Still Life

Reuven Iceland

First Half of the 20th Century

I

Bread and cheese and honey on a simple table.

The tea beckons golden

In two thin glasses.

Green, cool and fresh,

The water jug, veiled in dew.

On the edge a woman’s handkerchief.

Next to it, a small wise hand

On a narrow book of poems

In wine-colored silk.

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Creator Bio

Reuven Iceland

1884–1955

Raised in a Hasidic household in Gross-Radomysl, Austro-Hungarian Galicia (today Radomyśl Wielki, Poland), Reuven Iceland received a traditional religious education and started writing Hebrew poems as early as 1900. He immigrated to New York in 1903 and started publishing his Yiddish poetry in 1904. In New York, he cofounded the first Yiddish poetic avant-garde group Di Yunge and became a core member of the city’s burgeoning Yiddish literary scene. In 1918, he became a regular contributor to the Yiddish daily Der tog. A year later, Iceland began a relationship with fellow Yiddish poet Anna Margolin; the couple remained together until her death in 1952. He was a prolific translator known for his translations of Chinese and German poetry, notably a multivolume work of Heinrich Heine’s verse and prose.