Yudl and Yehudis
Shiye Mordkhe Lifshits
1862
Meaning the Jews and Their Yiddish Language
Yehudis:
Yidele—a question. Hear me out.
And please don’t interrupt and start to shout.
Yidele:
I’m not exactly in the mood, my dear,
But go ahead and ask me and I’ll hear.
Yehudis:
That’s the very problem that I face:
The way you treat me is a big disgrace.
You think you are so lofty, great and wise.
But as for me—you just avert your eyes.
You’re full of smiles for everyone but me,
But I’m belittled, as the world can see.
Yidele:
I don’t enjoy this life of ours, you see.
Each time you speak it makes me want to flee.
And what about your looks? They’re even worse!
I look upon our marriage as a curse.
Yehudis:
Oh, alas, how tragic is my fate,
That Yidele should end up as my mate!
You look at others full of admiration
To bow to them is then my obligation.
You envy all the others without measure
And looking just at strangers is your pleasure.
Yidele:
I wish that from this life I could be freed:
The truth is that I live it out of need.
Others bring some beauty to my life.
I’ll bow to them, but never to my wife!
Their pearls of wisdom are my greatest joys
But when you talk it simply sounds like noise.
Yehudis:
That sad, unhappy story is quite old:
How often has it tearfully been told!
Someone else’s wife looks good to you,
She’s beautiful and wise and charming too.
But once these wives were uglier than me,
They wrote and spoke just like a child of three.
But they had better luck—and better goals
So now they’re fit to play important roles.
They were dressed with elegance and flair
They danced and laughed and didn’t have a care.
And if you’d dressed me up in lavish style,
And pampered me and loved me all the while . . .
It might at first seem difficult to do
But later you’d have pleasure from me, too.
Yidele:
I must admit, your argument rings true.
But there’s one thing that I’ll forever rue.
I miss my former wife—why did we part?
That causes me such pain inside my heart.
To lose a brilliant diamond is so cruel!
The whole wide world believed she was a jewel.
Her charm and virtue never could be faulted,
Her ancestry was noble and exalted.
Your ancestry is murky and in doubt
Your origins are scattered all about.
Her name inspires worshipers far-flung:
No Yiddish jargon, she. She’s “Holy Tongue”!
Yehudis:
I know the Holy Tongue as well as you,
I honor her and love her beauty too.
And what I hope her future fate will be
Is just the same as what I wish for me.
Do not think I hate her, wish her ill,
Instead I hold her dear, and always will.
But don’t forget that in this present day
She’s in the past, and I am here to stay.
Your visits may be formal and polite,
But I’m the one you need both day and night.
She’s beautiful and charming, I’ve no doubt,
But I’m the one you cannot do without.
Her standing in the world is truly high,
But who has borne your children—she or I?
You can’t go back to her, you foolish man,
It’s just a waste of time to think you can.
Go see some other ladies—I won’t balk.
Go stroll with them and chat and talk.
But even as their company you keep,
Beware, I say, of getting in too deep.
They’ll only turn your head, but in the end
You’ll see you’ll never be their friend.
You hope to be accepted by the best?
You’ll have to treat your wife as do the rest.
So why not dress me up and make me pure?
I soon will have great beauty and allure.
In no time flat you’ll see how I have grown
I’ll soon possess a greatness of my own.
My lovely songs for you are sure to please,
Like nightingales that warble in the trees.
I’ll learn to read, I’ll write what books you need.
Wisdom for the masses is my creed!
You’ll see—my mind is nimble like a hare
And it will give you pleasure, I declare.
The end result will benefit us both.
I pledge it and I swear a holy oath.
But do you fear to send your wife to school?
Then I’m afraid you’re acting like a fool.
I’m sorrier for you much more than for me
You’re dirtying your face but cannot see.
That’s not the way for decent folk to act:
I won’t put up with it for long, and that’s a fact!
Ha-melits’s editors have heard and read
Each word Yehudis plaintively said.
And so we answer in our journal’s name:
“All this squabbling really is a shame:
Creating peace and love in place of strife
Between a Jewish husband and his wife—
A virtue that our learned sages bless.
So, Yidele, be honest and confess:
Yehudis is not ugly. Just rejoice
In all her folk songs and her lovely voice;
In the way she translates Holy Writ
And Talmud, with such subtle wit;
Her proverbs and her sayings—pure delight!
You look away, but laugh with all your might.
It’s true she is neglected, it’s well known
Her garden is completely overgrown.
But we will clean her and pull up the weeds,
And teach her what it is her husband needs.
We’ll tutor her and soon she’ll teach in turn
All the arts the people need to learn.
So both of you will live in peace and love
And Yudl won’t feel looked down from above.”
Yehudis has a newspaper—her own!
Her knowledge of the world has quickly grown.
Of politics and science she writes much,
She even has a literary touch!
Her speech is now so clear and wordly-wise,
That Yudl has no grounds to criticize.
She tells him lovely tales from long ago,
And also what a modern man should know.
She fills him in on Jews in every land,
And tells him what means more than cash in hand.
Gaps within her wisdom still remain—
There are some things she cannot well explain.
But time’s a splendid teacher, that’s for sure
It’s what enables children to mature.
So go ahead and laugh you foolish clown.
Some day you’ll surely hear of her renown.
And even now the skeptics who at first
Rejected her, now quench their thirst
With Kol mevaser, so of course,
Yudl and Yehudis won’t divorce.
Instead he’ll show her honor and display
His high esteem forever and a day.
He may have other friendships now and then
But will not be untrue to her again.
Maybe he will make her, who can tell,
Respected by all other folk as well.
Yidele, your idle dreams must cease:
Remember who it was that brought you peace!
—Lifshits of Berdichev
Translated by .
Solon
Beinfeld
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.
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