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Isaac Bashevis Singer
Dec. 8th, 2022 10:58 amAfter visiting the Yiddish Book Center I was seized by the desire to read some works in translation from Yiddish. Conveniently, this desire intersected with my Newbery project, as Isaac Bashevis Singer won a Newbery Honor three years running for works that he wrote in Yiddish then translated (with Elizabeth Shub as co-translator) into English.
In 1967, the book was Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories, a series of folk-tale style stories, although I believe they’re Singer’s original work. (The Newbery Committee of the 1960s was apparently on a folk tale kick and I am HERE for it.) These stories are set in eastern European Jewish communities and are sometimes magical and sometimes merely zany, as when the foolish elders of Chelm decide to solve their money problems by gathering the “diamonds” (snow) falling from the sky, only they need to ensure the villagers won’t trample it, so they decide to send around a messenger to tell everyone not to go outside. Only they realize that the messenger will, himself, trample the snow, so they have him carried on a table by four bearers… only to see in shock the next morning that the bearers trampled the snow! If only each bearer had been carried by yet another bearer, maybe that would have protected the snow?
In 1968, the Honor went to The Fearsome Inn, a picture book (with gorgeous misty illustrations by Nonny Hogrogian) about an inn run by a witch and her demon husband. One night, they have three guests, and are looking forward to a night of plunder… only one of their guests is a cabala student (this is Singer’s chosen spelling), who has a magic piece of chalk which can trap anything if used to draw a line around it! Our student traps the witch and the demon until they agree to leave the inn forever. Then three guests marry the three maids who had been enslaved at the inn, and everyone lives happily ever after!
And in 1969, Singer rounded off his streak with When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories, which is very much of a piece with Zlateh the Goat. My favorite story is perhaps the title story, where Shlemiel attempts to go to Warsaw, but gets turned around on the way. Therefore, when he arrives back in Chelm, he decides that this must not be the original Chelm, but a second Chelm, even though it has all the same people as the original Chelm, including his wife and children, who must be the wife and children of a second Shlemiel!
Since of course he can’t live with another man’s wife, Shlemiel ends up living in the poorhouse, and the elders pay him to look after the children (which previously he was doing for free) so his wife (who is not his wife) can sell vegetables in the market. As she is still cooking for Shlemiel and mending his clothes, Shlemiel turns over the money to his wife (who is not his wife) (but really she is his wife), thus contributing more to the household income than he ever did before. And everyone is happy!
In 1967, the book was Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories, a series of folk-tale style stories, although I believe they’re Singer’s original work. (The Newbery Committee of the 1960s was apparently on a folk tale kick and I am HERE for it.) These stories are set in eastern European Jewish communities and are sometimes magical and sometimes merely zany, as when the foolish elders of Chelm decide to solve their money problems by gathering the “diamonds” (snow) falling from the sky, only they need to ensure the villagers won’t trample it, so they decide to send around a messenger to tell everyone not to go outside. Only they realize that the messenger will, himself, trample the snow, so they have him carried on a table by four bearers… only to see in shock the next morning that the bearers trampled the snow! If only each bearer had been carried by yet another bearer, maybe that would have protected the snow?
In 1968, the Honor went to The Fearsome Inn, a picture book (with gorgeous misty illustrations by Nonny Hogrogian) about an inn run by a witch and her demon husband. One night, they have three guests, and are looking forward to a night of plunder… only one of their guests is a cabala student (this is Singer’s chosen spelling), who has a magic piece of chalk which can trap anything if used to draw a line around it! Our student traps the witch and the demon until they agree to leave the inn forever. Then three guests marry the three maids who had been enslaved at the inn, and everyone lives happily ever after!
And in 1969, Singer rounded off his streak with When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories, which is very much of a piece with Zlateh the Goat. My favorite story is perhaps the title story, where Shlemiel attempts to go to Warsaw, but gets turned around on the way. Therefore, when he arrives back in Chelm, he decides that this must not be the original Chelm, but a second Chelm, even though it has all the same people as the original Chelm, including his wife and children, who must be the wife and children of a second Shlemiel!
Since of course he can’t live with another man’s wife, Shlemiel ends up living in the poorhouse, and the elders pay him to look after the children (which previously he was doing for free) so his wife (who is not his wife) can sell vegetables in the market. As she is still cooking for Shlemiel and mending his clothes, Shlemiel turns over the money to his wife (who is not his wife) (but really she is his wife), thus contributing more to the household income than he ever did before. And everyone is happy!
