The System of Translations

The problem of creating a body of translated literature in Yiddish is very important and must be solved systematically. This serves the interests of our original [Yiddish] literature best.

[I will begin by making] some remarks about how this issue is handled in other national cultures and languages.

In some cases, the obvious needs of the reading public have almost no bearing at all on what works are published in translation. [ . . . ]

But most of the time literary works are translated following the demands of the readership. [ . . . ]

This happens when a national literature has already risen to a certain level and the reading public has developed its own, independent, international cultural interests and presents various kinds of demands. But there are phases in the history of national literatures when translations do not emerge from the fantasies and dreams of certain individual translators, and they are not produced according to the demands of the readership, either; due to its growth and development, it is the national literature itself that necessitates translations. In this case the matter of translation becomes an issue that needs to be handled by the leading writers as well as by individuals and organizations active in the field of developing the national literature.

And in this regard our situation is as follows. [ . . . ]

It is a well-known fact that already toward the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, when German literature was just beginning to develop into a great national literature with dazzling prospects to become a world literature, its creators immediately understood that in order to reach such a high level it needed to absorb into itself, through translations and adaptations, the basic works of every historical period of every national literature. They thus initiated a process that has not taken place in any other literature to this day. It was none other than the high priests of German literature who took upon themselves in their honor and their glory the mission of propagating as well as translating and adapting the basic works of world literature. [Gotthold] Lessing was one of the first to “discover and reveal” Shakespeare to Germany and other countries; [Johann] Herder and Goethe went on to preach his importance. The poets [Christoph] Wieland and [Gottfried] Bürger, and principally the literary historian Wilhelm Schlegel, translated his works. The works of Cervantes were translated by [Ludwig] Tieck, Lope de Vega’s writings by [Franz] Grillparzer, Schlegel translated [Pedro] Calderón, and so on, the list continues.

In short, translation was not the ad hoc work of dilettantes, it was not carried out randomly by people who happened to know foreign languages well, or by speculative publishers who wanted to cater to the book market. It had, rather, some sort of a national-cultural function; translation served the vital interests of the national literature. This immense labor enriched German literature with an endless list of foreign works that became integrated into German literature, but it was also a powerful factor for the further development of original German literature itself, and it determined the future traditions of organic interconnectedness between German literature and the poetics of all other nations and countries. [ . . . ]

II

Our literature has almost completely exhausted the well of its traditional Jewish national topics, motifs, ideas, and moods. The influence of Mendele and Sholem Aleichem has dwindled to almost nothing, and both of them, but especially Mendele, are gradually being transformed from a factor of literary-poetic influence into an element of national-cultural heritage. And even Peretz, whose universalist poetic tendencies could and should have broadened the artistic framework of our literature, has become, possibly against his own will, a new point of departure for artistic repetitions of old Yiddish moods, experiences, and images.

The provincial-national phase of Yiddish literature is over; it is time for it to become metropolitan and universalistic, with tendencies and aspirations to take its place in world literature, but without losing—and maybe even deepening—its particular national character. [ . . . ]

IV

What kind of translation system should we apply to our literature?

This is not the place to lay out an exact plan or to provide simply a catalogue of translations. I would only like to articulate some general guidelines and point out that we are talking about a system, and, above all, a principle. The principle is this:

Translations are now necessary not so much for the sake of the reader as for the sake of Yiddish literature itself. Therefore, the organized social institutions of Yiddish literature must carry out the process of translation according to a consistent system and plan. [ . . . ]

Publishing houses that take on literary-social tasks and want to influence the advancement of literature cannot continue to proceed in an ad hoc manner. They must have a plan, a system for translations. This is especially important, I maintain, because of the current circumstances in our literature. They must translate the following:

Works that have had a decisive influence on the emergence and development of our literary sensitivity, thinking, and expression; works whose images, symbols, figures, and idioms have entered our daily lives; works that have inspired certain literary-social trends and became a point of departure for a new development; works in which the eternal beauty of the artistic word is epitomized. The masterpieces of the epic literature of various nations and countries, works of authors who characterize or embody a significant epoch or interesting layers of society—in general, works that represent cornerstones in the development of literary forms, genres, and tendencies.

Additionally, when it comes to national works, we have to apply the criterion of importance and prominence as well.

And together with systematic translations of classic masterpieces we must also pay attention and delve into the current trends of contemporary literature in order to absorb and transfuse into the veins of Yiddish literature all that is fresh and living and significant in literature today.

It would be best if those publishing houses that do not hew to commercial goals, or, rather, when the pertinent institutions of the Kultur-lige would set up a commission with the urgent task of determining a plan for translations to be carried out by publishers that are concerned with ideas. Only in this way would we be able to create a body of translated literature with historical significance for our national cultural development quickly, systematically, and in an organized fashion.

In this regard, let’s follow the example of the late eighteenth-century Germans.