveyor of the true Sholem-Aleykhem -- even though it has long been known that whenever the talented _eydem_ struck an irredeemably idiomatic even passage, he simply skipped it. The principal contemporary exponent of Sholem- Aleykhem in Hebrew, Arye Aharoni, whom some readers shy away from and others salute, bravely confronts the entire text. The scholar-poet Benjamin Harshav has also tried his hand at this impossible feat. There can never be total agreement as to the translation of Sholem-Aleykhem in Hebrew.(9) SHOLEM-ALEYKHEM IN ENGLISH Sholem-Aleykhem in English is a reputation -- not a little owing to the popularity of _Fiddler on the Roof_, but is he read? Judging from the recent spate of reprints and new translations one is encouraged to believe there is growing interest in our greatest comic writer. Is it possible for Sholem-Aleykhem's writings to live in English translation? Forty years ago, Rhoda S.Kachuk in a pioneer study, argued (p. 80) that "The 'most untranslatable of writers', Sholom Aleichem, can be rendered in English with a great deal of success by earnest, competent translators."(10) Yet the tradition of untranslatability refuses to disappear. Perhaps Hillel Hankin, among the latest brave souls to attempt the task, is among these successful translators; but many readers may still exclaim "Reboyne-sheloylem!" at hearing his Tevye say, "So what does the good Lord do?" (p. 4) If Sholem-Aleykhem is not better known in depth, perhaps we are all at fault -- for not sustaining public discussion of his works, for not assuring that his English translations are widely reviewed and effectively promoted. DAVID BERGELSON We have made a good start in stimulating interest in a writer, David Bergelson (Yiddish: Dovid Berglson) who is regarded by our best critics as a major figure, ranked not far behind the great triumvirate Mendele, Perets and Sholem-Aleykhem. Larry Rosenwald has given us an acute analysis of several paragraphs of a single Bergelson story, a skilful sample translation of these sections, and Golda Werman's translation of these same paragraphs. Rosenwald concluded that Werman's translation, although not necessarily "bad," was "unusable." We may welcome Rosenwald's analysis without accepting his concluding categorical judgement. (What are the constituents of usableness? Some very curious things turn out to have uses and there are some very curious uses for many things. Nor need one be "right" to be useful: T.S. Eliot's famous view that Shakespeare's _Hamlet_ is "an artistic failure" and Lev Tolstoi's moralistic disapproval of Shakespeare's tragedies are two splendid examples of immensely useful wrongheadedness). In terms of Rosenwald's criteria, Werman's Englishing of Bergelson is acutely defective -- because of omissions, additions and rearrangings -- the very strategies of effective composition. The ancestor of Rosenwald's recommended methodology is the _taytsh_ tradition of literal word-for-word translation. Werman's procedure belongs to a respected genre of translation encapsulated in Hilaire Belloc's "... any hint of foreignness in the translated version is a blemish;... the translated thing should read like a first-class native thing."(11) Fortunately, the history of literary translation argues for the utility of _multiple_ translations of individual works. A translation is like a conductor's interpretation of a musical work. The score does not determine all; there is always room for the individual artist's play of invention and understanding. Various audiences with varying capacities and standards require different translations. Thus, for people who have never read Homer before, it is wise to begin with Lawrence of Arabia's prose _Odyssey_.