Jacob Isaac Segal : A Montreal Yiddish Poet and His Milieu

Pierre Anctil, Vivian Felsen

Description

Born in the Ukraine in 1896, and settling in Montreal in 1910, Segal became one of the first Yiddish writers in Canada. His poetry, infused with lyricism and mysticism, along with the numerous essays and articles he penned, embodied both a rich literary tradition and the modernism of his day.

Pierre Anctil has written so much more than a biography. For the first time, Segal’s poetic production is referenced, translated and rigorously analyzed, and includes over 100 pages of appendices, shedding light on the artistic, spiritual, cultural and historical importance of his oeuvre. By introducing the reader to the poet’s work through previously unpublished translations, Anctil demonstrates that in many respects it reflects the history of the Jewish immigrants who arrived in North America from Russia, the Ukraine and Poland at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the tragic experiences of Jewish intellectual refugees of the interwar period.

This admirably written, sweeping yet subtle, work will appeal both to scholars and to a broader audience. 

The original French version was awarded the prestigious 2014 Canada Prize in the Humanities by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Né en Ukraine en 1896, J. I. Segal arrive à Montréal en 1910 et allait devenir un des premiers écrivains yiddish au Canada. Sa poésie lyrique et mystique, de même que les nombreux essais et articles qu’il a signés, incarnent à la fois une riche tradition littéraire et le modernisme de son temps. 

Pierre Anctil a écrit bien plus qu’une biographie. Pour la première fois, la production poétique de Segal est référencée, traduite et analysée de manière rigoureuse. Elle est accompagnée de plus de 100 pages d’appendices qui jettent la lumière sur l’importance artistique, spirituelle, culturelle et historique de son oeuvre. En initiant le lecteur à l’oeuvre du poète grâce à des traductions inédites, Anctil montre qu’à plusieurs égards, Segal est le reflet de l’histoire des immigrants juifs arrivés en Amérique du Nord depuis la Russie, l’Ukraine et la Pologne au début du XXe siècle, de même que des expériences tragiques des intellectuels juifs réfugiés d’entre-deux-guerres. 

Cet essai admirablement bien écrit, ambitieux et pourtant tout en nuances, plaira tant aux chercheurs qu’à un plus grand public.

La version originale française (Presses de l’Université Laval) a reçu le prestigieux Prix du Canada en sciences humaines remis par la Fédération canadienne des sciences humaines.

Sujets

• Jewish Studies
• Jewish
• Histoire
• Montreal
• Yiddish language
• Poetry
• Yiddish
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa
• Date de parution: 03 octobre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 5
• EAN13: 9780776625737
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

The University of Ottawa Press gratefully acknowledges the support extended to its publishing list by Canadian Heritage through the Canada Book Fund, by the Canada Council for the Arts, by the Ontario Arts Council, by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, and by the University of Ottawa.
Originally published as Jacob-Isaac Segal (1896-1954). Un po te yiddish de Montr al et son milieu Presses de l Universit Laval 2012
Copy editing:
Michael Waldin
Proofreading:
Robert Ferguson
Typesetting:
discript enr.
Cover design:
discript enr.
Cover image:
Kathleen Moir Morris, Winter scene Montreal , oil on canvas, circa 1929.
University of Ottawa Press, 2017
Printed in Canada
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Anctil, Pierre, 1952-
[Jacob-Isaac Segal (1896-1954). English]
Jacob Isaac Segal (1896-1954) : a Montreal Yiddish poet and his milieu / Pierre Anctil ; translated by Vivian Felsen.
Translation of: Jacob-Isaac Segal (1896-1954): un po te yiddish de Montr al et son milieu
Issued in print and electronic formats
ISBN 978-0-7766-2571-3 (softcover)
ISBN 978-0-7766-2572-0 (PDF)
ISBN 978-0-7766-2573-7 (EPUB)
ISBN 978-0-7766-2574-4 (Kindle)
1. Segal, Jacob Isaac, 1896-1954. 2. Segal, Jacob Isaac, 1896-1954-Criticism and interpretation. 3. Poets, Yiddish--Qu bec (Province)-Montr al--Biography. 4. Yiddish poetry-20th century-History and criticism. 5. Yiddish poetry-Qu bec (Province)-Montr al-History and criticism. I. Felson, Vivian, translator II. Title. III. Title: Jacob-Isaac Segal (1896-1954). English.
PS8537.E444Z5613 2017
C839 .113
C2017-905934-3


