Texts & Translations

New translations into English of Yiddish language materials including poetry, stories, essays, and archival materials of all kinds. Original Yiddish texts are presented in a standardized orthography and are fully searchable.

Texts & Translation

ייִדישיסטן

Yiddishists

A humoris­tic mono­logue from Der Tunkel­er about Yiddishism.

Texts & Translation

שאַך־מאַט

Checkmate

An extract from Mord­khe Wolf­shaut-Dinkes’s holo­caust memoir.

Texts & Translation

דער רבי ר' בעריש בעל־תּשובֿה פֿון קראָקע

The Rebbe R. Berish Bal-tshuve of Krakow

1931 news­pa­per arti­cle by the Pol­ish Jew­ish his­to­ri­an Meir Bała­ban con­cern­ing the curi­ous Hasidic fig­ure known as Berish Bal-tshuve

Texts & Translation

אַ ביסל קלאָרקייט און פּשטות אין דער שפּראַכן־פֿראַגע

A Bit of Clarity and Simplicity in Regard to the Language Question

Hil­lel Zeitlin’s 1924 arti­cle on the lan­guage ques­tion pre­sent­ing a nov­el per­spec­tive: the cul­ti­va­tion of both Hebrew and Yid­dish is nec­es­sary to ensure the con­tin­ued flour­ish­ing of the Jew­ish people. 

Texts & Translation

כּתר: פֿראַגמענטן פֿון אַ ראַפּסאָדיע

Keter: Fragments of a Rhapsody

Zeitlin’s kab­bal­is­tic poem offers a stun­ning, yet dif­fi­cult, fusion of Yid­dish expres­sion­ism and futur­ism on the one hand, and mys­ti­cal and mes­sian­ic thought on the other. 

Texts & Translation

לעצטע מעשׂים־טובֿים פֿון אַ טאָמײטע

A Tomato's Last Good Deeds

If you thought Shloyme Gilbert’s Mono­logue of a Dog” was strange, wait until you read Get­sl Selikovit­sh’s toma­to monologue. 

Texts & Translation

די גרינע עפּעלעך פֿון גן־עדן

Green Apples from the Garden of Eden

From Boris San­dler’s 1997 col­lec­tion Toy­ern (Gate­ways): a sto­ry in which an immi­grant’s rem­i­nis­cences are so vivid they all but blur the bor­der between dreams and time travel.

Texts & Translation

צוויי לידער

Two Poems

Two poems by Celia Dropkin 

Texts & Translation

משיח אין אַמעריקע

Messiah in America

An exclu­sive extract from Moyshe Nadir’s 1932 satire, Mes­si­ah in America.

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