Zishe Landau

Photo from the volume of poetry Lider from 1937

Zishe Landau (* 1889 in Plotzk , Poland ; † 1937 in New York ), (Yiddish: זישא לאנדוי, other spellings: Zisha Landau, Zischa Landau, Zisha Landoy) was a Yiddish poet of literary modernism . He is assigned to the literary group Di Yunge .

Biography and work

Title page of the posthumous volume of poetry Lider from 1937

Born in Plotzk (Polish: Płock) into a traditional rabbinical family, Landau enjoyed both a traditionally Jewish and a secular upbringing. He went to New York in 1906, where he belonged to the emerging literary group Di Yunge , which, in a departure from earlier American-Yiddish literary traditions, advocated “pure poetry” and a reflection on the “beautiful”, free from politicizing subjects. Zishe Landau is credited with saying that Yiddish poetry has to be something other than the “rhyme department of the Jewish labor movement” . His poetry is under the influence of European impressionism and feels obliged to the creed of l'art pour l'art . Politically rather conservative, he was a literary innovator. The anthology Di Idishe Dikhtung in Amerike bis Yor 1919 (1919) edited by him shows his approach in its introduction and the selection of the respective poets and poems. For example, the anthology contained only four short poems by Morris Rosenfeld , who at the time enjoyed international renown for his social and national poems.

In his poetry, Landau shows a strong affinity for symbolism and late romanticism . His subjects are often exotic, and his vocabulary is more suggestive than expressive. Best known was his poem about the Baal Shem , whom he portrays as a person who is always on the lookout for the cheerful aspect in every aspect of nature and life. In his four comedies, published under the collective name Es Iz Gornisht Nit Geshen (1937), he satirically examines the being and relationships of people.

In addition to his own works, Zishe Landau translated works by other writers into Yiddish, for example the then very successful novel by Bernhard Kellermann Ingeborg (1919) or the novel Oblomow by Ivan Alexandrowitsch Gontscharow (1921). His translations of early English ballads as well as German, Russian and French poets were published posthumously in the volume Fun der velt poezye (1947).

Zishe Landau did not publish any single editions of his poetry during his lifetime. All published volumes of poetry are posthumous collections.

bibliography

Own works

• Zishe Landau: The bloyer nakhṭigal: a shpil in dray stsenes . New York: Farlag Ameriḳa, 1923.
• Zishe Landau: Lids . New York, Farlag Inzl, 1937.
• Zishe Landau: Shriftn . New York, Farlag Inzl, 1937.
• Zishe Landau: It iz gornisht not seen. Comedies in fersn . New York, 1937.
• David Kazanski (ed.): Zishe Landau: Zamlbukh . Farlag Inzl, 1938.

Anthologies

• Zishe Landau (ed.): Antology: Di Idishe Dikhtung in Amerike biz Yor 1919 . New York, 1919.

Translations

• Di ṿerḳ fun Haynrikh Hayne: miṭ a biography fun A. Ḳalisher un a forṿorṭ fun N. Sirḳin . Translations by Nachman Syrkin ; A Kalischer; Reuben Eisland; Mark Schweid; Abraham Travel ; Moshe Leib Halpern; Zisha Landau. New York, Ferlag Idish, 1918.
• Zishe Landau (translator): Oblomov: roman in fir teylen fun Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov . New York, Farlag Culture, 1921.
• Zishe Landau ( transl .): Dos meydel fun ṿald: Ingeborg, roman fun Bernhard Kellermann. , Farlag Idish, Jewish Book Agency, New York, 1919.
• Zishe Landau: Fun der velt poezye . Graphics by Yehudah Tofel. New York: Dovid Ignatov literature fund, 1947.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Otto F. Best: Mameloschen: Yiddish, a language and its literature . (1973), 2nd ed. 1983, p. 348
2. ↑ Irving Howe, Kenneth Libo: How we lived: a documentary history of immigrant Jews in America, 1880–1930 . (1979), p. 301.
3. ↑ Lewis Fried et al. a .: Handbook of American-Jewish literature: an analytical guide to topics… . (1988), p. 191.