Published in 2005
288 pages
Shirley Kumove is a translator and writer whose work has been recognized by the Canada Council for the Arts and by the Ontario Arts Council. She is the author of Words Like Arrows and More Words, More Arrows, two collections of Yiddish folk sayings. She was born, educated, and makes her home in Toronto.
What is this book about?
Born Rosa Lebensboym in Belarus, Anna Margolin (1887-1952) settled permanently in America in 1913. A brilliant yet largely forgotten poet, her reputation rests on her volume of poetry published in Yiddish in 1929 in New York City. Although written in the 1920s, Margolin’s poetry is remarkably fresh and contemporary, dealing with themes of anxiety, loneliness, sexual tensions, and the search for intellectual and spiritual identity, all of which were clearly reflected in her own life choices. Sensitively and beautifully translated here, the poems appear both in the original Yiddish and in English translation.
Shirley Kumove’s fascinating critical-biographical introduction highlights Margolin’s tempestuous and unconventional life. An exceptionally beautiful and gifted woman, Margolin adopted a bohemian and an eccentric lifestyle, and threw herself into both intellectual pursuits and romantic attachments beyond her two marriages.