C2017-905935-1
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the National Translation Program for Book Publishing, an initiative of the Roadmap for Canada s Official Languages 2013-2018: Education, Immigration, Communities , for our translation activities.
To Sherry Simon
Table of Contents
Translator s Note
Preface: A Quebec Lyric Poet
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
Arrival in Montreal
Factory Work
First Attempts at Writing
In the Pages of Jewish Daily Eagle
The Revelation of 1917
The Emergence of Yiddish Literature in Montreal
Caiserman in Montreal
The Poale Zion and the Founding of the Canadian Jewish Congress
The Urgent Call of Zionism
The Failed Russian Revolution of 1905
The Beginnings of a Jewish Proletariat in Montreal
CHAPTER 2
Leaving Korets
The Dawn of 1918
Intimist Writing
The Urban Aesthetic
The Canadian Winter
An Exemplary Influence
The Genesis of a Yiddish Poet
The Korets Talmud Torah and Its Nigun
First Literary Influences
Segal s Maternal Grandfather
The Great Crossing
CHAPTER 3
First Literary Success
Bazunder lider (1921)
The New York Modernist Movement
The Journal Nyuansn
Under the Wing of Mani Leib
Fun mayn shtub un mayn velt (1923)
Lider (1926)
Caiserman, the First Yiddish Literary Critic
The Canadian Landscape
Following the Lead of the French-Canadian Poets
An Emerging Literature
CHAPTER 4
Toward a Golden Age
New Waves of Immigration
The Crash of 1929
Literary Salons and Book Committees
The Sinister Echoes of Nazism
Idishe dikhter in kanade (1934)
Caiserman as Literary Historian
The Poet at His Peak
The Great Mystical Watershed
The Agnostic Poet Before God
CHAPTER 5
The Years of Lead : The Holocaust and Its Aftermath
First Indications of Genocide
The End of a World
New Sources of Inspiration
Looking Toward Montreal
A Mystical Leap
A Chorus of Praise
The Contribution of the Holocaust Survivors
The Ravitch Galaxy
The Yiddish Writers Association
Twilight Reflections
The Final Exile
Conclusion
APPENDICES 1 TO 33
Appendix 1
J. I. Segal s responses to the questionnaire of the Jewish Writers Club [ Yud lamed peretz shrayber farayn ], New York, 1923
Appendix 2
In Shop
Appendix 3
Help
Appendix 4
In My Little Town
Appendix 5
The Fundamental Principles of the Jewish Socialist Labor Party Poale-Zion
Appendix 6
Autobiography of Hannaniah Meir Caiserman
Appendix 7
Jewish Immigration to Canada, 1901-1931
Appendix 8
Total Jewish Population in Canada, 1901-1931
Appendix 9
Di verk fun Yud Yud Segal
[the work of J. I. Segal]
Appendix 10
Biography of J. I. Segal
by H. M. Caiserman
Appendix 11
Fun mayn mames shvel [From my mother s threshold]
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 12
Di shtot iz mayn dorf [The city is my village ]
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 13
I
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 14
Kritik vegn Yud Yud Segal
[reviews of J. I. Segal s work]
Appendix 15
Mount Royal,
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 16
In mayn shtub [In my room]
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 17
O Montreal!
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 18
Dayn ondenkn, mayn Tsharnele [ In your memory, my little Tsharna ]
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 19
In nayer voynung [In my new home]
by J. I. Segal (excerpt)
Appendix 20
New York - Korets (excerpt)
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 21
Translation into yiddish of excerpts from the poetry of Pamphile Lemay
by H. M. Caiserman
Appendix 22
Table of Contents H. M. Caiserman Idishe dikhter in kanade (Jewish Poets in Canada)
Appendix 23
Tsum strayk [To the strike] (excerpt) po me de Moyshe-Leib Halpern
Appendix 24
Azoy zingt mir Got in oyer (This Is How God Sings in My Ear) Jacob Isaac Segal
Appendix 25
Footsteps
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 26
Tishre
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 27
Loyterkayt [Purity]
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 28
Vayse velt [White world]
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 29
Shpet herbst in Montreal (Late Autumn Montreal)
by J. I. Isaac Segal
Appendix 30
Fun bal-shem-tov biz haynt [From the Baal Shem Tov to today]
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 31
Tkhine [A Yiddish prayer]
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 32
Light of Old [Altlikht]
by J. I. Segal
Appendix 33
Idish lishmo [For the sake of Yiddish]
by J. I. Segal
Appendices A to I
Appendix A
Poetry Collections Published
by J. I. Segal
Appendix B
J. I. Segal s Mailing Addresses
Appendix C
Published Articles by J. I. Segal Partial Chronological List of Archival Documents
Appendix D
Published Articles About J. I. Segal Partial Chronological List of Archival Documents
Appendix E
Members of the Yiddish Writers Association ( Yidisher shrayber farayn ) Montreal, c. 1941, with some addresses updated in 1945
Appendix F
List of New Members of the Montreal Yiddish Writers Association (Yidisher shrayber farayn) 1942-1948, with addresses
Appendix G
Members of the Board of the J. I. Segal Foundation, Montreal, July 1954
Appendix H
H. M. Caiserman Partial Chronological List of Published Articles
Appendix I
Articles and Books about H. M. Caiserman
General Bibliography
Translator s Note
Sans entraide et encouragement, nous peinons, seuls. Ensemble nous progressons. 1
Pierre Anctil, May, 2017
T his is a book about a Montreal poet who wrote exclusively in Yiddish. Its author is a French Canadian anthropologist and historian, a Quebecker who for decades has made every effort to become proficient in the Yiddish language in order to study the Jewish community of Montreal. In addition to his extensive study of publications and archival material in French, English, and primarily Yiddish, author Pierre Anctil also translated from Yiddish into French entire books which he found historically significant. Selections from these books and other Yiddish sources, such as handwritten correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, and newspaper articles, appear throughout Anctil s biography of Canada s most celebrated Yiddish poet. Also included are translations of over twenty of Segal s poems, almost all of which had never before been translated into either French or English. To make it possible for readers to experience the sounds and cadences of the Yiddish language, the author provided Romanized versions of the original Yiddish poems.
Rendering this biography into English thus required translating the Yiddish passages cited, and especially the poetry, directly from the Yiddish. It was thanks to none other than Pierre Anctil that over the past twenty years I had acquired not only the requisite Yiddish translation skills, but also a substantial familiarity with much of the book s content. In 1997, I was working as a translator of French to English when I discovered by chance that a Yiddish book by my grandfather, Montreal Yiddish journalist Israel Medres, had been translated into French. Anctil s scholarly annotated translation inspired me to translate my grandfather s books into English, and resulted in my becoming a Yiddish translator. It also provided a model for all my subsequent translation work.
Over the past twenty years, I have been involved in Pierre Anctil s translations of Yiddish works by prominent mid-twentieth centur