From My Bookshelf: To Sing Away the Darkest Days by Norbert Hirschhorn

HirschhorngifPublished by Holland Park Press, To Sing Away the Darkest Days: Poems Re-imagined from Yiddish Folksongs “is the culmination of a five-year project which saw Norbert Hirschhorn source more than one thousand Yiddish songs from several archives and from collections on the Internet, as well as from CDs.” I learned about this book through a post that the publisher contributed to the Jewish Book Carnival Goodreads group, and when I received an offer of a review copy, I accepted.

The book’s first half is devoted to Hirschhorn’s “re-imaginings” (his term) of the old Yiddish songs. Some source material is likely to be familiar to many readers: “Mayn Yidishe Mame” and “Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen,” for instance. But plenty of Hirschhorn’s inspiration comes from material that I hadn’t encountered before.

Beginning on page 57, the book’s focus turns to “Sources, transliterations, literal translations, [and] links to music.” Starting with the book’s first poem and proceeding anew to the last, the reader finds a transliteration of each song’s original Yiddish text, a literal translation into English, historical background and notes, and, where possible, links to audio or video. I’m still trying to decide if I might have preferred having all of this information directly follow each of the poems instead; the format selected requires a lot of flipping back and forth for the reader who wants edification as she goes along, poem by poem.

In any case, Hirschhorn has done something wonderful here, and I encourage readers interested in Yiddish language and literature (as well as in poetry itself) to investigate. I’ll even recommend a place to start: Hirschhorn’s publisher has created a page with links to some of the songs behind the poems. Go over there, and enjoy.

Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • “I am reading the streets of Tel Aviv for their genre affiliations,” writes Kevin Haworth for the Bending Genre website.
  • A terrific review of one of my own recent reads, Merrill Joan Gerber’s The Hysterectomy Waltz.
  • More about Alice Walker’s odious words.
  • The Jewish Week presents its summer reading section.
  • Jewish Review of Books has redesigned its website in time for its new summer issue.
  • Shabbat shalom.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Coming soon! Open: The Festival of New Jewish Theater at the 14th Street Y in New York will take place June 10-30. I attended last year, and I’m looking forward to dropping by again.
  • The Forward previews a slew of new Jewish books for summer.
  • As I think I’ve mentioned, one of the books I’m hoping to read this summer is Rutu Modan’s The Property (trans. Jessica Cohen), which appears to belong to the ever-growing corpus of “3G” literature. As noted in this week’s Publishers Weekly profile: “Inspired by her family origins and family secrets, [Modan] wanted to write a story about a Jewish grandmother who, with the help of her granddaughter, reclaims her property in Poland that was seized during the war.”
  • Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, which will be published in November, is the inaugural winner of the Natan Book Award. (I happen to be reading an electronic galley of this book at the moment.)
  • Win a bundle of Jewish-interest books from the Jewish Book Council.
  • Shabbat shalom.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • The May Jewish Book Carnival is now online. Check out the recommended links for lots of recent news, reviews, and interviews.
  • Rabbi Rachel Barenblat offers reflections on motherhood and context for her new book of poems over on ZEEK.
  • Q&A with Rutu Modan, whose forthcoming graphic novel, The Property, is on my TBR list.
  • The Whole Megillah presents a Q&A with author Lesléa Newman.
  • Last, but maybe not least: I’m offering a free, signed copy of Quiet Americans to the winner of this Short Story Month Giveaway.
  • Shabbat shalom!

    From My Bookshelf: A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel

    I’ve mentioned before how grateful I am to be taking a noncredit course on “Zionist Thought & Statesmanship” this spring. Among other benefits, the seminar has provided me with an excellent reading list. Most recently, I finished reading A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, by Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh. (It is worth noting that May 14 will mark the 65th anniversary of the United States, under President Truman’s leadership, becoming the first nation to recognize the State of Israel.)

    TrumanPublished in 2009, the book won the Washington Institute’s Book Prize (for nonfiction books on the Middle East). It received widespread attention; rather than give you a summary/review myself, I’ll point you to some existing analyses.

  • “Zionist in the White House,” by Jonathan Tepperman (New York Times Book Review)
  • Review by Walter Russell Mead (Foreign Affairs)
  • “Success Has Many Parents,” by Daniel E. Levenson (New Vilna Review)
  • But wait–there’s more. Bonus material that I’ve located online includes an excerpt and a video (which I hope to have the opportunity to watch in the near future myself) that features the authors discussing their book at the YIVO Institute.

    Have any of you already read the book? What are your thoughts?