Shrayberins / Vaybertaytsh

Celia Dropkin & Rokhl Fishman & Miriam Karpilove & Blume Lempel & Anna Margolin & Kadya Molodowsky & Yente Serdatsky

An anti-canon series of illustrations of women writers in Yiddish for Vaybertaytsh: A Feminist Podcast in Yiddish, inspired by a talk given by Anita Norich and Karolina Szymaniak.

Blume Lempel (1907-1999) | "My heart pounded as I watched the astronauts leave their earthly footprints on a heavenly body that until now had been touched only by the sighs of lovers." ("My Friend Ben," trans. Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub)

Anna Margolin [Roza Lebensboym] (1887–1952) | "My tongue quivers, / I don’t know my own voice – / My ancestors speak." ("Mayn shtam redt," trans. Shirley Kumove)

Kadya Molodowsky (1894-1975) | "And I will go meet these grandmothers, saying: / Like winds of the autumn, your lives’ / withered melodies chase after me." ("Froyen-lider," trans. Kathryn Hellerstein)

Rokhl Fishman (1935-1984) | "Ocean me in your embrace, / crash your wave through me — / and afterwards, / though you'll sand me away, / my ear will remain an oyster / full of thundering memory, / full of your pearling voice." ("Yam mikh arum")

Yente Serdatsky (1877-1962) | "A dignified mister, who’s more interested in my writing than in me as a person, says to me: 'Don’t you ever get weary of lowering yourself into the depths of human life to fish out the most interesting parts?'" (tr. Jessica Kirzane)

Miriam Karpilove (1888–1956) | "My soul was soaking in a sea of heartfelt feelings and I wanted to release them in tears. I tried to sink my thoughts like stones into that sea." (from Diary of a Lonely Girl, trans. Jessica Kirzane)

Celia Dropkin (1887–1956) | "I am a circus-dancer. / [...] nobody knows I want to stumble." (trans. Grace Schulman)