A Trade Is a Kingdom

Yekhiel Shraybman

1973

Ay, a lifetime buzzed away . . . what is it, all in all? A dream, a short Friday in winter. . . .

Most people start to philosophize after a savory pot roast and a shot of liquor. Reb Nakhmen the carpenter, in his old age, eats like a bird. A drop of brandy or even a glass of wine would be poison for his sick stomach. He, on the contrary, gets…

Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Register
Already have an account?
Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Yekhiel Shraybman

1913–2005

Yekhiel Shraybman was born in Vad-Rashkev, Bessarabia. He studied at heder and the Czernowitz Hebrew Teacher’s Seminary before being expelled for his activity with the Komsomol youth movement. Shraybman moved to Bucharest, was active in underground socialist circles while employed at a Yiddish theater, and worked on a collective farm in Uzbekistan during World War II, which he chronicled in Dray zumers (1946). In the wake of the Khrushchev thaw, Shraybman joined the editorial board of the newly established Yiddish monthly, Sovetish heymland. His autobiographical and idiosyncratic short stories were very popular and regularly translated into Moldavian and Russian.

You may also like

Early in the Summer of 1970

I believe I ought to go over the moment when I learned of his death once more. A summer morning, the sky wide, June, last days of the school year. I rise late, faintly stunned, straight into the…
View Source

We Had an Understanding

Savta, grandma, could it be our transparent skin, skin that doesn’t protect the flesh, not in the least. This story of ours has details that are better left untold, it’s good to leave blots of…
View Source