(12) This version captures the narrative sweep of the epic and leaves many other elements by the wayside. Surely what matters in a translation of fiction is the total reading experience it affords, the degree to which it allows the reader to enter the story's world. How the translator chooses to achieve these ends is for him to decide. Innovative translators will inevitably meet with our instinctive conservative response, but we must train our sympathies to be receptive to those who dare to "make it new." Irving Howe's deservedly famous anthology _A Treasury of Yiddish Stories_ (New York: The Viking Press, 1955), which includes a Bergelson story, set a new standard for readability and accessibility of Yiddish short fiction, but close readings today a la Rosenwald might reveal not a few lapses on the fidelity side (a bibliography of the Yiddish originals should have been provided). We may discover many shortcomings in these translations, but they have undeniably reached many thousands of readers and helped raise interest in Yiddish and Yiddish literature.(13) Bergelson has been around in English for some time, yet without making a significant impression anywhere in the English-speaking world. It would be well for us to continue to examine what has been done in the way of translation (and of criticism too) up until now. Perhaps we can better examine Werman's work in the light of this corpus(14) and judge it more equitably on the basis of its total effect. Endnotes 1) Irving Howe wrote: "In working on our anthology, one of the main things I learned was the extent to which translations from Yiddish depend on more than linguistic skill. It depends above all on a command of what I can only call the cultural aura, the buzz and hum of the implications of Yiddish." "Translating from Yiddish," _Yivo Annual of Jewish Social Science_ 15 (1974), 233. 2) Irving Howe (ibid., pp. 233-4) describes how he and Eliezer Greenberg proceeded with _A Treasury of Yiddish Poetry_ (New York, Chicago, San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969): "Sometime we used a method which in principle I cannot defend. We had some American poets of considerable gifts who do not know Yiddish. Greenberg and I would work out a very precise and literal prose translation and then we did a great deal of notation, such as description of the syntax, the form, the meter. Then these poets did an English version which we checked back against the original Yiddish. We tried to be strictly accurate in these cases. We did not want 'imitations', we wanted translations. What we established here in effect was a cultural chain. First, from these translators to myself, who am an amateur in this field, and whose knowledge of the Jewish tradition is severely limited and whose knowledge of Yiddish is fairly limited. Then, from myself to Greenberg, a veteran Yiddish poet, and then of course, from Greenberg to the whole Yiddish tradition itself. This chain is terribly precarious." 3) Teodor Gutmans. "Sholem-Aleykhem in di royvarg-shprakhn: heores tsu di iberzetsungen fun 'Dos tepl' af ukrainish, daytsh, hebreish, english un rusish," _For Max Weinreich on his Seventieth Birthday: Studies in Jewish Languages, Literature, and Society_. The Hague: Mouton: 1964, pp. 499-477. 4) Thus, in his review of John E. Woods's translation of Thomas Mann's _The Magic Mountain_ ("Heights unscaled", TLS 25 October 1996, p. 27), Timothy Buck writes: "John E. Woods's translation of novels by Thomas Mann are a considerable improvement on those which were made earlier this century by H.T. Lowe- Porter. Written in polished American-English prose, free from eccentricities and uncalled-for archaisms, they are likely to be more palatable to the present-day reader. They are, moreover, characterized by generally greater precision in rendering Mann's texts.... But, although it reads well, Woods's _Magic Mountain_ (like his _Buddenbrooks_, reviewed in the _TLS_, October 13, 1995) is marred by major errors." And he concludes: "The English-speaking reader continues to be denied the authoritative translations of Mann's novels that are needed, to match David Luke's renderings of the short stories. John Woods's very readable versions could possibly achieve that status, if only the many errors could be identified and weeded out." 5) The Muirs were high-powered translators who also Englished Franz Kafka's _Metamorphoses_ for Schocken. 6) Shalom Asch. _Moses_, London: Macdonald, 1952, p. 148. 