Введение
Литовский еврейский писатель на идиш (1840–1913)
Eliakum Zunser (Eliakim Badchen, Elikum Tsunzer) (October 28, 1840 – September 22, 1913) was a Lithuanian Jewish Yiddish language poet, songwriter, and badchen who lived out the last part of his life in the U. S. A 1905 article in The New York Times lauded him as "the father of Yiddish poetry". About a quarter of his roughly 600 songs survive. He influenced and was influenced by Brody singer Velvel Zbarzher, although it is not believed that they ever met. Born in Vilna, he grew up poor and first worked braiding lace in Kovno, where he was associated with the devout, moralistic Musar movement of Rabbi Israel Salanter. Later, he was drawn to the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, and adopted a more modern Orthodox Judaism that renounced superstition. Forcibly conscripted into the Russian Army just before his twentieth birthday, he was soon released due to Czar Alexander II's revocation of the harsh conscription law. The plight of Jewish draftees, or "cantonists" would be a major subject of his early poetry and songs. Sol Liptzin describes Zunser's songs as having "simple words and catchy tunes", singing of the "melancholy fate and few joys of the inarticulate masses" and writes that "his songs spread by word of mouth until all Yiddish speaking Jews were familiar with them". [Liptzin, 1972, 48]
In 1861 he published a booklet of songs entitled Shirim Khadoshim, the first of about 50 publications in his lifetime. At this time, he was, in Liptzin's words, "primarily a Maskil"—a propagator of the Haskalah—"interested in instructing and aiding his people". However, his life took a tragic turn: not only did his wife die of cholera in the next decade, but all of their nine children as well, and he became, again quoting Liptzin, "a prophet of doom, admonishing his co religionists not to venture too date along the alluring road of western enlightenment and assimilation " [Liptzin, 1972, 49] When that doom came, in the form of the anti Semitic reaction and pogrom after the assassination of Alexander II, he became again a comforter, as well as a Zionist, affiliated with the Hovevei Zion and Bilu pioneers, writing songs such as "Die Sokhe" ("The Plough") and "Shivath Zion" ("Homecoming to Zion"). Zunser emigrated to New York City in 1889, and worked as a printer. However, life in New York was not conducive to his muse, and he wrote little in the years after his arrival in America, mostly poems rather than songs. En route to the New World, he wrote the hopeful "Columbus and Washington"; once there, he followed this with the far more disillusioned "Dos Goldene Land" ("The Golden Land") and "Der Greener" ("The Greenhorn"). His Zionism continued in a song urging the Jewish people to give up peddling and become farmers. Zunser was saved from penury in his final years by a benefit performance on his behalf held at Cooper Union on March 30, 1905, which raised enough money to give him a pension. He died on September 22, 1913, and was buried in Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Элиакум Зунсер (Eliakim Badchen, Elikum Tsunzer) (28 октября 1840 – 22 сентября 1913) был литовским еврейским поэтом на идиш, автором песен и бадхеном, прожившим последнюю часть своей жизни в США. Статья 1905 года в The New York Times назвала его «отцом поэзии на идиш». Сохранилось около четверти из его приблизительно 600 песен. Он оказал влияние и сам находился под влиянием бродского певца Вельвела Збаржера, хотя считается, что они никогда не встречались. Родился в Вильне, вырос в бедности и впервые работал плетением кружев в Ковно, где был связан с благочестивым, моралистическим движением Мусар раввина Исроэля Салантера. Позже он увлекся Хаскалой, или еврейским Просвещением, и принял более современный ортодоксальный иудаизм, отвергавший суеверия. Принудительно призванный в русскую армию незадолго до своего двадцатилетия, он вскоре был освобожден благодаря отмене сурового закона о призыве царём Александром II. Тяжёлое положение еврейских призывников, или «кантонистов», стало главной темой его ранних стихотворений и песен. Сол Липцин описывает песни Зунсера как имеющие «простые слова и запоминающиеся мелодии», воспевающие «печальную судьбу и немногие радости неграмотных масс» и пишет, что «его песни распространялись из уст в уста, пока с ними не познакомились все говорящие на идиш евреи». В 1861 году он опубликовал сборник песен под названием «Ширим Хадошим» — первую из около 50 публикаций за свою жизнь. В то время, по словам Липцина, он был «прежде всего Маскилом» — пропагандистом