Kolombia Krestomatio revizitata

Antaŭ 11 jaroj mi afiŝis pri kultura E-aktivado en Kolombio:

Latinamerika Memuaro revizitata

Interalie, mi menciis:

KOLOMBIA KRESTOMATIO :: JUBILEA Projekto.( Administra Blogo)

. . . & la paĝon de Rodrigo Alberto Ramirez ĉe Ipernity.

Hieraŭ okazis #mondafest2020 Tago de Ameriko, spektebla ĉe YouTube:



Unu prelegeto en la programo temis pri la projekto konstrui la menciitan antologion Kolombia Krestomatio, ĉe 6:16:20: Kolombia Kulturtrezorejo (Rodrigo Ramírez). Kontrolu mem por informiĝi plu pri la projekto, kaj rigardu ĝin ĉe Vikifontaro:

Kolombia Kulturtrezorejo

Vi tie povas konstati la ambician gamon de la projekto.

Macedonio Fernández (3): poezia lingvaĵo kiel 'persona Esperanto'

Jen antologio da verkoj de Macedonio Fernández en anglaj tradukoj:

Macedonio: Selected Writings in Translation

Jen citaĵo el la Enkonduko:

The poetry of Macedonio Fernández is doubly strange: strange for the unaccustomed conceptions of birth and death, life and love on which it rests, strange for the metalanguage created for their expression. Juan Ramón Jiménez described the poetic language of Macedonio as “a personal Esperanto, the language of nowhere . . . the tongue of Dante, Blake, Hölderlin.”

— Jo Anne Engelbert

Jen mia traduko:

La poezio de Macedonio Fernández estas duoble stranga: stranga pro la nekutimaj konceptigoj de naskiĝo kaj morto, vivo kaj amo sur kiuj ĝi baziĝas, stranga pro la metalingvo kreita por ilia esprimado. Juan Ramón Jiménez priskribis la poezian lingvaĵon de Macedonio: “persona Esperanto, la lingvo de nenie . . . la lingvo de Dante, Blake, Hölderlin.”

Koincide, ĵus aperis afiŝo pri Juan Ramón Jiménez:

Juan Ramón Jiménez de Antonio De Salvo (Esperanto-vivo, 24 Decembro 2019)

Leib Malach 27 November 1894 - 18 June 1936

I was surprised to find a tribute to Yiddish writer Leib Malach (originally Leib Salzman = Lejb Zalcman), posted on his birthday on Yiddishkeit's web site. It begins:

Leib Salzman (Lejb Zalcman), better known by his adopted name Leib Malach, was born November 27, 1894 in Zwoleń, Radom Gubernia. He moved as a teenager to Warsaw and worked at a variety of odd jobs there. Taken under the wing of the Yiddishist writer H.D. Nomberg, his writing began appearing in the Warsaw press.

He left Poland in 1922, settling and writing for the most part in Argentina, but traveled the world posting dispatches from his travels in the Yiddish press. He died suddenly after an operation in Paris on June 18, 1936.

None of Malach's works have ever been translated into English, except for one fragment of a notorious play. I learned of him via a 1939 Esperanto translation of his last play Mississippi (1936). I documented Misisipi on this blog and digitized a small part of the publication on my web site. But Yiddishkeit found this publication in the UCLA library and posted the image on the cover with its tribute and a caption:

"Malach's final and most performed play was Mississippi (cover of Esperanto translation shown here), which dealt with the 1931 Scottsboro trial. The play was written for Mikhl Weichert's Yung Teater in Warsaw, known for staging contemporary events like the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti."

And here is the original Yiddish play, in various formats: לייב מלאך

On the lower half of the tribute page is the following text, facing Phil Ochs' recording of his famous anti-racist song "Here's to the State of Mississippi":

In honor of Leib Malach’s most famous play, Mississippi, written in the immediate aftermath of the Scottsboro trial, listen to a song from Phil Ochs, written 30 years after the play’s Warsaw production. Here, Ochs brings the theme of justice denied in Mississippi up to 1965.

The slide show also features:

"Amol, Amol" (Once, Once)”: The cover of Malach’s epic poem "Amol, Amol," published in Warsaw, shortly before his emigration. Malach was a successful writer in a number of different genres.

From Spain to Holland: One of Malach’s many travel dispatches, this posthumously-published 1937 book describes Spain on the brink of civil war, fascist Germany, the leftist resistance in Vienna, and other travels throughout Western Europe.

Incidentally, the punchline to Phil Ochs' "Here's to the State of Misssippi" is "Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of."

Lejb Malaĥ pri Misisipi: de la jida al Esperanto

Antaŭ pli ol jaro mi skanis & enretigis la jenan:

Misisipi de Lejb Malaĥ (1894-1936) (Antaŭparolo & Biografio)

Poste mi kopodis iom esplori pli pri Malaĥ en la angla lingvo. Oni povas legi ĉi tiun jidan dramon en Esperanto sed ne en la angla. Unu mia precipa rimedo informi al diversaj anglalingvaj publikoj estas verki pri historiaj, kulturaj, literaturaj, aŭ filozofiaj temoj en rilato kun Esperanto.

Do finfine mi ĵus verkis anglalingvan blogeron (tuj antaŭe) ĉi-teme.

