Treatise on God

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Translated from the Yiddish

In a recently discovered manuscript, the great writer reflects on the good and evil within the divine.

Tablet, Sep 2021

Prayer

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Translated from the Yiddish

A searingly personal, deeply moving prayer, written in Hebrew, was discovered in the Nobel Laureate’s papers. The prayer was handwritten on the back of a rent receipt made out to Singer by Riesner & Gottlieb, which shows he lived on 410 Central Park West, Apartment 12F, and that he paid $73.50 for March 1952.

Tablet, May 2021

The Political Economy
of Chelm

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Translated from the Yiddish

We all know stories about the fools of Chelm. But few people know the history of Chelm’s economy. I’ve recently found a number of documents from the Chelm archive and I’d like to present you, dear readers, with a few details. . .

In geveb, December 2020

The Rise and Fall of King Vaizatha of Chelm, or,
How Chelm Remained Penniless

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Translated from the Yiddish


Hiroshima

Gail Hareven

Translated from the Hebrew

Hiroshima. Yes. In the morning, in bed, I would think about Hiroshima. Just lying there and thinking. Every morning. Maybe I shouldn’t have told her that I had these kinds of thoughts, but she was so good, so good to me, that I had to answer her. “What are you thinking about? Just tell me.” In the end, I told her. . .

Literary Matters, Summer 2020

The Preservation
of Yiddish

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Translated from the Yiddish

For some time now, people have spoken of Yiddish and Hebrew coming closer together. It’s hard to know what exactly this "closer together" is supposed to be about—or what it should allow us to do. You can’t bring one language closer to another. Yiddish cannot form a united front with Hebrew. Each language has its own history, its own fate. . . . 

Lapham's Quarterly, Winter 2020

In the Beginning. . .

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Translated from the Yiddish

A heat wave spread across Tel Aviv. The “veterans” — the ones who’d lived there for a while — called it a hamsin. But for the newcomers it was hard to tell the difference between a hamsin and just plain heat. . .

Los Angeles Review of Books, June 2018

Socrates and His Teaching

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Translated from the Yiddish

Socrates is the best-known Greek philosopher among most people. The reason for his fame is not the philosopher himself but his mean wife, Xanthippe. People in no way interested in philosophy know that the great Socrates had a bitter spouse who caused him great suffering. . . 

Public Seminar, April 2018

Ivan Sergeievich Turgenev:
On the Centennial of His Birth

Matvei Kagan

Translated from the Yiddish

In this article, I do not intend to simply "pay my debt to the memory of the dead" and confine myself to a stock anniversary speech in honor of the centennial of Turgenev’s birth. Indeed, Turgenev (1818–1893) has not been dead that long, and the treasure that he has left behind is yet to be absorbed by the living culture that he has enriched. . .

Partial Answers, 11.3 (2013), 1-7

Good Girl

Gail Hareven

Translated from the Hebrew

Today is the first day of September and for a lot of people this means the beginning of a new school year. I want to experience a new beginning too, so I've decided to buy this notebook in which, from now on, I'll write about everything that happens to me along with my thoughts. . .

Asymptote, October 2013

Job

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Translated from the Yiddish

Being a writer for a Yiddish newspaper means wasting half the workday on people who come to request advice or simply to argue. The manager, Mr. Raskin, tried several times to bring this custom to an end but failed repeatedly. Readers had each time broken in by force. Others warned that they would picket the editorial office. Hundreds of protest letters arrived in the mail. . .

The New Yorker, August 2012

The Zoo in Winter:
Selected Poems

Polina Barskova

Co-translated from the Russian
with Boris Dralyuk

Opulent, playful, and sensual, Polina Barskova's poems have earned her a reputation as the finest Russian poet under forty. While steeped in Russian and classical culture, Barskova's work remains unmistakably contemporary, at once classic and edgy—always fresh, new and even startling. 

Melville House Publishing (2011)

 
 

© Copyright David Stromberg