Rajzel Żychlińsky

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Rajzel Żychlińsky
BornRajzla Żychlińska
(1910-07-27)July 27, 1910
Gąbin, Poland
DiedJune 13, 2001(2001-06-13) (aged 90)
Concord, California
OccupationPoet
CitizenshipPoland, United States
EducationCity College of New York
Notable worksGod Hid His Face: Selected Poems
Notable awardsItzik Manger Prize (1975)
Spouse
Dr. Isaac Kanter
​
​
(m. 1941; died 1990)​
ChildrenMarek Kanter, Ph.D.

Rajzel Żychlińsky (July 27, 1910 – June 13, 2001) was a Polish-born writer of poetry in

Holocaust
. Her postwar poetry, mostly written in the United States, was strongly influenced by these events.

Biography

Żychlińsky was born in

PEN Club. It had an introduction by one of her mentors, the noted Polish poet and playwright Itzik Manger. In 1937, she won the Reuben Ludwig Award of the Yiddish-American literary publication Inzikh. In early 1939 her second book, Der regn zingt [The Rain Sings], was published in Warsaw.[1][2][3][4]

Germany initiated World War II by

Kolomyya, where she lived with the Kanter family. In January, 1941 she married Isaac Kanter. Isaac Kanter was a well-read psychiatrist who also wrote; he knew Żychlińsky from Warsaw. The German invasion of the Soviet Union commenced in June, 1941. Żychlińsky and her husband fled eastward again, ultimately landing near Kazan. Isaac Kanter served as a doctor in the Soviet army during the war. On February 15, 1943, their son, Marek, was born.[1]

After the war in 1945, Żychlińsky and her family returned to Poland. She published her third volume of poetry, Tsu loytere bregn [To Clear Shores], there in 1948. It would be fifteen years before she published the fourth. In 1948 the family moved to Paris, France. They had found postwar Poland to be unwelcoming to the return of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Finally, in 1951 she and her family emigrated to the United States, and lived in Manhattan and in Brooklyn. There she found work, and, at the same time, attended City College of New York. Subsequently, she and her family resided in various parts of the United States, including Florida and California, as well as spending some time in Canada.[4]

Żychlińsky was fluent in five languages. After the war and the nearly total elimination of the Yiddish-speaking communities in Europe,[8] she continued to write exclusively in Yiddish. Karina von Tippelskirch writes, "Zychlinsky wrote poems only in Yiddish, the mameloshn—her mother tongue. It linked the poet and her mother, and it remains the language that can carry the Eastern European Jewish world beyond its destruction by the Holocaust into the present."[9] Von Tippelskirch also wrote: "Rajzel Zychlinsky (1910–2001) is considered one of the greatest Yiddish poets of the 20th century and a master of the small poetic form."[10][11][9]

Żychlińsky was awarded the Itzik Manger Prize for contributions to Yiddish letters at a ceremony in Tel Aviv on June 9, 1975.[1][12] Nonetheless she is not famous even in Yiddish-speaking circles. Elvira Groezinger writes, "The reason for Zychlinsky's incomprehensible lack of fame may be traced to her life choices. She was not part of the mainstream of Yiddish poets, publishers, and influential people. ... Having no networks to support her career, she remained a lifelong loner and outsider."[13] Barnett Zumoff writes that "she was the most authentic and original of the female Yiddish poets."

"God Hid His Face"

The volume of English translations takes its title from the poem "God Hid His Face", which has been called "one of her most powerful and desolate." von Tippelskirch considers the poem in the larger context of faith in god following the Holocaust: "Like many writers after the Holocaust, among them Itzik Manger and Zvi Kolitz (1946) in his famous 'Yosl Rakover Talks to God', Zychlinsky struggles with faith, often referring to God as blind or absent."[9] The poem's title also appears in Zvi Kolitz' text.[14]

In English translation by Aaron Kramer:[15]


God Hid His Face
All the roads led to death,
all the roads.

All the winds breathed betrayal,
all the winds.

At all the doorways angry dogs barked,
at all the doorways.

All the waters laughed at us,
all the waters.

All the nights fattened on our dread,
all the nights.

And the heavens were bare and empty,
all the heavens.

God hid his face.

Bibliography

Poetry collections

Żychlińsky published seven collections of her poetry:[16]

  • Lider [Poems] (in Yiddish). Warsaw: National Yiddish Book Center. 1936. With an introduction by
    Itsik Manger
    .
  • Der regn zingt [The Rain Sings] (in Yiddish). Warsaw: Yidishn P.E.N. Klub. 1939.
    OCLC 41122814
    .
  • Tsu loytere bregn [To Clear Shores] (in Yiddish). Lodz: Farlag yidish-bukh. 1948.
    OCLC 10708461
    .
  • Shvaygndike tirn [Silent Doors] (in Yiddish). New York: Jidiš P.E.N.-Klub. 1963.
    OCLC 970955001
    .
  • Harbstike skwern [Autumn Squares] (in Yiddish). New York: Nju-Jork Tziko-Farl. 1966.
    OCLC 19312290
    .
  • Di November-zun [The November Sun] (in Yiddish). Paris: IMPR:IMPO. 1978.
    OCLC 13568463
    .
  • Naye lider [New Poems] (in Yiddish). Tel Aviv: Farlag yisroel-bukh. 1993.
    OCLC 746577567
    .

English translations

A volume of translations of her poems has been published in English:

Translations of her poetry into English have been included in several anthologies:

Polish translations

Polish translations of some poems appear in the anthology:

German translations

French translations

Monographs

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c von Tippelskirch, Karina (March 1, 2009). "Rajzel Zychlinski 1910 – 2001". Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive.
  2. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4
    . Short biographical note.
  3. OCLC 749287139
    .
  4. ^ a b c Kranhold, Karina; Kanter, Marek. "Rajzel Zychlinsky: Biographical Notes". Zchor.com. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  5. ^ Witt, Hubert (June 23, 2001). "Und Gott hat verborgen sein Gesicht" [And God Has Hidden His Face]. Die Welt (in German). Obituary for Żychlińsky by her translator Hubert Witt. He notes that her mother, a sister, and two brothers were murdered at Chelmno. The sister is undoubtedly Chaneh Żychlińska; Rajzel Żychlińsky later wrote a poem naming her.
  6. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California
    . Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  7. OCLC 10708461
    . The dedication lists her mother and siblings by name, as well as their places of death.
  8. OCLC 251566334
    .
  9. ^ a b c von Tippelskirch, Karina (Spring 2016). "Rajzel Zychlinsky: Writing in Her Mother's Tongue" (PDF). Prism: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators. 8: 58–62.
  10. ^ Kanter, Marek (December 2, 2003). "Rajzel Zychlinsky z"l". Zchor.com. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  11. OCLC 255333733
    .
  12. ^ Kanter, Marek (December 12, 1996). "About the Author". ibiblio. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  13. OCLC 907942425. The reason for Zychlinsky's incomprehensible lack of fame may be traced to her life choices. She was not part of the mainstream of Yiddish poets, publishers, and influential people. She did not belong to a leftwing movement like Dora Teitelboim (1914–1992); she was not religious like Miriam Ulinover (1890–1944); she did not join literary circles like Celia Dropkin (1887–1956); and she was not a Zionist like Malka Lee
    (1904– 1976). Having no networks to support her career, she remained a lifelong loner and outsider.
  14. ^ "When God hid his face". The Guardian. October 29, 1999.
  15. OCLC 970955001
    .
  16. OCLC 907942425
    .
  17. ^ Molkou, Elizabeth (February 27, 2009). "Rachel Ertel". Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2020-02-21.

Further reading

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