6: Translations of Glatshteyn's "Good Night, World," by translators who did multiple translations.

6: Translations of Glatshteyn's "Good Night, World," by translators who did multiple translations.

From resource kit: Yankev Glatshteyn's "Good Night, World"

Ruth Whitman, Marie Syrkin, and Etta Blum each published two versions of the translated poem.

Suggested Activities: Split the class into three groups and assign each group one of the translators. Have students read both of the translations by their translator out loud, paying close attention to differences between the two. Consider the significance of the changes they made. What, if any, difference do these changes make to your understanding of the poem? Why might the translator have made these choices when revisiting their translation? Why might a translator choose to translate a poem twice? Have each group report their findings back to the whole class.

Sources: Yankev Glatshteyn, “Good Night, World,” trans. Ruth Whitman, Delos: A Journal on and of Translation 2 (1968): 118–121.

Yankev Glatshteyn, “Good Night, World,” trans. by Ruth Whitman, The Selected Poems of Jacob Glatstein (New York: October House, 1972), 59–60. 

Yankev Glatshteyn, “Good Night, World,” trans. Marie Syrkin, A Treasury of Yiddish Poetry, eds. Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969), 333-335.

Yankev Glatshteyn, “Good Night, World,” trans. Marie Syrkin, reprinted with emendations in The Literature of Destruction: Jewish Responses to Catastrophe, edited by David Roskies (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1988), 374–75. 

Yankev Glatshteyn, “Good Night, World,” trans. Etta Blum, Jacob Glatstein: Poems (Tel Aviv: I.L. Peretz Publishing House, 1970), 48–49.

Yankev Glatshteyn, “Good Night, World,” trans. Etta Blum, World Jewry 14 (1971): 18.

Editor's note: We have not been able to make contact with the rights holders for the second Ruth Whitman translation, either of the Syrkin translations, or either of the Blum translations. Any information about the current copyright holder for these materials would be welcome and appreciated.