Writing in Tongues

Writing in Tongues examines the complexities of translating Yiddish literature at a time when the Yiddish language is in decline. After the Holocaust, Soviet repression, and American assimilation, the survival of traditional Yiddish literature depends on translation, yet a few Yiddish classics have been translated repeatedly while many others have been ignored. Anita Norich traces historical and aesthetic shifts through versions of these canonical texts, and she argues that these works and their translations form an enlightening conversation about Jewish history and identity.

Anita Norich is professor of English and Judaic studies at the University of Michigan.

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Translation Theory and Practice: The Yiddish Difference

2. How Tevye Learned to Fiddle

3. Remembering Jews: Translating Yiddish after the Holocaust

4. Returning to and from the Ghetto: Yankev Glatshteyn

5. Concluding Lines and Conclusions

Appendix A / Anna Margolin’s “Maris tfile” in Yiddish and Translations

Appendix B / Twelve Translations of Yankev Glatshteyn’s “A gute nakht, velt”

Notes

Bibliography

Index