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a thunderous voice!”
M. Szpek, Ph.D.
the year 1915, in the midst of the German Occupation, I just finished
translating all of Krylov’s fables. … At that time,
although Bialystok was the most open-minded city in the entire world,
there were no functioning publishers. Yet in Bialystok a cultural
revolution was still underway, which allowed my translation of
Krylov’s fables to be published.”
So wrote Pesach Kaplan in the Preface to his Yiddish translation of
the fables of Ivan Krylov, entitled Krylov’s
Kaplan was a prominent figure in the history of Jewish Bialystok.
Born in 1870 in the shtetl
of Stavisk, west of Bialystok, Kaplan’s father served as a
cantor and ritual slaughterer. From age 13 until 19, Kaplan moved
with his father from town to town, studying in yeshivas until his
family finally arrived in Warsaw. In Warsaw, Kaplan was introduced
to the Haskalah,
engendering his love of Hebrew language, literature and the Jewish
enlightenment. Coupled with his Talmudic training, these interests
found an outlet in writing and his initial advocacy of Zionism. In
1888, Kaplan moved to Bialystok where writing became a daily
endeavor. In Pinkos
(Chronicle of Bialystok), author Abraham Samuel Herszberg emphasized
Kaplan’s literary and community contributions to Bialystok.
Kaplan was a teacher, a journalist, a writer and much more. He
served on the Relief Committee of the Teachers’ Union after the
1906 Pogrom, as a member of Bialystok’s kehillah
from 1918-1928, and in 1919, Kaplan founded the daily Yiddish
(later renamed Unzer
serving as its editor-in-chief until 1939. For his extensive
literary contributions perhaps Kaplan is best known. Indeed,
Herszberg expresses his indebtedness to Kaplan’s extensive
publications as a source for his own writing of Pinkos
there is another role for which Kaplan is also remembered. During
World War II and the Holocaust, when the Bialystok Ghetto was
created, Kaplan became a member of the Judenrat.
As a teacher he became the head of the Bialystok Ghetto’s
Education Department. Within the forced confines of the ghetto,
Kaplan believed education and cultural activities were essential,
serving both as a sign of resistance amidst oppression and preserving
the future of Jewish tradition. In response to the Aktion
of July 1941 in Bialystok, Kaplan is also well-known for his moving
the Sabbath Widow,
which allowed him to express both the pain and hope of the wives and
children whose husbands and fathers had been taken away, never to
return. In March 1943, Pesach Kaplan died in the Bialystok Ghetto,
having witnessed the beginning of Ghetto’s liquidation in
February. During his years in the Bialystok Ghetto, Kaplan continued
his writing in the form of two diaries, today preserved in the
archives of Yad Vashem.
chance discovery on Ebay of a book by Pesach Kaplan revealed to me
yet another side of Pesach Kaplan. His name had captured my
attention before the title of the book. Only several weeks later,
when the book arrived, did I – with initial disappointment,
learn that this volume was a translation project by Kaplan and not
poetry of his own writing. Disappointment gave way to intrigue when
I realized the import of this work – Krylov’s
“The Fables of Krylov”. Ivan Andreyevich Krylov rose to
be become a prominent Russian writer and intellectual of the late
and early 19th
centuries. His fables, following in the tradition of Aesop and La
Fontaine, brought him to literary prominence. The animals in his
fables provided legendary insight into caricatures of Russian
society; the stories and their morals served as satire to disguise
Krylov’s disdain for Russian repression.
why did Pesach Kaplan devote such energy to this translation project,
especially amidst the turmoil of World War I? Bialystok was then
part of Russia; Russian language, culture and politics clearly
impacted this city’s inhabitants regardless of their
inclinations. In the Preface to Krylov’s
Kaplan offers his explanation: “In the year 1914, the idea was
borne, to create for Jewish children, likewise for the general adult
reader, a new translation of Krylov’s Fables.”
Apparently, an older Yiddish translation by Zvi Hirsh Reichson,
containing only a small portion of the hundreds of Krylov’s
fables was insufficient. Kaplan, advocate of the Haskalah,
found value in the secular literature of Russia for Jewish youth and
community alike. Encouraged by his friend in the Bialystok Literary
Circle – perhaps the same friend, Aharon Albek, who wrote the
Forward to this volume, Kaplan undertook this project at what would
seem a most unpropitious moment – amidst the First World War.
At a time “when there were no active publishers”, Kaplan
found a publishing house – A. Albek’s, and a printing
shop – Pruzszanski’s on Lipowa Street in Bialystok.
