Anna Margolin
Rosa Harning Lebensboym (1887–1952), known by her pen name Anna Margolin (Yiddish: אַננאַ מאַרגאָלין), was an American Yiddish language poet of Jewish descent.
Anna Margolin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Rosa Harning Lebensboym 1887 Brest, Russian Empire (now Brest, Belarus) |
| Died | 1952 (aged 64–65) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Language | Yiddish |
| Nationality | American |
| Literary movement | Di Yunge |
Biography
Born in Brest, then part of the Russian Empire, she was educated up to secondary school level, where she studied Hebrew.[1] She first went to New York in 1906, and permanently settled there in 1913. Most of her poetry was written there.[2] Margolin was associated with both the Di Yunge and ‘introspectivist’ groups in the Yiddish poetry scene at the time, but her poetry is uniquely her own.[3]
In her early years in New York City Margolin joined the editorial staff of the liberal Yiddish daily Der Tog (The Day; founded 1914). Under her real name she edited a section entitled "In der froyen velt" (In the women's world); and also wrote journalistic articles under various pseudonyms, including "Sofia Brandt," and – more often, in the mid 1920s – "Clara Levin."[4][5]
Though her reputation rests mainly on the single volume of poems she published in her lifetime, Lider ('Poems', 1929), a posthumous collection, Drunk from the Bitter Truth, including English translations has been published. One reviewer described her work as "sensual, jarring, plainspoken, and hard, the record of a soul in direct contact with the streets of 1920s New York".[6]
Bibliography
Poetry
References
- Zhitnitski, L.; Jenni Buch; Dr. Samuel Chani (November 6, 2006). "Jewish Brest – its Writers and Cultural figures". Retrieved April 1, 2007.
- "Drunk from the Bitter Truth - Summary". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved April 1, 2007.
- "Modern Yiddish literature > Yiddish women writers". November 6, 2006. Retrieved April 1, 2007.
- Novershtern, Abraham. "'Who Would Have Believed That a Bronze Statue Can Weep': The Poetry of Anna Margolin." Prooftexts 10.3 (September 1990): 435-467; here: 435.
- Brenner, Naomi. "Slippery Selves: Rachel Bluvstein and Anna Margolin in Poetry and in Public." Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues No. 19 (Spring 2010): 100-133; here: 112
- Nordel, J. D. "Poetry Microreviews". Archived from the original on October 14, 2008. Retrieved December 15, 2008.
External links
- The Bridge Short poem in translation
- A Reading of Anna Margolin's "Mit halb farmakhte oygn"
- (in Yiddish) 2 poems
- (in Yiddish) Article in Forverts
- Anna Margolin papers. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, RG 1166.
- Jewish Women's Archive page