Zlochov, My Home

Richard Fein is Professor Emeritus of English at the State University of New York at New Paltz and the author, editor, and translator of many books, including The Full Pomegranate: Poems of Avrom Sutzkever, also published by SUNY Press. He lives in Cambridge MA.

"Clearly, we have much to learn from reading Moyshe-Leyb Halpern's poems in translation. They show us the complex ripple effects of the Jewish diaspora; they represent an intense flowering of Yiddish verse before that language's systemic erasure; but perhaps most of all, they survive as an authentic, moving account of one individual's rejection of certain scripts and ideologies in favor of an honest appraisal of his world." — The Brooklyn Rail"[Halpern] was free of sentimentality and rich in irony, a virtuoso of form, politically engaged but not subservient to any ideology, the creator of half a dozen brilliant poetic personae and interlocutors, loved and known by Yiddish readers but never oversimplifying his poetry to win their praise.... His three books establish Halpern as a great poet: a Yiddish poet, a proletarian poet, an American poet, as broadly and intensely interesting a poet as Heine or Baudelaire or Frost. Yiddishists know this, of course. Some specialists and curious critics know it too—witness Harold Bloom's remark, that Halpern was a more impressive poet, in his experience as a reader, 'than any American-Jewish poet who has written in English.'" — From the introduction by Larry Rosenwald"With the Yiddish en face, Zlochov, My Home can be used to learn the lost mother tongue, because Halpern speaks in a diction so spare yet so idiomatic, wearing many masks and having traveled very far—from the Golden Land to the electric chair—as vagabond, poor immigrant, lover, parent, balladeer, elegist and prophet, that (believe it or not) another great poet, American-born, Richard Fein by name, mastered Yiddish if for no other reason than to produce a twenty-first-century Moyshe-Leyb." — David G. Roskies, author of Yiddishlands: A Memoir

• A NoteRichard FeinIntroductionLarry Rosenwaldfrom In New York (1919)1. A Rogue's Prayer2. Gingili3. Your Life4. Try to Get Rid of Them5. R. — B.6. You, My Restlessness7. A Good Dream8. Memento Mori9. A Strange Thought10. In You — 11. You My Wild One, You12. Isaac Leybush Peretz13. My Restlessness From a Wolf14. Just Because15. Who Cries16. The Last Poem17. Who Is?18. Why Don't You …?19. Brotherfrom The Golden Peacock (1924)20. The Bird21. Zlochov, My Home22. The Tale of the Fly23. Considering the Bleakness24. In the Light of the Lamp25. You'll Never Catch Me Saying26. From a Letter of Mine27. Harshber, the Coalman28. Man the Ape29. The Story About the World30. Abie Curley, the War Hero31. The Last One32. My Will33. The Sorrow of the World34. Sunrise35. Who Will Save?36. Hey, You Naked Man37. I, Your God38. Hey, Jew, My Brother!39. At Midnight40. When the Sun Goes Down41. Zarkhi to Himself42. Zarkhi, My Brother43. It's Not So Much44. The Face of the Ocean45. Zarkhi, Zarkhi!46. Zarkhi, Zarkhi!...47. The Dead King's Lament48. Zarkhi's Family49. We Go Walking50. I Ask My Dear Wifefrom Moyshe-Leyb Halpern: Volume One (1934)51. Sacco-Vanzetti52. Evening53. Strangeness Between Us54. In the World55. In Central Park56. Kol Nidre57. Evening58. A Velvet Dress59. Song of the Dead Noblemanfrom Moyshe-Leyb Halpern: Volume Two (1934)60. Sunset on Trees61. The Hasidic Rebbe62. Shalamoyzn63. My ShoutingAfterwordMoyshe-Leyb Confronts MeNotes