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New(s) Poems: Y. L. Teller's Lider fun der Tsayt(ung)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Ken Frieden
Ken Frieden
Affiliation:
Emory UniversityAtlanta, Ga.
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Extract

Y. L. Teller's poetry underwent radical transformations in the 1930s, and its shifting forms were representative of the age. Influenced by the introspectivists, Teller excluded proper names, identifiable places, and definite time from his early poems. By the end of the decade, however, he had developed a style that drew heavily from news reports. The relationship between poetry and journalism became a matter of dispute in American Yiddish literature during these years, when Arn Glants-Leyeles and Yankev Glatshteyn were among the leading poets who dirtied their hands with news-print.

Type
Articles
Information
AJS Review , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Fall 1990 , pp. 269 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 1990

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References

Research leading to the completion of this essay was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Yad Hanadiv/Barecha Foundation. Avraham Novershtern provided helpful advice during the final stages of writing and revision.

1. In the 1930s, Glants-Leyeles contributed frequent articles to Der tog, while Glatshteyn wrote cultural and political essays for Der morgn zhurnal. Glatshteyn employed the pseudonym “Itskus” until his virulent poem “Good Night, World” was reprinted in this newspaper on May 8, 1938, and he subsequently introduced the Sunday column “Prost un poshet” under his actual name.

2. This book is in the private collection of Ken Frieden.

3. A. Giants [Leyeles], in Der tog, December 11, 1940; excerpted in Yehuda Leyb Teller, Durkh yidishn gemit: Lider (Tel Aviv, 1975), p. 238.

4. See Teller's articles in Der morgn zhurnal, November 21–24, 28, 30, and December 1, 1938.

5. Glants-Leyeles, A., “Milkhome,” in Fabius Lind (New York, 1937), p. 92Google Scholar

6. Ibid, p. 93.

7. “Triiionike vor,” Ibid, p. 234.

8. For a translation of “Moscow Night, End of December 1934,” seeHarshav, Benjamin and Harshav, Barbara, eds., American Yiddish Poetry (Berkeley, Calif, 1986), pp. 153–155.Google Scholar

9. Halpern, Moyshe-Leyb, Moyshe Leyb Halpern (New York, 1934), vol. 1, pp. 57–58.Google Scholar For translations of “Sacco-Vanzetti,” see Harshav and Harshav, American Yiddish Poetry, pp. 437–439, andHowe, Irving, Wisse, Ruth R., and Khone, Shmeruk, eds., The Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse (New York, 1987), pp. 212–214.Google Scholar

10. Glatshteyn, Yankev, Kredos (New York, 1929), pp. 52–63.Google Scholar

11. Glatshteyn's, poem “In roykh” forms part of In zikh: A zamlung inlrospeklive lider (New York, 1920), pp. 59–60, and Yankev Glatshteyn (New York, 1921), pp. 50–51.Google Scholar

12. “Vild gezang,” in Teller, Durkh yidishn gemit: Lider, p. 58; this translation is my own. For another English translation of “Wild Song,” see Harshav and Harshav, American Yiddish Poetry, pp. 517–519. A Hebrew translation is contained inTeller, Y. L., Mivkhar shirim, trans. Miron, Dan (Tel Aviv, 1986), p. 93.Google Scholar

13. Der morgn zhurnal. May 31, 1937, p. 3. The general title of two articles ran: “Groyl fun der Brisker pogrom vert geshildert in tsvey korespondentsies tsum Morgn zhurnaP”; the subtitle for Teller's article was “Sheliekh fun Morgn zhurnal bazukht Brisk bald nokh di geshenishn.”

14. Ibid, p. 8.

15. “Brisker yidn redn,” inTeller, Y. L., Liderfun der tsayt (New York, 1940), pp. 38–39, and Durkh yidishn gemit: Lider, pp. 100–101. Translations are my own, cited from the original by line alone. For an English translation of the entire poem, entitled “The Jews of Brisk,” see Howe et al., Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse, pp. 658–662. A Hebrew translation is contained in Teller, Mivkhar shirim, pp. 117–118.Google Scholar

16. Der morgn zhurnal, May 31, 1937, p. 8.

17. Yael Feldman inaccurately states that Teller visited Freud in 1938; see“Y. L. Teller and the Tradition of Yiddish Imagism” [Hebrew], Moznaim 57 (September 1983): 36. Teller refers to his visit of the previous year in Der morgn zhurnal, March 14, 1938, p. 3.

