Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 19.012 September 11, 2009 1) Mark Rakovsky (Bob Rothstein) 2) Mark Rakovsky (Yale J. (Yekhiel Yosef) Reisner) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 24, 2009 Subject: Mark Rakovsky In Mendele Vol. 19.010 Eli Rosenblatt asks about the writer, translator and publisher Mark Rakovsky. There is an entry about him in the "Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literature." It gives his birth date as 1890; as of the publication date (1981) he was still alive in Warsaw. The article (vol. 8, columns 403-4) lists a remarkable variety of literary translations - from Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, Russian. He is described as having been ideologically "close to communism." In the 1930s he was imprisoned along with other leftists in Bereza Kartuska (then eastern Poland). He spent the war years in the Soviet Union, returning to Poland after the war. "Christian Rakovsky, the Bolshevik and Soviet diplomat," also mentioned by E.R., is identified in the Russian Wikipedia as a Bulgarian who changed his birth name Krastiu Georgiev Stanchev to Khristian Georgievich Rakovskii. Bob Rothstein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 24, 2009 Subject: Mark Rakovsky Tayere khaveyrim! Eli Rosenblatt wanted to know about this rather fascinating translator and publisher.First, you have to write his name in Polish: Marek Rakowski. Once you've done that it pretty easy. The Polish edition of Wikipedia has a short article on him indicating that he was born in Malkinia (neighboring the better-known town of Treblinka) on July 5, 1890. Rakowski was a Polish literary critic and a translator from Polish, Russian, English,German, French, Spanish and Italian into both Hebrew and Yiddish. He was among the founders of the Jewish Literary Union. His debut as a literary critic came in 1916. Due to his political views, he was interned in the Bereza Kartuska camp. He spent 1939-1956 in the USSR, after which he returned to Poland, where he wrote for the Yiddish newspaper Folksshtime (nowadays in magazine format under the title Dos Yidishe Vort). Ha also translated a wide array of books from various languages into Hebrew. Rakowski died in Warsaw on March 31, 1982 and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery. His tombstone (entirely in Polish, with not a Hebrew character to be seen, oddly enough) reads: "Of Blessed Memory. MAREK RAKOWSKI, born 1890, died 1982. Translator of foreign languages into Yiddish. Wife, son and grandchildren." The stone -- which has fallen over -- can be seen at http://cemetery.jewish.org.pl/id_35530/size_maxi/photo.jpg Zayt mir gezunt un shtark, Yale J. (Yekhiel Yosef) Reisner ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 19.012 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, direct your mail as follows: Material for Mendele Personal Notices & Announcements, i.e. announcements of events, commercial publications, etc., always in plain text (no HTML or the like) to: [email protected] (in the subject line write Mendele Personal) Material for postings to Mendele Yiddish literature and language, i.e. inquiries and comments of a non-commercial or publicity nature: [email protected] IMPORTANT: Please include your full name as you would like it to appear in your posting. No posting will appear without its author's name. Submissions to regular Mendele should not include personal email addresses, as responses will be posted for all to read. In order to spare the shamosim time and effort, we request that contributors adhere, when applicable, as closely as possible to standard English punctuation, grammar, etc. and to the YIVO rules of transliteration into Latin letters. A guide to Romanization can be found at this site: http://www.yivoinstitute.org/about/index.php?tid=57&aid=275 All other messages should be sent to the shamosim at this address: [email protected] Mendele on the web: http://mendele.commons.yale.edu/ To join or leave the list: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/mendele i _______________________________________________ Mendele mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/mendele
