Fartaytsht Un Farbesert? The Practice of Translating Yiddish Poetry

Instructor Name

Mr. Daniel Kraft

Course Title

Fartaytsht Un Farbesert? The Practice of Translating Yiddish Poetry 

Genre

Workshop / Translation / Poetry / Yiddish

General Description

Together we will read, discuss, and translate great works of Yiddish poetry. Each class we’ll read texts centered around a different theme in Yiddish literature and culture. The goals of this class are two-fold: to increase students’ comfort and ability rendering Yiddish literary texts into English, and to help students gain an intimate familiarity with the richness of Yiddish literary traditions.

Translation is a venerable Jewish mode of connecting deeply with religious texts, and in this class we will work through Yiddish poetry in order to find a deeper connection to Yiddish and to broader Jewish thought and culture. Students will gain an appreciation of the ways that Yiddish literature can enrich their lives and open up new possibilities for making meaning in Judaism.

If students are interested, there will also be opportunities to share original creative responses to the poems we read and discuss.

Week 1

Theories and Histories of Yiddish Literature: In addition to getting to know each other, we’ll spend our first week getting an overview of the development of Yiddish literature, discussing some of the theoretical and cultural questions Yiddish writing raises, and exploring different approaches to Yiddish translation.

Week 2

Mystical Yiddish: We’ll examine the ways that Yiddish poets incorporate Jewish mystical traditions into their poetry, think about how best to render distinctly Jewish vocabulary into English, and consider the ways that poetry can be a paradoxical medium to communicate religious ideas. 

Week 3

Women Poets: The history of Yiddish literature is intimately tied to a lineage of women readers and writers. In this class, we’ll look at poetry by modern and pre-modern Yiddish women in order to explore their literary perspectives and contributions.

Week 4

The Khurbn: How is it possible to express the inexpressible? How do Yiddish poets grapple in verse with the traumas of the Holocaust? Together we’ll look at different approaches to these questions by Yiddish writers who survived the Holocaust and who witnessed it from afar.

Week 5

Love Poetry: For our final class, we’ll explore the underappreciated world of romantic and erotic Yiddish poetry, looking at modern Yiddish writers alongside Yiddish translations of classic love poems. 

Language(s)

Intermediate Yiddish; Proficient English

Course Schedule

Five Tuesdays beginning 11/15; 7:30-9:00 EST

Participant Cap

8

Participant Expectations

Participants are expected to participate fully in class discussion and in chevrutah reading, discussion, and translation activities.

Prerequisites

Intermediate Yiddish reading skills, and fluency in English; please contact the instructor with any questions about fit. 

Recommended For

Anyone comfortable with the basics of Yiddish who is looking for a deeper engagement with Yiddish poetry

Sync. Medium

Zoom

Daniel Kraft is a writer, translator, and educator living in Richmond, Virginia. He holds a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School, where he was a Harry Austryn Wolfson Fellow in Jewish Studies and a resident at the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions. Daniel  has taught at conferences, synagogues, and museums in North America and Poland, and his work has been supported by residencies, fellowships, and scholarships from institutions including the National Yiddish Book Center, the Community of Writers, and the Glen Workshop. His poems, essays, and translations appear in a number of publications, and he shares translations of Yiddish poetry in his newsletter at danielkraft.substack.com.