7) I.J. Singer. _The Brothers Ashkenazi_, London: Putnam, 1936, p. 617. Note the easy flow and raciness of Samuel's translation of I.J. Singer's _Yoshe Kalb_ (New York: Harper and Row, 1965 [originally published by Liveright as _The Sinner_, 1933]. p. 119): "Young apprentices, full of high spirits, steered the carts among the pedestrians and the heavywagons of the rich landowners. As they rolled by the wattled hedges of farms and villages, they waved to the peasant girls and shouted in Yiddish: 'Hey, calf's foot, did you ever taste a piece of _kosher_?' #The older people turn on them angrily: 'Blackguards! Keep your mouths shut! Are you looking for trouble?'" 8) Irving Saposnik. "Translating _The Family Moskat_: the Metamorphosis of a Novel_," _Yiddish_ 1:2 (1973), 26-37. 9) See Ann Weiss, _Berkowitz's Hebrew Translation of Sholem-Aleykhem: A Critical Study -- Particular Emphasis on Tevyeh Hacholev_. PhD dissertation, New York University, 1973. 10) R.S. Kachuk, "Sholom Aleichem's Humor in English Translation," _Yivo Annual of Jewish Social Science_ 11 (1957), 39-81. Sholem- Aleykhem started out badly in English, getting stuck with a veritable leech who wanted exclusive translator's rights though her renditions were pathetic. Here is a sample of Hannah Berman's version of _Stempenyu_ ("Authorized Version"), London: Methuen, 1913, pp. 31-32): "The waiters and waitresses were running up and down like frightened hares. The relatives of both parties were so excited that they did nothing but shout aloud at the top of their voices. How long more were they going to carry on the preparations? Surely, it was already time to finish the bride's toilette? Why should she and the bridegroom be kept fasting the whole of the day? The cry, 'It is time! It is time!' became more general, but no one even attempted to do anything whatever. Isaac-Naphtali ran here and there, in a velveteen jacket, under the tails of which he kept his hands locked within each other, as if her were a preacher. And, his wife, Dvossa-Malka, also made a terrible noise, an uproar. / Everybody who could ran backwards and forwards, stumbling over one another in their haste, and holding their hands out in front of them, as if they were ready to set to work at anything, but were not given the work to do." 11) Cited by Kachuk, ibid,. pp. 45-6. 12) T.E. Shaw, _The Odyssey of Homer_, 1932, 1955. 13) In Britain, as late as 1963, Gerda Charles saw fit to include only one Yiddish story in her collection _Modern Jewish Stories_ (London: Faber and Faber, 1963). The quality of translation from Yiddish in Britain was always poor and this is reflected in the position of Yiddish in that country as compared to the USA. In the Charles anthology, Bashevis's "Gimpel the Fool" (translated by Saul Bellow) represents Yiddish (Hebrew has two stories, Russian one and English eleven). Ironically, it has happened that several weak translators have actually had a large influence. Thus 3 of the 19 stories in Hannah Berman's translation of Sholem-Aleykhem's _Jewish Children_ (New York, 1922) were selected for translation into Chinese. See Irene Eber, "Translation Literature in Modern China: The Yiddish Author and His Tale," _Asian and African Studies_ 8:3 (1972) 291-314. 14) BERGELSON IN ENGLISH: A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST, 1935-1996 (Note: I have placed question marks where the facts are missing and I either leave the slot blank or guess.) "The Revolution and the Sussmans," translated by ????? in Leo W. Schwartz, _The Jewish Caravan_, New York: ??????, 1935, pp. 663-680. "In a Backwoods Town," translated by Bernard Guilbert Guerney, in Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg, _A Treaury of Yiddish Stories_, New York: The Viking Press, 1954, pp. 471-504 [reprinted Schocken 1973]. "The Witness," translated by Rae Lobel and Joseph King, in _"Jewish Life" Anthology, 1846-1956_, New York, 1956, pp. 159-169. "Story's End" translated by Jacob Sloan, _Commentary_ (May 1960), 413-425 [from _Shturemteg_, Kiev, 1927]. _At the Depot_, translated by Ruth Wisse in Ruth Wisse, ed., _A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas_, New York: Behrman