From Avant-Garde to Sovietization: Ukrainian–Yiddish and Yiddish–Ukrainian Translations of the 1920s–1930s

This paper offers an overview of the history of translation of published poetry and prose works from Yiddish to Ukrainian and from Ukrainian to Yiddish since the late 19th century, with a particular focus on the 1920s–1930s. The discussion will demonstrate how broader cultural and political forces shaped the trends in Ukrainian/Yiddish translation activities. Examples from the rich Yiddish book and periodical collection of the Judaica Department of V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine will serve to illustrate the main themes discussed.

Yiddish-Ukrainian literary translation activity started at the end of the 19th century with Ivan Franko`s translations of V. Zbarzher`s and M. Rozenfeld`s poetry. After the 1917 revolution, political and state documents were translated in both languages, as contacts between the Jewish and Ukrainian intelligentsia became closer. A new era in Ukrainian-to-Yiddish translation began in 1918 with the establishment in Kyiv of the Yiddishist cultural organization Kultur-Lige and its publishing house (which functioned until 1930). The 1920s were also productive for Yiddish-to-Ukrainian translations by prominent figures such as P. Tychyna and M. Rylskyi. In 1923 the Drukar publishing house issued Vasyl Atamaniuk`s anthology, New Jewish Poetry, with Ukrainian translations of poems by D. Hofshteyn, O. Shvarstman, P. Markish, L. Kvitko, I. Fefer, and I. Kipnis, among others.

Soviet Ukrainian publishing houses engaged in state propaganda, publishing translations of `proletarian` `revolutionary` writers, including jubilee editions of Shevchenko in Yiddish and Sholem Aleykhem in Ukrainian in 1939. The Holocaust and repression of Yiddish writers in 1948–1952 obliterated Ukrainian/Yiddish translation activity. The 1960s saw a revival of translation of Yiddish poetry to Ukrainian. There are new Ukrainian translations of Yiddish prose and poetry in 2000–2021, but almost no Ukrainian-to-Yiddish translation in 1990–2021.