18. “Jud Suss Oppenheimer af zayn ershtn bazukh baym Professor Sigmund Freud,” first printed in the journal In zikh, October 1937, pp. 91–92; collected in Lider fun der tsayt, pp. 47–8, and Durkh yidishn gemit, pp. 109–111. Translations are my own, cited from the original by line alone. I have consulted the rendering by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav in American Yiddish Poetry, pp. 521–523. A shorter version of the poem, entitled “Family Speaks Its Mind Before Professor Sigmund Freud,” was collected in the posthumous volume Durkh yidishn gemit, p. 112, and translated in Howe et al., Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse, pp. 662–664. A Hebrew translation by Dan Miron is contained in Teller's Mivkhar shirim, pp. 122–124.

19. See Yehuda Leyb Teller, “Family Speaks Its Mind Before Sigmund Freud,” in Durkh yidishn gemil, p. 112, line 16.

20. Der morgn zhurnal, March 16, 1938, p. 6. In fact, Freud was eighty-one.

21. Giants, A., “Sigmund Freud unter Hitlers svastika,” Der log, March 19, 1938, pp. 3 and 7.Google Scholar

22. Teller, Y. L., “Di yidishe kehile in Vin vos shteyt itst untern shotn fun hitlerizm,” Der morgn zhurnal, March 14, 1938, p. 3Google Scholar

23. “Hitlers araynmarsh keyn Vin,” in Lider fun der tsayt, pp. 31–33, and in Durkh yidishn gemit, pp. 94–95, lines 45–16. Henceforth cited by line alone. The word tsvikers apparently refers to pince-nez.

24. Der morgn zhurnal, March 14, 1938, p. 3.

25. Teller, Y. L., “Freud a dorn di Nazis in Vin vi Einstein iz geven in Berlin,” Der morgn zhurnal, March 17, 1938, p. 3 and 10; the identical essay was reprinted in the same newspaper on the following day, possibly as the result of an editorial error.Google Scholar

26. Giants, A., “Sigmund Freuds nekome,” Der tog, June 7, 1938, p. 6.Google Scholar

27. Teller, Y. L., “Sigmund Freud vemen Nazis hobn fartribn fun Vin,” Der morgn zhurnal.June 8, 1938, p. 7.Google Scholar

28. Teller alludes to Der Mann Moses unddie monolheistische Religion [1937–39], collected in Gesammelte Werke, vol. 16 (London, 1950), pp. 101–246.

29. “Sigmund Freud tsu tsvey un akhtsik yor,” first published by Inzikh, June 1938, pp. 142–143; collected in Teller, Lider fun der tsayt, pp. 54–55, and Durkh yidishn gemit, pp. 118–120. Translations are my own, compared with “Sigmund Freud at the Age of Eighty- Two,” in Harshav and Harshav, American Yiddish Poetry, pp. 529–533.

30. For an account of the Nazis′ entry into Freud's house, seeJones, Ernest, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (New York, 1957), vol. 3, pp. 218–219. 284Google Scholar

31. Translated from chap. 7, sec. D, ofFreud's, SigmundDie Traumdeutung, in the Gesammelte Werke, vol. 2/3 (London, 1942), p. 589. Compare Miron's comments in his introduction to Teller's Mivkhar shirim, p. 51.Google Scholar

32. See Freud, Sigmund, “Analyse der Phobie eines funfjahrigen Knaben” (1909), in Gesammelte Werke, vol. 7 (London, 1941), pp. 243–377. The first English translation was published in Freud's Collected Papers, trans. trans. Alice Strachey and James Strachey (London, 1925).Google Scholar

33. See Die Traumdeulung, chap. 6, sec. H, in Gesammelte Werke, vol. 2/3, p. 488n.

34. Der tog, March 9, 1941. Quoted from the collection of critical appreciations in Teller, Durkh yidishn gemit, p. 237.

35. Auerbach, Ephraim, “Af der vogshol,” Der morgn zhurnal, December 10, 1940, p. 4.Google Scholar

36. See Miron's introduction to his edition of Teller's poems, Mivkhar shirim, pp. 16 and 60.