Kaplan initially planned to publish a five volume set of all of
Krylov’s fables translated by himself into Yiddish, “except”
– as Kaplan wrote, “for a few fables, which were not
translatable in his opinion.” Kaplan’s five volume
project was revised (as he noted) into a three volume set. The book
I had procured was the first volume, containing 67 fables. There are
familiar fables in this volume, found likewise in many translations
to this day – The Crow and the Fox, The Wolf and the Little
Sheep, Two Doves, The Rooster and the Pearl, The Stone and the Snake,
and The Elephant and the Mouse. This type of fable predominates in my
collection. Such fables offer classic caricatures of Russian
individuals of Krylov’s day through the guise of animals.
There are other fables in this collection, such as The Musicians, The
Voyage, The Imperialist, The Three Lady Killers, The Heretics, The
Funeral, The Householder and the Speculative Thinker, which also
offer insight into Russian society and life without engaging
characters from the animal kingdom!
Kaplan translated these fables from Russian into Yiddish he set in
place two particular rules: 1.) that the naiveté, folksy and
concise style of Krylov be maintained; and 2.) that individual
phrases and larger “pictorials”, as well as general
features of the fable, must not appear strange to the Yiddish reader.
Kaplan was undertaking an energetic translation project, desiring
to maintain the integrity of the Russian literary style yet demanding
that the Yiddish translation would appropriately “feel
Yiddish”! To this end, Kaplan wrote in his Preface, he would
permit himself to “work-over” a fable to maintain its
substance as well as its moral. In the end, Kaplan believed he
offered “a pure translation, which reverberates with the
classical veracity of the [original] poet.”
eye was not drawn to the popular animal fables in this volume, nor to
those without animal characters, nor even to three tempting poems,
entitled “Abraham’s Soup”, “Elijah the
Prophet and the Beggar” and “Samson”. I was
immediately draw to the fable entitled “Der
– The Preacher:
stands a magid
on the bimah
he delivers a spirited sermon (droshe),
equates the artistry of men with dust-rubble (rimah),
he chastises and flays the wicked (roshe).
spritz forth from his mouth (moyl)
word a more zealous bullet (koyl).
of his speech a shiver goes through each body (lajber),
that not only cry out the God-fearing women (wajber).
for a long time the magid
does not struggle (kemfn)
resolving the disputes for deeper meaning (kremfn).
a lament suddenly breaks out (oijs)
the synagogue, the magid’s
sermon is so grand (grojs).
after the sermon everyone stands still (shtajn)
because of the magid’s
a thunderous voice (shtim)!
example like a little pearl or a beam of light (shajn)!
a stone is able to feel! (vern)
magic, tears burst forth (trern).
one person stands in the corner (winkl)
– no spark is in his eye (finkl).
neighbor says to him: What’s wrong with you? (mayr)
see not even one eye has yet a single tear! (trayr)
the interpretation too difficult for your mind? (shvayr)
why do I not cry as you all do? I’m just not from the
3 Kaplan’s translation of Der
this rough translation (that bears no claim to the brilliance of
Kaplan’s translation from the Russian and acknowledges the
difficulties of several older Yiddish variants in spelling!), I was
first struck by specific words. Magid,
clearly were directed at Kaplan’s early 20th
century Yiddish audience. The pattern of rhyme is equally
… ababccddeeff. The pattern is repeated until all but the
last five lines: a’b’a’b’c’c’d’d’e’e’f’f’f’g’
The rhyme of mayr/trayr/shvayr
slows the reader as the questioning of the tearless man begins. The
tearless man begins to offer his response, slowed again by the
unrhymed Yiddish line (apyilu),
to be followed by the punch line: “I’m just not from the
kehillah!” With this final line, ending in kehillah,
rhyme is restored back to the opening words bimah
Krylov was known for his rhyme; Kaplan clearly captured the rhyme
for his Yiddish audience, preserving the classical integrity of
Krylov as he had promised.
chanced upon an English translation of this fable by C. Coxwell
(1920). Intriguing, however, is its title – “The
Parishioner”. The focus, as the title suggests, is on the
‘parishioner’; though the eloquence of the pastor is
noted as in the Yiddish translation:
in a church, a pastor,
Who looked on Plato as of eloquence a
Discoursed, before his flock, concerning worthy
A speech mellifluous, of perfect form, proceeds
To treat of
purest truths with art appearing artless.
As by a golden chain.
To heaven are lifted thoughts of hearers even heartless,
all perceive the world is full of projects vain.
The orator has
And yet his listeners stay, being to glorious
Borne by the magic power of wondrous, lofty
While pearly drops, escaping, flood their eyes.