Malaĥ restis aŭ vojaĝis en diversaj landoj de Pollando ĝis Argentino ĝis Usono ĝis Palestino ĝis Francio. Li vekis publikan konscion pri la juda sklaviga sekskomerco en Argentino en 1926 per sia dramo Ibergus (Remuldado). Lia lasta publika verko estis Misisipi, kiun oni tradukis el la jida en la hebrean kaj laŭraporte la francan. En 1934/5 oni ludis la teatraĵon pli ol 300 fojojn en Pollando.

La esperantisto I. Jurysta priskribas en la antaŭparolo siajn motivojn por la traduko. Li forte kondamnas la usonan rasapartigan sistemon kaj la persekutadon de usonaj negroj. Li montras la klasbatalan perspektivon. Inter alia, li diras:

Tradukinte tiun ĉi verketon el la juda lingvo Esperanten, mi celas per ĝi montri la fratecan kunsenton kaj simpation de subpremata kaj persekutata popolo al samsorte malamata raso. Miaopinie, ĝuste en la nuna epoko, kiam la ĉiondetruanta faŝismo kaj naciismo penas disigi la homaron per incitado de plej malnoblaj instinktoj de popol‑ kaj rasmalamo, necesas pli ol ĉiam vekadi la klaskonscian solidarsenton inter ĉiuj laboruloj de ĉiuj rasoj sur la tuta terglobo por detrui per komunaj fortoj kaj bari la vojon al la freneziĝanta rasismo.

Ĉi tiun Jurysta verkis en 1939, sojle de la mondmilito. Post ses jaroj, lia popolo kaj kulturo estus ekstermitaj. Post aldonaj 20 jaroj, la usona rasapartiga sistemo estus leĝe renversata.

Do mi kaptas la okazon rememorigi la verkiston Malaĥ, kaj ni fieru ke oni konservas spurojn de lia vivo per Esperanto.

(Dekstre: Lejb Malaĥ)

A Yiddish play you can read in Esperanto but not in English

I'm talking about . . .

"Misisipi" de Lejb Malaĥ (1894-1936) (Antaŭparolo & Biografio) 

The foreword and biographical sketch, written in Esperanto, taken from this 1939 Esperanto translation, can be found on this web page. I have yet to find much about this play in English. Here's a tidbit:

Leib Malach (Malekh or Malaj; b. 1894 Zvolin, Poland; d. 1936 Paris) was the pseudonym of Leib Zaltsman; Malach, his mother's first husband's surname, means “angel” in Hebrew. During World War I he published his first literary pieces, a ballad in the Warsaw Yiddish daily Varshever Togblat. In 1922, Malach moved to Argentina, and in 1926, he traveled throughout South America and settled for a year and a half in Brazil. Malach's last play to be produced during his lifetime, Mississippi, was translated into Hebrew, French and Esperanto.

SOURCE: Yiddish South of the Border: An Anthology of Latin American Yiddish Writing; edited by Alan Astro, with an introduction by Ilan Stavans (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003), p. 92.

Here you can also find an excerpt from Malach's play "Remolding" (pp. 92-98). See also Jacob Botoshanski, Director's Prologue to Leib Malach's play "Remolding" (pp. 89-91). (This anthology's table of contents can be easily viewed and copied, here.)

There is a paragraph on Malach in the Jewish Virtual Library.

You can learn more about Malach's incendiary works in The Jewish White Slave Trade and the Untold Story of Raquel Liberman by Nora Glickman. Malach's 1926 play Ibergus (Remolding) was instrumental in combating the Jewish white slave trade in Buenos Aires and ejecting the sex trade underworld from the Yiddish theater.

Here is more on this scandalous commerce and its spillover into the Yiddish theater:

Caftens, Kurvehs, and Stille Chuppahs: Jewish Sex Workers and their Opponents in Buenos Aires, 1890-1930 by Mir Yarfitz (Perush, Vol. 2, 2010)

Here is more background on Remolding:

The King of Lampedusa and Remolding by Joel Berkowitz

Farmitlung and Shtadlones in Latin American Yiddish Literature by Alan Astro

Here is an abbreviated introduction to Astro's anthology:

Seeking Mameloshn Down South by Ilan Stavans

If you can read Spanish, you're in luck:

Nora Glickman, “Regeneración” de Leib Malach y la trata de blancas, Buenos Aires: Pardés, 1984.

Otherwise, you'll have to read Malach's works in the Yiddish originals.

There are additional biographical details accompanying the Esperanto translation Misisipi. In 1934 or 1935 this play was performed on more than 300 occasions in the major theaters of Poland (I assume in the Yiddish original.) The play was also translated into Hebrew.

The Esperanto translator, I. Jurysta, sets the stage by portraying the horrendous conditions under which Black Americans live in the Jim Crow South, including the rule of lynch-law. The play itself is based on the real-life "Scottsboro Boys" case of the 1930s. Jurysta is unsparing in his indictment of white racism and the capitalist system, as he is perplexed by the rising tide of fascism and nationalism in Europe.

Translating this work from the Yiddish language into Esperanto, I aim to demonstrate the fraternal fellow-feeling and sympathy of a suppressed and persecuted people for a hated race undergoing the same fate. (My translation)

Malach died in 1936. The translator wrote these lines in 1939. Within six years, the Jewish population of Eastern Europe would be exterminated and its culture with it. It would take an additional 20 years for the passage of civil rights legislation in the USA to begin to put an end to Jim Crow.

The only writer of history with the gift of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is convinced of this: that not even the dead will be safe from the enemy, if he is victorious. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.

— Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History”, 1940