House, 1973, 79-139. "The Witness," translated by Joseph Leftwich in Joseph Leftwich, ed. _An Anthology of Modern Jewish Literature_, The Hague/ Paris: Mouton, 1974, pp. 55-64. "At Night," translated by Joachim Neugroschel in Joachim Neugroschel, ed. _Yenne Velt, the Great Works of Jewish Fantasy and Occult_, vol. 1, New York: Stonehill, 1976; London: Pan, 1978, pp. 243-245. _When All is Said and Done_, translated by Bernard Martin, Athens: Ohio State University, 1977. "Joseph Schur," translated by ?????; "The Hole Through Which Life Slips," translated by Reuben Bercovich; "Civil War" translated by Seth Wolitz; Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg, _Ashes Out of Hope; Fiction by Soviet Yiddish Writers_, New York: Schocken, 1977, pp. xx-xx, 74-83, 85-123. _When All Is Said and Done_ (extract) translated by Gerald Stillman in _Jewish Currents_ 30 (September 1978), ??-??. "The Convert," _When All is Said and Done_, "Joseph Schur," translated by Joachim Neugroschel in Joachim Neugroschel, ed. _The Shtetl; a Creative Anthology of Jewish Life in Eastern Europe_, New York: Richard Marek Publishers, 1979, pp. 269-272, 377-394, 399-450. "Among Refugees," translated by Joachim Neugroschel in David Roskies, ed. _The Literature of Destruction; Jewish Responses to Catastrophe_, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1988, 1989, pp. 263-274. TRANSLATION YIDDISH TITLE TRANSLATOR 1. Among Refugees Tsvishn imigrantn JN 2. At Night Baynakht JN 3. At the Depot Arum vokzal RW 4. Civil War Birger-krig SW 5. In a Backwoods Town In a fargrebter shtot BGG 6. Joseph Schur Yoysef Shur ??,JN 7. Story's End ??? Sof mayse JS 8. The Convert Di meshumedes JN 9. The Hole Through Which Der lokh durkh velkhn eyner RB Life Slips hot farloyrn hot farloyrn 10.The Revolution and the ??? Di revolutsye un di ?? Sussmans mishpokhe zusman 11.The Witness An eydes RL/JK,JL 12.When All is Said and Done Nokh alemen BM,JN,GS 13.Departing Opgang GW 14.Impoverished Yordim GW 15.Remnants Droyb GW TRANSLATORS (ALPHABETICAL LIST) WORKS ABBREV. NAME ??????? 10 ?? Reuben Bercovich 9 RB Bernard Guilbert Guerney 5 BGG Joseph King (with Rae Lobel) 11 JK Joseph Leftwich 11 JL Rae Lobel (with Joseph King) 5 RL Bernard Martin 12 BM Joachim Neugroschel 1,2,6,8,12 JN Jacob Sloan 7 JS Gerald Stillman 12 GS Golda Werman 13,14,15 GW Ruth Wisse 3 RW Seth Wolitz 4 SW Leonard Prager 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 Apr 97 12:42:17 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: Pru urvu and not peru urevu My friend Hugh Denman has called my attention to a small yet significant romanization error in _TMR_ 2. I wrote there that the groom said to the bride, "peru urevu," but it is clear that he must have said, "pru urvu." Partial proof of this is that the bride replies that she does not know what this "pruv" and "vu" mean. The typical Mea Shearim yeshive-bokher would use Ashkenazic Hebrew pronunciations in quoting Hebrew while speaking Yiddish. These days his more worldly bride, who would know Israeli Hebrew better, might very well have "Israelized" some of her pronunciations of terms from the Hebrew-Aramaic component of Yiddish. But in this instance the pronunciation in both Ashkenazic Hebrew and Israeli Hebrew would be "pru urevu." Romanization of words from the Hebrew-Aramaic component of Yiddish pays attention to sound rather than spelling; thus the _e_s in "peru urevu" don't belong there. Leonard Prager 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 03 May 1997 22:38:47 +0300 From: lprager@research.haifa.ac.il Subject: An identifying footnote to TMR.001 Larry Rosenwald teaches English at Wellesley College. He has written about diaries, about the relations between words and music, and about translation, and has made translations of literary and scholarly texts from French, German, Latin and Yiddish. his address is LRosenwald@Wellesley.edu Leonard Prager ______________ The Mendele Review Leonard Prager, editor Please address all correspondence to: Leonard Prager 13/35 Dr. Kauders St. Haifa 35439, Israel email: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il