And now the
congregation leaves the temple holy,
"How I his gifts
Says one man to the next, in modest tone and
"What sweetness, touched with fire!
every heart to virtue has deflected;
But, neighbour, you by it
but little seem
Your cheek displays, methinks, no single
Have you not understood ?" "Yes, entertain no
But, with this parish, and folk here,
I, Sir, in no way am
yet another English translation by I. Henry Harrison (1883), this
fable once again entitled “The Parishioner”, affirms the
Russian title. Harrison also offers a chronology and classification
of Krylov’s fables. “The Parishioner”, written in
1825, is situated among the later years of Krylov’s composition
of fables (1806-1836). It is classified as a personal fable intended
to depict the cliques among writers and, in particular, how Krylov
felt excluded from such groups. Harrison translates an opening
stanza to this fable, rendered by neither Kaplan nor Coxwell, which
depicts Krylov’s feeling of exclusion:
there are, be only once their friend,
thou the first of writers art, a genius without end;
let another come,
sweetly he may sing, they’re dumb;
only can he not the slightest praise expect,
fear to feel the beauties they detect,
though I may annoy them by the act,
here shall tell no fable, but a fact.”
it would seem, was the first of writers, the genius –
represented in the fable’s eloquent “pastor”, to
whom presumably a writer from another clique (“the neighbor”)
would offer no praise nor shed a tear. This opening stanza offers
much insight into the intended meaning of this fable – so why
would Kaplan (and Coxwell) exclude it from translation?
translation is a perfect transference of an original composition.
Kaplan wrote in his Preface that he would permit himself to
“work-over” a fable to maintain its substance as well as
its moral without detriment to the classical integrity of the author
or the relevance of the fable’s new Yiddish audience.
Kaplan’s translation does preserve the general substance of
Krylov’s poem and indeed matches Krylov’s attention to
rhyme. However, Kaplan also “worked-over” this fable to
bring more emphasis to the magid,
the depth of the magid’s
(sermon), with which the magid
engaged the text and audience – perhaps a reminder of Kaplan’s
years in the yeshivas throughout northeastern Poland, and the impact
of this teaching on the congregation – again perhaps a reminder
of the impact Kaplan’s teachers had upon him. Omitting the
opening stanza was thus essential to redirect this fable to a Jewish
audience (and apparently also for Coxwell’s audience). Neither
Kaplan nor Coxwell wished to ponder a writer’s exclusion from
literary guilds, rather they saw in this fable another meaning –
perhaps that the eloquence of a magid
or pastor is dependent on his connection to a particular community.
Perhaps the master-student relationship is essential for truly
appreciating the droshe
(sermon). For this reason omission of the opening stanza was
first time I read Kaplan’s translation, however, my thoughts
were immediately drawn to a detail by which, at least for me, Kaplan
transformed this fable for the Yiddish world – by delivery of
the punch line! Krylov’s neighbor delivers his line with a
haughty air as suggested by Coxwell’s translation (“But,
with this parish, and folk here, I, Sir, in no way am connected.")
and even in Harrison’s earlier translation (“But then,
what cause for me to cry? I am not of this parish, I!”). I
imagine Krylov’s ‘tearless man’ in these
translations abruptly walking away. Such a punch line accords well
with the master fabulist Krylov’s personal intention for this
fable. But for Kaplan’s ‘tearless man’, I
envision him offering a whimsical shrug, tilting his head with a nod
as he responds – “I’m just not from the kehillah!”
… and off he goes. Kaplan is indeed renowned for his literary
and community contributions and the sad fate that stole his life in
the ghetto. Yet discovery of this volume, with attention to just one
poem, suggests that there is even more to be learned about the voice
of this extraordinary man. Beneath Kaplan’s silvery coiffure
and stern countenance, there lurks a man who could also deliver a
good dose of Yiddish humor!
1 David Sohn, Bialystok
Image 2, 3 Heidi M. Szpek.
Kaplan, trans., Krylovs
A. Albek, 1921.
Sohn, ed., Byalistok
bilder album fun a barimter shtot un yire yiden yiber der welt.
[Białystok Photo Album of a Renowned City and its Jews the World
Over.] New York, 1951.
Yizkor Book.” http://www.zchor.org/bialystok/yizkor7.htm#death
Białystok during World War II and the Holocaust.
Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 2008.
Abraham Samuel, Pinkes
(The Chronicle of) Białystok.]
Volumes I and II. New York: Białystok Jewish Historical
Fillingham Coxwell, trans., Kriloff’s
Fables. London: Kegan
Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd, 1920.
Henry Harrison, trans., Kriloff’s
London: Remington & Co., 1883.
M. Szpek, Ph.D. is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of
Philosophy & Religious Studies at Central Washington University
(Ellensburg, Washington), currently writing a book on the Jewish
epitaphs from Bialystok, Poland. Her most recent journal articles on
Jewish epitaphs include “Jewish Epitaphs from Bialystok,
1905-6: Mending the Torn Thread of Memory.” East European
Jewish Affairs. Vol. 41, Nos. 1–2, April–August 2011,
1–23, and “Filial Piety in Jewish Epitaphs.” The
International Journal of the Humanities.
Volume 8.4 (2010): 183-202. She has also contributed a variety of
articles on Jewish epitaphs and Jewish material culture in
northeastern Poland to The Jewish Magazine online. Her website is
from the August 2011 Edition of the Jewish Magazine
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