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From September to December 1950, Avrom Sutzkever traveled in South Africa, visiting Jewish and African communities. He published 42 poems about this trip as a cycle titled "Elephants by Night" in his 1955 collection, Ode to the Dove.
From September to December 1950, Avrom Sutzkever traveled in South Africa, visiting Jewish and African communities. He published 42 poems about this trip as a cycle titled "Elephants by Night" in his 1955 collection, Ode to the Dove.
The original poems
The original poems
Scans of the original poems are available through the Yiddish Book Center.
Scans of the original poems are available through the Yiddish Book Center.
Complete bilingual edition, translated by Mel Konner
Released in fall 2024, this is the only complete collection of all 42 poems in English. Mel Konner has been working on these translations since the 1980s and previous selections have appeared in illustrated collections by Ed Colker. He includes two additional poems that Sutzkever did not include in the 1955 cycle, but which were also about his travels in Africa. The epilogue by Justin Cammy describes the historical context of Sutzkever's trip.
The book is available through Naydus Press, the Yiddish Book Center's Bookstore, and Amazon.
Putting it in context
Putting it in context
Versions available online
Versions available online
22 of the Africa poems appear in A. Sutzkever Selected Poetry and Prose Translated from the Yiddish by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav (1991), which is available freely online through the University of California Press
Five images, including one translation by Konnor, from Ed Colker's "From Elephants by night : poems of Africa / by Abraham Sutzkever" can be viewed through the University of Michigan digital collections.
Here is a comparison of three translations (Konnor and Harshav, referenced above, and Leftwich [1961]) of the poem אַלע רוישן, אַלע קלאַנגען שלאָפֿן - "All gurgling, all sounds sleeping." These notes are from a lesson that I taught on comparative translation priorities and the ethics of translation.
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