Translations of selected poems by the Yiddish writer, covering the full scope of his oeuvre.
Described by Ruth Wisse as one of "the most original and distinctive voices in Yiddish poetry," Moyshe-Leybe Halpern (1886–1932) was born in Zlochov, in present-day western Ukraine. When he was twelve, his father sent him to Vienna to study sign painting, and during his ten years there he studied German literature and wrote his first poems in German before returning to Zlochov in 1907, where he began to write in Yiddish. The following year, he immigrated to New York, where a diverse community of Yiddish writers awaited him. During his lifetime, he published two volumes of poetry—In New York (1919) and The Golden Peacock (1924). A third volume was published posthumously, in 1934. Drawing from these three volumes, poet and translator Richard Fein offers a selection of Halpern's poetry that covers the full scope of his career. Fein's translations appear alongside the original Yiddish while an introduction by Larry Rosenwald situates Halpern in his historic and literary context.