Хаскалы, «заинтересованным в наставлении и помощи своему народу». Однако его жизнь сделала трагический поворот: в следующем десятилетии умерла не только его жена от холеры, но и все девять их детей, и он стал, вновь цитируя Липцина, «пророком гибели, предостерегающим своих единоверцев от слишком смелого шага по манящему пути западного просвещения и ассимиляции». [Liptzin, 1972, 49]. Когда эта гибель наступила в виде антисемитской реакции и погромов после убийства Александра II, он снова стал утешителем, а также сионистом, связанным с пионерами «Ховевей Цион» и «Билу», написавшим такие песни, как «Ди Сохэ» («Пашня») и «Шиват Цион» («Возвращение в Сион»). Зунсер эмигрировал в Нью-Йорк в 1889 году и работал типографом. Однако жизнь в Нью-Йорке не способствовала его вдохновению, и в годы после прибытия в Америку он мало писал, в основном стихи, а не песни. По пути в Новый Свет он написал обнадеживающую «Колумб и Вашингтон»; прибыв туда, он продолжил её гораздо более разочарованной «Золотой землёй» («Дос Голдене Ланд») и «Зеленым новичком» («Дер Гринэр»). Его сионизм продолжился в песне, призывающей еврейский народ отказаться от торговли и стать фермерами. Зунсер был спасен от нищеты в последние годы жизни благотворительным представлением в его честь, состоявшимся в Купер-Юнион 30 марта 1905 года, которое собрало достаточно средств для обеспечения его пенсии. Он умер 22 сентября 1913 года и был похоронен на кладбище Вашингтона в Бруклине.
Eliakum Zunser (Eliakim Badchen, Elikum Tsunzer) (October 28, 1840 – September 22, 1913) was a Lithuanian Jewish Yiddish language poet, songwriter, and badchen who lived out the last part of his life in the U. S. A 1905 article in The New York Times lauded him as "the father of Yiddish poetry". About a quarter of his roughly 600 songs survive. He influenced and was influenced by Brody singer Velvel Zbarzher, although it is not believed that they ever met. Born in Vilna, he grew up poor and first worked braiding lace in Kovno, where he was associated with the devout, moralistic Musar movement of Rabbi Israel Salanter. Later, he was drawn to the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, and adopted a more modern Orthodox Judaism that renounced superstition. Forcibly conscripted into the Russian Army just before his twentieth birthday, he was soon released due to Czar Alexander II's revocation of the harsh conscription law. The plight of Jewish draftees, or "cantonists" would be a major subject of his early poetry and songs. Sol Liptzin describes Zunser's songs as having "simple words and catchy tunes", singing of the "melancholy fate and few joys of the inarticulate masses" and writes that "his songs spread by word of mouth until all Yiddish speaking Jews were familiar with them". [Liptzin, 1972, 48]
In 1861 he published a booklet of songs entitled Shirim Khadoshim, the first of about 50 publications in his lifetime. At this time, he was, in Liptzin's words, "primarily a Maskil"—a propagator of the Haskalah—"interested in instructing and aiding his people". However, his life took a tragic turn: not only did his wife die of cholera in the next decade, but all of their nine children as well, and he became, again quoting Liptzin, "a prophet of doom, admonishing his co religionists not to venture too date along the alluring road of western enlightenment and assimilation " [Liptzin, 1972, 49] When that doom came, in the form of the anti Semitic reaction and pogrom after the assassination of Alexander II, he became again a comforter, as well as a Zionist, affiliated with the Hovevei Zion and Bilu pioneers, writing songs such as "Die Sokhe" ("The Plough") and "Shivath Zion" ("Homecoming to Zion"). Zunser emigrated to New York City in 1889, and worked as a printer. However, life in New York was not conducive to his muse, and he wrote little in the years after his arrival in America, mostly poems rather than songs. En route to the New World, he wrote the hopeful "Columbus and Washington"; once there, he followed this with the far more disillusioned "Dos Goldene Land" ("The Golden Land") and "Der Greener" ("The Greenhorn"). His Zionism continued in a song urging the Jewish people to give up peddling and become farmers. Zunser was saved from penury in his final years by a benefit performance on his behalf held at Cooper Union on March 30, 1905, which raised enough money to give him a pension. He died on September 22, 1913, and was buried in Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Работы
Творения Элюкума Зунсера: критическое издание в двух томах, под редакцией Мордхе Шахтера, YIVO, 1964 год.