A Window in the Night
Isaac Bashevis Singer · Translated by David Stromberg
The Sewanee Review (Spring 2025)
At ten fifteen, Miss Lombard entered the five-story furnished apartment building.
The Eclipse
Isaac Bashevis Singer · Translated by David Stromberg
One Story, issue 296 (December 20, 2022)
At a pub, in the dusk of late afternoon, the light from a few parchment-covered lampshades flickered in the glasses, the bottles…
Prayer
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Tablet, May 2021
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.
Treatise on God
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Tablet, Sep 2021
Translated from the Yiddish In a recently discovered manuscript, the great writer reflects on the good and evil within the divine.
The Political Economy of Chelm
Isaac Bashevis Singer
In geveb, December 2020
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. . .
The Rise and Fall of King Vaizatha of Chelm, or, How Chelm Remained Penniless
Isaac Bashevis Singer
In geveb, December 2020
Translated from the Yiddish Not everyone knows it, but Chelm once had a king. He was called Vaizatha the First, and not only was he a fool, but he was also extremely strict with his subjects. Vaizatha had no sages with whom to seek council. As soon as an idea struck him about how to improve the situation in Chelm, he immediately made it into a law. Like many tyrants who came before and after him, Vaizatha supposedly intended to do good, but the good always came out bad. He caused so much suffering in Chelm that it was nearly lost under his rule.
Hiroshima
Gail Hareven
Literary Matters, Summer 2020
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. . .
The Preservation of Yiddish
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Lapham’s Quarterly, Winter 2020
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. . . .
In the Beginning. . .
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Los Angeles Review of Books, June 2018
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. . .
Socrates and His Teaching
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Public Seminar, April 2018
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. . .
Good Girl
Gail Hareven
Asymptote, October 2013
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. . .
Ivan Sergeievich Turgenev: On the Centennial of His Birth
Matvei Kagan
Partial Answers, 11.3 (2013), 1-7
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. . .
Job
Isaac Bashevis Singer
The New Yorker, August 2012
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 Zoo in Winter: Selected Poems
Polina Barskova
Melville House Publishing (2011)
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.
