Re: Yehoash

[Howard Freedman <hfreedman...>]

If anybody would like to get a taste of Yehoash's extraordinary translation of
the Bible into Yiddish, Matthew Fisher has begun putting it online in both
transliteration and in a pdf (Acrobat Reader) file with the original Yiddish.
You can see a portion of Breyshis at
http://research.haifa.ac.il/~yiddish/texts/yehoyesh/index.html

Howard Freedman

> Susan Lerner wrote:
>
> >  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
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> >> ---------------------+
> >>