Re: Yehoash

[Susan Lerner <meydele...>]

What I am most familiar with is Yehoash's highly regarded translation of 
the Bible into Yiddish.  Here is what I learned about him from A History of 
Yiddish Literature by Sol Liptzin:

Yehoash (1870-1927) is one of a group of Yiddish poets who began the 
transition from the social lyrics of the sweatshop poets to a more 
individualistic and impressionistic style, most often identified with the 
first indigenously American Yiddish poets, known as "Die Yunge".  Yehoash, 
the pen name of Solomon Bloomgarden, came to the US from Lithuania in 1890, 
by which time Peretz had already published some of his early lyrics.   The 
hard life of privation in NY sent him to Denver to spend 10 years in a 
Jewish sanatorium to recover from tuberculosis.  He is considered to have 
written most of his finest poetry in the sanatorium, with his collected 
lyrics published in 1907 establishing his reputation as a foremost Yiddish 
lyricist.  He went to Palestine when his health improved in 1914, but 
returned to the US due to the outbreak of WWI.

Liptzin writes: "Yehoash enriched Yiddish with songs, ballads, fables, 
legends, satire, travel sketches, short stories and translations of 
Longfellow, Lafcadio Hearn (?), Omar Khayyim, Dmitri Merezhkovski, and 
parts of the Koran....Yehoash's supreme achievement was his translation of 
the Bible, a superb rendering upon which he worked for thirty years and 
which made use of the idiomatic treasures of the various dialects and of 
the many generations since the Tsena Urena.  He faithfully reproduced the 
meaning, rhythm and tone of the original,...Yehoash's concentration of all 
efforts on this marvelous translation, which he regarded as a holy task, 
deprived him of the leisure to continue with his own original poetry just 
when he had acquired supreme mastery of the Yiddish medium as had no 
American writer before him."  His translation of the Bible was published 
posthumously.

The Mloteks' Pearls of Yiddish Song has 1 song with lyrics by Yehoash, 
Mamenyu Mayne.  Yiddish Poets in Song, a Jewish Music Alliance book from 
the '60's, includes a song entitled "Shlitlendik" which has lyrics by 
Yehoash.  I'm not really familiar with either.  There is a song which I 
know I sing which has lyrics by Yehoash, but, for the life of me, I can't 
remember which one, and it didn't turn up in a quick search of my books.

Shira

At 11:24 PM 3/14/00 -0500, you wrote:
>The title page of my copy of The Feet of the Messenger by Yehoash (Jewish
>Publication Society of American, 1923, translated from the Yiddish by Isaac
>Goldberg) says that Yehoash is the pen name of Solomon Bloomgarden.
>
>I also have an English translation of Yehoash's one-act play The Shunamite,
>which I directed in 1973.
>
>However, all I know about Yehoash comes from reading those two works.
>
>Jacob Bloom
>
>
> >From: "Trudi Goodman" <goobietheg (at) hotmail(dot)com>
> >To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> >Subject: Re: Yehoash
> >Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 15:22:18 PST
> >Mime-Version: 1.0
> >Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
> >
> >
> >   Yes, a pen name, but I'm not sure for what.
> >   I know that some of his work was put to music.
> >   I believe that he won a Nobel Prize for Literature...or some other major
> >award like that.
> >    He also wrote novels.
> >    Check with YIVO.  I believe they have his work in translation.
> >     Also the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia.
> >
> >      Trudi the G
> >
> >>From: Lori Cahan-Simon <l_cahan (at) staff(dot)chuh(dot)org>
> >>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> >>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> >>Subject: Yehoash
> >>Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 06:43:29 -0500
> >>
> >>What can anyone tell me about the poet Yehoash?  Was this a pen name?
> >>Did he have a last name?  Did he write music, or were his works put to
> >>music only by others?  Where from?  Dates?  Anything else?
> >>
> >>a dank,
> >>Lorele
> >>
> >>
>
>